As more media dollars move into streaming, the gap between what connected TV (CTV) is supposed to deliver and what marketers can actually prove is becoming harder to ignore. Fragmentation, limited transparency, and inconsistent measurement are no longer theoretical challenges: They are the barriers slowing real budget shifts.

“The fragmentation that you see as a consumer, to lay that on a marketer from the other side of the equation makes it just as hard to understand,” said Mike Treon, head of CTV and video strategy at PMG, during Olyzon’s The Rise of TV Decisioning event last week.

Why buyers are still stuck

Despite years of growth, most marketers have yet to fully transition their dollars from linear to CTV, according to a November 2025 survey from EMARKETER and Olyzon.

“Only about 15% of TV buyers have fully shifted from linear TV to CTV,” said Zach Sorscher, senior vice president of US sales at Olyzon, citing survey data. “The challenges that they've cited have been around transparency and fragmentation and then being able to tie outcomes and performance to TV.”

For advertisers coming from linear, those challenges are compounded by cost expectations shaped by years of low CPM buying.

• “These advertisers are very low CPM buyers,” said David Nyurenberg, senior vice president of digital at InterMedia Advertising. “When they start looking at CTV, they’re going to get sticker shock.”
• In addition, linear still offers a degree of visibility that CTV has yet to match.
• “There’s a science to measure it at the show level,” Nyurenberg said. “There’s a level of transparency there that you don’t get in CTV.”

Transparency is about performance, not control

Publishers worry that greater transparency would encourage cherry-picking, but that is unlikely to happen, according to Nyurenberg.

“I think the cherry-picking aspect is overblown,” he said. “Media buyers did not pour over 50,000 large site lists meticulously, and they’re not going to do that with TV shows either.”

What buyers actually want is the ability to learn and optimize.

“If you can tie an outcome through a show or a grouping of shows, you’re going to start optimizing into those shows that work,” Nyurenberg said. “You’re willing to pay a higher price for those that do work.”

Fragmentation is forcing a new operating model

Traditional DSP led buying models are increasingly misaligned with how CTV actually functions today.

“DSPs are not built to solve this challenge,” said Treon. “They haven’t changed from the value proposition of one UI, one place to train traders.”

But brands are already operating across multiple environments. The challenge now is making them work together.

“We have to orchestrate. [If] I'm working in eight platforms, don't [give] me something that only works here. It doesn't translate, it doesn't scale. It's not going to be replicable,” Treon said.

What marketers should do now

CTV can no longer be treated as either a branding channel or a performance channel. It has to do both.

“Video is full funnel,” Treon said. “It’s how to build brand and build outcomes at the same time.”

That shift also requires a rethink of how success is measured. Relying on a single signal is no longer sufficient.

“You have to triangulate across multiple different signals,” Nyurenberg said. “You can’t just rely on one measurement proof.”

Finally, unlocking more value from CTV will require closer collaboration across the ecosystem, particularly between agencies and their partners.

• “Historically, agencies don’t really talk to their vendors,” said Nyurenberg. “The only time they share performance is when it’s bad and it’s time to cut.”
• But that approach is becoming unsustainable.
• “If we’re really going to improve this channel,” he said, “collaboration, patience, and communication have to be a lot better.”

This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.