Shane Peros, managing director of Global Media, Entertainment & Distribution, Google
Forget the old appointment TV model. Live events have officially migrated from traditional cable to streaming platforms, giving viewers the freedom to watch what they want, where they want, on any device. This isn’t just a lifestyle change; it’s a fundamental shift that’s changing the connected TV ecosystem. Publishers are now on the hook to deliver a smooth, reliable ad experience to massive, simultaneous global audiences. The only way to hit that kind of scale? Programmatic advertising.
Estimates from BCG and Google suggest that a massive $4 billion in new ad spend will flood into programmatic live CTV globally by 2028. Live content, whether it’s a major sporting event or a breaking news story, is truly borderless, drawing millions of eyes from every corner of the world. To monetize that global audience, publishers need a monetization stack that is equally global and sophisticated.
The real question isn’t whether programmatic can handle live streams — it can. It’s how publishers can get past the remaining hurdles and actually capture a piece of that $4 billion pie.
It’s important to remember that not every market is ready for this shift at the same time. While North America (NAMR) has set the pace, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) are the regions currently primed for programmatic live CTV growth.
