--- title: "The New TV: How QSR Marketers are Navigating the Convergence of Linear, OTT, and CTV" url: https://burnaze.com/article/aa576d1d-8b0d-4707-8171-e2aa365de84c source: "QSR Magazine" original_url: https://www.qsrmagazine.com/story/the-new-tv-how-qsr-marketers-are-navigating-the-convergence-of-linear-ott-and-ctv/ author: "Danny Klein" category: "QSR" industry: "Restaurants" segment: "QSR" published: 2026-07-10T11:39:46.000Z modified: 2026-10-31T13:20:16.178Z image: https://www.qsrmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/TVremote.jpg --- # The New TV: How QSR Marketers are Navigating the Convergence of Linear, OTT, and CTV **TL;DR:** Quick-service restaurant marketers are navigating the convergence of linear, OTT, and CTV by building integrated strategies to maximize reach and deliver measurable business outcomes. Streaming now accounts for a growing share of total television viewing, signaling a fundamental shift in consumer behavior. *By Danny Klein, originally published in QSR Magazine on 2026-07-10. [Read the original](https://www.qsrmagazine.com/story/the-new-tv-how-qsr-marketers-are-navigating-the-convergence-of-linear-ott-and-ctv/).* ## Key facts - QSR marketers combine linear TV with digital media - Streaming accounts for a growing share of TV viewing - CTV enables sophisticated audience strategies ## Story For decades, television advertising was relatively straightforward for quick-service restaurant marketers. Brands bought network and cable inventory, measured success through ratings and reach, relying on television’s broad audience to drive awareness and traffic. Consumers today access content across a fragmented ecosystem that includes traditional linear television, over-the-top (OTT) streaming services, and connected TV (CTV) platforms delivered through smart TVs and streaming devices. Nielsen’s ongoing *The Gauge* shows streaming now accounting for a growing share of total television viewing, signaling a fundamental shift in consumer behavior. The new approach to television advertising combines the scale of linear TV with the targeting, attribution, and optimization of digital media. Instead of choosing between traditional and streaming, restaurant marketers need to build integrated strategies designed to maximize reach, reduce waste, and deliver measurable business outcomes. ## Audience based buying **From Channel-Based Planning to Audience-Based Buying** Streaming has fundamentally changed how consumers engage with content. Viewers move between live sports, cable programming, ad-supported streaming services, and on-demand content, often in real time. Yet many media plans still treat these environments as separate investments. A regional burger chain, for example, might use linear TV to build awareness during local sports broadcasts while extending reach to younger streaming audiences on CTV using the same campaign. Rather than focusing on network schedules or GRP delivery, planning now centers on audience composition, incremental reach, and cross-platform frequency. The goal is not simply to buy inventory, but to reach the right consumer wherever they are watching. This shift is also influencing budget allocation. Industry research indicates that digital, including CTV, continues to capture a larger share of total video investment as marketers seek more precise targeting and measurable outcomes. Linear TV still provides unmatched scale for tentpole moments like the Super Bowl, while CTV and OTT extend reach to light TV viewers and enable more precise geographic targeting, particularly valuable for brands operating within specific trade areas or with limited footprints. The advantage of a unified video strategy is efficiency. By planning in a linear fashion, OTT, and CTV together, marketers can reduce audience duplication, improve frequency management, and gain a clearer understanding of their total video reach. Instead of competing channels, these platforms become complementary components of a single media ecosystem. ## Measuring performance **Measuring What Matters** The most significant change in television advertising is not just where ads run, but how performance is evaluated. Traditional metrics such as impressions, ratings, and reach remain useful, but they only tell part of the story. Today’s QSR marketers are placing greater emphasis on outcomes tied directly to business performance. They are evaluating incremental visits, digital transactions, and loyalty. For example, Starbucks is shifting dollars out of discount-driven promotions and into brand-building media like TV, with the goal of strengthening customer loyalty and driving repeat in-store behavior rather than short-term transactional lifts. This change reflects a broader expectation that every media dollar drives measurable business outcomes. It also creates an opportunity for restaurant brands to move beyond exposure metrics and evaluate whether ads lead to meaningful customer actions. This outcome-oriented approach is especially valuable during promotional periods. Earlier this year Taco Bell promoted their Chicken Bacon Ranch Chalupa and utilized real-time performance to inform optimization decisions. The conversation is shifting from “How many people watched our commercial?” to “What business outcome did the campaign influence?” ## Ctv growth **The Growing Role of CTV in Performance Marketing** Industry forecasts show connected TV has quickly become one of the fastest-growing areas of video advertising, largely because it blends television’s immersive experience with digital precision. For QSR marketers, this enables more sophisticated audience strategies. Campaigns can be built around demographic, geographic, and behavioral signals, as well as purchase intent and first-party data. Carl’s Jr., for example, leveraged AI-powered contextual targeting in a CTV campaign to reach consumers based on content interests and regional relevance. ## Active engagement **From Passive Viewing to Active Engagement** The evolution of television may be even more transformative. Interactive and shoppable television formats—such as QR-enabled ads and shoppable TV—are blurring the lines between advertising and commerce. Research shows consumers have become increasingly comfortable using QR codes to interact with brands, access promotions, and share first-party data. For QSR brands, this creates new opportunities to reduce friction and drive immediate action. A viewer watching a live sporting event can access a limited time offer through a QR code, or respond to a streaming ad that links directly to an online ordering platform. While still an emerging capability, these formats reflect a broader shift from passive viewing to active engagement. Much like early experiments with social media and mobile advertising, brands that develop expertise now may gain a competitive advantage as adoption accelerates. **Defining the Future of TV Advertising** Today’s consumers see little distinction between linear television, streaming platforms, and connected devices. Increasingly, marketers must adopt the same mindset. Success will depend on the ability to unify video planning, leverage advanced measurement tools, and embrace new engagement opportunities that connect advertising directly to consumer action. ***Bill Brassine*** *serves as Media Director at Brandience, leveraging more than 20 years of media planning, buying and growth strategy experience to help brands scale across new markets. Recognized as one of* *Media Magazine’s* *Top 20 Rising Media Stars, he has guided expansion initiatives for leading franchise, restaurant and financial services organizations nationwide. Connect with Bill on LinkedIn at* * ## Entities - QSR (sector) - QSR Magazine (publication) - Taco Bell (company) - Starbucks (company) - Danny Klein (person) - Carl's Jr. (company) - tv advertising (topic) - Bill Brassine (person) - Brandience (company) - Nielsen (company) - ctv growth (topic) - audience based buying (topic) --- Originally reported by Danny Klein, QSR Magazine (https://www.qsrmagazine.com/story/the-new-tv-how-qsr-marketers-are-navigating-the-convergence-of-linear-ott-and-ctv/). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/aa576d1d-8b0d-4707-8171-e2aa365de84c).