World Cup wave: Why 2026 hails a new era for CTV

Opinion

With six billion viewers likely to tune into the FIFA World Cup this summer, brands have a once-in-a-generation chance to showcase CTV’s creative reach.

2026 marks a watershed moment in CTV-first advertising. Never before have we had such creative and targeting capability to unleash in tandem with big-ticket global events. Consumer demand is high, as is investment.

In Europe, 86% of consumers are watching CTV, rising to 91% in the UK. Meanwhile, Dentsu predicts that global ad spend will sail past the $1 trillion mark this year, buoyed by media moments including the Olympic Winter Games, Super Bowl LX, and the November midterm elections in the U.S. 

However, it’s the FIFA World Cup that will be the real wavemaker in this energising outlook. Hosted across three nations – Canada, Mexico, and the USA – in a world-first this July, with a record 48 teams competing in 104 matches, the tournament is expected to reach over six billion viewers worldwide.

It would be the equivalent of 104 Super Bowls in a month across streaming, highlights, and other channels, making it the most-watched sports event in history.

Creative advantage

With so many people tuning into ‘the beautiful game’ next summer, brands have a once-in-a-generation chance to showcase CTV’s creative reach. From shoppable CTV ads to QR codes activated by voice command and conversational commerce, there’s never been a better time to interact on the digital big screen. 

The FIFA World Cup is the perfect opportunity to roll out ideas such as digital sweepstakes, virtual concessions, product chatbots, or mini-game trivia prompts.

The aim is to tap into the excitement of the championship, with creatives that encourage viewers to explore products and offers mid-game. By doing so, CTV campaigns can entice passive audiences to take action and engage, while also providing valuable response data.

This offering also aligns with the current retail media boom. With UK ad spend in this lucrative arena set to reach £8.6bn by 2030, retail media echoes CTV growth – and the overlap is brimming with potential for personalised, shoppable content. 

Retailers must leverage headline events such as the FIFA World Cup to activate their first-party data among CTV viewers. The result is a foundation for highly targeted, attention-centric storytelling. It promises a level of dynamism and precision that linear platforms could never match. 

Multiscreen, measurable targeting

There’s another element that comes into play here, too: the rise of AI-driven semantic targeting.

Thanks to recent developments in this field, CTV campaigns can now target multiscreen viewers more effectively.

This enables brands to pivot to the reality of second-screen viewing, which, as a recent study of today’s NFL audience found, is “redefining what it means to be a sports fan”.

The findings showed that 63% of NFL viewers engage with related social media while watching a game. A further 51% shop for sports merch, 39% explore behind-the-scenes content and 43% use related gaming features.

The takeaway is that the second screen is about more than unrelated scrolling; it actively helps shape the game-day experience. And new AI-related contextual capabilities mean CTV advertisers during the FIFA World Cup (and other events) are ideally placed to join the dots. 

Think of semantic data as the glue that drives multiscreen engagement across CTV, online video, and mobile. It allows contextual alignment at scale during big cultural moments. Everything is integrated into a seamless, measurable solution. 

Finally, brands can use privacy-friendly contextual insights to adapt their campaigns quickly, based on nuances such as developing news or which content categories are performing best.

SMEs on the big screen

Another key trend that’ll resonate during the 2026 events calendar is SMEs increasingly leveraging connected TV in their ad campaigns.

The threshold for CTV spend is much lower than for traditional linear TV, and reporting is far more granular, even on low budgets. The upshot is that smaller retailers can align with national or global events in a way they couldn’t previously via traditional broadcast.

Contextual and first-party data also allow SMEs to deliver hyper-local, personalised CTV campaigns. A small retailer could use interactive, multiscreen ads to localise its messaging and leverage emotional moments during the FIFA World Cup and other previously off–limits worldwide events.

Remember, the FIFA World Cup isn’t the only stage for CTV innovation this year. As the battle for Congress in America heats up, political ad spending will reach nearly $11bn during the 2026 election cycle. And those in charge of sponsorship revenue at February’s Olympics in Italy are comfortably on track for their €575m target. Then there’s the Super Bowl – an invitation for a mass-marketing spree targeted at one of America’s biggest sporting broadcasts.

In each instance, advertisers will face the challenge of standing out in a highly saturated market. They’ll need measurability, relevance, and creative personalisation to capture attention in real-time. 

CTV hits all these touchpoints, transforming every moment into an opportunity to engage, shop, connect, or share. It’s a unique skillset that makes 2026 a milestone: one that will define the crossover of digital media and live events for years to come.

Ilhan Zengin is CEO and co-founder at ShowHeroes