• by Wayne Friedman , July 1, 2021

This would be a 50% change from the prior year, at $3 billion, says eMarketer. The total is projected to increase 32% in 2022 to nearly $6 billion.

More upfront business is predicted to continue for CTV, given the scarcity of ad inventory, eMarketer says.

Many premium streaming ad-supported CTV platforms run just four to five minutes of advertising time per hour. The scarcity creates high advertising demand for marketers to secure future inventory for the upcoming season.

While all streaming accounts for 26% of total day TV usage, according to Nielsen’s The Gauge, 4% is estimated to come from streaming "ad-supported" platforms.

The current traditional linear TV advertising upfront market is estimated to increase 7.6% this year to $19.9 billion, says eMarketer, while linear TV addressable targeted TV ad spending is expected to climb 33% to $2.85 billion.

One-third of all CTV spending is committed to the upfront, eMarketer says, and two-thirds of all upfront digital video spending goes to CTV.