PubMatic Study: Co-Viewers 53% More Likely to Recall CTV Ads

When someone watches TV alone, an ad is a brief interruption. When they watch with family or friends, that same ad becomes a shared moment. A new study suggests advertisers should care a great deal about that difference.

Ad technology company PubMatic surveyed 3,500 consumers across seven Asia-Pacific markets in April 2026, including Australia, India, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The findings point to a clear pattern: people who watch connected TV together respond to advertising in ways that solo viewers do not.

The numbers are striking. Co-viewers are 53% more likely to recall a brand they saw advertised. They are 70% more likely to take some action after seeing an ad, whether that means searching for a product, visiting a website, or making a purchase. And 42% said they pay more attention to ads when watching with others than when watching alone.

The Social Screen Effect

The research also captured something harder to quantify: emotional impact. A separate Google APAC study found that 71% of co-viewers experienced an emotional response to CTV ads, compared to just 37% of solo viewers. PubMatic's own data showed 44% of co-viewers reported a stronger emotional response, and 43% said they discussed or reacted to ads during the viewing moment itself.

That last point matters. When viewers talk about an ad while watching, the message gets reinforced in a way no single impression can replicate. Ads become conversation, and conversation drives memory.

Where and When Co-Viewing Happens

According to the PubMatic data, 78% of co-viewing in APAC takes place on connected TVs rather than laptops, tablets, or phones. These sessions cluster around predictable time windows: Saturday evenings, with peaks between 5pm and 9pm and then again from 9pm to 11pm.

That predictability is useful for media planners. It means the window to reach a household audience is not random. Family programming, films, TV series, and live events are the content types most likely to draw group audiences.

Southeast Asia Leads on Conversion

Within the region, Southeast Asia stands out. There, 73% of co-viewers said they were more likely to act after seeing an ad, slightly above the regional average of 70%. Co-viewing in Southeast Asia is also more spontaneous, with 41% of viewing sessions described that way, suggesting these audiences form around shared content in real time rather than through planned household viewing habits.

That spontaneity creates a challenge for buyers using automated programmatic systems (software that buys digital advertising inventory in real time). Systems designed for predictable audiences may not be optimized to capture these moments as they form.

The Measurement Gap Advertisers Need to Close

There is a structural problem in how most advertisers currently count CTV reach. Standard impression models treat each ad served as reaching one person, the same way a mobile or desktop ad would. But when a connected TV sits in a living room and a family of four is watching together, that one impression likely reached four people.

Media buyers applying this one-to-one model to CTV are systematically undervaluing the channel and potentially misallocating budgets as a result.

Luke Smith, Senior Director CTV APAC at PubMatic, put it plainly: "When advertisers align their buying strategies to co-viewing behaviors, accounting for everything from timing and content genre to device choice, they can access premium moments that consistently drive stronger recall and meaningful post-ad action."

The data provides the justification media planners have been waiting for to adjust their CTV bids and buying windows accordingly.