The Development Prospects of Television Advertising: Insights into Trends and Future Opportunities in 2026

How many times have you heard phrases like 'no one watches TV anymore' or 'TV commercials are outdated'?

Reality has given different answers. In 2025, the scale of China's TV advertising market will remain at the level of 100 billion yuan, and OTT (Internet TV) advertising will expand rapidly at an annual growth rate of more than 20%. Television has not disappeared, it has just evolved into a more powerful form.

For advertisers and marketing professionals, a core question worth pondering is: what is the development prospect of television advertising? In this era where digitalization is sweeping everything, does big screen marketing still have a future?

This article will systematically interpret the present and future of television advertising from multiple dimensions such as industry data, technological changes, audience behavior, and business models.

1、 The current state of television advertising: not a decline, but a reconstruction
To understand the development prospects of television advertising, it is first necessary to recognize its current situation.

1. Traditional Television: Persistence in the Stock Game
According to CSM media research data, the daily active users and viewing time of traditional television have indeed shown a slow downward trend, but far from reaching the level of "extinction". During the prime time of the evening, the television screen remains the center of home entertainment, especially for news, variety shows, sports events, and other content, which can still gather a massive audience.

More importantly, the advantages of TV media in terms of credibility and authority are hard to replace by Internet media. For industries such as pharmaceuticals, food, and finance that require trust building, television advertising remains the preferred choice.

2. OTT Internet TV: a new engine of rapid growth
The real growth comes from OTT. By the end of 2025, the activated scale of smart TVs in China will exceed 350 million units, covering over 800 million household users. The size of the OTT advertising market has exceeded 30 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of over 20%.

The core advantage of OTT is that it not only has the shock power of traditional TV screens, but also has the precise orientation and effect tracking ability of Internet advertising. The fusion of traditional and digital features has brought new vitality to television advertising.

3. Overall scale of the television advertising market
Based on comprehensive data from multiple sources, the size of China's television advertising market (including traditional TV+OTT) remains stable between 150 billion and 180 billion yuan. Among them, the proportion of traditional TV advertising is slowly declining, while the proportion of OTT advertising is rapidly increasing, and the overall market remains stable in a balance of gains and losses.

So, TV advertising is not "without prospects", but undergoing a profound self evolution.

2、 Four core trends driving the development of television advertising
Trend 1: From "casting a wide net" to "precise targeting"
What is the biggest pain point of traditional TV advertising? I don't know who watched it, I don't know how effective it was.

The popularization of OTT technology has completely changed this. Through device ID, user profile, and behavior data, TV advertising can also achieve precise orientation like Internet advertising. You can choose specific regions, specific audiences, or even specific viewing scenarios for advertising placement, greatly reducing advertising waste.

For example, a high-end car brand can only push advertisements to users who have watched car review videos and have higher household incomes. This precise ability has transformed television advertising from "broadcasting" to "narrow broadcasting", greatly improving its effectiveness.

Trend 2: From "one-way output" to "two-way interaction"
The new generation of smart TVs and remote controls make advertising interaction possible. Users can interact with advertisements through remote control clicks, voice commands, mobile scanning, and other methods, achieving the shortest path from viewing to conversion.

Imagine a scenario where a user sees a travel advertisement on TV, clicks on it with a remote control to view detailed itineraries, scans a code to receive coupons, or even makes a direct reservation. TV commercials are no longer just about 'watching', but can truly bring business.

Trend Three: From "Single Screen" to "Cross Screen Linkage"
Television no longer exists in isolation. By matching device IDs, TV ads can be linked with mobile ads such as mobile phones and tablets. After users see advertisements on TV, they can be followed up again on their mobile phones, creating a cross screen overlay effect.

This cross screen linkage makes TV advertising a part of the entire marketing chain, rather than an isolated exposure channel.

Trend Four: From "Brand Exposure" to "Integration of Quality and Efficiency"
In the past, TV commercials only focused on exposure, and conversion depended on the weather. Now, TV advertisements can also directly track their effectiveness through QR codes, voice searches, interactive clicks, and other methods. The boundary between brand exposure and effect conversion is blurring, and television advertising is evolving towards the integration of quality and effect.

3、 The main forms and future evolution of television advertising
1. Traditional TV commercials
The hard advertising placement on provincial satellite TV, CCTV and other platforms is still an important channel for establishing a wide brand awareness. In the future, such advertisements will be more concentrated around top content (such as Spring Festival Gala, top variety shows, major events), and the Matthew effect will intensify.

2. OTT startup advertisement
The first full screen advertisement that users see when opening a smart TV has the advantage of forced exposure and 100% visibility. In the future, startup advertising will develop towards interactivity and personalization, pushing different content based on user profiles.

3. Surface mounted advertising
Video advertisements inserted before, during, and after the on-demand content. With the refinement of content distribution, patch ads will achieve more precise content scene targeting, such as placing beauty ads in front of fashion content.

4. Suspend advertising
Static or dynamic advertisements displayed when the user presses the pause button. This is a unique "attention surplus" scenario, which will be combined with AI technology in the future to achieve smarter advertising.

5. AI interactive advertising
By using technologies such as speech recognition and image recognition, users can interact naturally with advertisements. This is the most imaginative direction for television advertising and a major growth point for the future.

4、 How to seize the future opportunities of television advertising? Five Step Practical Guide
Step 1: Re evaluate the value of television media
Put aside the stereotype that 'television is dead' and objectively evaluate the role of television media in your marketing mix. Television still has irreplaceable advantages in establishing broad awareness, enhancing brand trust, and reaching home scenes.

Step 2: Understand changes in audience viewing behavior
What is your target audience watching? When will you watch it? What device should I use to view it? Are they loyal viewers of traditional satellite TV or on-demand users of OTT? Only by understanding these can one choose the appropriate form of advertising.

Step 3: Learn to utilize the precise ability of OTT
If you choose OTT advertising, you need to learn to utilize its targeting function. From regional and audience targeting to time and content scenario targeting, every budget is spent on the cutting edge.

Step 4: Creative adaptation to new scenarios
Don't throw traditional TVC directly into OTT. OTT large screens are suitable for more sophisticated visual presentations, and can be considered for customizing creativity for different forms, even creating interactive versions.

Step 5: Establish a full chain effect thinking
Even TV commercials need to consider conversion. Set up exclusive QR codes, guide voice searches, and monitor changes in brand keyword search volume to make the effectiveness of TV advertising measurable and optimizable.

5、 Common Misconceptions and Avoiding Pits Guide
Misconception 1: Believing that television advertising is outdated
This is the biggest misunderstanding. TV commercials are not outdated, they have just evolved. The breadth of coverage of traditional television and the precise depth of OTT form a new television media ecosystem.

Misconception 2: Only invest in traditional TV and ignore OTT
Traditional television and OTT are not a binary choice, but a complementary relationship. Traditional television provides broad coverage, while OTT provides deep communication and precise outreach, resulting in the best combination effect.

Misconception 3: Ignoring creative scene adaptation
The same idea has completely different effects on traditional TV, OTT startup, and ad pause. Creativity must be customized according to the form of advertising in order to achieve maximum effectiveness.

Misconception 4: Short term advertising cannot accumulate results
The brand building effect of TV advertising takes time to ferment. Whether it is traditional TV or OTT, it is recommended to use quarterly cycles to give brands time to accumulate awareness.

Misconception 5: Ignoring Data Validation
Choose reliable media outlets and request authentic data reports. For OTT advertising, exposure data can be verified through third-party monitoring to ensure advertising effectiveness.

6、 Let professionals do professional things
The placement of television advertisements involves multiple fields such as traditional satellite TV, OTT platforms, content cooperation, and creative production. For beginners, exploring on their own is not only inefficient, but also prone to pitfalls.

Tianci Media is a professional television advertising placement company that has been deeply involved in television media for many years. It has rich resources and placement experience covering CCTV, major satellite TV stations, and mainstream OTT platforms. From media strategy and resource negotiation to creative production and effect tracking, we provide one-stop full process services to help clients maximize the value of television advertising at a better cost and higher efficiency.

7、 Conclusion
The development prospects of television advertising are not simply "good" or "bad", but a profound evolution and reconstruction.

Traditional television remains strong in terms of authority and wide coverage; OTT is rapidly growing with its advantages of precision, interactivity, and traceability; The fusion and symbiosis of the two have formed a brand new television media ecosystem.

For advertisers, the key is to rediscover the value of television, learn to use new tools and methods, and bring new vitality to this "ancient" media in the digital age.

The future has arrived, but it is unevenly distributed. Brands that are the first to understand and embrace the new changes in television advertising will gain an advantage in the competition.