Addressable TV grew faster once buyers could purchase it the same way they buy digital video: inside a DSP, with clear targeting, pacing, reporting, and optimization. The turning point was not a single technology – it was the operational standardization of programmatic pipes: PMPs and Deal IDs.

What a Deal ID really is

A Deal ID is basically a “private contract address” in programmatic advertising.

• Seller (publisher or SSP) curate a package of inventory:
  • device type (CTV)
  • content category (sports, drama, anime)
  • negotiated price(CPM)
  • ad rules (frequency caps, geo / time-targeting)
  • audience segment (optional)
• Buyer activates it in a DSP:
  • The Trade Desk, DV360, etc.
  • It behaves like a switch: ON/OFF + budget controls

So instead of emailing spreadsheets and manually trafficking, buyers can manage campaigns like digital.

Why Deal IDs accelerate addressable

Because they solve 4 pain points:

1. Speed: campaigns launch faster
2. Control: buyers manage pacing and flighting
3. Transparency: clearer price (CPM) and reporting
4. Scale: one buyer can activate across many publishers using familiar workflows

This is why addressable TV grew from “experimental projects” into “always-on budgets”.

The CPM logic: why buyers accept premium prices

In linear TV, a buyer often pays for broad reach and hopes the audience matches.

In addressable:

• CPM can be higher,
• but waste is lower,
• and outcomes tend to be clearer.

A simplified example:

• Linear TV: 1,000,000 impressions at 80 THB CPM
  • maybe only 25% are in-target
  • effective CPM to target can be much worse
• Addressable: 300,000 impressions at 180 THB CPM
  • but 80–90% in-target
  • outcomes (conversions, completion-rate) improve

Agencies don’t buy CPM alone. They buy efficient outcomes.

Where GAM fits (GAM360)

In GAM, programmatic inventory is typically represented as:

• Ad units (where the ads show)
• Key-values (metadata, like content type or device type)
• Yield groups / competition rules (who competes)
• Line items (deals, sponsorships, open auction)
• Publisher provided signal / PPS (detailed contextual signals)

For a publisher, the aim is to make “CTV inventory” legible to buyers:

• CTV_LIVE_PREMIUM
• CTV_VOD_HIGH_COMPLETION
• SPORTS_LIVE…and then attach appropriate demand pipes.

SSP vs DSP vs GAM

• DSP: where buyers run campaigns and spend budgets
• SSP: where supply is packaged and offered programmatically
• GAM: the ad server deciding what wins each impression

Addressable TV growth accelerates when those three connect smoothly.

A practical “starter kit” (3 Deal IDs you can sell today)

If you are building traction:

1. CTV Premium Run-of-Network (RON) Deal
   • broad reach
   • stable delivery
   • average CPM, high scale
2. Live Event / Sports Deal
   • scarcity + premium
   • great sponsorship add-ons
3. High Completion VOD Deal
   • performance-driven
   • easier to justify for outcomes KPIs

Then add one addressable layer:

• Geo (province/city)
• Device type (CTV only)
• Audience segment (broad: “mid to high income earners” or “parent with kids”)

Addressable TV did not suddenly become popular because advertisers changed their minds. It grew because viewers changed how they watch TV, and the streaming industry changed how it monetizes attention.

Over the last few years, streaming moved from mostly subscription to a hybrid model…ad-supported tiers, ad-light options, bundles, and price increases that push more households toward cheaper ad plans.

When more viewing happens inside ad-supported streaming, the industry naturally produces more addressable inventory – because streaming platforms can recognize a device, an app session, or even a logged-in household in a way traditional broadcast TV cannot.

Why ad-supported streaming creates addressable TV “by default”

A good real-world signal is how fast major platforms have scaled ad tiers. Netflix publicly reported its ad-supported tier reached 94 million users (May 2025), and said it accounted for 55% of new sign-ups in markets where it’s available. Reuters That is not just a Netflix story – it is a market behavior story: when viewers choose ad tiers, addressable supply expands.

Traditional linear TV was built on signals like:

• channel
• program schedule
• broad demographic panels
• approximate reach

Streaming is built on signals like:

• app + device ID
• session play-events (start, pause, completion)
• content metadata (genre, series, live TV vs. On-demand Video)
• household or login identity
• geography (often accurate at city or province, or postal-code level)

That means streaming inventory is naturally suited to:

• frequency management
• audience segmentation
• sequential messaging
• measurement frameworks closer to digital video

So even when a streaming platform sells “like-TV” the mechanics underneath behave more like digital.

The “price pressure” effect: why ad tiers keep growing

Streaming services have raised prices aggressively, and consumers respond by:

• downgrading to ad plans
• rotating subscriptions
• bundling (to reduce total cost)
• choosing “free-with-ads” experiences more often

This matters because every time a household downgrades from premium to ad-supported, the platform’s ad load capacity grows – and so does available reach for advertisers inside addressable environments.

Why advertisers love this shift

When ad-supported tiers grow, buyers gain:

1. More reach in premium content
2. More addressable reach (less waste than linear)
3. More measurable outcomes (especially when combined with first-party data)

IAB’s work shows digital video continues to take a bigger share of total TV / video ad spend and that CTV is back to strong growth – exactly the kind of environment that accelerates addressable TV adoption. IAB

A simple GAM example (beginner-friendly)

Let’s just say you are a CTV/OTT publisher using Google Ad Manager.

You can structure monetization like:

• Sponsorship / Direct:
  • Brand-x owns Live Sports Break #1
  • high CPM, premium guarantees
• PMP Deals (Programmatic):
  • Deal ID for “Sports Fans / Malaysia-geo / target CTV “
  • buyers activate via DSP
  • CPM controlled + private access
• Open Auction (AdX / via SSPs):
  • fills leftover impressions or remnant inventory
  • supports yield management

Now here is where ad-supported tiers supercharge you:

• more ad sessions = more ad requests
• more authenticated users = better audience segments
• more watch time = more completions and viewable events

Why this fuels “Addressable TV” specifically

CTV can exist without addressability (you can run generic ads to everyone). Addressable TV requires the ability to differentiate audiences and control exposure.

Ad-supported streaming expands exactly what addressability needs:

• stable device environments
• measurable playback signals
• scalable inventory across many content hours

What to do next (publisher playbook)

If you want your content to benefit from this demand shift:

1. Tag your inventory cleanly in GAM (content type, device type, live/VOD, genre).
2. Create 3–5 starter PMPs (broad but valuable):
   • CTV Premium
   • CTV Drama / Entertainment (Genre)
   • Sports / Live Events
   • High Completion VOD
3. Add audience layers gradually
4. Ensure your reporting can answer agency questions:
   • completion rate, reach, frequency, brand safety, device split.

Addressable TV is growing fast because it finally solves the “old TV problem” with new digital expectations – brands want TV-scale reach and digital-style targeting, measurement, and optimization – without wasting spend on the wrong households.

Recently the market forces behind that shift have accelerated, especially as Connected TV (CTV) becomes a bigger share of video viewing and ad budgets. For example, industry forecasts continue to show strong CTV growth, and research from IAB points to digital video taking a much larger share of total TV/video ad spend while CTV returns to double-digit growth.

Below are the biggest reasons.

1) Viewers moved to streaming, and streaming moved to ads

The key driver is simple: audiences shifted from linear TV to streaming, and streaming services increasingly offer ad-supported tiers. This expands “TV-like” inventory that can be bought with modern targeting.

The result: more supply, more competition, more innovation, and faster adoption by agencies and brands – because the inventory is now where the attention is.

2) Advertisers demand less waste and more control

Traditional TV buying often means paying to reach everyone watching a program – even if only a small portion matches the target audience.

Addressable TV flips this: advertisers can buy impressions against specific audience criteria (household, geo-specific, interest signal, purchase intent , etc.).

3) Measurement is catching up to what buyers expect

Modern buyers want answers like:

• Who did we reach (unique reach)?
• How many times (frequency)?
• Did they watch (completion)?
• Did it drive outcomes (conversion)?

IAB’s research highlights how buyers increasingly focus on business outcomes and KPI-based measurement in digital video investments. IAB

Addressable TV fits that mindset because it is built to support:

• frequency caps
• audience segment reporting
• incrementality testing (where possible)
• and better attribution models than linear-only

4) Programmatic pipes made TV buying digital

Addressable TV grows faster when it is easy to buy.

Programmatic (PMPs, Deal ID Targeting, DSP activation, automated pacing / ads optimization) removes friction:

• Buyers can activate the same campaign across many publishers.
• They can compare CPMs, reach, and outcomes.
• They can shift spend mid-flight based on performance.

This is also why CTV = digital video has become the internal budgeting language at many agencies.

5) First-party data is becoming the fuel (privacy changes are the engine)

As the industry becomes more privacy-conscious, advertisers lean harder into first-party data and consented signals. Streaming publishers often have a login, device graph, or household-level viewing context – making their inventory extremely valuable for targeting and measurement.

In other words: privacy changes did not kill targeting – they changed who can do it well.

6) The ad experience is improving (and brands pay more for better experiences)

Addressable TV is not just “a targeted TV spot”. It is also about new, premium formats that perform:

• QR overlays on screen
• Shoppable prompts e.g., L-shape ad display
• TV Masthead
• Pause ads
• Interactive ad units
• Sequential storytelling (show brand A, then B, then C based on exposure)

Publishers can package these as sponsorships or high-impact placements, while still keeping addressability.

7) Re-aggregation and cross-streaming solutions reduce fragmentation

One historical barrier: CTV is fragmented across many apps and platforms. But the market is actively building ways to simplify planning and buying (bundling, ad platforms that combine supply, etc.), which makes addressable scale easier for advertisers. Deloitte

As fragmentation becomes “manageable”, more budgets move in.

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What this means for CTV/OTT publishers (a practical lens)

If you are running (or advising) an OTT/CTV business, addressable TV growth is a publisher opportunity if you operationalize 5 basics:

1. Clean inventory + stable ad pods (even if breaks are dynamic)
2. A strong ad decision layer (Ad Server / CSAI strategy, demand diversity)
3. Audience foundations (taxonomy, segment governance, privacy/consent)
4. Measurement credibility (clear reporting, transparency, brand safety posture)
5. Packaging (sponsorship + programmatic PMPs, not one or the other)

Done well, you capture both: premium branding budgets and performance budgets.

Many broadcasters and streaming platforms recognise that Addressable TV is important, but they hesitate on one key question: when is the right time to start? Should they wait until their OTT product is “perfect”? Until viewership hits a certain scale? Or until every advertiser demands it? In reality, waiting too long can be more risky than starting early.

A useful way to think about timing is to look at three signals: audience, demand, and readiness.

First, audience. If your platform already sees consistent streaming traffic – whether on smart TVs, mobile apps, or websites – that is a clear sign the opportunity is real. You do not need to dominate the market before you start. In fact, early Addressable TV pilots can be run on a subset of inventory: a specific channel, a VOD library, or a set of live events. The goal is to learn while the stakes are still manageable.

Second, demand. Are agencies asking for postcode splits? Are brands requesting more precise targeting or better measurement in CTV? Are programmatic buyers pushing for more control? These are all signals that the market is ready for Addressable TV products. If you repeatedly have to say “not yet” or “we can only do basic CTV” it may be time to change the conversation.

Third, readiness. This includes the state of your technology stack, your ad operations team, and your data capabilities. You do not need a fully built, end-to-end solution from day one, but you do need a realistic plan. For example, you might start with geo-based Addressable TV using your existing ad server and a DAI partner, then gradually layer in more advanced segments as data governance and product design mature.

A smart way to start is with limited, well-defined pilots. Pick a clear use case: postal-code targeting for a retailer, telco campaign aimed at high-speed broadband prospects, or automotive advertising around key cities. Work with a handful of trusted agencies, set up robust measurement, and document both the wins and the operational pain points. This approach lets you refine your workflows without exposing your entire business to risk.

The danger of waiting for the “perfect moment” is that the market rarely stands still. Competitors may launch their own Addressable TV offerings and capture the narrative with agencies. Once buyers build planning habits around those partners, it becomes harder to dislodge them later. Starting earlier, even with a modest feature set, positions you as a partner that is learning and evolving, not one that is lagging behind.

There is also an internal benefit to starting sooner: your product, engineering, and ad operations teams gain real-world experience with Addressable TV. They learn how cue signalling interacts with live workflows, how different device types behave, how to handle reporting, and where data quality issues appear. These lessons are difficult to absorb purely from documents or vendor demos.

So when is the right time to start Addressable TV? In most cases, the answer is: as soon as you have stable CTV traffic and at least one motivated buyer who wants to test. From there, you can scale deliberately, adding more segments, formats, and channels as the business proves itself. The key is to view Addressable TV not as a one-time project, but as a capability you build step by step – starting now, not someday.

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.

When people first hear about Addressable TV, it can sound like a magic black box: you press a button and somehow each household gets its own ad. In reality, there is a whole ecosystem of players working together behind the scenes. Understanding who they are makes the concept much clearer – and shows where value is created.

At the centre are the publishers and broadcasters. These are the TV channels, OTT platforms, and CTV apps that own the content and the ad breaks: national broadcasters, sports platforms, super apps, and niche streaming services. Without their inventory and their decision to adopt Addressable TV, nothing else happens. They control the viewer relationship and the stream.

Next come the ad-serving and monetization platforms. This includes ad servers (where campaigns are trafficked and targeted), supply-side platforms (SSPs) that connect publisher inventory to programmatic buyers, and in some cases dedicated DAI / CSAI platforms that handle the ad stitching. These systems take the cue signals from the video stream, evaluate the available campaigns, and decide which ad should be shown to which device at that exact moment.

On the demand side are the advertisers and agencies. Advertisers set business goals – brand awareness, store visits, app installs, sales – and allocate budgets. Agencies translate those goals into media plans and campaign setups. In Addressable TV, agencies are often the ones pushing for smarter targeting, geo-location splits, and audience segments. They need confidence that the publisher and tech stack can deliver those capabilities reliably.

Around this core trading loop sit the data and identity partners. In some markets, telecom operators or platform owners provide privacy-safe IDs that help define audiences: for example, frequent shoppers, pay-TV subscribers, or heavy streaming users. Other times, publishers build their own first-party segments using login systems, app behaviour, or loyalty programmes. These segments are not shared as raw personal data; instead, they are turned into anonymous “buckets” that the ad server can target (e.g., “sports fans in Malaysia who watched more than 3 matches this month”).

Another set of important players are the measurement and verification companies. Advertisers want to know: Were my ads actually shown? Were they viewable? How many households did I reach, and how often? Independent measurement vendors help answer these questions through tags, device-level data, or panel-based measurement. In advanced setups, they can even link ad exposure to outcomes such as website visits, app installs or sales lift.

We should not forget the platform and device owners: smart TV makers, connected-device platforms, and OS providers. They provide the environment in which the OTT apps run, and sometimes they also offer their own advertising surfaces or data. Publishers need to ensure their Addressable TV stack behaves consistently across this fragmented device landscape.

The key point is that Addressable TV is an ecosystem, not a single product. Publishers, tech vendors, data providers, measurement companies, agencies, and advertisers all have roles to play. When they are aligned – with clear responsibilities, transparent reporting, and strong privacy practices – Addressable TV can deliver impressive results. When the chain is weak at any point, campaigns may underperform or operations become painful.

For anyone entering this space, mapping out “who does what” is a powerful first exercise. Once you know the players, you can design partnerships and workflows that keep the engine running smoothly – and that is where real competitive advantage appears.

Connected TV (CTV) has unlocked a huge new wave of viewing, but it also creates a big question for publishers: how do we monetize these streams in a way that keeps up with advertiser expectations? If a broadcaster only sells generic CTV spots without targeting, they risk becoming “just another video channel” competing on price. Addressable TV is one of the strongest tools publishers have to avoid that trap.

The first and most obvious benefit is stronger yield. In traditional TV, one 60-sec spot equals one sale. With Addressable TV, the same 60-sec window can carry multiple campaigns in parallel, each aimed at a different audience segment. A single ad break can simultaneously serve an auto brand to in-market car intenders, a bank to high-income households, and an FMCG brand to families with kids. Instead of one generic impression, that ad slot is now a bundle of more valuable, targeted impressions.

This leads directly to better pricing power. Advertisers and agencies are willing to pay more when they can narrow down their audience and reduce waste. A national broad-reach TV buy might be priced one way; a tightly targeted CTV package with postcode, device, or behavioural segments can command a premium. Addressable TV lets publishers create these premium packages and defend them with real data and reporting.

Addressable TV also makes CTV publishers more attractive to programmatic buyers. Many agencies now plan video across screens and expect the same tools they have in digital: frequency management, optimization, and detailed reporting. When a CTV publisher can offer Addressable TV inventory through an ad server or SSP with proper targeting and measurement, they fit neatly into these new buying workflows. Without those capabilities, they risk being excluded or bought only as a “nice-to-have” add-on.

Another big benefit is control and flexibility. A strong Addressable TV setup lets CTV publishers decide how to mix different demand sources: direct sold campaigns, programmatic guaranteed deals, private marketplaces, and even open auction. They can design pod structures (the sequence of ads in a break), control how many ads from each category appear, and protect key sponsorships while still filling remnant inventory efficiently. All of this is much harder when breaks are fixed and not addressable.

It is also worth noting the viewer experience angle. When targeting is done well, viewers see fewer irrelevant ads and experience less fatigue. A family that has seen the same generic spot ten times in a row is more likely to pick up their phone and tune out. If the ads feel more in line with their needs – for example, a nearby supermarket, broadband upgrade, or entertainment offer – they are more likely to watch and respond. In the long run, that supports higher completion rates and better performance, which keeps advertisers coming back.

Of course, Addressable TV does not magically solve everything overnight. CTV publishers need the right technology stack, good operational discipline, and clear policies around data usage and privacy. But once the building blocks are in place, the upside is clear: higher yield, stronger relationships with buyers, and a more resilient business model as TV viewing continues to shift into streaming environments.

For CTV publishers trying to move from “basic ad server” to “advanced monetization engine” Addressable TV is not just a buzzword. It is a practical set of tools and workflows that help them get more value out of every impression they already have.

For years, TV advertising worked in a very simple way: everyone watching the same channel at the same time saw exactly the same ads. A local car brand would book a 30-seconds spot in the evening news, and that same commercial played to every household, whether they were in cross-border, whether they were students or retirees. It was powerful for reach, but very blunt.

Addressable TV is the evolution of that model. Instead of “one ad to everyone” Addressable TV allows different households or devices to see different ads in the same ad break. Two families can be watching the same football match on the same OTT app at the same time, but Household A sees a telecom promotion while Household B sees a grocery delivery ad. The show is the same, the ad break timing is the same, but the actual ad creative is personalized.

How does this work in practice? At a high level, Addressable TV separates the programme feed (the content) from the ad decision (which ad to show). When an ad break is coming up, the video stream carries a signal – usually a cue marker – that tells the ad system, “Now is the time to insert ads.” The ad server then looks at information about each device or household – for example, demographics, location, interest or purchase-intend in an audience segment – and picks the most relevant campaign that qualifies. That decision happens in milliseconds and is different for each device.

The magic is that to viewers, it still feels like “normal TV”. There is no buffering, no obvious switch between streams if the technology is implemented correctly. They are simply watching their favourite drama or live-sports, and the ads they see feel more relevant to their life. Someone in an urban-condo might see an ad for food-delivery, while a family household might get a supermarket promo.

People often confuse Addressable TV with simple digital video targeting, but there is an important difference. Addressable TV keeps the TV-like experience: full-screen, scheduled ad breaks, and shared viewing in the living room. It is not just pre-roll before a random clip; it is targeted advertising inside a TV environment. That combination of big-screen attention plus data-driven ad selection is what excites brands and agencies.

There are also different flavours of Addressable TV. Some setups use client-side ad insertion (CSAI), where the player on the device calls the ad server and stitches the ad into the stream locally, where the ad is stitched into the video stream higher up in the delivery chain. The technical path can change, but the core idea stays the same: each device can receive a different ad.

Why does this matter so much now? Because viewing habits have moved to OTT and Connected TV (CTV). Audiences are spending more time streaming content via apps on smart TVs, set-top boxes (STB), and mobile devices. If publishers keep selling ads in the old “one-size-fits-all” way, they risk leaving money on the table and losing budgets to digital platforms that offer precise targeting and measurement.

Addressable TV gives the TV world a way to compete on those digital terms without losing what makes TV special. It allows ad breaks to be smarter, more efficient, and more valuable, while the viewer still enjoys a smooth, lean-back experience. For publishers, advertisers, and viewers, that is a win-win – and that is why Addressable TV is quickly becoming one of the most important topics in modern TV advertising.