The rules of media buying are changing. A decade ago, the big decisions were about how much to allocate between TV, press and radio. Today, buyers face an infinitely more complex ecosystem: programmatic display, social platforms, BVOD, retail media, digital out-of-home, influencer networks, gaming, and more.
In this environment, media buying is no longer about securing the cheapest CPM. It’s about managing trade-offs: reach versus precision, automation versus control, scale versus trust. UK adspend may be growing, but the pressure on accountability, transparency and ROI is greater than ever.
This second article in our series looks at the forces reshaping media buying in the UK and what they mean for organisations that want to spend smarter.
Economic Pressures and Scrutiny
The UK ad market reached £42.6bn in 2024, with digital accounting for the lion’s share. But confidence has been fragile. AA/WARC downgraded its 2025 forecast by 0.6 percentage points, citing sustained economic stagnation, business taxes from the Autumn Budget, and uncertainty from US trade tariffs.
That scrutiny changes the role of media buying. It’s no longer enough to demonstrate reach or engagement. Buyers must show that the investment translates into commercial impact. This is why formats with measurable outcomes, like retail media or programmatic DOOH, are gaining momentum.
Boots, for example, has been quick to embrace programmatic OOH screens in high-traffic areas. By tying ad triggers to weather and time of day, and matching campaigns to footfall and sales data, it proved that the investment delivered a return. This is the kind of evidence finance teams now expect as standard.
Audiences Aren’t Where They Used to Be
Fragmentation is the defining challenge of modern media buying. IPA TouchPoints 2025 data confirms that British adults now spend more time on mobile phones (3 hours 21 minutes daily) than watching TV sets (3 hours 16 minutes). This is the first time mobile has overtaken television in the survey’s 20-year history.
Among 15-24 year-olds, the picture is even more striking: nearly 5 hours daily on phones, compared to under 2 hours watching TV. Fewer than half now watch broadcast TV on average each week. Their attention is on TikTok, YouTube and streaming platforms.
That’s why broadcasters are pivoting to digital. ITV’s shift to ITVX wasn’t cosmetic; it was survival. In 2024, digital viewing on ITVX grew by 12%, whilst digital advertising revenue rose by 15%. ITVX has grown faster than all other major video-on-demand services and streaming platforms since its launch. Buyers who followed audiences into BVOD were rewarded with access to younger demographics that linear no longer delivers.
The lesson is clear: future-proof media buying means following audience behaviour, not legacy channel definitions.
Transparency and Trust
Programmatic promised efficiency and scale, but it also raised alarm bells about waste. In 2020, an ISBA study revealed that around 15% of UK programmatic spend was “unattributable.” By 2023, thanks to industry reform and auditing, that figure dropped to around 3%.
That progress shows the industry can clean itself up. But it also highlights how fragile trust is. For buyers, transparency isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a baseline requirement. Without it, finance directors won’t sign off on budgets and brands risk reputational harm. The future of media buying will be built on verifiable data, supply-chain audits and clear accountability.
Five Trends Reshaping Media Buying
Trend 1: AI-Assisted Optimisation
Artificial intelligence is moving into the buying stack. Demand-side platforms already use machine learning to adjust bids in real time, but the next wave goes further: AI models that forecast campaign outcomes, automate creative testing, and recommend budget reallocations.
This isn’t about replacing humans. Strategy still requires judgement. It’s about freeing buyers from micro-decisions so they can focus on bigger trade-offs. The future buyer will need to understand both the potential and the limits of AI, knowing when to trust the algorithm and when to override it.
Trend 2: Privacy-First Media Buying
The story of third-party cookie deprecation has taken an unexpected turn. In July 2024, Google announced it would no longer phase out third-party cookies in Chrome as originally planned. Instead, the company shifted towards giving users more control over their tracking preferences. In April 2025, Google confirmed it will not deprecate third-party cookies, maintaining its current approach to user choice.
However, the direction of travel for privacy hasn’t changed. The Information Commissioner’s Office continues to tighten enforcement of consent and cookie rules. Safari and Firefox have long blocked third-party cookies by default. And consumers increasingly expect privacy-respecting advertising.
For buyers, this means continued emphasis on contextual, cohort-based and first-party targeting. Tesco’s Clubcard platform illustrates the opportunity: with consented data on approximately 80% of UK households, it offers privacy-compliant targeting tied directly to purchases. In practice, buyers are shifting spend towards environments where compliance and precision go hand in hand.
Trend 3: The Rise of Retail Media
Retail media is now the UK’s third-largest digital channel, with spend growing 23% to £1.4bn in 2024, according to IAB UK. Investment in on and off-site retail media surpassed £1bn in 2025 (excluding Amazon), with the market on track to reach £7bn by 2028.
Unlike display or social, retail media connects directly to point-of-sale data. That makes it especially attractive in a climate where accountability is non-negotiable. Tesco has scaled its in-store digital screens from around 500 to over 6,000, whilst Boots, Sainsbury’s (Nectar360), Asda, and Ocado have all launched sophisticated retail media offerings.
For FMCG brands, this isn’t just an advertising option. It’s becoming a core channel for growth. Tesco’s Media and Insight Platform reports that over 450 brands have partnered with them, achieving an average ROAS of £6.60 across multichannel campaigns.
Trend 4: Connected TV and BVOD
The reach of ad-funded streaming video-on-demand services has grown dramatically. IPA TouchPoints 2025 data shows ad-funded SVOD services now reach 30% of UK adults each week, up from just 11% in 2024. Among 16-34 year-olds, the reach is 36%.
This shift is significant for buyers. CTV and BVOD provide the brand-building qualities of television, but with the targeting and measurement capabilities of digital. Campaigns around major events like the Euros demonstrated how advertisers can combine linear and digital TV buys to maximise reach across demographics.
The future buyer won’t choose between “TV” and “digital.” They’ll design campaigns that blend both seamlessly.
Trend 5: Programmatic DOOH
Out-of-home has been reinvented by programmatic. Screens are no longer static billboards; they’re dynamic assets, triggered by data and optimised in real time. Digital OOH now accounts for 66% of total UK OOH revenue, with the channel growing 21% year-on-year in 2024.
VIOOH research shows that programmatic accounted for 29% of UK DOOH campaigns in the past 18 months, the highest rate globally alongside the US and France. UK advertisers plan to increase programmatic DOOH spend by almost a third, with adoption expected to reach 36%.
Boots’ always-on campaigns show how this plays out: when the weather turns, ads adapt instantly; when footfall shifts, placements adjust accordingly. For buyers, DOOH has gone from a blunt awareness tool to a measurable, flexible part of the media mix.
What This Means for Marketers
The future of media buying in the UK isn’t about chasing every new format. It’s about understanding the forces behind them and deciding where to lean in.
- Balance automation with judgement. AI can optimise bids, but it can’t set strategy.
- Invest in first-party data. Retail media and clean-room partnerships are only as strong as the data inputs behind them.
- Embed privacy by design. Compliance isn’t optional; it’s an expectation.
- Follow audiences, not assumptions. If 16-24s are on YouTube and ITVX, buyers must be there too.
- Demand transparency. Auditing, supply-path optimisation and verified reporting are non-negotiable.
Evolving, Not Disappearing
Media buying isn’t being automated out of existence. It’s evolving into a discipline that requires sharper strategy, better data, and more accountability. The brands that thrive will be those that treat buying as a competitive advantage, not an afterthought.
In Part 1, we established the foundations of media buying. Here in Part 2, we’ve looked at the forces reshaping it. In Part 3, we’ll get practical: How to Maximise ROI from Media Buying.
Need Help Navigating These Changes?
The media landscape is shifting faster than most marketing teams can keep up with. As a Fractional CMO, I help organisations cut through the complexity and build media strategies that deliver measurable results. If you’re ready to turn these trends into a competitive advantage, let’s have a conversation.
