Overheard at Digiday’s CTV Ad Strategies event: Streaming is reaching 50% of all upfront dollars

The 2025 upfront season is starting to wrap, with sources claiming digital is on the precipice of dominating spend, bringing a new paradigm to negotiations.

Clients’ pricing models often favor cheaper CPMs… the challenge is streaming video is expensive  Anonymous townhall participant

It’s one where sellers’ ability to offer granular measurement of ROAS, and decipher how CPMs are structured, matters as much as the stars of a primetime show when it comes to winning the lion’s share of advertiser budgets. As ad spend on streaming prepares to surpass media investment on linear TV at the upfront negotiations, this is especially the case.

Earlier this week, such debate dominated Digiday’s first-ever CTV Ad Strategies event, hosted in midtown Manhattan, where attendees voiced their frustrations about the fusion of these previously distinct worlds, as well as their successes.

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