The Streaming Gold Rush: Why CTV Publishers Are the Affiliate Partner You Can’t Ignore

Connected TV is no longer a media buyer's playground. With Netflix alone projected to command nearly 10% of global CTV ad spend by 2027 and the broader CTV market on course to surpass $46 billion by 2028, the audience sitting on the other side of that screen is now one of the most commercially valuable in affiliate marketing.

The question for affiliate managers is whether they plan to access it, or watch their competitors do so first.

New data recently shared on WARC Media makes the scale of this shift impossible to dismiss. Netflix's advertising revenue surpassed $1.5 billion in 2025, is forecast to double to $3 billion this year, and is targeting $8 billion by 2030 according to Omdia projections cited in the report. Its share of global CTV ad spend is rising from 3.7% in 2025 to a projected 9.2% in 2027. And this is one platform. The total CTV ecosystem, spanning ad-supported streaming services, smart TV apps, and programmatic inventory, is considerably larger.

For affiliate program managers still focused primarily on search, content, and social publishers, the numbers suggest an audience migration that warrants serious attention.

What CTV Actually Means for Affiliate Program Growth

The instinct for many affiliate managers when they hear “connected TV” is to file it under brand awareness and move on. That instinct is increasingly outdated.

The infrastructure for performance-based CTV is now commercially viable. As we recently reported when Pinterest acquired performance CTV platform tvScientific, deterministic attribution technology can now track exposure on a streaming ad through to a completed transaction.

The tvScientific platform, which connected with affiliate networks including Rakuten and Impact before that acquisition, demonstrated that CTV attribution can integrate into existing affiliate workflows rather than requiring entirely separate infrastructure.

Platforms like MNTN, Vibe, and newer European entrants like Stamp and Airspot have built self-service CTV buying tools oriented around cost-per-outcome models, the same performance logic that makes affiliate marketing attractive to brands in the first place. The category is no longer experimental.
For retail affiliate programs in particular, the opportunity is urgent. Retail media CTV ad spending grew 45.5% in 2025 according to eMarketer, with projections suggesting one in five CTV ad dollars will flow to retail media by 2027. Retail brands with affiliate programs are already among the largest advertisers on Netflix: shopping was the top US ad category on the platform in Q2 2025 at $82 million in spend, ahead of CPG ($78m), financial services ($66m), and travel ($54m).

These are verticals with well-established affiliate programs. The spend is there. The audience is there. The performance tracking now exists.

SaaS companies have a different but equally compelling angle. CTV reaches professional audiences at home in high-attention viewing environments, something neither display advertising nor search typically achieves. For B2B-adjacent SaaS products with longer consideration cycles, exposure during premium streaming content can seed awareness that downstream affiliate touch points then convert.

Understanding where CTV fits in that attribution journey, rather than ignoring it, becomes a competitive advantage.

The Attribution Conversation You Need to Have

The honest challenge with CTV in a performance framework is attribution complexity. Unlike a clicked link or a promotional code redemption, a CTV exposure requires either probabilistic or deterministic ID matching to connect the viewing moment to a downstream conversion. This is solvable, but it requires deliberate setup.

The digital video advertising surge has already been noted, the rise of programmatic CTV correlates with growing sophistication in cross-channel measurement. The brands succeeding in performance CTV are those treating television attribution as an extension of their existing analytics thinking rather than a completely foreign discipline. If you already work with multi-touch attribution models, adding CTV exposure data is an extension of that work, not a rebuild.

Nielsen's 2025 Annual Marketing Report, which we last analysed here, flagged that performance marketers were actively shifting budgets toward CTV as an efficiency-oriented channel. The publication noted that only 32% of marketers were measuring media spending holistically across digital and traditional channels, which suggests most programs are leaving cross-channel intelligence on the table.
The affiliate managers who move early on CTV measurement infrastructure will be positioned to demonstrate incremental reach that their competitors cannot. That is a procurement conversation worth having with senior stakeholders.

A Practical Guide to Incorporating CTV Publishers into Your Affiliate Program

For affiliate managers curious about working with CTV publishers but unsure where to start, the following framework draws on current best practice across networks and platforms that have begun formalising these partnerships.

Start with your existing network relationships. Before seeking out CTV specialists independently, check whether your current affiliate network has CTV publisher inventory or performance CTV integrations. Networks connected to platforms like tvScientific or with programmatic CTV partnerships allow you to extend existing tracking infrastructure rather than building new vendor relationships from scratch. Ask your network account manager directly what CTV options exist within your current agreement.

Define what a CTV conversion event looks like for your program. CTV publishers working on a performance basis need clearly defined outcome events. For retail programs, this is typically a purchase or a basket value threshold. For SaaS, it may be a free trial sign-up, a demo request, or a subscription start. Vague goals produce vague results. The more precisely you can define the tracked outcome, the more effectively a CTV publisher can optimise toward it.

Audit your creative assets before you recruit. CTV requires video, and most affiliate programs are not set up to supply it. A 15-second or 30-second performance-oriented video spot is fundamentally different from a static banner or a text link. Before recruiting CTV publishers, assess whether you have video assets that meet streaming platform technical specifications. If you do not, factor creative production into the budget conversation. Self-service platforms also offer generative AI creative tools, but brand-aligned execution still requires input from your team.

Negotiate on a cost-per-outcome basis where possible. The CTV publisher landscape includes both CPM-based inventory and outcome-based models. For affiliate programs, the latter is the natural fit. Insist on cost-per-acquisition or cost-per-qualified-lead structures, particularly when testing new CTV publishers. This protects your program economics while the attribution model is being validated. Be prepared for some publishers to require a guaranteed minimum spend before offering pure performance terms, which is standard during the category's maturation phase.

Run CTV as an upper-funnel amplification layer alongside existing publisher activity. The most effective integration treats CTV exposure as an awareness driver that lifts conversion rates across your existing affiliate publisher base, not as a standalone direct response channel. Track whether weeks with active CTV campaigns correlate with increased click volumes or conversion rates from your content and comparison publishers. This incrementality analysis is the most persuasive internal argument for continued CTV investment.

Review your disclosure and compliance standards for the CTV context. The FTC's existing guidance on affiliate disclosures applies to streaming environments. CTV ads that include performance-based elements must meet the same transparency standards as other affiliate placements. Confirm with your compliance team that any CTV publisher you work with has processes for clear commercial identification.

What Should Affiliate Managers Take Away From This Data

The window for first-mover advantage is still open, but narrowing. With retail media CTV growing at 45.5% annually and Netflix's ad inventory expanding rapidly, the publishers and programs that establish CTV partnerships in 2026 will have measurably richer attribution data and audience reach than those who wait until the channel is saturated.

Retail and SaaS programs have the strongest immediate case for CTV. Shopping is already the largest ad category on Netflix in the US. SaaS brands benefit from reaching professional audiences in high-attention home viewing environments that search and display cannot replicate. If you manage programs in either vertical, the audience overlap argument is already being made with real spend data.

Performance CTV infrastructure now exists within existing affiliate networks. You do not need to build something entirely new. The conversation starts with your network account manager and your current attribution setup. The publisher diversification strategies and multi-channel measurement thinking that experienced affiliate managers already practice translate directly into this channel.
Audiences have already moved more towards streaming. Performance marketing infrastructure is following.

Ultimately, the only question any affiliate manager should be contemplating – is whether your program's publisher mix reflects where your customers are actually spending their attention online.

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Ready to build a smarter affiliate program that taps into emerging publisher channels like CTV? Our award winning agency team at Konverj.io can help you identify the right partner mix, set up performance frameworks that actually work, and scale your program with confidence.