Report: CTV accounts for 50% of ad views across Europe
March 26, 2026
The FreeWheel Video Marketplace Report (VMR) highlights the changing dynamics of how enterprise-class content owners and distributors are monetising premium digital video content.
The latest edition of the VMR explores video advertising trends for H2 2025 and includes findings that build on the insights revealed in the previous VMR (H1 2025) in both the US and Europe.
In H2 2025, premium video ad views increased by 11 per cent YoY overall in both the US and Europe, reflecting the ongoing and established significance of streaming in the industry.
Connected TV (CTV) remains the primary source of ad views in the US and Europe, representing 86 per cent and 50 per cent of total views, respectively. The channel shows sustained growth potential, with YOY expansion of +11 per cent in the US and a more rapid +33 per cent in Europe. This acceleration is facilitated by AI-powered CTV buying platforms which simplify the connection between publishers and advertisers, and automate ad workflows. Additionally, Live programming continued to generate a healthy share of CTV ad views (25 per cent).
Year-over-year growth for programmatic ad views remained strong in both the US (+28 per cent) and Europe (+38 per cent) in H2 2025, with a notable rise of +21 per cent in unique programmatic advertisers. Programmatic is attracting a broader, more diverse pool of buyers, opening up new revenue opportunities in the ecosystem. Programmatic delivery now represents 33 per cent of total ad views in the US and 22 per cent in Europe, growing by +5 per cent and +3 per cent YOY, respectively.
The H2 2025 VMR also spotlights metadata as a key driver of programmatic efficiency and inventory value. With buyers increasingly looking for ways to understand the quality of supply in the bidstream, better metadata signals are key to transparency in the marketplace. ‘AppBundle’ was the most frequently used field for the site dimension, appearing in 53 per cent of endpoints with enriched metadata. Similarly, ‘Genre’ was the dominant field for the video dimension, accounting for 56 per cent of metadata-enriched content. However, low adoption of other fields indicates that there is a significant opportunity to better define the value proposition of premium video inventory.
In the US, there is a slight preference for demographic targeting rather than behavioural targeting for programmatic delivery (54 per cent vs 46 per cent). In Europe the inverse is true, with a 60 per cent – 40 per cent preference for behavioural targeting for programmatic.
“As we strive to achieve greater efficiency and true transparency in this ecosystem, automation tools are reshaping every layer of the supply chain, from predictive AI helping publishers maximise monetisation opportunities for VoD and live inventory, to agentic AI enabling real-time, autonomous interoperability between buyers and sellers,” commented Emmanuel Josserand, Senior Director, Brand, Agency and Industry Relations, Comcast Advertising. “These industry advancements are crucial for future success, reducing fragmentation and strengthening trust, producing a more efficient and democratised streaming ecosystem.”
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