Magnite's 2025 Spain study of 872 streamers reveals CTV co-viewing habits, live stream ad recall, and low awareness of shoppable and pause ad formats - key signals for programmatic buyers.
Magnite has published a proprietary research study examining how Spanish audiences engage with ad-supported streaming, drawing on a nationally representative survey of 872 respondents recruited in December 2025. The findings arrive as the company deepens its commercial footprint in Spain, having opened its first Madrid office in February 2026 and appointed a dedicated commercial director for the market. Together, the data sketch a picture of a streaming market that is growing fast, heavily social, and still largely untouched by the newer ad formats that the industry has been developing over the past two years.
The study, titled Streams & Screens: Spain, covers adults aged 18 and over who watch video content through streaming services. The sample breaks down to 52% female and 48% male, spread across six regions: South (22%), North-East (19%), East (20%), Madrid (16%), North-West (14%), and Centre (9%). Age distribution skews toward the 35-to-54 bracket, with the 35-44 and 45-54 cohorts each representing 27% of respondents, while the 18-24 group accounts for just 10%. That demographic detail matters: Spain's streaming audience is not primarily a young one.
The headline figure is unambiguous. According to the study, approximately 35 million people in Spain are currently streaming video, a figure drawn from Census Bureau and Statista data. More striking is the direction of travel: 68% of survey respondents report streaming more this year than last year. The momentum does not appear to be slowing. Some 60% say they are open to trying new services, and 44% actively plan to sign up for a new platform within the next 12 months.
Respondents use an average of five different streaming services. That platform diversity has a structural implication: no single service dominates attention in the way that linear broadcasters once did. According to the report, 99% of Spanish streamers watch content on addressable streaming platforms - defined as total unduplicated OTT reach - compared with 58% on YouTube. Ad-supported tiers are mainstream rather than marginal: 75% of respondents watch at least one service carrying advertising.
Daily reach is substantial. The majority of streamers access content at least once per day, with CTV usage hitting that threshold among 81% of the CTV-using cohort and mobile reaching 71%. Satisfaction levels differ by device. According to the data, 93% of CTV users report being satisfied with their streaming experience, versus 86% among mobile users. The gap points to something the research explores in more detail: the large-screen, shared experience at home commands a particular kind of engagement that mobile cannot fully replicate.
Connected television emerges from the data as more than a device category - it functions as a social setting. According to the study, 89% of CTV viewers stream content in shared home spaces such as the living room. On average, CTV streamers are watching with three other people. Among those streaming on CTVs, 74% say they always or often watch with others.
What happens in those shared viewing sessions has direct consequences for advertising. Some 58% of co-viewers report discussing ads with others while watching. More commercially significant: 51% say ads feel more memorable when viewed with others. That combination - wider household reach plus elevated recall - positions CTV differently from mobile or desktop display, where advertising is typically an individual experience.
The device pattern over the day follows a predictable arc. Mobile tends to lead in morning hours, while CTV dominates from early evening onwards, peaking during primetime. That temporal split has scheduling implications for programmatic campaigns that aim for cross-device reach.
Second-screen behaviour adds another layer. According to the data, 49% of Spanish streamers are always or often using a second screen - typically a smartphone - while watching content on a television. Of that group, 25% are using the device to shop online, creating a dual-screen environment where advertising can theoretically prompt immediate transactional behaviour. Other second-screen activities include messaging (56%), social media (53%), and internet browsing (47%).
Spanish streamers are not a homogeneous audience. Their interests span food and cooking (75%), travel (74%), health and fitness (64%), technology and gadgets (63%), and entertainment broadly defined (62%). Sports sits at 53% overall, but the gender gap is wide: interest in sports registers at 71% among male respondents versus 37% among females. Gaming peaks among the 18-24 age group and declines steadily with age.
The most-consumed content genres are comedy (70%), action and adventure (67%), sci-fi and fantasy (58%), and horror and thriller (57%). Sports and news/current events both land at 49%.
Local content is a structural feature of Spanish streaming consumption, not a niche preference. According to the report, 62% of streamers watch Spanish-language content and 67% watch European content more broadly. Broadcaster-led services - the local equivalents of national television networks operating their own streaming platforms - occupy a specific and valued role. Some 57% of respondents say they appreciate the local content provided by these services, and 45% believe that international streaming platforms do not provide enough locally produced programming.
Trust in advertising follows the local signal. According to the study, 48% of streamers say they are more likely to trust ads shown during locally produced content. That figure matters for brand strategy: running campaigns adjacent to Spanish-language or European content may carry a credibility premium that international or generic inventory does not.
The targeting data reinforces the content alignment principle. Some 72% of respondents say they are more likely to pay attention to ads targeted towards their specific interests, while 56% report being more likely to take action on an ad that matches the content they are currently watching. A further 58% say they have a stronger connection to ads that align with local culture or content. For programmatic buyers, these numbers make a case for contextual alignment that goes beyond simple keyword targeting.
Live content - principally sports and major events - generates some of the report's most commercially useful data. According to the study, 66% of viewers in Spain live stream sports or events at least once a month. That is not an occasional behaviour; it reflects a regular viewing habit affecting nearly two-thirds of the streaming population.
The communal dimension is particularly pronounced in live contexts. Among live sport viewers, 57% say they co-view with others at least half of the time. Advertising in those moments reaches rooms, not just individuals.
Recall is elevated. According to the data, 59% of viewers are more likely to remember brands that advertise during live streams. Action rates are also higher: 46% report being more likely to take an action based on an ad they saw in a live streaming environment. That combination of heightened attention and stronger recall sets live inventory apart from on-demand viewing contexts.
Magnite has developed specific infrastructure around live content. The company launched Live Scheduler in November 2025, a tool that enables media owners to list upcoming events - including sport type, league, broadcaster, and concurrency estimates - so that buyers and demand-side platforms can plan and pace campaigns in advance. That operational layer addresses a long-standing friction point: live inventory has historically been difficult to plan around because of the unpredictability of event timing and audience scale. Magnite also rolled out Pause Ads across DIRECTV, DISH Media, and Fubo in August 2025, extending its non-disruptive format portfolio.
CTV's performance on recall metrics is pronounced. According to the study, 87% of CTV viewers can recall at least some details of an ad from their most recent viewing session, compared with 13% who cannot remember any. That single figure - 87% - is considerably higher than typical recall benchmarks for digital display.
Cross-device exposure amplifies the effect. Some 50% of respondents say they regularly see the same ad across multiple devices. Among that group, 57% indicate they are more likely to take action when they encounter an ad across multiple screens. The implication for media planning is that CTV should not be treated as a standalone channel: coordinated campaigns that extend from connected television to mobile may produce measurably better conversion outcomes than either device in isolation.
The data on newer ad formats presents a specific challenge for the industry. Awareness of shoppable ads, pause ads, and tile ads remains below 50% among Spanish streamers. Specifically, 40% are aware of pause ads, 34% of shoppable ads, and just 28% of tile ads. Less than half of the Spanish streaming population has encountered any of these formats in a meaningful way.
Yet willingness to engage with them is notably higher than awareness. According to the study, 47% of respondents say they would be likely to engage with shoppable ads, 44% with pause ads, and 42% with tile ads. Among those who have already been exposed to a shoppable ad, 28% have taken an action as a result. That gap between awareness and engagement propensity suggests the main barrier is reach, not receptiveness.
The funnel data elaborates on this. Among respondents who are aware of targeted ads, 54% searched or discussed a product following exposure (discovery stage), 32% saved a product or clicked a link (consideration), and 24% added to cart or made a purchase (action). For shoppable ads specifically - among those aware - the action rate reaches 28%, which is slightly higher than the 24% recorded for targeted ads. Pause ads generate an action rate of 19% among aware respondents, while tile ads reach 29%.
These numbers should be interpreted carefully: they apply only to the aware population, which itself represents less than half of all streamers. Scaling them to the full market would require a significant investment in format education and distribution. The IAB Tech Lab identified standardisation of CTV formats including pause ads and shoppable units as a priority in its 2025 technical standards roadmap, which may accelerate familiarity over time.
The Spain study arrives at a moment when Magnite is executing several moves simultaneously in the market. The February 2026 Madrid office opening gives the company dedicated in-market presence for the first time. The Dentsu partnership expanded across EMEA markets including Spain in July 2025, integrating the SpringServe video platform into Dentsu's Total TV operations. Magnite reported CTV contribution ex-TAC growing 32% in Q4 2025 when excluding political advertising, with CEO Michael Barrett describing the programmatic CTV ramp as "no longer emerging. It is underway at scale."
The research gives programmatic buyers quantified evidence for several planning decisions. First, the scale of daily CTV reach - 81% of CTV users accessing content at least daily - makes the channel viable for sustained reach campaigns, not just high-impact moments. Second, the co-viewing dynamic means CTV impressions in Spain frequently reach multiple people simultaneously, making cost-per-reach calculations more favourable than single-viewer assumptions would suggest. Third, the live-streaming action and recall data justify the premium pricing that live inventory typically commands. Fourth, the low awareness figures for shoppable and pause formats indicate that early movers face minimal competitive saturation for attention, which is typically the most crowded dimension of streaming advertising.
The contextual targeting data also has tactical implications. A 56% lift in action propensity when advertising matches content, combined with the 58% stronger connection to culturally aligned ads, gives Spanish publishers running local content a defensible premium over international inventory in direct deals. Broadcaster-led services, which the report identifies as critically important for local content access, may find this data useful in pitch conversations with direct advertisers.
The study's methodology - a nationally representative sample of 872 ad-supported streamers, recruited in December 2025 and spanning all major Spanish regions - gives the findings reasonable external validity for planning purposes, though the sample is drawn from an existing streaming population rather than the general public.
Who: Magnite (NASDAQ: MGNI), the largest independent sell-side advertising company, conducted and published this research. The study subjects are 872 Spanish adults aged 18 and over who watch ad-supported streaming services, recruited in December 2025 across all major Spanish regions.
What: A proprietary research report - Streams & Screens: Spain - measuring how Spanish audiences engage with ad-supported streaming, covering viewing habits, device preferences, co-viewing behaviour, live streaming, ad recall, and awareness of new ad formats including shoppable, pause, and tile ads. Key findings include: 68% of respondents stream more than a year ago; 74% of CTV streamers always or often watch with others; 66% live stream sports or events monthly; and fewer than 40% of streamers are aware of newer ad formats despite engagement rates that exceed awareness levels.
When: Survey fieldwork was conducted in December 2025. The report was published in 2026, with the landing page carrying a 2026 copyright notice.
Where: Spain, with respondents drawn from six geographic regions: South, North-East, East, Madrid, North-West, and Centre. The findings are relevant to advertisers and publishers operating in, or planning campaigns targeting, the Spanish market.
Why: Magnite operates as a sell-side platform and has a direct commercial interest in demonstrating the value of streaming inventory to advertising buyers. The study provides quantitative evidence supporting investment in CTV, live streaming, and emerging ad formats at a time when the company is expanding its physical presence in Spain and its broader EMEA partnerships.