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The Rise of CTV Advertising: What Ad Tech Must Solve

The New Era of Connected TV: Shifting the Landscape of Digital Advertising

By 2024, over 87% of U.S. households are expected to access television content via Connected TV (CTV), marking a monumental shift in how audiences consume media. Yet here’s the twist: while viewer migration is rapid, the ad-tech ecosystem is struggling to keep pace.

The implications are staggering. CTV advertising now ranks as one of the fastest-growing segments in digital media, surpassing even mobile in momentum. However, with unique device environments, fragmented measurement, and a lack of unified standards, CTV remains a complex terrain.

So, what challenges must the ad tech industry overcome—and more importantly, how can smart infrastructure choices, such as reliable and cost-effective CDNs like BlazingCDN, bridge the gap between possibility and performance?

Let's explore.

Understanding the Surge: Why CTV Is Dominating Screen Time

Streaming Has Relocated Prime Time

Traditional linear TV is no longer the main stage. With platforms like Hulu, Netflix, and Disney+ leading the charge, viewers are opting for content on demand—accessible across OTT devices, Smart TVs, and gaming consoles. This behavioral change correlates with an uptick in advertising budgets reallocated towards CTV—expected to exceed $30 billion USD in the U.S. alone by the end of 2024, according to eMarketer.

The Audience Is There—But Is the Infrastructure?

This evolution demands more than compelling content; it requires seamless content delivery. Slow load times, ad-lag, and buffering can damage the viewer experience—and, by extension, advertisers' ROI.

This is where content delivery networks (CDNs) such as BlazingCDN stand out. Industry-leading in efficiency and agility, BlazingCDN helps media companies optimize delivery pipelines and ensure 100% uptime—matching Amazon CloudFront in fault tolerance but delivering it at a noticeably lower cost. This advantage proves vital for enterprise-level efficiency, especially where scaling, performance, and transparency are priorities.

Top Ad Tech Challenges in CTV Advertising

Let’s break down what’s keeping ad tech engineers, CMOs, and media buyers awake at night.

1. Fragmented Ecosystem

The CTV space is highly fragmented with a mix of hardware providers (Roku, Apple TV, Fire Stick), platforms (HBO Max, Pluto TV), and publishers. Unlike mobile or web, there is no universal ID or standard for tracking activity across devices.

  • Challenge: Lack of cookie support and consistent device identifiers
  • Result: Difficulty in frequency capping, cross-platform tracking, and attribution

Ask yourself: How confident are your attribution models when a viewer watches part of an ad on their Roku and picks up the show later on their tablet?

2. Inconsistent Measurement and Attribution

Unlike programmatic web advertising where clicks, impressions, and conversions are measurable in real time, CTV is riddled with delayed reporting and inconsistent performance metrics across platforms.

  • Challenge: Lack of universal measurement frameworks
  • Result: Discrepancies in reported impressions, viewer counts, and ROI tracking

According to IAB’s 2023 report, nearly 63% of marketers cited unclear ROI attribution as their biggest hurdle in CTV campaigns.

What would it mean for your brand if you could unify these data streams in real-time, all while ensuring your assets are delivered without latency?

3. Latency in Ad Delivery

In ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) platforms, milliseconds matter. Delays in loading ads cause viewer attrition, lower completion rates, and wasted impressions.

This is where BlazingCDN’s media delivery platform becomes indispensable. With lightning-fast response times, adaptive bitrate support, and customizable configurations, BlazingCDN guarantees optimal viewing experiences—even under heavy concurrent demand. This is an ideal fit for real-time, ad-triggered streaming environments typical in CTV scenarios.

Ad Tech Must-Solve Areas to Scale CTV

1. Standardization of Ad Formats

CTV ad placements—whether pre-rolls, mid-rolls, or overlays—need consistent formatting to simplify delivery across vendors. The rise of VAST 4.2 and SCTE 35 signals some progress, but widespread adoption is still lacking.

Practical Tip: Ad servers and demand-side platforms (DSPs) should proactively adopt IAB standards and test cross-platform rendering using real CTV environments.

2. Supply Path Optimization (SPO)

Ad tech vendors must streamline the chain between advertiser and publisher to eliminate unnecessary intermediaries. This not only reduces fraud but improves yield and clarity across bidding processes.

Real-World Example: In 2022, The Trade Desk emphasized SPO partnerships, leading to more transparent auction environments and a reported 17% increase in eCPM for partners that enabled log-level data access (Source: TTD Q4 2022 Report).

3. Real-Time Ad Decisioning

To match audience behavior and context, ad tech needs to support dynamic ad insertion (DAI) in real-time. This presents bandwidth and infrastructure challenges—especially during high-value moments like live sports or primetime shows.

BlazingCDN’s custom enterprise CDN infrastructurelearn more here—offers responsive flexibility with rapid cache purging and real-time routing adjustments. This ensures the correct ad is inserted with zero downtime risk, even in high-demand events.

Why Ready Infrastructure Matters More Than Ever

Scaling at the Speed of Consumption

Audience behavior is fluid. Ad campaigns must adapt on the fly—and so must the infrastructure supporting them. That’s why global ad platforms and media owners look for reliability, speed, and economic efficiency.

BlazingCDN delivers on these demands with advanced features, global edge delivery, and highly customizable APIs that integrate directly into your advertising workflow. With 100% uptime, a starting cost of $4 per TB ($0.004 per GB), and support that rivals—and often surpasses—traditional players, BlazingCDN is becoming the CDN of choice for enterprises that value cost control, scale, and speed.

Industry-Wide Collaboration: The Future of CTV Advertising

It’s not just about technology alignment; it’s about cross-industry synergy. Platforms, measurement providers, CDNs, and brands must come together to co-develop standards and share data transparently.

Encouraging Developments:

  • The IAB Tech Lab is driving standards like Open Measurement SDK and OMID for better cross-platform analytics.
  • Major DSPs are pushing for universal ID frameworks—akin to Unified ID 2.0—to enhance targeting without cookies.
  • CDNs like BlazingCDN are reducing infrastructure bottlenecks by offering greater interoperability, faster delivery, and superior edge computing for real-time asset distribution.

But the big question remains: is your tech stack built to support this evolution—or just hanging on?

How You Can Prepare for the Next Stage of CTV Advertising

If you're an advertiser, media platform, or SaaS company creating video experiences, now's the time to rethink your entire delivery pipeline.

Start With These Actionable Steps:

  1. Audit your tech stack: Are your ad servers compliant with standards like VAST 4.2? Can they support dynamic ad insertion?
  2. Rethink content delivery: Can your CDN handle real-time expectations and bandwidth surges at scale?
  3. Partner with efficient infrastructure: Choose CDNs like BlazingCDN that combine affordability with enterprise-level resilience and feature-rich APIs.
  4. Invest in measurement solutions: Opt for third-party systems that offer log-level transparency across CTV environments.

By anchoring your strategy in futureproof infrastructure, like the kind BlazingCDN already provides to top-tier media enterprises, your team can transcend today’s limitations and design CTV ad experiences that are faster, smarter, and uncompromising.

What’s Next?

CTV advertising isn’t just growing—it’s redefining the future of engagement. The question isn’t whether you’ll adapt, but how quickly, and with whom supporting your backend infrastructure.

Let’s talk: Are your CTV ad workflows ready to meet what comes next?

Explore real solutions tailored to your needs. We invite you to contact our CDN experts and learn how streamlined delivery infrastructure can help your media campaigns scale intuitively and economically.