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Tech · 2 min read1 July 2026

From July 1 You Can See What Rivals Spend on Streaming Ads. CTV Just Stopped Being a Black Box.

Australian platform Bigdatr has launched CTV ad monitoring, giving marketers visibility into competitor creative and estimated spend across the major streaming services. The fastest-growing slice of the TV market was also the most opaque. That just changed.

You cannot benchmark what you cannot see. CTV was the channel everyone was moving budget into and nobody could measure across the fence.

2 min read

From 1 July, Australian marketers can see what their competitors spend on connected TV. Bigdatr, the local competitive intelligence platform, has launched CTV ad monitoring, giving customers visibility into rival ad creative and estimated spend across the major streaming services. Until now, the fastest-growing slice of the TV market was also the most opaque.

The coverage is broad. From launch, customers can track ad creative and estimated investment across YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, Paramount+, Disney+, Stan, Binge, HBO Max, Kayo and more, with historical and current spend data to see how a competitor's streaming investment has moved. CTV now sits alongside Bigdatr's existing monitoring of linear TV, display, search, social, radio and out-of-home, which puts more than 13 media channels in a single view.

The timing tracks the money. More than $320 million has gone into connected TV in Australia this year, and the average person now spends around 14 hours a week streaming. Bigdatr says the launch came straight from customer feedback naming CTV as the biggest gap in their competitive intelligence.

Why it matters

Connected TV has been a black box. You knew streaming mattered, you knew competitors were spending there, and you had no way to see how much or on what. That made it hard to judge whether your own CTV budget was competitive or wasted. Visibility changes the conversation from guessing to comparing.

For Australian advertisers weighing CTV against linear TV and everything else, competitive spend data is the missing input. It turns a leap of faith into a decision you can defend.

$320 million

The amount invested in connected TV in Australia this year, the channel that was hardest to benchmark until now.

What to do about it

If CTV is in your plan, get visibility on what competitors are spending before you set your own number. Benchmarking beats guessing.
Watch competitor creative, not just spend. What rivals run on streaming tells you how they are positioning, which is as useful as the dollar figure.
Put CTV in the same view as your other channels. Comparing streaming spend against search, social and linear in one place is where the real planning happens.
Treat the new transparency as a two-way street. If you can see them, assume they can see you. Plan your CTV creative knowing it is now visible.

The fastest-growing TV channel just stopped being a black box. Use the light.

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Filip Ivanković
The Debrief / From Filip Ivanković
One every morning. Six months in, you'll see the patterns most don't.
Strategy, benchmarks, and what's actually moving in Australian marketing. Four-minute read. The reps compound.
Filip Ivanković·Founder, New RebellionAboutLinkedIn