Live sports are one of the few moments left where millions of people still tune in at the same time, and few events command attention quite like NFL football, making NFL CTV advertising a powerful opportunity for brands to reach highly engaged audiences.
During the 2025 regular season, NFL games averaged 18.7 million viewers across TV and digital platforms, up 10% year over year and marking the second-highest average since tracking began in 1988, according to the NFL and Nielsen.
Football’s impact extends well beyond traditional TV. Nielsen found that NFL games on CBS, FOX and NBC were the three most-watched programs of October 2025, each drawing more than 20 million viewers. On Thursdays, Prime Video’s share of TV viewing jumped to 6.4% when it carried Thursday Night Football, with Nielsen finding similar NFL-driven gains for Peacock and Paramount+.
Meanwhile, digital video continues to grow. IAB projects U.S. digital video advertising will surpass $80 billion in 2026, with CTV ad spend growing 11%. For advertisers, there’s a huge audience ready to be reached.
However, there’s a catch: NFL CTV advertising isn’t as simple as choosing a game and buying an ad. The good news? You don’t always need to buy the game to reach the fans. Here’s your playbook.
What can advertisers actually buy when it comes to NFL CTV advertising
NFL viewing is spread across multiple media partners and platforms, including Amazon, CBS, ESPN/ABC, FOX and NBC, but streaming availability and programmatic availability aren’t the same thing.
A viewer may be able to stream a game, but the advertising inventory within that game can be controlled by a particular rights holder or publisher and sold through specific deal types. Media rights, publisher agreements, geography and deal structures all influence what advertisers can actually access.
Through illumin, eligible live sports inventory can be activated through Programmatic Guaranteed (PG), Private Marketplace (PMP) and Open Auction buying.
If appearing within a specific game is important to your strategy, planning early matters. Premium inventory can start selling months ahead of game day, particularly around marquee matchups and high-demand moments. Publishers may also require additional time for creative approval, campaign setup and testing.
Here’s the bigger play: you don’t always need to buy the game to reach NFL fans. If reaching the audience is the real objective, advertisers have a much bigger field to play with.
How can advertisers build an NFL CTV advertising strategy around football fans?
Football fandom doesn’t start at kickoff and disappear after the final whistle. Fans watch pregame coverage. They stream games and highlights. They visit stadiums and sports venues. They follow their favorite teams throughout the week and they’re consuming sports content across CTV amongst other digital channels long after the game ends.
Instead of building your strategy around a single question like, “How do I advertise during this game?”, consider a broader one: “How can I reach the fans who care about this game?“. This is where CTV, audience targeting, geographic targeting and location intelligence can work together to create a more complete NFL CTV advertising strategy.
What is the recommended NFL CTV advertising campaign approach?
Think about NFL CTV advertising as a full-season conversation with fans, not a single 60-minute media buy.
Pre-game: How to build awareness before kickoff
Show up before the action begins. Build familiarity as excitement grows around upcoming games, teams and marquee moments.
Recommended channels: CTV and Online Video
Recommended tactics: Premium CTV reach, NFL and sports audience targeting, contextual targeting, geographic targeting, and team or regional fan audiences.
Recommended messaging: Brand awareness, game-day anticipation, sponsorship amplification and product discovery.
The play: Start building awareness before kickoff so your brand isn’t competing for its first impression when game-day attention is at its most expensive.
Game day: How to reach engaged NFL fans when football is top of mind
Reach engaged fans when football is top of mind. Combine premium CTV and eligible live inventory with audience and geographic targeting to make your game-day investment more relevant.
Recommended channels: CTV, OTT and Online Video
Recommended tactics: Eligible live in-game inventory, sport-specific deal activation, regional targeting, POI targeting and sequential messaging.
Recommended messaging: Game-day creative, real-time relevance, product benefits and promotional offers.
The play: Think beyond national reach. Use geography, regional fandom and relevant creative to make a national NFL moment feel local.
Post-game: How to extend the impact beyond the final whistle
The clock hits zero. Your campaign doesn’t have to. Keep the conversation going through CTV and complementary digital channels after the final whistle.
Recommended channels: CTV, Online Video, Display and Native
Recommended tactics: Replay and shoulder content, retargeting, sequential messaging, cross-channel activation and Live Audiences.
Recommended messaging: Post-game offers, brand reinforcement and action-oriented messaging such as shop now, register today or book now.
The play: Don’t keep serving fans the same message. Use sequential messaging to move audiences from awareness toward consideration and action.
How can advertisers use geographic targeting in NFL CTV advertising?
Football fandom is inherently local. Teams represent cities and regions. Fans gather around stadiums, restaurants, bars, tailgates and watch parties. And the excitement surrounding a team can look very different from one market to the next.
That makes geographic targeting a powerful addition to an NFL CTV advertising strategy. Rather than treating every NFL viewer the same, advertisers can concentrate investment around relevant markets and tailor campaigns based on regional opportunities.
A restaurant or QSR brand, for example, could promote game-day offers in markets surrounding relevant teams. A retailer could prioritize regions where it has a physical presence. An auto advertiser could align messaging with local dealership footprints.
National advertisers can also use geography to customize creative, promotions and investment by market rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all NFL campaign. The result is a strategy built around where your customers and football fans actually are.
How can advertisers reach NFL fans beyond the couch?
Geography can help determine where you activate. Location intelligence can provide additional signals around who you want to reach.
Using illumin’s location intelligence and audience capabilities, advertisers can reach and re-engage eligible sports audiences based on real-world event attendance, visitation patterns and cross-screen behaviors.
Depending on availability, that can include audiences such as:
- Stadium and arena visitors
- Live event attendees
- Game-day POI audiences
- Tailgating and fan-zone visitors
- Frequent sports venue visitors
- RadiusIQ event audiences
- Live sports streaming audiences
- Regional sports fan audiences
- Sports and fitness enthusiasts
- Team and league interest audiences
The opportunity doesn’t have to stop with the initial interaction. Live Audiences can create opportunities to reconnect with eligible audiences afterward, helping advertisers extend their strategy beyond a single game-day moment.
Audience availability and scale may vary by market, event and venue.
What opportunities exist beyond live NFL game inventory?
Live NFL CTV advertising can be incredibly powerful, but it’s only one play in the playbook. Pregame programming, post-game analysis, replays, highlights, shoulder content and broader sports programming can create additional opportunities to connect with football audiences.
As advertisers move beyond a single team, matchup or live placement, they can create more flexibility around reach, scale and budget. That’s especially important when premium live inventory is limited or when the goal isn’t simply to appear during a game, but to reach football fans at scale.
How can advertisers take their NFL CTV advertising strategy beyond kickoff?
The best NFL CTV advertising isn’t necessarily about being everywhere football is. It’s about identifying the moments, audiences and markets that matter most to your brand. Build awareness before kickoff. Own the moments that matter on game day. Keep the conversation going after the clock strikes zero.
With illumin, advertisers can bring together premium CTV and eligible live inventory with geographic targeting, sports audiences, location intelligence, sequential messaging and cross-channel activation to build an NFL strategy around the fan, not just the game.
Ready to draw up your NFL CTV advertising game plan? Talk to one of our experts about reaching football fans with illumin.
About illumin
illumin is redefining how marketers plan, execute and measure digital advertising, bringing every stage of the campaign lifecycle into one strategic platform. Through an intuitive drag-and-drop Canvas, marketers can visually connect strategy, activation and outcomes, and extend live audiences from programmatic advertising into social channels. Combining AI-powered intelligence with transparent insights, illumin gives brands and agencies the clarity to make better decisions, optimize with confidence and prove business impact. With offices in North America, Europe and South America, illumin supports brands and agencies across global markets. For more information, visit www.illumin.com.
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