Reviewed by Peter Berk, President and Chief Media Strategist, Berk Marketing · Last updated 29 October 2026
Connected TV and streaming
Connected TV is television delivered through streaming apps on smart TVs and streaming devices, and sold with targeting that cable cannot offer. Berk Marketing buys it for advertisers alongside cable, broadcast and radio, and represents no platform.
Free CTV media plan
Connected TV is priced per thousand completed views, and the price moves with your market, your audience and the season. So we don’t quote a rate card. Give us your city and what you sell, and I’ll send you real numbers for your market myself. Peter Berk
You get back real ideas to consider, and a written plan if broadcast is right for you. No cost, no obligation. Or call (866) 747-4707 and tell Peter Berk directly. Want to see what your competitors are running first? Ask for a free competitive report.
Short answer. Connected TV is the same screen in the living room reached through an app instead of a channel number. That changes three things for an advertiser: the audience can be targeted by household, geography and interest rather than by program; the buy is measured in impressions rather than ratings; and the price per thousand is usually higher than cable while the waste is lower. It is at its best filling the gaps a cable or broadcast schedule leaves, reaching households that no longer watch linear television, and running a local campaign in a market where broadcast is too expensive. It is at its worst bought on its own from a platform rep as a package of impressions with nothing to compare it against. We plan it next to the rest of the buy, so the question is always which screen produces the response for the least money.
What you are buying
Connected TV is a catch-all label for inventory that is sold in different places, at different prices, with different control over where the spot appears.
| Route | What it is | What it means for your buy |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher direct | Buying from a streaming service or network app directly: ad-supported tiers of the major services, network apps, sports streaming. | Known programming and a known audience, priced like premium television. The least targeting flexibility and the highest floor. |
| Device and platform inventory | Ad inventory sold by the makers of streaming devices and smart TV operating systems across the apps on their platform. | Broad reach across many apps with household targeting. You know the household, not always the program. |
| Programmatic CTV | Impressions bought through demand-side platforms against audience segments, geography and frequency caps. | The most targeting and the most transparency about cost, and the most room to be sold poor inventory if nobody is checking the placements. |
| Local CTV | Streaming inventory geo-targeted to a metro or a set of zip codes. | Television for a local advertiser without paying for the whole market. Often the strongest case for CTV in a top ten market. |
A proposal that says CTV without saying which of these it is quoting is not a plan, it is a package. Ask which route, which apps or platforms, and what the frequency cap is. We buy programmatically, through Amazon Ads, which now carries most of the other routes in a single buy.
Outlets
We buy connected TV through Amazon Ads. Since 2025 Amazon’s platform has carried Roku households and Disney’s Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN inventory alongside its own Prime Video and Fire TV, so a single buy now reaches most of the streaming households in the country.
| Where your commercial runs | What it reaches | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon | Prime Video, Fire TV and Twitch. See Amazon Prime Video advertising. | A large logged-in streaming audience, and the shopper data the targeting is built on. |
| Roku | The Roku Channel and the ad-supported apps on Roku devices and Roku-powered TVs. | The country’s most widely used streaming system, reached with Roku’s own household data. |
| Disney | Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN. | Premium programming and live sports to paying subscribers. |
| Other premium apps | Paramount+, FOX, discovery+ and more. | Network programming people choose to watch, not filler inventory. |
| Smart TV and free channels | Samsung TV and the free ad-supported channels. | Reach into households that never signed up for a paid service. |
Connected TV is sold by people, and the people selling it now are, in many cases, the same people who sold radio for twenty years. We have known several of them since our own station days, long before any of us had heard the term CTV. Those relationships are how a small or mid-sized advertiser gets a real person on the phone at a platform, a plan built around a local budget instead of a national minimum, and reporting pulled straight from the platform rather than a summary. You buy through us, the platform sees an agency it has worked with for years, and the schedule gets the attention a direct walk-in rarely does. There is trust on both sides of that call, built over many years, and trust goes a long way when a campaign needs a favor, a fix or a straight answer.
We hold no inventory and represent none of these companies. The schedule shows where every completed view ran and what it returned.
How it is bought
The targeting is real. A CTV schedule can be limited to households in three zip codes, or to households that match a customer profile, or capped so that no household sees the spot more than a set number of times. None of that is possible on cable. For a local advertiser in an expensive market, or a national advertiser with a narrow customer, that is the whole reason to buy it.
What it does not change is the television itself. The spot still has to earn attention in a living room, the offer still has to be one a viewer can act on from the couch, and the response still has to be tracked. A CTV impression is not a response, and a report full of completion rates tells you nothing about whether anyone called. We build the tracking the same way we do for cable: a number or a URL per placement, and the schedule adjusted on what it returned.
Households that have cut the cord and cannot be reached on cable at all. Local campaigns where broadcast is priced for a market far bigger than the customer. Frequency control against a defined audience. Filling the reach a cable schedule leaves behind.
Cost per thousand for a broad audience, live news and sports, and the older, engaged, decision-making viewers who still watch cable news for hours a day. For most direct response offers, cable news is still the first call and CTV is the complement.
The terms
The streaming business uses four labels loosely, and the differences decide what you are paying for.
| Term | What it means | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| CTV (connected TV) | The screen: a television connected to the internet, through a smart TV, a streaming stick or player, or a game console. | How much of the schedule actually runs on a television rather than a phone. |
| OTT (over the top) | The delivery: video streamed over the internet instead of through cable or satellite, on any device, including phones, tablets and laptops. | Whether an OTT quote is being priced like television when some of it runs on small screens. |
| FAST | Free ad-supported streaming television: free channels such as The Roku Channel, Tubi, Pluto TV and Samsung TV Plus. | Which free channels, and how many ad breaks an hour they carry. |
| AVOD | The ad-supported tier of an on-demand service, such as Hulu, Peacock or the ad tiers of the major streamers. | Which services, and whether specific programming can be chosen at your budget. |
Every CTV impression is OTT. Not every OTT impression is on a television. When a proposal mixes the two, ask for the split.
Local and small business
Connected TV is the first form of television a small business can buy in pieces: a set of zip codes, a metro, or the households around a location, instead of a whole broadcast market. That is the real change, and it is why so many of the CTV plans we build now are local.
What makes it work is the same as any direct response television: a defined service area, an offer someone can act on from the couch, a :30 commercial that says where you are, and a tracking number or short web address on screen. What does not work is a short flight bought to see whether television works, with nothing in place to measure it.
For a local advertiser we often pair CTV with local radio, which reaches the same households in the car. Platform by platform, see our guides to Hulu advertising and Roku advertising.
Money
Connected TV is priced per thousand impressions, and the range between the cheapest and the most expensive inventory is wider than anywhere else in television.
We do not quote a fixed cost per thousand, because it depends on the route, the targeting and the season. You pay only for completed views. What we show you is the CTV line priced beside the cable and radio lines for the same audience, so you can see what each screen costs to reach the same person and what each one returned.
Fit
Worth knowing first
We work with advertisers who have not already been quoted directly by a station, network or platform. We are not in the business of taking clients away from sellers, and once an advertiser has been quoted directly, our ability to negotiate that inventory on your behalf is limited.
The consequence lands on you rather than on us. If connected TV is on your list and you have not spoken to anyone yet, that is exactly when this is worth a call.
We will run a competitive monitoring report at no charge and with no obligation. It shows which stations, networks and channels your competitors are on, at what times of day, how many spots, and it includes the actual audio or video of their commercials.
In many cases nothing shows up at all, and that is worth knowing too.
Get the ReportQuestions
Commercials delivered through streaming apps on smart TVs and streaming devices rather than through a cable or broadcast channel. It is bought per thousand impressions, targeted by household, geography and interest, and measured on impressions and response rather than ratings.
It is priced per thousand completed views on a non-skippable :30, so you pay only when the whole commercial plays. The range is wide, from programmatic inventory at the low end to premium publisher-direct and live sports at the top. The cost per thousand is usually higher than cable and the waste is lower. What moves it is covered above, and we price the CTV line beside cable and radio for the same audience so you can compare. For a price in your market, ask us here.
Yes. Local CTV can be targeted to a metro or a set of zip codes, which makes it the strongest case for connected TV for a local advertiser in an expensive market. The creative should still say where you are.
It is different. CTV wins on targeting, frequency control and reaching cord-cutters. Cable wins on cost per thousand for a broad audience, live news and sports, and the older viewers who still watch for hours. For most direct response offers cable news is the first call and CTV fills the gaps. We plan them together.
The platform reports impressions and completion rates. We add what matters: a tracking number or web address per placement so calls and visits tie back to the schedule, and the money moves toward what responded.
Through Amazon Ads we buy Prime Video and Fire TV, Roku and The Roku Channel, Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN, Paramount+, FOX, discovery+, Samsung TV and other premium and free streaming apps, in one buy under one frequency cap. The plan and the weekly reporting show where your commercial ran.
No. We represent advertisers only and hold no inventory, so there is no platform or app we are obliged to recommend.
CTV describes the screen: a television connected to the internet. OTT describes the delivery: video streamed over the internet on any device, including phones and laptops. Every CTV impression is OTT, but not every OTT impression is on a television, so ask for the split when a quote uses the term OTT.
It can be, when the business serves a defined area, has an offer a viewer can act on and can track response. CTV lets a small advertiser buy a set of zip codes instead of a whole market, and pay only for completed views, which is what makes television workable at a local scale.
Yes. Our Amazon Ads buy reaches Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN, and Roku households including The Roku Channel, in the same plan as Prime Video and the other major apps. See our guides to Hulu advertising and Roku advertising.
You need a high definition :30 that meets the platforms’ specifications and ad policies. A standard :30 television commercial usually qualifies. If you do not have one, we can arrange production.
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Berk Marketing represents advertisers, not networks, stations or streaming platforms.
