NAB Show New York Is Next Week. Here’s What CTV Advertisers Should Actually Watch.

Next Wednesday, the people who build, run and sell TV will pack the Javits Center for two days and talk out loud about 2027.

That's worth your attention if you buy CTV. Even if you never set foot on the show floor.

NAB Show New York runs October 21-22 in Manhattan. It's the East Coast edition of the giant NAB Show in Las Vegas, put on by the National Association of Broadcasters. It is not an advertising conference. It's a broadcast, streaming and media-technology show.

And that's exactly why it matters.

Most ad conferences are buyers talking to buyers. NAB New York is the sell side talking to itself: station groups, streamers, sports investors and the engineers who build the pipes your ads run through. If you want to know where CTV inventory, pricing and measurement are headed next year, this is where the plans get said out loud.

Here's the guide. What the show is, the sessions that matter to brands, six themes worth watching, and what to do whether you go or not.

The Basics

When: Show floor and exhibits run Wednesday, October 21 and Thursday, October 22. The Post|Production World conference starts a day early, on October 20.

Where: The Javits Center, on Manhattan's West Side.

How big: According to NAB's September 24 announcement, 60+ educational sessions, 150+ speakers and 225+ exhibiting companies, including 40 new ones. Last year's show drew 11,500 registered attendees from 95 countries, per NAB's registration release.

The two days have themes. Day 1 is "Big Media, Big Tech, Big Tools." Day 2 is "Next Gen: Creators, Streaming & Sound."

What it costs: On the official pricing page, a two-day show floor pass lists at $150 and a one-day pass at $100. Both are free for NAB members. The show floor pass gets you the exhibits, the four show floor theaters, the meetups and the floor party. The Local TV Strategies conference, where much of the ad-sales conversation lives, is a separate $699 pass.

Who exhibits: Mostly the companies behind the screen. NAB's own previews name Sony, Canon, Blackmagic Design, Grass Valley, Ross Video, EVS, Evertz, Riedel, Chyron and AWS, among others.

So yes, a lot of this show is cameras, cables and timing protocols.

Here's the part that's for you.

The Sessions a CTV Advertiser Should Circle

I went through the full session schedule and pulled the ones that touch advertising, streaming revenue, sports and measurement. Every title, time and speaker below is from NAB's official listings.

Wednesday, October 21 (show floor pass)

- 10:30 a.m., Theater C: "How Gray Media Reimagined Local Broadcast for the Streaming Era." Gray Media's Mike Braun and Quickplay's Paul Pastor on a platform that NAB says unifies 1,300 digital touchpoints across 117 TV markets, with 271 live channels and 126 FAST channels under one system.
- 10:30 a.m., Theater D: "Moments Matter: Unlocking the Value of Live Sports in Real Time." Qvest and NVIDIA on using AI to spot big live-sports moments as they happen and turn them into content and sponsored opportunities.
- 10:30 a.m., Theater A: "Game On: The Power of Sports on Broadcast." NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt with Fox Sports contributor and FS1 host Clay Travis.
- Noon, Theater C: "How a Record Setting Midterm Cycle is Reshaping Core Advertising." AdImpact's Don Norton and John Link.
- Noon, Theater D: "The Sports Marketing Playbook." Adobe's Jason Lowery and SPORT BEACH CEO Beth Sidhu, moderated by Marketing Brew's Alyssa Meyers.
- 1:30 p.m., Theater A: "The Future of Sports Betting: Growth, Media & Responsibility." FanDuel President Christian Genetski and WFAN's Craig Carton.
- 2:30 p.m., Theater A: "The Great Media Reshuffling: Consolidation, Spin-Offs and the Battle for Scale." BofA Securities' Jessica Reif Ehrlich, J.P. Morgan's Eric Menell and Apollo's Aaron Sobel, moderated by CNBC's Alex Sherman.
- 3:15 p.m., Theater D: "Investing in Sports Media Today." Bruin Capital's Laurie Freeman and CVC's George Barrios.
- 3:30 p.m., Theater A: "Inside the Live Sports Economy with Jon Ledecky," the New York Islanders co-owner, with Stathletes CEO Meghan Chayka.

Wednesday, October 21 (Local TV Strategies pass, Room 3D01)

- 9:00 a.m.: "TV's Watershed 2027: Rebooting Revenue Strategies With Streaming At The Center," with Justin Nielson, Head of Kagan Research at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
- 11:15 a.m.: "Media Buyers And Sellers on 2027's State of Play," with speakers from Publicis Media, Hearst Television, NBCUniversal, E.W. Scripps, ITN and Tango Media Systems.
- 1:00 p.m.: "Local Streaming Leaders on Winning Strategies," with streaming leaders from Scripps, NBCUniversal Local, Gray Media, CBS and Viamedia, on the AVOD and FAST landscape.
- 1:45 p.m.: "Modern Measurement for Local: A Stable Foundation for a Cross-Platform Future," with Comscore's Mandy Leef and Justin LaPorte.
- 4:00 p.m.: "Firing Up the Future of Local TV Revenue," with leaders from Fox Television Stations, Sinclair, ITN and Media Inno.

Thursday, October 22 (show floor pass)

- 10:30 a.m., Theater A: "From Following to Franchise: Building the Next Generation of Creator-Led Entertainment." 3C Ventures' Michael Kassan moderates dentsu's Christine Cotter, UPROXX's Jarret Myer and Love Island USA's Chelley Bissainthe.
- 11:50 a.m., Theater B: "When Everyone Can Create, What Wins?"
- 1:00 p.m., Theater C: "Providing a Personalized Playback Experience: What Customers Want and What's Coming Next," with product leaders from Peacock, Fubo, Warner Bros. Discovery and Vimeo.
- 3:30 p.m., Theater C: "Inside Paramount Skunk Works," on the engineering behind Paramount+ and Pluto TV.

That's the map. Now here's what I think it adds up to.

Theme 1: Local TV Is Coming for Your CTV Budget

Read the session descriptions closely and one thing jumps out.

Local broadcasters are openly planning to take money back from streaming and digital.

The "Firing Up the Future of Local TV Revenue" session asks, word for word, "How can station groups work together to win dollars away from digital and CTV by aligning business protocols and technologies?" NAB's description says "billions of dollars in new ad revenue could flow local TV's way" if the industry gets there.

The way they plan to win isn't by beating streaming. It's by becoming streaming.

Gray Media now runs 126 FAST channels. The "Local Streaming Leaders" panel is all about AVOD and FAST. And the buyers-and-sellers panel will tackle a market "where silos continue to stymie innovation for regional and national advertisers."

Why it matters to you: More local news, weather and sports inventory is coming to CTV, sold by the people who know those markets best. That's good. Local streaming inventory lets you buy and measure TV market by market, which is how we think every performance brand should be reading results anyway. Just know what you're buying. FAST and premium streaming are different buckets, and they should be judged differently.

Theme 2: 2027 Is a "Watershed" Year, and It Starts Before January

The Local TV Strategies day opens with S&P Global's Justin Nielson on a stark premise: broadcasters "enter 2027 without this year's sports and political tentpoles to lean on."

Then there's the midterms.

AdImpact's session description says 2026 political spending is projected at a record $11.6 billion. It says that money is "pushing pricing pressure onto broadcast inventory, accelerating the shift toward CTV and making ACR technology essential."

We warned about the political CTV tsunami back in April. It's here.

Why it matters to you: Two things. First, between now and Election Day, inventory in hot political markets is crowded and expensive. Plan around it. Second, once the political money and this year's tentpoles roll off, sellers walk into 2027 with revenue holes to fill. The brands that show up with real budgets and clear goals should find them ready to deal.

Theme 3: Live Sports Are Being Sold Moment by Moment

Day 1 has a dedicated sports track, and it's stacked: betting, investing, sports marketing, team ownership.

The session I'd watch most closely as an advertiser is Qvest and NVIDIA's. Their pitch is that "every moment in live sports has a window of maximum value," and that AI can now spot those moments as they happen and turn them into content and "sponsored opportunities" in near real time.

NAB's own sports preview cites Deloitte's 2026 Digital Media Trends research: about 80% of consumers identify as fans, and fans spend 27% more on streaming services than non-fans.

Why it matters to you: Live sports are already the most premium inventory in CTV. Moment-level selling could make it even more premium, and more expensive. The question to keep asking is the one we raised last week: everyone wants the big game, but the hard part is proving it sold. A great moment is not the same thing as a great outcome.

Theme 4: Measurement Is Still Getting Rebuilt

Here's the honest asterisk on this show.

Measurement gets one dedicated session on the official schedule, and it's 15 minutes long: Comscore's "Modern Measurement for Local," which promises a look at how its "unified methodology" handles cross-platform viewing, plus "AI-driven innovations."

That's it. And the AdImpact session's line about ACR becoming "essential" tells you where a lot of the data conversation has gone: into the TV set itself.

Meanwhile, Nielsen just announced it's rebuilding streaming measurement around platform data and a modeled panel. The currency fight isn't over. It's barely on the agenda.

Why it matters to you: Sellers will spend these two days talking about how to package and price audiences. Almost no one will be talking about how to prove your ads sold anything. That part is your job. Anchor on your own sales, read them by market, keep holdouts, and triangulate. Audience numbers are for buying. Sales are for proof.

Theme 5: Creators Are Moving to the Living Room

Day 2 leans into the creator economy, and the most advertiser-relevant session is "From Following to Franchise."

NAB's description says creator-led content is "increasingly taking the shape of premium programming" across "streaming, CTV and social." The panel will dig into "what makes creator-led programming attractive to advertisers and where brands can play a meaningful role."

NAB's creator preview also cites Adobe research from June 2026: 87% of creators using creative AI say it accelerated their business or audience growth.

Why it matters to you: Creator programming on the big screen is a new kind of CTV inventory, and a new kind of partnership. It can be a smart place to show up, especially for brands that already work with creators on social. But hold it to the same standard as any other TV. It still has to move sales in the markets where it runs.

Theme 6: The Companies Selling Your Inventory Are Reshuffling

Two sessions show the same story from different angles.

"The Great Media Reshuffling" brings Wall Street and private equity together to talk about "the deals, breakups and strategic combinations redrawing the media landscape." NAB's description points to "declining linear revenues, escalating content and sports costs" and investor pressure.

On the product side, Thursday's sessions with Peacock, Fubo, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount focus on the streaming experience itself: discovery, personalization, and how "UX choices can drive user satisfaction and increase monetization opportunities."

NAB's streaming preview also cites the IAB: U.S. digital video ad spending is expected to pass $80 billion in 2026 and, for the first time, account for more than 60% of total TV and video ad spend.

Why it matters to you: Who owns the inventory changes how it gets packaged, priced and measured. We saw it with the Skydance-Paramount merger, and we'll see it again. And better streaming apps mean more viewing and more ad opportunities, which is good for CTV. Just don't let a new owner's new metric become your new definition of success.

If You Go

- Pick Wednesday. Day 1 is where the sports, money and ad-sales sessions are concentrated.
- Decide on the Local TV Strategies pass. The buyers-and-sellers panel, the local streaming panel and the measurement session are all part of that separate $699 conference program.
- Expect conflicts. At 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Gray Media, the Qvest/NVIDIA sports session and the LeGeyt-Travis conversation all start at once. At noon, AdImpact and "The Sports Marketing Playbook" overlap. Choose ahead of time.
- Bring one question to every conversation: "How will I know this sold something?" Then listen to how long the answer takes.
- Walk the floor with a CTV lens. Ad insertion, FAST playout and live-clipping tools are the plumbing behind what you buy. Five minutes at the right booth explains a lot about why some inventory performs and some doesn't.

If You Don't Go

You'll be fine. Most brands don't need to be in the room.

But use the moment.

- Ask your sales reps what they're planning for 2027. If S&P Global's "watershed" framing is right, sellers are rethinking packages and prices right now.
- Ask about local streaming inventory in your top markets: FAST channels, local news streams, local sports.
- Ask how they'll measure it. If the answer is only a reach or impressions report, ask what it would take to read results against your own sales by market.
- Watch the trade coverage after October 22. The sports, consolidation and local-revenue panels are the ones most likely to make news.

How We Read It at CS & Co.

We like shows like this one. They tell you what's coming before the rate cards do.

And what's coming looks good for CTV. Local broadcasters are building streaming businesses. Sports are getting sold with more precision. Creators are making TV-grade shows. Digital video is about to pass 60% of TV and video ad spend, per the IAB.

Everyone on the sell side is moving toward streaming. That's the scoreboard.

But notice what isn't on the schedule. Almost nothing about proving outcomes for the advertiser. The industry will spend two days on how to package, price and deliver your audience. Very little on whether your audience bought anything.

That gap is where brands win or lose.

The Final Take

NAB Show New York isn't an ad show. It's a look behind the curtain at the people building and selling the TV your ads run on.

Go if you want to hear 2027 get planned in real time. Skip it if you don't. Either way, the message coming out of the Javits Center is the same.

Streaming is the center of TV now, and the sellers know it.

Your job is to make sure the money you put there gets measured by the only number that counts: what sold, in which markets, because your ad ran.

That's how we run every campaign at CS & Co. It's built into the CS Method™. Want to know whether CTV can move your sales in 2027? Find out if CTV is a fit.

Cory Poccia
CEO, CS & Co. Marketing Studio™