Addressable TV comes of age in the US: Optimism and collaboration define Go Addressable summit

While the UK media industry debated ‘The Future of Media’ in London, across the Atlantic, 500 senior figures from broadcasters, agencies, ad-tech, and data firms gathered in New York for the fifth Go Addressable Summit — there was genuine optimism, a roadmap for the future and candour. I sensed there was a plan.

Go Addressable, the industry coalition advancing the addressable video (AV) ecosystem, showcased a confident, collaborative U.S. market moving firmly from experimentation to scaled execution.

Nearly 70m American households — more than half the total — are now reachable through addressable TV, with client satisfaction scores for addressable AV campaigns exceeding 85%. In short, addressable has evolved from a “nice-to-have” into a marketing essential.

A mature market with real momentum

Speakers from WPP, Publicis’s PMX and Spark Foundry, PHD, Horizon Media, and others showed real expertise and were pretty open. Jen Soch of WPP Media noted her group’s 20-year involvement in addressable AV and described its potential, especially for local advertisers, as “bullish.” Everyone is trying to win back SME advertisers from the digital platforms. In the US, addressable AV has been identified as a key lever.

However, there was a consensus: addressable isn’t an extension of linear TV — it’s a distinct, data-driven channel that extends reach and precision.

Yet the conversation was refreshingly candid about persistent challenges. Fragmentation across platforms, walled gardens, and incompatible data sets continue to limit control and measurement. “Cross-platform planning is a nightmare,” admitted one agency leader.

To tackle this, firms including Epsilon and Experian are building an automated platform to plan across four major supply-side players, including Comcast — a promising move toward the common currency the market craves. This initiative has come from the collaboration that Go Addressable has created.

The data dilemma

If there was a dominant theme, it was the lack of data accuracy and compatibility. Truthset’s research presented at the conference revealed that IP addresses match postal addresses just 13% of the time and only 16% for email. As the industry leans on deterministic data for household-level targeting, such inconsistencies are alarming.

Delegates agreed: the promise of addressable depends on accurate, standardised data. Without it, frequency management, outcome measurement, and household targeting all suffer.

Audience first, not demographics

Another strong message was that addressable must be planned “audience-first,” not by linear TV demographics.

Agencies stressed that for mass-reach brands — “everyone has a mouth and a butt,” as one delegate elegantly quipped — linear still rules. But for light viewers or data-rich segments, addressable delivers incremental value and performance that makes TV behave more like digital.

Pricing, process, and programmatic growing pains

Costs remain a sticking point. Many agencies argued that addressable premium CPMs can’t always be justified, calling for sector-based pricing.

They also cited the massive manual effort required by agencies to build addressable campaigns (as opposed to linear) — a symptom of missing standards and interoperability. Without automation of data processing and trading, addressable AV can quickly become unprofitable.

Programmatic solutions are emerging, but as FreeWheel’s Larry Allen warned, “programmatic can be highly inaccurate.” The consensus was that a hybrid of managed service and AI-supported automation will likely yield the best results.

However, Comcast CRO Dawn Lee Williamson cited one grocery brand that achieved a 19x ROAS using Mastercard data within an addressable campaign — proof that when data, creative, and execution align, the returns can be transformative.

Creative and structure challenges

The creative challenge loomed large. U.S. addressable platforms offer multiple formats, and there’s an appetite for standardisation. The view was that there are too many options, especially via programmatic DSPs, but also that agencies and brands shouldn’t expect just to run standard 30-second ads.

Horizon Media’s Domenic Venuto argued that the complexity of addressable campaigns is accelerating the return of full-service thinking — bringing data analysts, in-house studios, and media planners under one roof to move faster and deliver tailored creative at scale.

The UK: Looking back while the U.S. looks forward

Perhaps the biggest takeaway for UK marketers is the contrast in momentum. While U.S. connected TV spend could overtake linear by 2028, the UK market is hesitant; it’s not seen as a priority.

We wouldn’t get the traction to organise something like this conference in the UK from media owners, data companies or industry bodies. I may be wrong, but I don’t think addressable AV was mentioned at The Future of Media.

Go Addressable’s success lies not just in data and technology but in collaboration: competitors working together to define standards, share learnings, and drive growth.

In a media landscape often clouded by pessimism, the summit radiated optimism — Michael Kuntz from Spectrum Reach concluded the conference, saying the US is entering a golden age of addressable TV  that will be game-changing.

Charlie Makin is founder and strategy director of Be Addressable