Live events are changing the rules of CTV advertising. Connected TV is no longer just a place where people watch on-demand content. Live events - sports, entertainment, breaking news - are increasingly driving CTV viewership, and that shift is creating new opportunities and new challenges for advertisers and publishers alike.
Our friends at IAB Canada have produced a useful video explainer on exactly this topic, and with their permission we're pleased to share it with IAB New Zealand members.
The resource covers three dynamics that anyone buying or selling CTV inventory around live events needs to understand.
Audience spikes are unpredictable
Live events drive sudden, concentrated viewership that behaves very differently from on-demand. Pacing strategies built for steady-state campaigns can break down fast. Publishers need real-time optimisation capability; buyers need to plan for volatility, not average audiences.
Engagement is higher - but so are the stakes
Live programming commands attention in a way that on-demand rarely matches. That's a genuine premium for advertisers. But it also means creative that feels out of step with the live moment lands worse than it would in any other context.
Measurement needs to catch up
Standard CTV measurement frameworks were largely built around on-demand viewing. Live environments introduce complexity around ad verification, frequency, and attribution that the industry is still working through.
Live sports inventory and ive programming are exactly the environments where these dynamics play out. As New Zealand publishers build out their programmatic and streaming capability, the questions IAB Canada raises are ones our market will need to answer too.
Watch the IAB Canada video explainer on YouTube here
We thank the IAB Canada team for their permission to share this resource.