US CTV Ad Spend Hit a Record in 2025 -- Trackers Split 2.7x on the Total, From $12.4B to $33.35B
US connected TV advertising spend grew across every major measure of the market in 2025, but the size of that market depends entirely on what counts as CTV. eMarketer broad multi-platform ecosystem estimate puts 2025 US CTV spend at $33.35 billion (+16%), the IAB advertiser-reported survey of 364 brands lands at $26.6 billion (+13%), and Magna narrower national-broadcaster-streaming line item counts just $12.4 billion (+14%) -- a 2.7x gap between the widest and narrowest figures for what headlines all call the same CTV market.
claim: US connected TV (CTV) advertising spend hit a new high in 2025, but industry trackers report vastly different totals -- from $12.4 billion to $33.35 billion -- depending on whether they measure national broadcaster streaming, advertiser-surveyed spend, or the full multi-platform CTV ecosystem
Sources · prominence score
Evidence Quality
Tier Mix
Pipeline Warnings
- Unknown source host — defaulted to T? (lowest credibility)CredibilityScorer · emarketer.com
- Unknown source host — defaulted to T? (lowest credibility)CredibilityScorer · streamtvinsider.com
- insufficient_candidatesAlgox:topK · 3/6
Findings
- eMarketer Q4 2025 benchmark puts US CTV ad spend at $33.35 billion for the year, up roughly 16% from 2024 -- the broadest of the three measures, covering the full multi-platform CTV ecosystem including programmatic and long-tail inventory.
- The IAB 2025 Digital Video Ad Spend and Strategy Report, based on a survey of 364 US advertisers, forecast CTV spend growing 13% to $26.6 billion -- about 20% below eMarketer figure, reflecting its narrower advertiser-reported-only methodology.
- Magna spring 2025 US ad forecast counted just $12.4 billion in ad-supported streaming revenue (+14%), describing it as 27% of cross-platform national TV sales -- a figure that excludes non-national and long-tail CTV inventory entirely.
- All three trackers agree on the direction and rough magnitude of growth (13-16% YoY) and that 2025 was a record year for CTV and streaming ad revenue; they diverge sharply on the denominator -- what counts as the CTV market in the first place.
- The gap is not shrinking: as CTV inventory fragments across ad-supported tiers (Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video), FAST channels, and long-tail smart-TV apps, scope decisions increasingly swing the headline number more than underlying demand does.
Media buyers and agencies benchmarking CTV budget share, and streaming platforms pitching ad inventory, need to know which CTV market size a competitor or client is quoting -- the same year spend can look 2.7x bigger or smaller depending on scope, with no single figure being wrong.
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- run-150
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