Across the world, one thing is clear: viewers are moving from traditional linear TV to streaming. Smart TVs, OTT boxes, mobile apps, and hybrid broadcast/OTT platforms are now part of everyday life. As eyeballs shift, ad budgets follow – but they do not move blindly. Brands expect more control, more measurement, and more accountability than they had in the pure linear era. This is where Addressable TV steps in.

For buyers (brands and agencies), TV has always been attractive for its reach and emotional impact. The frustration has been its lack of precision. Classic TV planning is built on broad demographics and ratings estimates. Addressable TV changes this equation by adding digital-style controls on top of a TV experience.

Buyers can now:

• Focus on specific regions or cities instead of a full national burst.
• Target audience segments based on viewing or behavioural data.
• Cap frequency so households are not overloaded with the same ad.
• Optimize between creatives, formats, and publishers in near real time.

This means budgets that might otherwise stay locked in search, social, or online video have a stronger reason to shift into CTV. Addressable TV gives buyers the confidence that their money is not disappearing into a black hole; they can see reach, frequency, and sometimes even conversions.

On the seller side, publishers and platforms face a different challenge. They must fund content, streaming infrastructure, and product development while CPM pressure grows. If they sell their CTV inventory only as generic “spots” they risk commoditisation: many impressions fighting for the same pool of demand, with little differentiation except price. Addressable TV helps publishers transform their inventory into premium, data-enriched products.

By offering Addressable TV, a publisher can bundle CTV inventory into packages such as “high-income households in Malaysia”, “sports fans who watched more than 3 matches”, or “frequent shoppers within 5-km of selected malls”. These packages are much more defensible in pricing discussions. They also open doors to performance-oriented deals, such as cost-per-completed-view or outcome-based guarantees, which many advertisers prefer.

Addressable TV also supports long-term relationships between buyers and sellers. Instead of one-off campaigns bought as generic GRPs, buyers can run always-on programmes: retargeting exposed households, excluding existing customers, or varying creative by segment. Publishers who can support this level of sophistication are more likely to be treated as strategic partners, not just one of many line items on a plan.

Crucially, Addressable TV still respects what makes TV distinct. The living-room screen is often shared by families. Ad loads must stay reasonable. Content quality expectations are high. The best Addressable TV implementations keep user experience at the core: ad pods that are not too long, frequency caps that limit repetition, and relevant ads that feel additive instead of intrusive. Done well, the viewer notices better ads, not more ads.

As CTV monetization matures, Addressable TV is moving from “future trend” to day-to-day requirement. Large advertisers will increasingly ask, “Can you support addressable” when evaluating partners. Agencies will design planning tools that assume targeting and measurement are available by default. Platforms that have not prepared will find themselves playing catch-up.

In short, Addressable TV is not just a nice extra feature. It is becoming the operating system of serious CTV monetization. For publishers, the question is no longer if they should adopt Addressable TV, but how quickly they can build the capabilities and partnerships needed to do it right.