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.