Glossary
What is Connected TV (CTV) advertising?
Connected TV (CTV) advertising is video advertising delivered to internet-connected television sets through streaming apps and smart TV platforms, rather than through traditional broadcast.
Most explanations of CTV are written from a media-buying perspective. The production consequences matter just as much and are discussed far less, because CTV combines two things that rarely occur together: a lean-back viewing context, and an audience that mostly cannot skip.
That combination changes what the film should be. Broadcast conditioned advertisers to front-load everything into the first three seconds. On CTV, completion rates well above 90% are achievable, which means a spot can hold a beat, let an image breathe and land a payoff at the end — the things that make a film memorable rather than merely noticed.
CTV compared with other video placements
| Connected TV | Broadcast TV | Online video / pre-roll | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivered through | Streaming apps and smart TVs | Traditional broadcast | Web and social platforms |
| Skippable | Usually not | No | Usually after 5 seconds |
| Viewing context | Lean-back, full screen, often shared | Lean-back | Lean-forward, often muted |
| Rewards | Completion and craft | Reach and frequency | A hook in the first two seconds |
| Typical length | 30–60s | 30–60s | 6–30s |
| Production implication | Sound design and pacing carry weight | Broadcast delivery specs | Front-loaded, subtitle-safe |
What CTV asks of the production
- Sound design matters more than usual. Full screen, real speakers, unmuted — the opposite of social.
- Deliverable specs are strict. Platforms have their own technical requirements, and they are not the same as broadcast.
- You still need the vertical versions. A CTV campaign almost always runs alongside paid social, and cropping the master will not do.
- Completion is the metric, not impressions. It is also the honest one, because it measures whether the film held.
- Plan it at storyboard. A film built for pre-roll and adapted for CTV wastes the format’s main advantage.
In practice
The DFDS Seaways campaign returned a 99.5% completion rate on Connected TV, alongside 2.1 million digital out-of-home impressions and 65% view-through on premium publisher placements — all from a single production day planned for every placement at the storyboard stage.
See how DOT builds for the full media stack on the commercials page.
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