The news: Universal Ads announced Thursday an expansion of its Universal Audience Network in partnership with third-party publishers, including Samsung Ads, Cox Media, Philo, Vevo, and Telly.

New partnerships enable marketers to scale campaigns with simplicity as Universal Audience Network maintains an over 90% household reach across premium video. The move allows Universal Ads to consolidate “fragmented, premium supply into one self-service platform … [covering] programmers and cable providers to distributors, smart TVs, VOD, FAST, and more,” said head of publishers Adam Royle.

Why it matters: The expansion comes as advertisers increasingly look to streaming to reach audiences at scale but face growing complexity in doing so. Despite viewers’ shift to connected TV (CTV), fragmentation remains a top challenge for advertisers who are juggling multiple platforms where audience attention is scattered.

• 39% of CTV/over-the-top (OTT) advertisers state that fragmentation is the biggest issue they face. Another 39% struggle with a lack of transparency on where ads are running, while 33% feel the channels have inconsistent measurement standards, per Advertiser Perceptions.
• Advertisers commonly face visibility gaps in streaming. Twenty-seven percent state a lack of insight into audience reach is a top CTV challenge, while 20% are concerned with difficulty measuring ROI.
• Reach is a key issue in streaming. The average CTV ad campaign only reaches 19.64% of households, per Innovid. Advertisers simultaneously struggle with managing inconsistent ad frequency (37% of advertisers) and the need for multiple ad buys (29%) to reach audiences.

Together, these challenges emphasize how fragmentation is affecting supply access, buying workflows, and measurement for advertisers.

What it means for advertisers: Universal Ads is tackling one of streaming’s biggest pain points—fragmentation—by consolidating access to the streaming and CTV ecosystem. Universal Ads is tackling this issue on the buy-side in three core ways.

• It addresses supply fragmentation where inventory is spread across programmers, smart TVs, FAST channels, and more;
• Buying fragmentation, where advertisers are forced to navigate multiple complex relationships and workflows;
• Measurement fragmentation, where advertisers face inconsistent metrics and outcomes across publishers.

For advertisers, this means they can plan, buy, and measure CTV campaigns across a highly fragmented streaming ecosystem through a single, streamlined buying layer.