CTV Benchmarks Report
CTV Advertising Benchmarks Report
How content quality, scale, and program-level transparency shape CTV performance
CTV budgets continue to grow, but so does the complexity of the programmatic supply chain. As advertisers scale investment, visibility into content quality, inventory suitability, and delivery environments remains essential. Updated every quarter, Peer39’s CTV Benchmarks Report gives buyers a data-backed view of how campaign quality signals perform under real-world conditions.
Last updated: April 2026
Methodology
These benchmarks are based on aggregated bid requests observed by Peer39 and anonymized CTV campaign data from active clients during Q1 2026. Only campaigns with a minimum of 100,000 impressions were included to ensure statistical significance. Benchmarks are intended as a directional guide for mid-campaign optimization, post-buy analysis, and strategic planning.
Core benchmarks
Key CTV performance benchmarks for Q1 2026
Peer39 clients vs. the open exchange. How content quality controls affect real campaign outcomes.
Completion rate
94.74%
Peer39 tag user benchmark
Video completion rate remains one of the most closely watched CTV benchmarks, and Q1 2026 performance came in strong at 94.74%. Industry standards for non-skippable CTV inventory typically range between 90% and 97%, though results vary by device, content type, and supply source. Peer39 benchmarks reflect strong engagement when delivery is paired with program-level quality and transparency signals.
Sensitive content exposure
Sensitive content exposure increased this quarter, but Peer39 clients still saw materially lower exposure than the open exchange. Program-level controls help advertisers maintain brand suitability standards by filtering news, kids, legal, and other sensitive environments before an impression is served.
User-generated content (UGC)
UGC exposure remained effectively eliminated for Peer39 clients at 0.01%. In programmatic CTV, user-generated content often enters the supply path through misclassified inventory. Program-level visibility and production-type controls help keep non-professionally produced content out of premium campaigns.
Fake CTV content
Fake CTV content dropped to 0.71% for Peer39 clients in Q1 2026, underscoring the impact of classification, verification, and pre-bid controls. Fake CTV content includes non-television environments such as wallpapers, screensavers, and idle apps misrepresented as premium CTV inventory. On the open exchange, this remains a persistent quality risk.
Device type performance
Where CTV engagement actually happens
Over 322 million total starts analyzed across device types in Q1 2026.
Share of total starts
TV screens account for the overwhelming majority of programmatic CTV delivery, reinforcing their role as the primary environment for premium connected TV advertising.
Completion rate by device
Mobile phone environments show notably lower completion rates and higher exposure to fake CTV content. Program-level transparency is essential to ensure mobile impressions are not misrepresented as premium CTV inventory.
CTV quality score
How your campaigns stack up
The Peer39 CTV Quality Score gives advertisers a single, at-a-glance measure of campaign health. Visible directly in the Analytics Dashboard, the score helps teams benchmark delivery, identify quality issues, and apply optimizations in real time.
77
P39 quality score
0.71%
Fake content
94.74%
Completion rate
10.06%
Overnight starts
Score is a weighted blend of
Optimization controls
Turning CTV benchmark insights into action
Peer39's pre-bid controls let advertisers act on quality signals before an impression is served, reducing waste, protecting brand integrity, and improving programmatic CTV performance at scale.
Improve channel coverage
Apply the Verified Valid Channel pre-bid category to increase delivery against known, classified channels and reduce exposure to unclassified or misrepresented CTV inventory.
Avoid fake CTV content
Exclude made-for-advertising environments and other low-quality inventory with the Safe from Fake Content pre-bid category.
Control UGC exposure
Use the Production Type pre-bid category to prevent user-uploaded content from entering your supply path and ensure ads run alongside professionally produced programming.
Manage sensitive content
Exclude news, kids, or legal programming using Safe From pre-bid categories when brand suitability standards require tighter controls.
Conclusion
Building trust and transparency across programmatic CTV
Completion rate alone does not tell the full story of CTV campaign performance. As inventory expands and delivery environments diversify, advertisers need visibility into content quality, channel transparency, and the environments delivering impressions.
The Q1 2026 benchmarks reinforce a clear pattern: program-level transparency is what separates trusted CTV delivery from risky open exchange buying. Advertisers who pair quality signals with pre-bid controls can reduce wasted spend, protect brand integrity, and scale connected TV campaigns with greater confidence.
Key takeaways
Peer39 clients maintained dramatically lower exposure to fake CTV content, UGC, and sensitive content than the open exchange.
Completion rate remained strong at 94.74%, reinforcing the performance potential of quality-controlled CTV inventory.
Known channel transparency reached 21.35%, giving advertisers stronger visibility into where ads ran and what content they appeared alongside.
Program-level controls remain essential for reducing waste, improving suitability, and building trust in programmatic CTV.
Frequently asked questions
CTV advertising benchmarks: common questions answered
What is a good CTV video completion rate in 2026?
Industry benchmarks for CTV video completion rates typically range between 90% and 97% for non-skippable inventory. Rates vary based on content type, device, inventory source, and seasonal factors. Peer39 clients averaged 94.74% in Q1 2026. If your completion rate falls significantly below 85%, it may indicate delivery on low-quality or misclassified inventory rather than a creative issue.
What is fake CTV content?
Fake CTV content refers to non-television environments, including wallpapers, screensavers, and idle apps, that are misrepresented as connected TV inventory in the programmatic supply chain. In Q1 2026, fake CTV content accounted for 0.71% of impressions for Peer39 clients, compared with 25.21% on the open exchange.
What is CTV brand safety and how is it measured?
CTV brand safety refers to ensuring ads do not appear alongside content that is inappropriate, sensitive, or damaging to a brand's reputation — including adjacency to divisive news, kids programming, legal content, and user-generated content. Peer39 measures brand safety through program-level content classification, enabling advertisers to set pre-bid controls that filter unsuitable content before an impression is served.
How does programmatic CTV buying affect ad quality?
Programmatic CTV buying increases scale and efficiency but also introduces supply path complexity. Without program-level transparency, ads can end up alongside user-generated content, fake CTV environments, or sensitive programming. Using pre-bid quality controls allows advertisers to maintain brand suitability standards while still benefiting from the reach and targeting precision of programmatic buying.
What is CTV supply path transparency?
CTV supply path transparency refers to the ability to see, at a program level, exactly where ads are running in the connected TV ecosystem — including the channel, content type, production quality, and device environment. App-level data alone is not sufficient, as a single app can contain both premium and low-quality inventory. Program-level transparency gives advertisers the granularity needed to evaluate quality, reduce waste, and invest with confidence.
How often are these benchmarks updated?
Peer39's CTV Benchmarks Report is updated every quarter. Each edition reflects aggregated data from active client campaigns during that quarter, with a minimum threshold of 100,000 impressions per campaign to ensure statistical significance.
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