Programmatic CTV Is a Starting Point. Here's What a Complete TV Strategy Looks Like

A version of this article was originally featured in Adweek.

Ask a marketer whether they're running TV ads, and most will say yes. Ask them what percentage of their TV media buy goes to securing premium inventory across live sports or marquee sponsorships across some of TV’s most-watched shows, and most won’t have a clear answer. In fact, most can’t even tell you where their TV ads ran altogether. 

Over the last few years, DSPs have made it easier than ever for brands to access CTV, turning programmatic into the default buying model for testing television. With access to the same capabilities they’re used to for running digital campaigns, the appeal was obvious. But that infrastructure was built for digital scale across millions of websites, not for television. Based on internal data from hundreds of millions of dollars in media spend across the Tatari platform, 90% of impressions come from just 10 major publishers. What DSPs actually get you is a fraction of the available TV inventory, with little visibility into what you bought or where it ran. It was never designed to be a complete TV advertising strategy.

The CTV Inventory a DSP Can't Reach

The assumption baked into programmatic CTV buying is that the pipes carry the best of what television has to offer. They don't. Publishers decide what inventory enters those pipes, and the highest-value placements that generate true reach at scale largely don't make it in, no matter what the DSP you're working with will tell you on their website or in their ads. According to an October 2025 report from Boston Consulting Group, publishers sell only about 35%  of live event CTV inventory programmatically.

Look at some of the biggest shows pulling in the biggest audiences on television right now. The NFL, MLB, and NBA playoffs, for example. They are sold direct. So are some of the prime-time tent-poles like The Oscars, and streaming originals with record-breaking viewership like Stranger Things and The Bear.  These are negotiated through publisher relationships, not won in an auction. The inventory that does eventually make it into programmatic channels is typically marked up with hidden fees layered on, and no guarantee of actually kanding in the placement the plan assumed. It’s why 57% of marketers use both direct and programmatic sales, according to that same BCG report.

A Full TV Strategy Paints a Clearer Picture

Tecovas, the Austin-based western apparel brand, built its TV strategy around one honest question: where is our audience actually paying attention? The answer was high-value moments like the NFL playoffs, NCAA football, the MLB World Series, and a Yellowstone sponsorship that embedded their brand inside the cultural context it was built for.

While you can watch many of these events on streaming, the premium inventory never enters programmatic pipes. It’s sold directly. It starts at the Upfronts, where networks bring their biggest programming to market by prioritizing direct buyers with the goal of selling out before anything reaches programmatic. For those brands not represented at the Upfronts, direct deals can be made throughout the year when working with a partner that has the relationships and infrastructure.

Getting those placements locked in required direct publisher relationships and a buying infrastructure built around how TV actually works. For Tecovas, that buying strategy delivered measurable results beyond the TV campaign itself: a 16x lift in website visits from a single World Series spot, sustained growth in direct traffic, and a halo effect that made paid search and digital channels more efficient simultaneously.

The Measurement Challenge Hiding in Plain Sight

There's a secondary consequence to programmatic-first TV buying that shows up later in the data: an incomplete measurement picture gets mistaken for an underperforming channel.

If attribution is built around what a DSP can access, it is measuring part of the TV landscape and treating it as the whole. The audiences reached through premium placements, the viewership that never showed up in programmatic reporting: these gaps read as TV underperforming. More often, the problem is that TV was never fully bought.

Chime, the fintech company, came to TV as a performance marketer. They wanted attribution that looked like digital, real-time optimization, and data that tied every TV dollar to customer enrollments. Running a full TV strategy with measurement built to track performance across the complete range of where their audience was watching helped surfaced conversion patterns and incremental reach that a programmatic-only buy had left invisible. The outcome was a 5% improvement over monthly cost-per-enrollment targets and compounding growth in unaided brand awareness.

The Best TV Ad Playbook Goes Beyond Your DSP

Most brands have a solid plan for CTV. Far fewer have a real TV strategy. According to the IAB,   programmatic accounts for roughly 75% of all CTV transactions. Of that number, a significant portion is fraudulent or poor quality inventory. The premium slice that brands are building strategies around is far smaller than most media plans assume. The other half of the market sits entirely outside what a DSP can reach. Putting all of your dollars into programmatic alone means competing for a fraction of what TV actually offers.

The brands seeing the strongest returns from TV right now are not the ones who bought the most CTV. They are the ones who built around what television actually offers: the premium inventory, the high-reach moments, the measurement that accounts for the full picture. The difference between those two approaches shows up clearly in the data. The only question is whether you are looking at all of it.

Ready to turn your CTV campaigns into a true TV ad strategy?  Let’s talk!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What's the difference between CTV advertising and a full TV advertising strategy? CTV advertising typically refers to buying streaming inventory through a DSP — programmatic, auction-based, digital-like. A full TV advertising strategy includes CTV plus direct-sold premium streaming inventory, linear TV (national and local), live sports, and tent-pole sponsorships. Most of what drives reach and brand impact lives outside the programmatic pipes.

Q: What percentage of CTV inventory is available programmatically? According to a 2025 Boston Consulting Group report, publishers sell only about 35% of live event CTV inventory programmatically. The highest-value placements including live sports, prime-time events, top streaming originals are sold direct, not through DSPs.

Q: Why can't DSPs access premium TV inventory? Publishers control what inventory enters programmatic pipes, and they deliberately hold back their most valuable placements for direct deals. Networks negotiate premium inventory at the Upfronts first, prioritizing direct buyers before anything reaches auction. By the time inventory is programmatically available, the best placements are already gone.

Q: How does programmatic CTV affect TV measurement? If your attribution is built around what a DSP can report, you're measuring a fraction of where your audience actually saw your ads and treating that partial picture as the whole. Premium placements, live event viewership, and direct-sold inventory typically don't appear in DSP reporting. That gap often reads as TV underperforming when the real issue is incomplete buying.

Q: What is the adtech tax in TV advertising? The adtech tax refers to the fees layered onto programmatic inventory as it passes through the supply chain which include DSP fees, SSP fees, ad server fees, and other intermediary markups. These fees reduce the percentage of your media budget that actually reaches publishers, and they reduce pricing transparency. Direct buying eliminates most of these intermediaries.

Q: What TV inventory drives the highest reach? Live sports (NFL, MLB, NBA playoffs), prime-time broadcast events (the Oscars, award shows), and top streaming originals consistently deliver the largest audiences on television. Most of this inventory is sold directly through publisher relationships, not through programmatic channels.

Q: Should brands use both programmatic and direct TV buying? Yes. And most sophisticated buyers already do. According to BCG, 57% of marketers use both direct and programmatic sales. Programmatic offers flexibility and efficiency for testing. Direct deals unlock premium inventory, guaranteed placement, and first-party publisher relationships that compound over time.