Who Owns the Future of Video?
At Advertising Week NY 2025, one question echoed across panels: who owns the future of video?
Is it the streaming platforms with the biggest audiences? The advertisers funding them? The agencies stitching together fragmented buys? Or the viewers who keep rewriting the script with every pause, skip, and binge?
The truth: nobody owns it outright. And that uncertainty is exactly what makes the next few years so critical.
According to eMarketer’s US TV and Connected TV Ad Spending Forecasts H1 2025, U.S. CTV ad spend will surpass $40 billion by 2027. That’s not a niche — that’s the gravitational center of video.
The Market by the Numbers
The panels made one thing clear: scale and innovation are accelerating, but pain points remain.
- CTV Adoption: 87% of U.S. households now own at least one connected TV device (IAB, 2025).
- Streaming Share: Nielsen’s Gauge Report (Jan 2025) shows streaming at 40% of all TV time, outpacing cable and broadcast.
- Ad Formats: AdExchanger reports pause ads and shoppable formats are growing 3x faster than standard pre-roll.
- Budget Shifts: CTV is projected to claim 15–20% of total video ad spend by 2026 (AdExchanger, 2025).
Contrarian POV: The future of video won’t be “owned” by platforms. It will be shaped by whoever controls the data — and the flexibility to use it.
Why Agencies Care
For agencies, the ownership debate is academic. The real challenge is practical:
- Fragmentation across platforms creates reporting headaches.
- Premium CPMs drive pricing pressure.
- Walled gardens keep data locked away, forcing planners to make decisions blind.
When 40% of TV time is streaming (Nielsen, 2025) and ad formats are evolving faster than standards, agencies need flexibility more than they need another “owner.”
Loyal’s POV
This is where Loyal’s Bring Your Own Data (BYOD) model changes the conversation.
Instead of locking buyers into opaque platforms, we allow agencies to plug in their own data, enrich it with contextual + behavioral signals, and activate campaigns at scale.
Unlike competitors who tack on data fees, Loyal keeps costs transparent. It’s context plus flexibility — without compromise.
Market Impact Note
For Loyal, BYOD isn’t just a feature. It’s the model that makes agencies the real “owners” of video’s future. Agencies who can combine their data with contextual and behavioral insights aren’t just renting reach — they’re shaping campaigns with precision, transparency, and efficiency.
Key Takeaways
- CTV ad spend will surpass $40B by 2027 (eMarketer, 2025).
- 87% of households stream; streaming has overtaken cable and broadcast (IAB & Nielsen, 2025).
- Pause ads and shoppable formats are growing 3x faster than pre-roll (AdExchanger, 2025).
- Agencies win when they own the data strategy, not just the media plan.
Future-Gazing POV: The agencies who embrace BYOD strategies today will be the ones clients trust to lead the future of video tomorrow.
Discover more: Bring Your Own Data into Loyal’s contextual + behavioral exchange → https://www.loyal.app/contact
Referenced Sources
- eMarketer, “US TV and Connected TV Ad Spending Forecasts H1 2025” — https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-tv-connected-tv-ad-spending-forecasts-h1-2025
- eMarketer, “Connected TV Ad Spending Will Surpass Linear TV in 2027” — https://www.emarketer.com/chart/352254/connected-tv-ctv-ad-spending-will-surpass-linear-tv-2027
- IAB, “2025 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Full Report” — https://www.iab.com/insights/video-ad-spend-report-2025/
- Nielsen, “The Gauge Report – January 2025” — https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2025/the-gauge-january-2025/
- AdExchanger, “Pause Ads and Shoppable Formats Reshape CTV Ad Strategies” — https://www.adexchanger.com/tv-and-video/pause-ads-and-shoppable-formats-reshape-ctv-ad-strategies/
