Reviewed by Peter Berk, President and Chief Media Strategist, Berk Marketing · Last updated 20 September 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.
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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.
Outlets
No single platform reaches every streaming household. Amazon Ads and Simpli.fi are the two we have run campaigns through most recently, and the rest are reachable through the same relationships. The mix for any one advertiser depends on the market, the audience and what each outlet is charging that season.
| Platform | What it reaches | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Ads | Prime Video, Fire TV and Twitch, plus ad-supported apps bought through the Amazon DSP. | Targeting built on logged-in shopper and viewing data rather than a guess from an IP address, so the spot lands in a verified household. Non-skippable :30s, and pricing tied to completed views. Strong for both national reach and zip-code-level local campaigns. |
| Simpli.fi | Programmatic inventory across the major ad-supported streaming apps, with geo-fencing down to a neighborhood or a set of addresses. | The best tool we have found for a local advertiser who wants television in a tight footprint, or who wants to reach the households around a competitor, a job site or a trade show. |
| Roku | The Roku Channel and the ad-supported apps on Roku devices and Roku-powered TVs. | The largest single streaming operating system in the country. Reliable reach in every market, with household targeting and frequency caps. |
| Publisher direct | Hulu, Disney+, Paramount+, Peacock, Max, Tubi, Pluto TV and the network apps, bought from the service itself. | Known programming and a known audience, including live sports. Priced like premium television and worth it when the program is the point. |
| Smart TV platforms | Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels and Vizio WatchFree+, sold by the set makers across the apps on their screens. | Broad reach into households that never signed up for anything, with the television itself as the targeting signal. |
| Demand-side platforms | Open programmatic inventory across all of the above, bought against audience segments with placement-level reporting. | The most control over cost and frequency, and the place where a buyer earns their keep by checking every placement. |
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. Each one is a seller we buy from on your behalf, and the schedule shows which platform every dollar went to 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.
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. 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 impressions and 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.
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.
Amazon Ads, Simpli.fi, Roku, the smart TV platforms, the major ad-supported services bought direct, and open programmatic inventory through demand-side platforms. The mix depends on your market and audience, and the plan shows which platform each dollar goes to.
No. We represent advertisers only and hold no inventory, so there is no platform or app we are obliged to recommend.
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Berk Marketing represents advertisers, not networks, stations or streaming platforms.
