Stream of Consciousness: How CTV and Household Targeting Keeps Brands Top of Mind
The tipping point when streaming television viewership overtook broadcast and cable was like a tidal wave that everyone saw coming. Streaming’s slow build had been telegraphed for years by companies like Nielsen, who created “The Gauge” in 2021 to, as the name suggests, gauge the amount of time people spent watching TV across different platforms and media companies. Finally in May 2025, streaming became the method of choice for television viewing with a 44.8% share compared to 44.2% for cable and broadcast (for those doing math at home, the remaining 11% was attributed to “other”, including audio streaming, gaming devices, or unmeasured video on demand). Since this tipping point was reached, streaming has continued to increase its share, peaking at 47.5% during December 2025 while viewers hunkered down for holiday movies. The timing of the December peak was no coincidence, as Christmas Day 2025 represented the single largest streaming day in US history, topping only Christmas 2024.
Why Christmas? Aside from the obvious holiday downtime, the day also featured some incredible content, with three streaming-exclusive NFL games and the premiere of the season finale of Stranger Things. As live sports and premiere viewing continue to migrate to streaming platforms, the disparity in viewership should only continue to grow in streaming’s favor.
With growth comes inevitable complexity and fragmentation. The FCC has requested public comment on sports broadcasting rights, as they’ve fielded consumer complaints about the litany of streaming services now hosting live NFL games (something European soccer fans are painfully familiar with). So-called “subscription fatigue” has led to massive growth in ad-supported streaming TV, with Netflix’s “Standard with Ads” growing from 26% to 40% of active accounts between December 2024 and 2025. Free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) platforms such as Tubi and Pluto have seen 43% YoY growth in viewing hours.
This complexity and fragmentation of streaming content is not unfamiliar to those with experience planning digital marketing campaigns. Since the internet itself experienced a similar tidal wave of growth during the 2000’s, thousands of websites have proliferated, offering advertisers myriad options to engage with audiences. The same is now true with streaming apps and platforms, which has led to half of TV content viewers reporting they think there are now too many options to stream content.
So where does this leave marketers hoping to reach their customers and prospects streaming content? An audience-first strategy could be the antidote for this complexity. One method to take advantage of the impact of CTV would be to focus on targeting households, since 88% of purchase decisions are made or discussed at home (it's even higher for high-consideration purchases like automotive at 94%). In addition to influencing the household via CTV, following up with subsequent messaging on personal devices in that same household with similar messaging over several days can enhance brand recall and memory thanks to the Spacing Effect, which first demonstrated that learning is more effective when study sessions are spaced out, and now has applications in marketing. Research by psychologists at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands found that spaced ads were remembered better than ads that had been repeated back to back.
Complexity and fragmentation within streaming TV pose significant challenges to achieving the holy grail of “right audience, right place, right time.” An approach that keeps brands top of mind when purchase decisions are made is the goal of all marketing, and if that approach also reduces media planning complexity, household targeting via CTV with spaced ad repetition on personal devices could be the key to unlocking the massive potential of streaming TV.
[Editor's note: This is a contributed article from VDX.tv. Streaming Media accepts vendor bylines based solely on their value to our readers.]
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