The news: Programmatic linear TV spending is settling into a durable growth phase but is no longer in a state of rapid expansion.

Spending will remain relatively stable over the next few years, hovering between $7.97 billion and $8.69 billion without passing that ceiling, per our forecast.

• After a sharp 13.4% YoY increase in 2024, growth has slowed to low single digits.
• It will peak this year at $8.69 billion—6.2% YoY growth—though that will be erased by a 6.3% decline in 2027.
• Spending will recover only modestly to 3.5% in 2028.

What it means: Programmatic buying has become common infrastructure for linear TV and the standard way to transact linear TV inventory, but it’s not a new source of growth. Most advertisers that benefit from automating linear TV buying have already incorporated it into their media strategies, leaving less room for incremental spending gains driven by adoption alone.

“Programmatic linear TV has largely completed its adoption phase. As automation becomes standard practice, future growth depends on new buying tech and on the size of the underlying linear TV market, which continues to contract,” EMARKETER forecasting analyst Antonella Yannelli said.

Advertisers are using automation to improve efficiency, but future budget increases may favor formats like digital streaming, which can offer sharper ad targeting and audience insights.

That shifts the value proposition from expanding spend to improving campaign execution through more efficient workflows, audience management, and measurement.

Implications for marketers: As programmatic buying for linear TV matures, the opportunity for media owners and ad tech vendors lies in integrating linear and streaming inventory into unified cross-platform buying and measurement.

This spending plateau shows that automation alone is no longer enough to drive growth. Explore using linear to extend reach among traditional TV audiences while piloting streaming formats that can offer stronger audience insights and targeting and better performance measurement.