Go Addressable yesterday published research showing that 78% of U.S. advertisers expect addressable TV to play a role in their 2026-2027 Upfront negotiations - a figure that has climbed from 67% the year prior. The industry trade group released the data as part of a cluster of announcements timed to its annual TV Upfronts Brunch, held on May 14 in New York, where advertising leaders gathered to discuss the intersection of agentic AI and deterministic measurement.

The findings arrive at an unusually compressed moment in the advertising calendar. As PPC Land reported this week, the 2026 Upfront season has drawn in a historically large range of sellers and formats, with broadcasters, streamers, and technology platforms competing simultaneously for buyer commitments across linear, streaming, FAST channels, live sports, and creator content. Addressable TV is not a side conversation in that environment. According to the Go Addressable research, it is now a central negotiating lever.

The survey and its numbers

The research was conducted in April 2026 by Advertiser Perceptions, a research firm, using responses from 300 U.S. marketing professionals at agencies and brands. All respondents were involved in media selection and responsible for $1 million or more in yearly advertising spend. That threshold matters: the findings reflect the behavior of buyers who move meaningful budgets, not the whole market.

Among the 78% of advertisers who say addressable TV will factor into their Upfront plans, 73% rate it as "important" or "very important" to their negotiations. Nearly 30% specifically say addressable TV will be "very important" - a figure that represents a 26% increase from the prior year's equivalent reading. And 75% of those advertisers say addressable TV will be more important to their 2026-2027 negotiations than it was to their 2025-2026 deals.

The direction of travel is consistent. A Go Addressable study released in November 2025 found that 43% of major advertisers planned to increase addressable TV spending in 2026, a 16% rise from the 37% who had indicated similar plans the year before. That same study found 86% total satisfaction with current addressable TV options among active users - 31% "very satisfied," a figure that had grown 72% since 2022. The trajectory from those late-2025 numbers to the Upfronts data today shows acceleration rather than plateau.

According to Tim Myers, executive director of Go Addressable, "Considering the rapid migration of audiences to addressable TV, I would expect advertisers to leverage it as a core part of their 2026 TV Upfront negotiations and deals. The momentum Go Addressable is experiencing reflects shared industry commitment to making premium video more measurable, actionable, and outcome-driven for advertisers. When our research and education help the industry move forward together, it builds the addressable TV channel as a foundation for better outcomes."

What addressable TV means technically

The definition matters, and Go Addressable is specific about it. Addressable TV refers to the ability to serve targeted advertisements to specific households or users based on deterministic identifiers - verified, first-party data linkages such as those maintained by internet service providers, pay-TV operators, or authenticated subscriber databases. The definition explicitly excludes targeting performed exclusively through IP address matching, which Go Addressable does not classify as deterministic.

That distinction has become commercially significant. A study commissioned by the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement and Go Addressable, conducted by data validation firm Truthset over a 90-day period between December 2024 and February 2025, found that IP-to-postal address linkages were accurate just 13% of the time. IP-to-email linkages came in at 16%. The analysis covered nearly one billion IP records. FreeWheel cited that same research in February 2026when it argued the industry should move toward deterministic identity rather than continue relying on probabilistic IP-based targeting.

The implication for Upfront negotiations is concrete. Advertisers negotiating deals that incorporate audience guarantees - or any form of outcome-based accountability - are better served by inventory tied to deterministic identifiers than by supply chains that rely on inferred IP linkages. Go Addressable's founding members, AMC Networks, Comcast Advertising, DirecTV Advertising, DISH Media, and Spectrum Reach, are all distribution companies with direct subscriber relationships and authenticated household data. That is precisely what distinguishes their addressable inventory from the probabilistic targeting available elsewhere in the ecosystem.

Five new members

Go Addressable today also announced the addition of five new supporting members: DoubleVerify, Mastercard, OpenAP, Philo, and Veeva Crossix. The group brings distinct capabilities into the association.

DoubleVerify is a publicly traded advertising verification company that has been expanding its presence across connected TV measurement. The company has reported CTV fraud schemes rising 140% in Q1 2026 compared with Q1 2025, making verification integrity a live concern for addressable buyers. DoubleVerify has also urged the streaming industry to adopt standardized transparency and measurement frameworks, arguing that measurement adoption in CTV remains significantly lower than in other digital channels. Its membership in Go Addressable connects verification infrastructure to the deterministic identity conversation.

Mastercard brings transaction-level purchase data. Comcast Advertising partnered with Mastercard in June 2025 to develop sales attribution tools that connect TV ad exposure to consumer spending. Beta testing across automotive, retail, home services, and furniture categories showed a 3x incremental return on ad spend. With Mastercard now a Go Addressable member, its transaction intelligence joins the coalition's broader work on outcome measurement for addressable TV.

OpenAP is a cross-publisher audience platform used by major television networks for standardized audience definitions and planning. According to Chris LoRusso, Chief Business Officer at OpenAP, "The use of deterministic identity is essential to enabling accurate, consistent audience targeting and measurement across data-driven video. Go Addressable plays an important role in advancing education and collaboration across the ecosystem, and we're proud to support efforts that make it easier to plan, execute, and measure across premium video at scale."

Philo is a streaming service focused on entertainment and lifestyle programming, bringing a direct-to-consumer streaming inventory perspective to the group. Veeva Crossix is a data and analytics company specializing in the healthcare and life sciences sector, where deterministic audience targeting carries particular regulatory and accuracy requirements given restrictions on pharmaceutical advertising. Its membership extends Go Addressable's reach into a vertical that has historically been a heavy television advertiser.

The Addressable Master course

Building on the success of its earlier certification program, Go Addressable today launched a second training module called Addressable Master. The first module, Addressable Essentials, was launched earlier in 2026 and has had over 1,000 media professionals complete it. The new module covers two topic areas: Cross-Platform Planning and Execution, and Strategies for Effective Measurement.

The course is available on Substack at goaddressable.substack.com and extends the free Addressable Essentials curriculum for practitioners who want more operational depth. A third module, Addressable Pro, is planned for the second half of 2026.

According to Benjamin Vandegrift, SVP of Measurement Strategy and Innovation at VAB, "Education fuels both personal growth and industry progress. As addressable capabilities scale across the TV ecosystem, it's exciting to see Go Addressable's set of courses provide the building blocks for agencies and advertisers to understand how deterministic data within identity, measurement and targeting work together to make the most of their investments in the channel. Innovative data strategies are changing how our industry operates. As an insights and advocacy organization, we at the VAB have found Go Addressable's courses to be a comprehensive resource for understanding how TV is evolving while providing marketers actionable proof points for adopting data-driven addressable TV within their media mix."

The practical emphasis of the course responds to a documented gap. Historically, Go Addressable acknowledges, confusion around the planning, buying, and measurement of addressable TV and deterministic identity has slowed adoption. The certification program is a structural attempt to reduce that friction across agencies and brand marketing teams simultaneously.

A podcast series and the Upfronts Brunch

Go Addressable has also partnered with Next In Media to produce a five-part podcast series covering key topics and organizations in the addressable space. The first episode premiered on March 31, 2026, on Spotify and YouTube. Mike Shields hosts the series; the debut episode featured Carat North America CEO Mike Law. A second episode is scheduled to debut in May, with the series continuing through the year.

The annual TV Upfronts Brunch, held today in New York, brought together advertisers, publishers, platforms, and technology partners. The event was used to present the new research, introduce the new members, and launch the Addressable Master course.

Why this matters for media buyers

The Upfront is where television advertising money gets committed months in advance of broadcast. The numbers in Go Addressable's research suggest that 2026 negotiations are materially different in character from prior years, with addressable TV moving from a supplementary discussion to a primary deal variable for the majority of buyers in the $1 million-plus spending bracket.

The broader upfront season context is worth noting: ad-supported streaming now reaches an estimated 209.4 million U.S. consumers in 2026, up from 164.4 million in 2023. Nielsen's 2026 Upfront Planning Guide found streaming accounts for 66.7% of all time spent with ad-supported TV among adults 18 to 49. In that environment, the question of which television impressions can be tied to specific, authenticated households - and which cannot - has direct budget allocation consequences.

DirecTV Advertising joined LiveRamp's CAPI Hub on April 16 as the first MVPD to do so, framing the integration explicitly around the 2026-27 Upfront season. Its argument - that TV inventory can produce the same attribution rigor as search or social - mirrors what Go Addressable has been making through its research and education programs. Magnite and AMC Global Media announced a unified linear and streaming programmatic buying arrangement in April 2026, bringing linear television into programmatic channels for the first time at that company. Each of these moves points in the same direction: accountability, measurability, and identity precision are now table-stakes expectations in television advertising conversations.

For media buyers negotiating this Upfront cycle, the Go Addressable data provides a benchmark. Three quarters of advertisers at comparable spending levels are treating addressable TV as important or very important to their deals. That is a significant shift from the early years of addressable TV, when adoption was slower and fragmented across disparate technical approaches and distribution partners. The current period looks quite different: a standardized definition, growing certification infrastructure, a coalition that now includes measurement, transaction, and verification capabilities alongside the distribution companies that supply the inventory.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Go Addressable, an industry trade group led by TV distribution companies including AMC Networks, Comcast, DirecTV, DISH, and Spectrum, along with research partner Advertiser Perceptions and five newly announced supporting members: DoubleVerify, Mastercard, OpenAP, Philo, and Veeva Crossix.

What: The publication of research showing 78% of U.S. advertisers expect addressable TV to factor into 2026-2027 Upfront negotiations, up from 67% the prior year; the launch of a second certification module called Addressable Master covering cross-platform planning and measurement; and the announcement of five new supporting members joining the organization.

When: The research was conducted in April 2026. The announcements were made on May 14, 2026, coinciding with the annual TV Upfronts Brunch in New York.

Where: The survey covered 300 U.S. marketing professionals at agencies and brands responsible for $1 million or more in annual ad spend. The Upfronts Brunch was held in New York. The Addressable Master course is available on Substack at goaddressable.substack.com.

Why: Confusion around addressable TV planning, buying, and measurement has historically slowed adoption despite strong interest from major advertisers. Go Addressable uses research, education, and coalition-building to reduce that friction and establish addressable TV - powered by deterministic identity rather than probabilistic IP matching - as a standard component of multiscreen TV planning.

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