Make Your CTV Budget Go Further with Digital Audio

It can feel like we blinked and woke up to a new landscape. Linear TV is declining in favor of CTV, while AM/FM radio continues to lose listening time and attention to streaming audio and podcasts. Consumers have an almost endless variety of entertainment at their fingertips, and the channels they use have diversified. Amidst it all, CTV and digital audio have risen to the top. 

You don’t have to decide between CTV and audio, leveraging both channels means your campaign (and budget) can achieve even more. As you kick off the new year, here’s why the two channels are a power pairing for your media mix. Plus, if you have to choose one medium, learn why audio inches forward in today’s attention economy. 

What is CTV advertising? 

To get down to basics, connected TV or CTV refers to a device (like smart TV, Roku, and Xbox) that plays streaming OTT services (like Netflix, YouTube TV, and Prime Video). Meanwhile, CTV advertising is a type of advertising that viewers see in streaming content, from commercial breaks to the ads that precede a movie or show. 

Audio fills the gaps CTV leaves behind 

While CTV has been dominating the ad space, the medium has its pitfalls, from fragmentation, to decreased attention, to screen fatigue. That’s why it works so well with digital audio, reaching audiences throughout the day in screen-free, leaned-in moments. Though CTV and audio have complementary attributes, here’s where audio edges ahead. 

Alleviating subscription fatigue 

It’s an all too common scenario, your favorite show is releasing a new season, and you sign up for a subscription so you can tune in. You might then promptly cancel the subscription after the season is over—or you could even forget your account exists afterwards. Later, as you review your bills, you realize you have more subscriptions than you thought (and the costs have piled up). Sound familiar? 

Subscription fatigue is real, and 36% of consumers are paying for at least one streaming service that they haven’t used in the last six months. Despite this, price is a leading factor when it comes to subscriptions. Almost 70% of US adults who dropped a streaming service say it was too expensive, and 74% of US consumers consider price a key factor when deciding on streaming services.

Here’s one of the many ways audio stands out. While a TV streamer’s favorite content may be spread out across Netflix, Hulu, and Apple, an audio streamer’s favorite music can be found on a single platform and most podcasts are widely available without a subscription. And thanks to ad-supported subscriptions, listeners get access to the music they love at no cost. In fact, 87% of listeners appreciate that there’s so much free audio content available today. And on Pandora, 87% of consumers listen on the free tier with ads.

Reducing screen fatigue 

Speaking of fatigue, it’s not just subscriptions that are overwhelming consumers but screens themselves. The modern household can include smartphones, smart TVs, laptops, and tablets (and even multiples of each)—leaving many consumers looking for an off switch. Some of the most tech-savvy generations are feeling the strain, with 81% of Gen Z wishing to disconnect from digital devices more easily.

Thanks to audio’s screenless nature, listeners can carry the channel with them everywhere and multi-task—all while giving their eyes a much-needed break. Over half (58%) of streaming audio listeners say that audio helps them escape from too much visual stimulation. And recovering from screen fatigue doesn’t mean avoiding entertainment entirely; listeners might tune in to a news podcast while exercising or plug into relaxing instrumentals on their commute home. 

Fighting fragmentation

Media fragmentation is a challenge nearly every advertiser is facing, and no space is more fragmented than the CTV landscape. Audiences and ad inventory are spread out across various platforms and devices, making it difficult to deliver mass reach or get a complete look at measurement. For advertisers, this means more obstacles in efficiently achieving scale, controlling frequency, and assessing ROI. 

Meanwhile, we’re helping brands overcome fragmentation with our large audio ecosystem and unified buying. We can connect you with our 170M listeners who consume music and podcasts in screen-free and multi-tasking moments, extending reach far beyond the mobile or TV screen. Additionally, audio platforms have loyal audiences (44% of Pandora’s loyal listeners have been on the app for over a decade) and strong identity signals (our listeners are logged in 100% of the time).

Capturing more attention

CTV audiences can have many distractions in a single viewing session. Whether viewers are using their phones or laptops while simultaneously watching TV (often when the ads roll), aka second-screen distractions, or being delivered the same commercial over and over and experiencing ad fatigue, there’s a growing gap between ad exposure and consumer engagement. 

Here’s the silver lining: Listeners are increasingly favoring audio over watching TV. Over six in 10 (61%) Pandora listeners and 69% of SoundCloud listeners say streaming audio is replacing time they used to spend watching TV. Meanwhile, 55% of SiriusXM Media podcast listeners say podcasts are replacing the time they used to spend watching TV. This shift in attention extends to ad types, too, with audio ads driving 50% more attention than attention economy benchmarks across video, TV, social, and display.

Meet the magic of combining audio and CTV 

CTV shows no signs of slowing down. After all, its ad spend is expected to reach $51.67B in 2029, a 58.1% increase over 2025. However, compare this to audio, where there’s a clear gap when it comes to the amount of attention the channel receives compared to the ad budgets allotted. Audio represents 21.4% of total media time spent but makes up only 4.5% of total ad spend in the US. When you give both channels the prioritization they deserve, here’s what’s possible. 

Incremental reach 

CTV and audio have their unique audiences (though partially overlapping). When you leverage both channels, you get access to new audiences—from heavy audio listeners and minimal CTV viewers, to minimal audio listeners and heavy CTV viewers, to everyone in between. 

Here’s what’s at stake: When you add SiriusXM Media to OTT services like Prime Video, Max, or Peacock, you can get between +14 and +50 points in incremental reach. Among top CTV channels, 43% of SiriusXM Media listeners aren’t on YouTube, 58% aren’t on Hulu, and 77% aren’t on Peacock.

Better results with dual media exposure 

You already know that CTV and audio complement one another. But depending on your campaign goals, you can combine specific audio channels with CTV for even more tailored results. 

For instance, if you’re targeting upper-funnel metrics like unaided and aided recall, pair streaming audio with CTV. In a previous study, when combining audio and CTV, we achieved key upper-funnel results across multiple verticals:

• +12 pts in aided recall (retail) 

• +9 pts increase in aided recall (CPG) 

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for mid-funnel metrics like brand familiarity, message association, and brand favorability, pair podcasts with CTV. In the same study, we achieved mid-funnel results from combining audio and CTV:

• +14 pts in message association (retail)

• +6 pts increase in message association (CPG) 

Better together 

As consumer preferences continue shifting and the tech landscape keeps evolving, we’ll leave you with this: Digital audio and CTV are both the present and the future. On their own, they go far. But together, they go even further. 

Ready to future-proof your campaigns with CTV and audio? Let’s chat. 

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