Europe’s CTV Market Is Growing Fast, Its Infrastructure Isn’t

Connected TV (CTV) Investment Across Europe Is Booming, But Growth Is Not Automatic

While 67% of European marketers plan to increase budgets, the surge in platforms, tools, and measurement systems is creating friction that slows campaign impact. Rather than a supply problem, the real challenge lies in coordinating planning, buying, and measurement across a fragmented ecosystem—something egta and its members are actively working to address.

According to Comcast Advertising & Longterm Colab’s European Market Survey, 67% of European marketers plan to increase CTV budgets, with the UK leading at 77%. Yet 41% say the number of platforms and buying tools has already become difficult to navigate. At the same time, structural gaps remain in how campaigns are planned and executed.

Money is flowing into CTV, but silos and opacity persist. The opportunity now is to ensure that the market infrastructure evolves at the same pace as investment. The picture looks somewhat different in the United States, where 55% of CTV budgets are managed by integrated teams across linear, digital, and streaming—focusing on full-funnel impact according to Premion’s CTV/OTT Advertiser Survey.

The two markets operate within different ecosystem structures. Rather than suggesting one model is ahead of the other, the comparison highlights opportunities for mutual learning.

Fragmentation is a hidden tax

The uncomfortable truth is simple: more platforms do not automatically translate into more growth.

In markets with stagnant budgets—projected at -4% year-on-year in 2026—fragmentation acts as a hidden tax on CTV performance. Investment spreads across multiple platforms, tools, and measurement systems, making it harder to build reach efficiently and demonstrate outcomes.

Growth will not come from more inventory. It will come from better integration and orchestration across channels.

Wayne Tassie, Group Director at DoubleVerify, explains:

“CTV supply paths can be fragmented and opaque, making it difficult for buyers to identify how inventory is transacted, qualified, and measured. Internal ownership is also unclear, as CTV often sits at the intersection of linear, digital, or programmatic teams, creating inventory ambiguity.”

Fragmentation, in other words, is not just a market characteristic. It is an operational challenge.

Structural gaps highlight the challenge

Advertisers and agencies continue to face obstacles in activating cross-channel campaigns effectively.

According to a recent European survey on digital advertising:

• Cross-channel activation remains limited: only 16% of campaigns activate across channels at scale.

• Programmatic visibility is still unclear: 18% of marketers do not know their own programmatic activity.

• Curated marketplace transparency is lacking: 26% of respondents do not know how much they invest in these environments.

These gaps are not merely operational issues. They reflect a market where planning, buying, and measurement often sit across different teams, technologies, and frameworks.

The technology layer

Fragmentation is not only about platforms—it also sits in the technology layer behind them.

Different targeting frameworks, measurement approaches, and data passback structures make it difficult for advertisers to build a clear view of reach, frequency, and attribution across CTV environments. Even well-planned campaigns can end up operating in partial silos.

Without a shared foundation for metrics, taxonomy, and data transparency, the growing investment in CTV risks becoming harder—not easier—to manage.

Where growth will come from

Fragmentation is not a supply problem. It is a coordination problem.

The industry already knows what the direction looks like. When advertisers, agencies, broadcasters, and platforms operate within shared measurement frameworks and interoperable data standards, campaigns can scale more effectively and outcomes become easier to demonstrate.

The real opportunity for CTV is therefore not simply expanding inventory. It is reducing friction across the ecosystem—aligning how campaigns are planned, transacted, and measured.

Markets don’t lack CTV inventory. The real opportunity now lies in connecting the ecosystem—aligning planning, buying, and measurement so that growing investment can translate into scalable outcomes.

As CTV continues to expand, the next phase of growth will come less from adding supply—and more from building the shared frameworks that allow the ecosystem to operate as a connected market.

egta and its members are actively addressing these coordination challenges. Through academies, publications, and conferences, they share best practices, promote shared measurement standards, and foster collaboration across players within the ecosystem, helping advertisers navigate fragmented markets more effectively.

Sources: Comcast Advertising & Longterm Colab European Market Survey; Premion 2026 CTV/OTT Advertiser Survey; IAB Europe Attitudes to Digital Advertising 2026.