Two in five ad buyers cite interactive gaps as CTV barrier

The immediate implication is a widening gap between CTV’s reach and its utility as a lower-funnel performance vehicle. While the ecosystem enjoys record investment, the lack of standardized on-screen interaction forces streamers to rely on secondary devices, introducing churn risk at the point of sale. This creates a competitive opening for social video, which IAB projects will reach $31.9 billion this year—surpassing CTV’s $29.3 billion—due to its native commerce and creator-driven optimization. Watch for whether Amazon or Samsung’s remote-based shopping initiatives can reclaim share from social platforms by reducing click-to-cart friction.

The IAB’s findings correspond with a period of intense scrutiny regarding streaming inventory quality. Per DoubleVerify in May 2026, CTV fraud schemes and variants jumped 140% in Q1 2026 compared to the previous year, with fraudulent apps increasing tenfold in 2025. This surge in invalid traffic undermines the premium currently commanded by the format. Despite these risks, only 31% of buyers in the IAB report expressed a willingness to pay additional fees for fraud detection tools, suggesting that advertisers now view basic verification as a baseline service that publishers and DSPs should absorb into their standard operating costs.

Simultaneously, the technical landscape is shifting toward automated governance to manage this complexity. Per IAB Tech Lab in January 2026, new industry standards for agentic AI are being established to provide an audit trail for automated campaign execution. This movement toward 'agentic' systems is critical as buyers attempt to navigate a fragmented market where retail media is becoming intertwined with video. According to eMarketer in January 2026, retail media CTV spending is projected to grow 45.5% this year, with one in five CTV ad dollars expected to originate from retail partnerships by 2027. This convergence places higher pressure on streamers to solve the interactive 'must-buy' dilemma highlighted in the current report.