Outdated attitudes to TV buying are hampering the opportunity that connected TV provides to media buyers and advertisers, according to new research from PubMatic.
While mobile continues to dominate solo, habitual consumption, television remains the space where audiences gather and engage together.
That dynamic—known as co-viewing—is reshaping the role of connected TV (CTV), positioning it not just as a reach channel, but as a high-attention, high-conversion environment with consistent, targetable inventory.
Historically, digital advertising has been traded on a one-to-one basis, where one impression equals one person. While that model holds for channels like display and search, Luke Smith, senior director CTV, APAC at PubMatic argues it fails to reflect how audiences actually consume CTV.
“We’re talking about connected television, the big screen in the living room that everyone sits around at night. The problem is that buyers are still only trading that on a one-to-one basis. There are different ways and attempts that people have made to try to calculate co-viewing. But buyers still view it as a one-to-one opportunity,” he told B&T.
“This research really is to help unpack that opportunity, help publishers understand where the opportunities are, show the market where there are co viewing opportunities and what they can be doing with them, with their inventory. The research is also to help buyers be able to unlock how they can reach those audiences more effectively.”
PubMatic surveyed more than 3,500 people from across Australia, India, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
The Shared Screen Is Where Attention Concentrates
Co-viewing is “a valuable opportunity for brands that isn’t otherwise available,” according to Smith.
PubMatic found that 42 per cent of consumers pay more attention to ads than when watching alone, 53 per cent recall brands more effectively, 70 per cent are more likely to take action after ad exposure, 44 per cent report a stronger emotional response to content and advertising and 43 per cent discuss or react to ads during the viewing moment itself.
Speaking anecdotally, Smith gave an example:
“Whilst I was away over Easter with with friends and family we watched a lot of live sport and we even watched a couple of episodes of Australian Idol. We found ourselves talking about the content, and we found ourselves talking about the advertisements that were running within that content as well,” he said.
The research confirmed that 78 per cent of co-viewing in APAC happens on CTV, and is concentrated within predictable moments—weekend evenings, particularly Saturdays, during prime-time (5-9pm) and late evening (9-11pm) slots. Family-friendly programming, movies, TV series, and live events are the content categories most likely to draw shared audiences.
Understanding where attention lives is only part of the equation. Activating against it efficiently is another matter. PubMatic believes its approach can close the gap with efficient supply chains can close the gap.
South East Asian (SEA) audiences exhibit some of the strongest co-viewing-to-conversion signals across APAC.
Co-viewing in the su-bregion skews slightly more spontaneous than the broader average (41 per cent vs. 40 per cent), meaning shared audiences form organically and in real time – precisely the environment programmatic is built to activate against.
Almost three out of four (73 per cent) of SEA co-viewers reported being more likely to act after ad exposure, outpacing the APAC average by three points.
“The findings show APAC to be high-intensity co-viewing markets where CTV-led programmatic strategies can unlock outsized emotional engagement and conversion potential,” concluded Smith.
