Programmatic in 2026: The Year of CTV MOBILE! 📱

By Max Legrand · GreyFox Ads · A perspective from France

“CTV”, “CTV”, “CTV”... CTV is all anyone talks about! 🤯 But while the entire AdTech industry rides the Connected TV wave, we might be overlooking the screen that is already in almost everyone's pocket: the smartphone.

1. CTV, CTV, CTV: the programmatic industry's favourite topic

It's a tsunami. 🌊 Resellers want to get into Connected TV. Publishers are considering FAST channels. The trade press is talking about CTV, and LinkedIn feeds seem full of nothing else.

CTV matters, of course. But the size of the conversation shouldn't make us forget the size of the opportunity elsewhere.

2. Which device dominates everyday digital life? The smartphone

According to the figures highlighted in our original post, more than 70% of France's €12 billion in digital advertising investment in 2025 was associated with the mobile device category (see slides 41–42 of the 2025 Observatoire de l'ePub, SRI; the exact share depends on the report's device definitions and scope).

Think about what this little device can do:

• It's often the first screen we check in the morning and the last before going to sleep.
• It's deeply personal, and widely adopted.
• It offers frequent advertising opportunities throughout the day.
• It supports digital measurement, including methods that do not rely solely on audience panels (although privacy rules and measurement limitations still apply).
• It lets people buy products and can support drive-to-store measurement, subject to the data and permissions available.

CTV may be the industry's favourite talking point. But the smartphone remains an extraordinary combination of reach, utility and commercial action.

3. The screen we reach for whenever we have a spare moment

On public transport. 🚇 In a waiting room. At the swimming pool. By the coffee machine. Even on the loo. 🚻

And yes, on the sofa, right in the middle of a long TV ad break. 📺📱

Whenever the mental equation “I'm bored” 😮‍💨 / “Have I got time to do something else?” 😊 comes out positive, the smartphone is often close at hand.

This is a behavioural observation, not a claim that every user acts the same way or that every mobile impression receives attention. But it raises a useful question: are media plans giving the mobile screen the strategic consideration it deserves?

4. The catch: Search and Social capture most of the mobile budget

Here's the small problem. In our original analysis, we estimated that Search and Social captured around 90% of mobile advertising investment in the market we were discussing (an indicative figure from the original commentary, not a newly verified 2026 benchmark).

That leaves a difficult competitive landscape for independent publishers across the French Open Web. Consumers spend time on their phones, but that doesn't mean the advertising investment automatically flows to quality editorial environments.

The challenge is not merely to create more ad slots. It's to make advertising on publisher sites more effective for advertisers and less frustrating for readers.

5. Could one short full-screen ad replace a cluttered mobile page?

Here's a provocative idea for French Open Web publishers: offer readers a different deal. Instead of pages crammed with banners, show one full-screen ad, skippable after five seconds, followed by a cleaner, less cluttered content experience.

It's an idea we've explored in more detail in our original post about immersive formats and in our article on whether full-screen formats could help the Open Web.

The ambition is straightforward: a more immersive opportunity for brands, fewer distractions for readers, and a potentially stronger business model for publishers. 🤝 (Whether it works in practice depends on user acceptance, accessibility, frequency, consent requirements and real campaign results.)

6. Why mobile and CTV should work together

This isn't an argument to stop investing in CTV. It's an argument to diversify video advertising investment, rather than assuming that every incremental video euro belongs on a television screen.

CTV and mobile serve different viewing situations. Connected TV can provide a large-screen experience in the living room. Smartphone advertising can reach people throughout the day, including those moments when attention shifts away from the television.

At GreyFox Ads, we believe advertisers should explore smartphone activations across the quality French Open Web alongside their CTV campaigns. Our programmatic Master Deals are designed to make that activation simpler for media traders, with attention to inventory quality and transparency.

Discover our Master Deal approach, or revisit why shorter TV ad breaks might retain more attention.

Original LinkedIn post: 2026: the year of mobile, not CTV — GreyFox Ads. Original Master Deal link: see the post's Master Deal reference.

Written by Max Legrand, founder of GreyFox Ads.