Originally appeared on VideoNuze
Connected TV (CTV) is a leading platform in digital advertising, combining the precise targeting of digital ads with the broad reach and storytelling power of traditional TV. This creates an immersive experience that offers full-funnel marketing results. As consumer time spent watching CTV has doubled over the past five years and linear TV viewing patterns have shifted, advertisers now see CTV as essential for reaching and engaging audiences.
Of those CTV users, viewers increasingly choose to watch content with ads. By 2025, free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) viewers will increase to 49% of CTV users, further highlighting the opportunity for marketers to captivate audiences in ways standard digital display ads can’t match. With the explosion of consumer time spent and advertising dollars following, making CTV more addressable and targeted requires a combination of identity and audience.
Historically, the IP address has been the most popular way to target a household with a CTV (e.g., LG, Samsung, Vizio device) or streaming platform (e.g., Disney+, Paramount+, Roku, Amazon Prime, etc.). As IP addresses continue to fluctuate in terms of durability, consistency, and type, including the increased adoption of IPv6, we have seen a new incumbent enter the CTV ecosystem: Unified ID 2.0 (UID2).
UID2 stands out as a particularly valuable tool for CTV advertisers. It provides a standardized way to identify and target users across CTV and traditional channels like display and mobile while respecting consumer privacy. Given that purchases might not occur on CTV, UID2’s ability to link ad exposure on CTV to conversions on other devices is crucial for demonstrating a CTV campaign’s true impact.
Authenticated audiences are key to CTV’s appeal
A significant advantage of CTV is its high rate of logged-in, authenticated users. This provides marketers with reliable first-party data for targeting and measurement purposes. UID2 benefits from this since it’s a universal identifier based primarily on first-party data, such as people’s email addresses and phone numbers.
Authenticated viewers can also be connected across different devices, enabling marketers to understand the full customer journey, which helps attribute conversions more accurately to CTV ads.
Key advantages of CTV for digital marketers
- Superior viewing experience: Larger screens and a captive audience watching high-quality on-demand content
- Authenticated users: Enables precise audience targeting, more personalized ad experiences, and enhanced cross-device attribution
- Value exchange: Viewers get cost-effective content with personalized ads, leading to higher engagement
“Authenticated viewers and universal IDs like UID2 are revolutionizing CTV advertising, enabling the effective delivery of personalized content and ensuring strong engagement for marketers; Paramount is committed to optimizing across platforms and will continue to utilize tools and advancements that maximize reach for our partners and improve the user experience for our viewers.”
Travis Scoles, Executive Vice President, Paramount Advertising
The role of universal IDs in CTV advertising
Universal IDs, like UID2, play a critical role in CTV by ensuring consistent user identification across platforms while respecting privacy. Adoption of UID2 is gaining traction in the TV industry, with brands such as AMC Networks, Disney, Dish Media, FreeWheel, NBCUniversal, Roku, and Paramount integrating it into their digital advertising ecosystem. As authentication increases across traditional digital and mobile apps, especially CTV, universal IDs like UID2 enable cross-device and cross-channel identity strategies without cookies. This is especially important as traditional identifiers like third-party cookies and IP addresses face an uncertain future.
Better understand and reach your audience with identity graphs
For CTV ad spending to catch up to time spent with CTV, the industry must use these authenticated signals and universal IDs. Identity graphs, like Experian’s, integrate various identifiers (e.g., universal IDs, CTV IDs, IP addresses), allowing CTV platforms to understand relationships between households, individuals, and devices. This understanding enables:
- Publishers using universal IDs can make advertising on their platform more addressable, which will lead to higher demand.
- Marketers can achieve greater precision with cross-device targeting, cross-channel frequency management, and more holistic measurement since conversions often happen on non-CTV devices.
- Viewers receive a more personalized ad experience (without seeing the same ad repeatedly), which will increase engagement with a marketer’s campaign.
Watch our Ask the Expert video with The Trade Desk to deepen your knowledge on CTV advertising and UID2.
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In our Ask the Expert series, we interview leaders from our partner organizations who are helping lead their brands to new heights in AdTech. Today’s interview is with Samantha Zhang, Senior Data Scientist, and Jim Meyer, General Manager of the DASH TV Universe Study at the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). DASH is an annual tracking study conducted by the ARF to define and better understand TV audience behavior and household dynamics. What does DASH measure, and how does it help the industry understand TV consumption today? By capturing hundreds of individual- and household-level data points from each respondent in a rigorous and nationally projectable sample, DASH creates a comprehensive picture of U.S. consumer TV “infrastructure” – how America watches. Core elements in DASHElements that create context in DASHTV setsLocation | brand | smartness | service modes | sources DemographicsConnected devices Game consoles |video players | streaming devicesYesterday viewing Daypart | TV/device genre | Out-of-home viewingMobile devicesOwners | sharing usersShoppingOnline and in-store | Exposure to major RMNsInternet serviceModes | ISPs | connectivity by device Streaming audio Streaming TVSVOD/AVOD tiers and sharing | FAST Email accounts and apps Live TV Modes of access | including casting from devices Social media For example, DASH gathers: Data on every TV set, including brand, room location, age, “smartness,” and connection devices and modes Household connectivity and video service data, even in homes with no TV set Internet Service Providers (ISP) and TV service usage, including Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs), virtual vMVPDs, streamers (ad-supported and premium), and Free Ad-Supported Television (FAST) channels Person-level ownership and usage of video-capable mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops Measures of viewing and co-viewing across dayparts, devices, and services Additional modules covering shopping and retail media networks, streaming audio, social media, email, and apps Broad coverage and granularity make DASH a uniquely robust source of truth for practitioners across the industry, including measurement experts and ad programming strategists. DASH also reports regularly (and publicly) on key industry dynamics. DASH identified a growing segment of device-only viewers – now nearly 9 million households that watch TV, but do not own a TV set – and highlighted the implications of that trend for traditional ratings systems based only on households with TV sets. Households (HHs – million)2025 HHs (M) U.S. penetrationChange vs. 2024 (M)Total US134.8100%+2.7Connected TV (CTV)114.685%+2.1TV (Set)124.292.2%+1.1Device-only8.86.6%+1.6TV-Accessible133.198.7%+2.7 DASH called out the rise in app-based pay TV and proposed a new connection framework that better represents the modern TV world, in which linear and streaming overlap. DASH also defines the universes of households reachable with advertising. This graphic, for example, shows how all ad-supported linear and streaming properties in aggregate define the true scale of TV advertising. While 35 million households (and growing) are reachable only with streaming ads and 13 million (and falling) only with linear ads, most households are reachable with both, underscoring the importance of understanding the “overlap.” Who uses DASH data, and what decisions does it help inform? There are three primary users of DASH, each with its own use cases: Measurement providers, including Nielsen, use DASH to calibrate viewership data, turn household data into persons data (and vice versa) and estimate potential reached audiences–what the providers call media-related universe estimate (MRUEs)–for the calculation of ratings. Not surprisingly, measurement companies were the first to see the value that an independent TV universe study could provide. Media companies, including major broadcasters and streamers, use DASH to add context and color to their ad sales presentations – and to track the measurement providers, whose ratings play a major role in valuing ad inventory. AdTech companies, including Experian, use DASH to create high-value audience segments for activation. The recent accreditation of DASH by the Media Rating Council (MRC) and adoption by Nielsen as an input to its TV ratings have generated interest from a broad range of companies. We are actively pursuing new licensees and partners to make DASH more useful within, and even outside, the TV ecosystem. What does MRC accreditation signify, and why is it meaningful for DASH? MRC accreditation means DASH passed a rigorous audit conducted by Ernst & Young over many months, which validated our methodology, controls, and data quality. MRC accreditation establishes that DASH is an industry-standard dataset. While the service provider normally announces its own accreditation, the MRC took the unusual step of issuing its own release on DASH, announcing the accreditation of DASH for TV universe estimation and endorsing the study for broader, cross-media use. How does Experian use DASH data to build audiences? The segments combine specific TV usage habits and behaviors from DASH with Experian data on demographics, spending, and other contextual inputs to create a fuller view of consumer viewing behavior. They are designed to be valuable to advertisers in many categories and planning contexts – and to be customizable to fit advertisers’ media targets. The segments can be used to: Apply or suppress audiences to improve target coverage across a campaign Better align media and creative Reach elusive but high-value viewers, such as Ad Avoiders Drive valuable consumer behavior Achieve specific advertising objectives What are some practical use cases for DASH-based audiences? Here are some practical use cases for four different kinds of DASH segments in five different advertiser categories. Travel Co-WatchersA couples-only resort uses TV Co-Watching Households without Children to strengthen target reach and ad memory recallA big theme park destination uses TV Co-Watching Households with Children to reach families in moments of togetherness Home Entertainment TV Owners and Brand LoyalistsA premium TV manufacturer uses the overlap of Multi Brand TV Owners and Single Brand TV Loyalist Households to market its newest TV model to its most loyal consumers. Fast Food Screen Size ViewersA fast food chain with a high-impact new brand campaign uses Large Screen TV Viewers to better align the media and creativeThat same fast food chain uses Small-Screen TV Viewers to drive store traffic by increasing exposure of its retail campaign among on-the-go viewers Financial Services Cord Cutters A personal cost management app and a cash-back credit card target Streaming-First Cord Cutter Households to reach young, tech-savvy, cost-conscious consumers Thanks for the interview. Where can readers learn more about DASH? We started work on DASH seven years ago, and it’s been fun to watch it “grow up.” Our partnership with Experian is a big step toward putting DASH to work for advertisers and agencies. To learn more, visit our site at https://theARF.org/DASH or contact us at DASH@theARF.org. Contact us About our experts Samantha Zhang, Senior Data Scientist at ARF Samantha Zhang is a Senior Data Scientist at the Advertising Research Foundation working on the DASH TV Universe Study, with additional research spanning areas including attention measurement, digital privacy, and artificial intelligence. Jim Meyer, General Manager, DASH, at ARF Jim Meyer is general manager and co-founder of the ARF DASH TV Universe Study and managing partner of Golden Square, LLC, which advises media and research technology companies on growth strategy and development. Latest posts
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