New Research Finds 78% of Co-Viewing Happens on CTV and 42% of Consumers Pay More Attention to Ads During Shared Viewing
NO-HEADQUARTERS / REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — April 22, 2026 — PubMatic (Nasdaq: PUBM), the leading AI-powered ad tech company delivering digital advertising performance, today released new research revealing one of the most valuable and underleveraged opportunities in APAC programmatic advertising: the shared screen. While mobile dominates solo, habitual consumption, the television is where audiences gather and focus together — making CTV not just a reach vehicle, but a high-attention, high-conversion environment with consistent, targetable inventory windows.
The How Co-Viewing Redefines Attention: Unlocking Shared Screens with Programmatic report – based on 3,500 respondents across Australia, India, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines — reveals that shared screen moments on CTV are among the highest-performing advertising environments available to APAC marketers today. The data makes a compelling case for why programmatic CTV deserves a larger share of regional media plans.
The Shared Screen Is Where Attention Concentrates
Co-viewing – the act of watching video content with others — is a predictable, recurring ritual across APAC households, and it creates advertising conditions that are measurably superior to solo viewing. When consumers watch together, the impact compounds:
- 42% pay more attention to ads than when watching alone
- 53% recall brands more effectively
- 70% are more likely to take action after ad exposure
- 44% report a stronger emotional response to content and advertising
- 43% discuss or react to ads during the viewing moment itself
These findings represent a fundamentally different quality of consumer attention — one that translates directly into the performance and outcomes advertisers are increasingly being asked to prove.
CTV Is the Co-Viewing Screen – and It’s Underleveraged
The research confirms that 78% 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. These are not hard-to-find moments. They are consistent, brand-safe, and available programmatically today.
Solving for What APAC Advertisers Actually Need
Understanding where attention lives is only part of the equation. Activating against it efficiently is where PubMatic’s approach to programmatic CTV is designed to close the gap.
Transparency and Cost Efficiency: Programmatic buying gives advertisers direct visibility into where their ads are running, at what cost, and against what audience — eliminating the opacity that has historically made premium CTV feel out of reach for performance-focused buyers. PubMatic’s supply path is built for efficiency to ensure spend reaches the highest-quality environments.
Performance and Outcomes: The co-viewing data reinforces that CTV is not a brand-only channel. With 70% of co-viewers more likely to act post-exposure and brand recall running significantly higher than solo viewing environments, the performance case for CTV is no longer theoretical. PubMatic’s toolset and unique data assets enable advertisers to plan, activate, and measure outcomes – not just impressions.
Workflow Efficiency and Access to Advanced Technology: Reaching co-viewing audiences at the right moment — Saturday evening, during a live sports broadcast, aligned to a specific content genre — requires sophisticated targeting executed simply. PubMatic’s live sports marketplace and CTV-specific solutions give buyers programmatic access to premium live inventory, with the ability to align campaigns dynamically to key moments in the action.
Southeast Asia: The Highest-Converting Co-Viewing Market in the Region
SEA audiences exhibit some of the strongest co-viewing-to-conversion signals across APAC. Co-viewing in the subregion skews slightly more spontaneous than the broader average (41% vs. 40%), meaning shared audiences form organically and in real time — precisely the environment programmatic is built to activate against. 73% 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,” said Luke Smith, Senior Director CTV, APAC at PubMatic. “When advertisers align their buying strategies to co-viewing behaviors — accounting for everything from timing and content genre to device choice — they can access premium moments that consistently drive stronger recall and meaningful post-ad action.”
Unlock the Co-Viewing Opportunity
To read the full How Co-Viewing Redefines Attention: Unlocking Shared Screens with Programmatic report and learn how PubMatic can help you build a CTV strategy that reaches APAC’s most engaged audiences, contact your PubMatic representative today.
About PubMatic
PubMatic (NASDAQ: PUBM) is the leading AI-powered ad tech company delivering digital advertising performance. Through an intelligent, unified platform that connects buyers, publishers, data partners, and commerce media networks, PubMatic delivers superior performance with greater transparency, control, and efficiency.
Since 2006, PubMatic has pioneered every major advance in programmatic advertising, from enabling the first OpenRTB transactions to embedding AI-driven optimization and privacy-focused innovation across its platform. With omnichannel scale, proven reliability, and a track record of continuous innovation, PubMatic is building a more intelligent, profitable, and sustainable digital advertising ecosystem. Built to Connect. Powered to Perform.