Buy side · what advertisers pay
CTV / OTT CPM
By Oliver Wakefield-Smith · updated July 2026
Benchmarks reviewed July 2026 · next review October 2026
The short answer
Connected TV is quote-only almost wall to wall. Hulu's ad manager and Roku's Ads Manager publish self-serve entry routes with current minimums surfacing inside the buying flow; neither publishes an average CPM, and premium publishers sell through insertion orders priced at deal time. This page carries the published mechanics and no invented range.
What a CTV impression is
A served, typically non-skippable video slot on the living-room screen, usually sound-on and full-screen by definition of the device. Completion rates run structurally higher than in-browser video because the skip button mostly does not exist. That is what the premium over display inventory actually purchases: forced completion, big-screen context and co-viewing, priced per household impression. The decomposition is worked at display vs CTV.
Impression vs rating point
Linear TV sold audience estimates (rating points against panel-measured demographics); CTV bills per served impression like any digital channel. The practical consequence: CTV buys reconcile to ad-server counts, not to panel math, and frequency is controllable per household rather than prayed over. For how frequency spends your budget, see reach vs frequency.
Buying routes today
- Platform self-serve: Hulu and Roku ad managers, built for small advertisers; minimums surface in-flow.
- Programmatic CTV: via DSPs into exchange-traded streaming inventory; the open-exchange fee mechanics of programmatic CPM apply.
- Direct insertion orders: premium streamers price per deal; the only rate you will ever see is the one on your own IO.
Adjacent lanes: YouTube (the auction path to TV screens) and DOOH (the other modeled-audience medium). Full table: /rates.