As the 2025 upfronts come to a close, advertisers are facing more than just shifting budgets. Economic headwinds, tariff turbulence, and the ongoing splintering of audiences have made one thing clear: flexibility is the new must-have. Rather than locking in spending months in advance, marketers are looking for ways to stay nimble, optimize in real time, and reach audiences in premium environments – on their terms. They demand agility, transparency, and smarter ways to connect with viewers, without sacrificing scale or brand safety.
Programmatic Curation: The CTV Power Move
At PubMatic, we believe programmatic curation is transforming how buyers and publishers navigate connected TV (CTV). Our CTV Marketplace brings together premium inventory, robust audience signals, and transparent deal structures, giving buyers the tools to reach audiences on their terms with precision and confidence.
Connect: The Engine Behind Smarter CTV Curation
At the heart of our curation strategy is Connect, our solution powering addressable CTV at scale. With support for alternative IDs like RampID and UID2.0, content signals from over 500 publishers, and commerce media data from partners like Instacart and Intuit, Connect helps buyers reach the right viewers with precision, all while maintaining privacy and control.
Why CTV Curation Wins
In a fragmented streaming landscape, curation cuts through the noise by combining PubMatic’s scaled CTV supply (80M+ US households) with Connect’s data intelligence. The result? Brands can:
- Target viewers using contextual, behavioral, and commerce signals in one workflow.
- Access premium inventory through deal IDs that prioritize brand safety and performance.
- Achieve higher reach and stronger engagement compared to traditional DSP targeting.
Building on this, we recently introduced a new Gen AI-powered platform that makes it even easier for buyers to discover, activate, and optimize curated omnichannel inventory, including CTV. It’s designed to bring greater speed, efficiency, and control to programmatic, helping marketers move from strategy to execution faster than ever.
As the demand for deeper, privacy-safe insights grows, the next frontier in CTV curation is unlocking the full potential of video-level context – and that’s exactly where our partnership with IRIS.TV comes in.
IRIS.TV Integration: Contextual Targeting, Supercharged
To meet rising demand for advanced targeting in CTV, we’ve partnered with IRIS.TV to bring video-level context to curated supply at scale.
Our partnership with IRIS.TV, first launched in 2021, unlocked video-level contextual targeting across our CTV supply, empowering buyers to reach audiences safely, efficiently, and in brand-safe environments. Now, we’re taking it further with deeper data, broader activation, and smarter tools for all sides of the ecosystem.
Curated Data, Ready for Action
Agencies, brands, and curators can now tap directly into IRIS-enabled™ data to build video-level CTV curated deals – going beyond surface-level signals. At the center of this capability is IRIS_ID, IRIS.TV’s proprietary content identifier that connects publishers’ video libraries with leading data providers. These providers use AI to analyze and create IRIS-enabled™ data segments across categories like contextual, emotional, and brand suitability, helping buyers target more precisely at scale.
Programmatic, Streamlined
Publishers can activate private marketplace (PMP) and programmatic guaranteed (PG) deals powered by the IRIS_ID, reducing manual setup and unlocking new revenue streams. Publishers passing IRIS_IDs in bid requests have seen eCPM lifts by 20-25%, driven by increased advertiser demand for high-performing impressions.
Direct Access to CTV
For marketers seeking efficiency, PubMatic’s Activate solution enables direct, data-driven campaign activation across premium CTV inventory. These curated deals are not only scalable and transparent; they deliver results. According to Upwave, IRIS-enabled campaigns outperformed CTV benchmarks, driving 2X higher lift in awareness, 3X higher lift in ad recall, and 5X higher lift in brand favorability.
With access to IRIS.TV’s privacy-first, video-level insights, buyers can reach the right viewers at the right moment, while publishers gain new ways to monetize content with less operational lift. It’s a win-win: greater transparency, stronger performance, and bold innovation – all driving the next evolution in CTV advertising.
Looking Forward
At PubMatic, we’re committed to helping our partners thrive in this new era. By combining the power of our CTV Marketplace, the intelligence of Connect, and the contextual innovation of IRIS.TV, we’re building a more agile, intelligent, and future-ready supply chain.
Get in touch to learn how our curated CTV solutions can help you adapt and grow in today’s changing market. Together, we can redefine the future of CTV advertising.
