New IAB research shows only 41% of buyers are confident in commerce and retail media networks for CTV buying, even as spend keeps climbing. IAB Australia is separately pushing co-viewing measurement. The channel is growing faster than its accountability.
A channel where buyers admit they do not trust the inventory, while increasing spend into it, is a channel priced on optimism.
Connected TV spend keeps climbing while buyer confidence in the inventory lags well behind. New IAB research covered by Marketing Dive found just 41% of buyers are confident in commerce and retail media networks for CTV buying, as those two channels converge and everyone with a screen and a checkout builds an ad network.
Read that gap plainly. A majority of the people spending money into converged CTV do not fully trust what they are buying. The money is moving anyway because the audience is there, the targeting stories are good and nobody wants to be the buyer who missed the shift.
Meanwhile IAB Australia is pushing the measurement conversation locally. Its latest podcast tackles CTV co-viewing, the fact that a single CTV impression in a lounge room is often watched by two or three people, which changes the real reach and cost calculation of every campaign.
Co-viewing cuts in the advertiser's favour, undercounting true reach. Inventory opacity cuts against, overcounting quality. Neither is resolved, and both are being papered over by momentum.
Why it matters
Australian CTV inventory is expanding fast across BVOD, streaming ad tiers and retail media extensions, and mid-sized advertisers are being pitched hard on all of it. The IAB numbers say the sophisticated end of the market has not resolved its doubts. Smaller buyers should not pretend theirs are resolved either.
The co-viewing question matters just as much. If lounge room impressions carry multiple viewers, CPMs that look expensive against social may be cheaper per real person reached. Buying decisions made on unadjusted numbers are wrong in both directions.
The share of buyers confident in commerce and retail media networks for CTV buying, per IAB research, even as spend into the converged channel keeps climbing.
What to do about it
Demand transparency before scale. Ask any CTV or retail media seller for app-level and content-level reporting, third-party verification and clear resale disclosure. The answers separate real inventory from repackaged remnant.
Apply a co-viewing lens to comparisons. When you benchmark CTV against social or display, adjust for households versus individuals. The channel comparison changes materially.
Start with outcomes you can verify. Tie CTV tests to measurable lifts, brand search, direct traffic or geo-level sales, rather than platform-reported completions. Completion rates are table stakes, not proof.
Size your test to your trust. Spend at the level the transparency justifies, then scale as sellers earn it. The 59% who are not confident yet still spending have it backwards.
The channel is real, the audience is real and the accountability is still under construction. Buy accordingly.