Right across the world, the Connected Television (CTV) market is on the rise. Valued at $247 billion in 2025, the market is set to grow to $371.17 by 2032, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6%. A rise in CTV viewership will, of course, also drive up the availability of CTV data. If managed correctly, with CTV data privacy kept front and centre, these developments promise a new way for brands to reach their audiences, and a new and profitable role for telcos as digital identity verification service providers.
CTV data and the opportunity for advertisers
It’s easy to see why CTV is generating such excitement amongst marketers, providing as it does a new means for brands to reach key audiences with TV-quality content.
What’s more, using first-party data to augment viewing behaviours and provide enriched audiences, connected tv advertising can be personalised at scale and delivered programmatically for real-time optimisation, precise audience segmentation, and measurable attribution. In short, the channel combines the timely and relevant content that people are now well used to in online digital advertising with the highly visual and engaging media of TV.
This is just the start. CTV also supports interactive ad formats that enable viewers to engage directly with brands through QR codes, clickable overlays, or shoppable experiences. These and other emerging experiences will only make CTV more attractive to advertisers in the years ahead.
It’s therefore of little surprise that CTV advertising is seeing some explosive growth. In the US, for instance, CTV advertising spending reached $28.79 billion in 2024 and is projected to surge to $46.89 billion by 2029. In Europe, meanwhile, CTV is now the primary means (46% of all ad views) through which viewers watch ad-supported content.
Ensuring CTV privacy and accuracy
As the CTV market matures, there are growing attempts to ensure that the associated advertising market works effectively for all parties and that it is compliant with privacy rules such as GDPR. For instance, advertisers are increasingly demanding transparency around inventory and the supply chain and turning to the supply side for answers.
As advertisers get to grips with cleaning up the bidstream, it’s likely that they will demand greater insights into CTV audience data, including addressability and reach, so they can optimise their campaigns while meeting CTV data privacy compliance obligations. Doing so will require privacy preserving ways of verifying users and repeat viewers.
It’s here that telcos can play a significant and lucrative role, ensuring effectiveness and compliance around CTV data so that CTV providers are free to monetise their inventory and advertisers to reach the right audiences at scale.
The role of telco-verified IDs
Telcos can help support the CTV advertising ecosystem with identity verification services comprising two types of user ID. The first verifies new and returning viewers without tracking, matching publisher/streamer or advertiser IDs with network data to create consistent, cross-site user profiles.
The second ID is for activation, generating a real-time, single-use dynamic ID for ad targeting. Verified with telcos’ consented first-party data, it enables secure audience activation without sharing user data.
These are proven solutions that have been applied to digital advertising on the open web for years. Available today, they can help streamers and publishers monetise their CTV audience data rapidly while ensuring CTV data privacy.
A foundation for digital advertising
The emergence of CTV is just the latest chapter in the decades-long story of the digitalisation of advertising. It offers new ways to reach users, and as a digital channel promises to deliver personalisation at scale. Telcos have a unique opportunity to help ensure that user insights are privacy-by-design and capable of delivering accurate addressable audiences at scale. Telcos that move fast now can carve out a place for themselves as the foundation of tomorrow’s CTV advertising ecosystem. The race is on.
