By Matt Bryan, Director of Data and Analytics, Samsung Ads
When events like the Winter Olympics draw families to the sofa and anticipation builds for this summer’s FIFA World Cup, something familiar happens. We huddle around the biggest screen in the house. Group chats spark into life. Half-time debates spill into the kitchen. For a few fleeting hours, it feels like the old days of mass TV are back.
But beneath that shared experience lies a very modern reality: the audience may be united in attention, but they’re still often divided in how they watch.
Since the arrival of streaming TV, the industry has asked, where has the mass audience gone? But perhaps the better question now is: how do we measure reach when mass audiences are split across linear broadcast, streaming apps and smart TV environments?
From fragmentation to unified attention
Live sport remains one of the last great ‘appointment-to-view’ moments. During tentpole events such as the Olympics, we see a marked shift back towards live viewing. Yet the pattern is more complex than a simple return to linear. Younger viewers, in particular, are just as likely to access live sport through broadcaster apps or streaming platforms as through traditional channels. When the closing ceremony ends, behaviour quickly reverts to on-demand.
In other words, the audience hasn’t disappeared, but it has certainly diversified. Therefore, the challenge for advertisers today is not a lack of scale, but a lack of visibility. If viewers are scattered across BVOD, AVOD, SVOD, gaming environments and operating system interfaces, then planning in silos risks running into issues such as duplication, wasted frequency and ultimately, missed incremental reach.
That’s why the conversation needs to move from “fragmentation as a problem” to “unified measurement as the solution”.
Rethinking CTV as ‘total TV’
One of the biggest hurdles is how we define CTV. Too often, it’s shorthand for “streaming”. In reality, it makes up the entire smart TV ecosystem: linear broadcast, streaming apps, gaming, and crucially, the home screen.
Most viewing journeys begin at the home screen. Across Europe, smart TV users return to it five or more times a day and spend around 10.5 minutes deciding what to watch. It’s the connective tissue between experiences – the only consistent touchpoint before audiences disperse into their chosen platforms.
Planning total TV campaigns means recognising this ecosystem – asking not just ‘where should I buy streaming?’, but ‘how does my linear campaign work alongside my home screen presence, and how do I top up reach, manage frequency and avoid overexposing the same households?’
When global moments command attention, brands need a measurement framework that captures combined reach across broadcast, streaming and smart TV environments. That requires deterministic data at device level, not probabilistic assumptions stitched together after the fact.
Why deterministic data matters
Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology provides a foundation for understanding real viewing behaviour. By identifying what content is on screen – whether linear programming, ads or even gaming activity – it builds a granular, one-to-one picture of how households use their TVs.
That depth of insight is essential for two reasons:
- First, it enables de-duplication. If a viewer has already seen a brand’s linear spot during a live Olympic final, advertisers can use smart TV environments to manage additional frequency intelligently – either reinforcing the message or holding back to prevent fatigue.
- Second, it allows for true incremental reach. In a world where younger viewers may never touch linear broadcast, deterministic TV data helps brands identify who they have not yet reached and extend campaigns into streaming or home screen placements accordingly.
Of course, as more live viewing shifts into streaming apps, visibility becomes more complex. No single player sees everything. But within the CTV environment, deterministic data brings clarity to what would otherwise remain opaque.
It also reflects a broader truth: no medium generates richer insight into viewing behaviour than the TV screen itself. When you have a data set based on more than 70 million smart TVs across Europe, this sheer scale of device-level data provides a uniquely comprehensive view of how audiences engage with content continent-wide.
The rise of ad-supported scale
Another shift reshaping global moments is the rise of ad-supported viewing. Whether through broadcaster apps, free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services or hybrid tiers, advertising has reasserted itself as a central part of the TV ecosystem.
For brands, this opens up new ways to scale impact without relying on a single broadcaster or buying strategy. Instead of chasing one peak rating, advertisers can build unified campaigns that span linear, streaming and smart TV touchpoints.
The home screen plays a pivotal role here. During major events, brands that appear prominently on the TV interface benefit from contextual association – a halo effect that aligns them with cultural moments, even without formal sponsorship. Before viewers dive into the match or medal ceremony, they encounter a curated environment where content and advertising coexist.
It’s also an environment that invites interaction. As second-screening peaks during major live events, lean-forward formats such as QR-enabled ads and interactive units transform passive viewing into measurable engagement. The result is a shift from broad exposure to accountable outcomes.
Measuring what matters
Viewing behaviours are more diverse than ever, and technology continues to expand how and where people watch. But during global moments, scale has not disappeared – it has simply become harder to see at a glance. The real opportunity lies in measuring that combined reach across environments, so advertisers can fully understand and activate the total TV audience.
Total TV measurement, which is grounded in deterministic, device-level data, allows brands to understand combined reach, control frequency and unlock incremental audiences across the full smart TV ecosystem.
So, as the World Cup approaches and living rooms once again become arenas, the opportunity is clear. The audience may enter through different doors, but they still gather in the same room. For advertisers willing to unify their measurement as well as their messaging, global moments remain golden.
