TV listing data is a game changer for CTV as advertising goes programmatic

For TV viewers, internet connectivity provides access to more content than one could ever watch in a single lifetime. As a result, weekly time spent with CTV has increased more than 90% over the past four years¹. And while advertising is following suit, global marketers don’t yet see the same value in CTV that they see in other paid media channels. 

Knowing that TV audiences are migrating to CTV, marketers continue to allocate more of their spend there. According to Nielsen’s 2025 Annual Market Report, 56% of the marketers surveyed plan to increase their CTV spend this year, with 19% saying the increase will be 50% or more. Despite the increased spending, however, the global marketers surveyed rank the channel’s effectiveness behind search, social media, display advertising and digital video advertising.

Transparency is a key factor in CTV advertising, largely due to the incredible diversity of content that falls into the “CTV” bucket. In addition to including the videos that popular streaming services distribute, the world of CTV includes any long-form video that can be watched with an internet connection, including user-generated content. This is where content metadata becomes critical, especially as the bulk of ad buying and selling in CTV is handled programmatically.

In the purest sense, programmatic platforms are looking for signals in the form of text (i.e., code) to inform buying and selling transactions. As a result, the availability—and granularity—of those signals has never been more important. In many cases, however, the basic metadata that provides those signals is missing. In others, it doesn’t follow a standardized taxonomy.

For example, a Gracenote analysis of one week’s worth of sell-side bid requests in mid-2024 found that only 32% of the inventory included a genre. As the amount of premium CTV content increases, however, basic metadata won’t be enough to truly differentiate individual programs. This is particularly true for live sports.

Live sports represent ultra-premium CTV inventory, and this type of programming is increasingly being distributed to digital channels (vMVPDs, SVOD services, FAST channels). Program titles, including team matchups and sports leagues, however, aren’t always included in programmatic platforms. 

Rain the Growth Agency, for example, recently analyzed a small sample of sports program inventory from a range of publishers to assess the presence of contextual content signals: Only 14% included league information, and only 18% specified which teams were playing.

When standardized program data is used in combination with TV listing data, however, transparency in programmatic buying and selling transactions increases significantly.

Here’s an example:

In March 2025, Global Video Data had a record of 1,653 active FAST channels. These channels distributed more than 172,600 individual programs, episodes and movies. Of the total channels, 221 were dedicated to sports. Importantly, sports is now the second-most prevalent genre across FAST channels, but very little is new, live and competition programming.

In aggregate, the FAST sports channels distributed more than 16,000 programs, episodes and movies. Only a small amount, however, was new and live sports competition events—the most premium of sports content. This is where TV listing data becomes vital. In March, only 3.9% were live team sports (e.g., baseball, soccer, basketball) and 0.7% were live individual sports (e.g., poker, darts, racing).

Identifying premium inventory can be just as challenging outside of FAST. Seven different networks and platforms, for example, will distribute the nationally televised games within the 2025 WNBA season. But as a result of fragmenting TV distribution, keeping track of individual games hinges on having access to TV listing data.

To illustrate, the home opener for the Indiana Fever on May 17 against the Chicago Sky was carried by nearly 2,000 individual channels across traditional television and streaming services. And most notably, there was 21.4% more ad inventory across CTV than traditional TV.

Here’s a breakdown. As of late April:

• Gracenote TV listing availability data had a record of 859 ABC affiliate networks that were scheduled to carry the May 17 Fever-Sky game across traditional television.
• Gracenote streaming availability data had a record of 1,043 individual OTT channels that were scheduled to carry the game. These OTT channels included vMVPDs like YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream, DTC streaming services offered by local TV stations and FAST channels operated by traditional TV stations.

From a programmatic perspective, TV listing data is a game changer. Specifically, the qualifier data distinguishes individual programs within the same category. Basic metadata indicates when a program is a team sports event, but the “WNBA” designation for the May 17 game, coupled with the “live” and “new” qualifiers, differentiates it from the more than 25 other new and live team sports that were broadcast at the same time.

For additional insights, download our 2025 Contextual Advertising report.