CTV hits 86% of digital video ad views, 53% cross-device action rate

The TV screen now commands the majority of digital video ad delivery and viewing time, giving it a structural claim on video budgets that mobile and desktop cannot match on reach alone. The 53% cross-device action rate — with 57% of those actions on mobile and 46% involving search — quantifies the TV-to-mobile pipeline that search and commerce buyers need to account for in attribution models. Watch whether CTV-to-search attribution tools from FreeWheel, OpenX/TVision, and other measurement providers can close the gap that the DISQO data implies, particularly as 81% of post-ad actions occur within one week.

The VAB report lands as EMARKETER's December 2025 forecast projects US CTV ad spending to reach $37.95 billion in 2026, a 14.5% increase, with the channel on pace to surpass traditional TV ad spend by 2028 (per EMARKETER, January 2026). That spending trajectory aligns with FreeWheel's H2 2025 Video Marketplace Report, which recorded not only CTV's 86% share of US digital video ad views but also 28% year-over-year growth in programmatic ad views and a 21% increase in unique programmatic advertisers (per ExchangeWire, March 2026).

The cross-device action data in the VAB report — 53% of viewers acting on another device after a TV ad — underscores a measurement challenge the industry is still addressing. IAB Europe's CTV Working Group, in a Q&A published March 2026, identified cross-device attribution as the primary friction point, noting that shared household devices and inconsistent identifier standards make it difficult to link a TV ad impression to a downstream mobile conversion (per PPC Land, March 2026). Teads partially addressed this gap with its June 2026 launch of CTV Ensemble, which connects CTV exposure to mobile and web engagement through a unified workflow (per Advanced Television, June 2026).

Separately, VAB and TVision's February 2026 "Impression Gap" study found that premium video platforms deliver 33% stronger co-viewing and 49% longer viewing sessions than YouTube on CTV, adding an attention-quality dimension to the volume metrics in the June report (per PR Newswire, February 2026). Samsung Ads' State of CTV 2026 data, reported by PPC Land in June 2026, showed ad-supported streaming time grew 24% year over year while ad-free streaming time fell 26% — a structural shift expanding the inventory pool the VAB report documents.