What is Linear TV Extension (LTVE) and When to Use It

As OTT/CTV viewership grows, linear TV still plays a role. But running siloed campaigns across both wastes time and budget.

Linear TV Extension (LTVE) solves this by unifying efforts– reaching cord-cutters and traditional viewers without duplication.

CTV and linear TV work best together. This guide breaks down how LTVE helps you do just that– efficiently, strategically, and at scale.

Linear TV Vs. OTT Advertising

Linear TV is made up of the traditional television sources consumers can access: broadcast, satellite, and cable television programs with a predetermined schedule across different channels.  Linear TV marketing is advantageous because you can reach a large geographic radius.

This is different from internet-based streaming services that allow viewers to select their programming on their schedule and terms. However, as more “cord-cutters” do away with traditional television altogether, linear TV alone can’t help you get in front of your full audiences.

Even audiences that do have linear television tend to have OTT services such as Netflix, Hulu, Sling, Pluto, Crackle, Fubo, and other subscriptions for additional internet-based media. 

What Is Linear TV Extension?

Linear TV Extension (LTVE) means expanding your traditional TV ad campaign to include OTT/CTV channels. It helps you reach more people without showing the same ad too many times to the same household.

Using smart TV tech like ACR (Automatic Content Recognition), LTVE tracks who has seen your linear TV ads. Then it shows your CTV ads only to people who haven’t seen them yet or haven’t seen them often — avoiding wasted impressions.

You don’t need to make new ads from scratch. LTVE lets you reuse your existing TV commercials on OTT platforms, helping you reach more of your audience without extra production costs.

If linear TV alone isn’t covering your full audience, use your customer data to find the right OTT channels for your campaign. These may vary based on season, offer, or how your audience watches content.

Benefits Of Linear Tv Extension

Extending your linear television campaigns isn’t just a solution to poorly performing strategies or campaigns that aren’t reaching their projected metrics. OTT advertising brings unique advantages to the table. Some of the benefits of bulking up to TV campaigns with OTT are:

1. Targeting

OTT platforms allow you to target audiences with far more precision. Instead of releasing your ad to the whole of an audience watching a specific program at a specific time, like with traditional TV, you can put your ad in front of viewers based on an algorithm that determines the best fit.

Not only can you play your ads at the best time based on the viewers’ past behaviors, but you can also set up an optimal view frequency so you reach them frequently without risking ad fatigue. OTT platforms let advertisers cap the number of times each individual viewer receives an ad to a pre-determined hourly or daily amount.

Because smart advertising platforms can more dynamically control how and when OTT users view an ad from a specific campaign, you can even release sequential campaigns with more control.

If your ads tell a story across five sequential segments, OTT can deliver those ads in order based on what it knows the viewer has been exposed to. That removes the guesswork from traditional TV campaigns, in which you have to order them in manual sequence and hope for the best.

2. Efficiency & Reach

Linear TV extension lets you fine-tune your reach by isolating your CTV ads only to households who haven’t already seen your message on broadcast, cable, and satellite so you’re not spending your budget unnecessarily on high-frequency views across a diverse audience. This enables traditional linear TV and CTV to co-exist in the most strategic way possible and provide the closest thing to theoretical 100% market saturation and coverage. 

Your target market may have a high view rate for a particular program, but that doesn’t mean all the viewers are in your target market. When you pay for your preferred audience to see your ads, you also have to pay for the uninterested views, too. While that may be an acceptable cost for low-frequency brand recognition campaigns, it’s expensive for high-frequency sales conversion campaigns. 

OTT platforms let you control your reach with greater specificity than simply the geographic range, time, and broad appeal of a station’s programming. 

3. Testing

OTT and CTV channels also give you more maneuverability when you’re testing out your campaigns. Because of the dynamic control you get behind the scenes, you can better assess:

• If your viewers are responding to your calls to action
• What the ideal frequency is for each specific campaign
• The conversion rate for different ads and campaigns
• Which ads between different versions spark the greatest engagement

To get the clearest results, divide your extended audiences into two core groups:

1. Households with both linear television and OTT access
2. Cord-cutters with exclusively OTT media services

When To Use LTVE

LTVE is the next logical step when you know your audience is using more than just traditional television, or when part of your audience doesn’t have traditional television at all. If increasing the size of your linear TV campaigns is costly, finetune your strategy by extending into OTT instead.

Scale Your Television Marketing– Partner With Strategus

Linear TV alone can waste budget by reaching broad, unfocused audiences. Extend your campaigns with OTT to stay efficient and reach more of the right people.

Strategus is here to help you scale smarter with:

• Cross-channel campaign activation across linear and OTT/CTV
• Real-time analytics and audience insights
• Proven expertise in OTT/CTV advertising
• Smarter frequency control to avoid wasted impressions
• Better ROI through targeted, unified messaging

Let’s make every impression count.

Reach out today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Linear TV?

Linear TV refers to traditional television broadcasts that follow a set schedule. Viewers watch programs at specific times on cable, satellite, or broadcast channels. Unlike streaming, it doesn't allow viewers to choose when to watch content. Ads run during scheduled programming, reaching a broad, time-bound audience.

What Does Linear TV Mean?

Linear TV means scheduled programming delivered through cable, satellite, or over-the-air broadcast. Viewers must tune in at specific times to watch shows or commercials. It's the traditional form of television that predates on-demand and streaming services like Netflix or Hulu.

What Is Linear TV Advertising?

Linear TV advertising involves placing commercials within scheduled broadcast, cable, or satellite television programming. Advertisers target audiences based on the channel, time slot, and geographic area. It offers broad reach but lacks the precision targeting and performance tracking found in digital or streaming ads.

What Is Linear Television?

Linear television delivers shows, news, and commercials on a fixed schedule. Viewers must watch programs when they air, without the option to stream on demand. This format includes network TV, cable channels, and local stations that follow traditional broadcast timelines.

What Is Linear TV Programming?

Linear TV programming follows a preset schedule across broadcast or cable channels. Networks decide when shows air, and viewers must tune in at those times. This structure makes ad placements predictable but limits flexibility and on-demand access for viewers.

Why Is It Called Linear TV?

It's called linear TV because the content plays in a straight timeline. Viewers watch programs in the order the broadcaster schedules them. Unlike streaming, they cannot pause, rewind, or choose content on demand. It's a one-directional viewing experience tied to time.

What Is Linear Content?

Linear content refers to TV shows, news, or movies that follow a set broadcast schedule. This content airs at specific times and requires viewers to tune in live. It contrasts with digital content, where users can stream videos whenever they want.

What Is Programmatic Linear TV?

Programmatic linear TV uses automated technology to buy and place ads in scheduled TV broadcasts. Advertisers use data to target specific audience segments within linear TV slots. This approach improves efficiency while still operating within traditional TV's fixed schedules.

What Is a Linear Network TV?

A linear network TV is a traditional broadcast or cable channel that airs scheduled content to viewers. Examples include ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. These networks deliver shows, news, and commercials in real time, based on a fixed programming schedule.

What Is Linear Media?

Linear media includes all forms of scheduled content delivered over time, such as TV or radio. Audiences consume it in a fixed sequence, without control over playback. This format contrasts with digital media, where users control when and how they engage with content.