Are Local Advertisers Getting the Full Value of Their TV Buys?

It’s a fair—possibly uncomfortable—question, but one worth asking.

As viewership habits evolve, local stations have done a great job distributing their content across multiple platforms. But that very progress also raises questions about the real value advertisers receive from traditional TV schedules.

Today, viewers can watch local stations in 5–8 different ways:

• Over-the-air antenna (~12% of U.S. households)

• Cable (now below 50% and declining)

• The station’s app

• Streaming devices: Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Vizio, etc.

  
  

While Nielsen ratings still serve as the industry benchmark, they measure program content, not commercial breaks. Through audio watermarking, credit for content is attributed back to the original station—but that credit often extends to the ad pod, even when a different commercial actually aired. You can see directly from Nielsen https://www.nielsen.com/data-center/the-gauge/

Now let’s compare that to streaming. With dynamic ad insertion, two viewers watching the same program may see entirely different ads. More importantly, streaming offers transparent metrics—impressions, completions, view-throughs, and clicks. That’s accountability.

Watermarking, while helpful, has limitations:

It doesn’t verify ad exposure

It’s not universally accepted across platforms

It’s not always accurate

So the nagging question that I am trying to answer below still remain a mistery to me:

How much of the reported audience in linear TV actually saw the advertiser’s message?

What is the true advertising value tied to local commercial ratings today?

This isn’t about knocking TV. I value it. But I’m also a strong advocate for transparency, precision, and advertiser ROI.

Let’s have the conversation. Agree? Disagree? Have insights? I welcome all perspectives.

Local advertising on CTV and Streaming continues to drive results

#localadvertising #Streaming #CTV #ConnectADtv