Samsung and Rakuten studies signal European CTV move into retail media

The transition of the CTV home screen from a utility menu to a high-funnel discovery environment allows retailers to extend their media networks beyond owned websites. By matching retailer purchase data with streaming viewership patterns, brands can target specific consumer behaviors rather than broad demographics. This convergence of retail media and digital television addresses the reach limitations of social media while maintaining the measurement capabilities of performance marketing. Monitor the adoption of standardized measurement frameworks as the industry attempts to bridge the gap between large-screen impressions and verified commerce outcomes.

The expansion of retail data into the living room is accelerating through high-profile technical integrations. In April 2024, Roku and Roberta's parent company, Best Buy, expanded their partnership to provide advertisers with category-level purchase data to target CTV users more accurately. This mirrors moves in the U.S. market where Walmart's $2.3 billion acquisition of Vizio, announced in February 2024, signaled a definitive shift toward owning the hardware and operating system to secure first-party viewer data. Per eMarketer in March 2024, retail media is projected to be the fastest-growing ad spending category through 2027, increasingly cannibalizing traditional linear TV budgets as platforms enable 'shoppable' ad formats.

Simultaneously, the technical infrastructure for these cross-platform campaigns is maturing. Per Digiday in May 2024, major ad-tech providers like The Trade Desk are increasingly pushing for Unified ID 2.0 adoption across European broadcasters to solve the fragmentation issues highlighted by Samsung and Rakuten. While European privacy regulations under GDPR create a more complex environment for data sharing compared to the U.S., the emergence of ‘clean room’ technology is allowing retailers and streamers to match audiences without exposing raw PII. According to a June 2024 report from IAB Europe, CTV ad spend in the region is expected to grow by double digits as programmatic access to premium inventory becomes the baseline for retail media networks seeking off-site growth.