👁‍🗨 The CTV Ad Market Shifts from Reach to Performance Marketing

According to current industry data, Smart TV devices are now used by 68% of urban households in Russia, with the average daily viewing time on the big screen reaching 3 hours and 22 minutes.

A natural response from the business community to these tectonic shifts in media consumption has been an explosive growth in investment. While the segment’s volume was valued between 10 billion and 30 billion rubles over the previous two years, experts forecast CTV budgets to surge to 40–50 billion rubles by the end of 2026. Within a short span, the share of brands integrating smart TVs into their media mix has increased from 7% to 18%.

Marina Nichiporuk, Sales Director at Agency 2, highlighted a key conceptual shift: the television set has ceased to be solely a tool for building broad reach and has transformed into a legitimate entry point for the performance funnel. A resilient multiscreening pattern has established itself in the market, with up to 90% of viewers using a smartphone while watching video content.

Within the economically active millennial demographic (ages 26–35), 42% of users place orders or browse online catalogs directly during TV commercial breaks, adopting a “watch, scan, buy” workflow. Concurrently, the depth of engagement remains high; video completion rates hold steady at 80–92%, driving a 5–15 percentage point increase in brand awareness.

Audience behavior within the channel varies significantly by demographic group. Gen Z viewers (ages 18–25) carry their mobile habits over to CTV, preferring short 6-to-15-second clips and interactive mechanics, though they actively choose evening prime time for co-viewing movies with friends. Millennials, who exhibit the highest Smart TV penetration at 72–74%, serve as the primary drivers of cross-device purchases. Meanwhile, viewers over the age of 46 demonstrate conservative linear viewing habits but deliver the highest conversion rates into targeted offline actions for advertisers.

According to expert estimates, the geographical penetration of Smart TVs in Russia is evenly distributed, with 7 out of 10 major city residents regularly turning on smart devices. Weekly viewing peaks during weekdays from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM and expands across wider slots over weekends.

As the industry enters its maturity phase, the primary challenges remain the standardization of measurement systems, transparent conversion attribution, and fraud mitigation. During the peak pre-New Year season (November–December), the risk of fraudulent traffic from certain unsegmented vendors can spike to 20–25%, compared to the market average benchmark of 5–7%.

The battle for budgets migrating away from traditional TV will ultimately be won by those sales houses and platforms that can offer the market end-to-end verification and a data-backed proof of investment efficiency.