Why Sports Is The Fastest Way To Break CTV's Programmatic Ceiling | AdExchanger

"Programmatic media buying is expected to account for the majority of growth in the CTV market in 2026. This year alone, over 90% of CTV ad dollars were transacted through programmatic pipes. That data isn't surprising. Programmatic has solved a real problem by helping brands reach TV viewers with targeted precision at much lower costs. But precision isn't the same as presence."

"Programmatic optimizes who you reach; direct determines where and how your brand shows up. Many programmatic buys are fractional by design. They're just targeted slices that rarely add up to a single, unified national footprint. The beauty of TV has been and always will be its massive reach and scale. If you're only buying via programmatic, you're missing a huge piece of the pie."

"Live sports compresses huge, engaged audiences into predictable windows that are tailor-made for direct buying. The result is something programmatic vendors promote but seldom deliver in practice: true scale delivered fast, with context that amplifies awareness and engagement within reachable budgets. Sports is more than a single game One of the biggest misconceptions holding advertisers back from direct buying is the idea that sports always equals marquee, once-a-year tentpoles. In reality, however, the sports ecosystem is far broader and far more accessible."

Programmatic media buying dominates CTV transactions, offering targeted precision and cost efficiency but often delivering fractional reaches rather than unified national footprints. Programmatic optimizes who is reached while direct buying controls where and how a brand appears. Heavy reliance on programmatic can miss TV’s large-scale reach and national presence. Live sports aggregate large, engaged audiences into predictable windows ideal for direct buys, delivering rapid scale, context, awareness, and engagement within manageable budgets. The sports inventory ecosystem includes regional games, talk shows, pre/postgame coverage, and premium streams that require direct deals and provide live attention without marquee broadcast prices.

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