Two election cycles ago, connected TV was an experiment. Campaigns were testing it, agencies were learning it, and most of the serious money was still going to linear broadcast. That period is over.

CTV is now the dominant digital channel in political advertising — and the competition for it in 2026 is already driving up costs, compressing inventory, and separating campaigns that planned ahead from those that didn't.

How Fast the Shift Happened

The speed at which CTV took over political digital spending has no real precedent in the medium.

Basis Technologies, analyzing more than 1,400 campaigns across state, local, and national races, found that CTV's share of programmatic political ad spend jumped from 19% in 2020 to 30% in 2022 to 50% in 2024 — and that programmatic CTV impressions more than doubled over the same two-year period. In just four years, CTV went from a supplemental buy to the single largest category of digital political ad spend, surpassing mobile, desktop, and every other device category. That trajectory does not slow down in 2026. Basis Technologies' 2026 cycle forecast projects political CTV spending will reach $2.4 billion — nearly double what it was in 2024.

Why Campaigns Are Moving There

The strategic case for CTV over linear television comes down to one fundamental difference: precision.

Linear TV buys are structured around DMAs — designated market areas that almost never align with political district boundaries. A congressional candidate buying broadcast TV in a major market is paying to reach voters across multiple districts, the vast majority of whom cannot vote for them. Adwave's analysis of CTV vs. linear TV for political campaigns found that broadcast TV buys covering a congressional district might span three separate DMAs — or a single DMA might contain five congressional districts — meaning campaigns using linear TV are structurally incapable of the voter-level targeting that CTV delivers as a baseline capability. On CTV, ads are served at the household level. A campaign can reach registered voters in a specific precinct, on their living room television, without a single wasted impression on an out-of-district household.

The measurement advantage compounds the targeting advantage. CTV offers attribution capabilities that linear never could — website visits, audience matching, frequency management — giving campaigns real data on whether their TV spending is reaching the right people and driving the right behavior.

The Inventory Problem Heading Into 2026

CTV's advantages are well established. What is less discussed — and more immediately relevant to campaigns planning their 2026 media strategy — is what happens to pricing when every campaign at every level of the ballot wants the same inventory.

PGAM Media's analysis of 2026 CTV political spending trends found that as inventory tightens in competitive markets, programmatic algorithms bid aggressively against each other, pushing CPMs higher and creating inefficiency across overlapping audience segments — with buyers who lack supply transparency or early commitments losing control of their cost base entirely. Basis Technologies is explicit in its 2026 guidance: lock in premium inventory before the crunch. Platforms that accept political ads — Hulu, Roku, YouTube — will see the sharpest CPM increases as Election Day approaches, while roughly 50% of political ad dollars historically run in the final 30 days before Election Day, creating a predictable surge that campaigns without secured inventory are left navigating at peak prices.

The practical implication is straightforward. Campaigns that treat CTV as something to buy when the campaign heats up will pay a significant premium — or find themselves shut out of premium inventory entirely in the most competitive markets.

What a Smart CTV Strategy Looks Like in 2026

The campaigns that will get the most out of CTV this cycle are approaching it with a few disciplines that separate effective buys from expensive ones:

• Buying early — locking in inventory before the midyear surge rather than competing for what's left in October
• Prioritizing quality over volume — a targeted buy on premium inventory reaching verified in-district voters outperforms a larger buy on lower-quality programmatic open exchange inventory
• Sequencing creatively — CTV's completion rates average 95%, meaning viewers are watching the full ad, which creates an opportunity to sequence messaging over time rather than hammering the same spot repeatedly
• Diversifying supply — spreading buys across FAST channels, premium streaming, and programmatic guaranteed rather than concentrating in a single path that becomes congested as the cycle builds

The Bottom Line

CTV is no longer the future of political advertising. It is the present — and in 2026, it is the most contested real estate on the media landscape. The campaigns that understood this a year ago are already positioned. Those still deciding whether to invest in it are running out of runway to do so at favorable prices.