--- title: When Does Local TV Outperform a National Buy? Cross-Screen Planning Q&A description: When Does Local TV Outperform a National Buy? Q&A. Start with the audience a brand needs, then compare linear + CTV for incremental reach. Linear can still deliver scale. image: https://blog.centriply.com/hubfs/Images%20for%20instagram%20stories%20(4)/household%204.png --- [![](https://blog.centriply.com/hubfs/Centriply_April2016/Layout/logo.svg)](http://www.centriply.com/) - [Services](http://www.centriply.com/#services) - [Industries](http://www.centriply.com/industry/) - [Case Studies](http://www.centriply.com/case) - [Casual Dining](http://www.centriply.com/case/casual-dining/) - [Health: Allergy](http://www.centriply.com/case/health-allergy/) - [Health: HIPAA](http://www.centriply.com/case/health-hipaa/) - [Insurance](http://www.centriply.com/case/insurance/) - [Multicultural](http://www.centriply.com/case/multicultural/) - [Political](http://www.centriply.com/case/political/) - [Retail](http://www.centriply.com/case/retail/) - [Products](http://www.centriply.com/products/) - [About Us](http://www.centriply.com/about-us/) - [Blog](https://blog.centriply.com/) - [Contact Us](http://www.centriply.com/contact-us/) Search - - # When Does Local TV Outperform a National Buy? Cross-Screen Planning Q&A Posted by [Shelley Stansfield](https://blog.centriply.com/author/shelley-stansfield) on October 8, 2026   \## Q&A with Centriply Co-Founder Shelley Stansfield: What Changes When TV Becomes a Cross-Screen Buy? A media plan can now reach the same market through local broadcast, cable, CTV and streaming video. The hard part is not choosing a screen. It's finding the audience, checking where each seller can actually deliver, and measuring the combined campaign without counting the same household twice.![household 4](https://blog.centriply.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Images%20for%20instagram%20stories%20(4)/household%204.png?width=248&height=208&name=household%204.png) Centriply Co-Founder, Shelley Stansfield, has spent decades explaining audience-driven local TV campaigns and working through the inventory and data problems behind multi-market buys. In a 2026 Televisionation conversation with Industry legend, Rick Howe, (https://itvt.com/televisionation/televisionation-friday-fireside-centriply-co-founder-shelley-stansfield/), she discussed the work of getting information to move accurately across cable systems and local broadcast stations. The questions below revisit her original perspective for today's linear-and-CTV planning environment.  \### Q: Is TV advertising losing ground to streaming? \*\*Stansfield:\*\* The better question is, where is the audience is moving within TV?  The IAB's September 2026 outlook (https://www.iab.com/insights/2026-outlook-study-september-update/) projects CTV among the fastest-growing ad-spend channels while linear TV spending declines modestly. EMARKETER forecasts more than $50 billion in traditional TV ad spending in 2026. (https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-ad-spending-2026). Those are forecasts with different methods, not proof that either screen wins every brief. We start with the households and markets a brand needs, then compare what linear and CTV can each add in incremental reach, frequency and measurable response. \### Q: Why does linear TV still belong in that plan? \*\*Stansfield:\*\* Linear can still deliver scale in premium programming, including live events and local content. But a national rating is not the same thing as the number of useful impressions inside a brand's trade areas. If the customer footprint is uneven, a broad buy may deliver plenty of impressions in places the advertiser does not serve. That is where audience buying changes the conversation. Compare the audience concentration by ZIP Code or household, then inspect local cable and broadcast coverage, inventory, dayparts and cost. Linear's value is not nostalgia; it is the reach you can put against a defined business objective. \### Q: What role should CTV and OTT play alongside advanced linear TV? \*\*Stansfield:\*\* CTV can extend a campaign to households that are harder to reach through the selected linear schedule, and it can support audience-based targeting and flexible flighting. Advanced linear can add local scale where streaming inventory alone does not cover enough of the desired audience. Neither is automatically incremental: the same household can appear in both plans. We use a common audience definition and geography, compare projected reach and frequency across sellers, and examine how each platform defines an impression. OTT describes the delivery of streaming content; CTV is the connected-TV screen on which some of that content is viewed. Do not treat either label as a substitute for placement-level information. \### Q: How do you coordinate a campaign across screens without losing sight of results? \*\*Stansfield:\*\* Begin with the outcome you want: store visits, qualified leads, sales, or brand lift. Establish the target audience and priority locations, then map the inventory available in each footprint. Keep creative, flight dates and reporting definitions aligned so the comparison means something. For a local retailer, that might mean start with a ZIP-Code-level plan around stores, local linear placements in the relevant cable systems, and CTV for incremental reach. Use privacy-compliant, appropriately aggregated first-party and campaign data to evaluate response. We also know a geographic match or correlation is not, by itself, proof that one ad caused a sale; attribution needs an agreed method and, where possible, a test or comparison group. \### Q: When is a regional or hyper-local TV campaign preferable to a national buy? \*\*Stansfield:\*\* Use national scale when demand is genuinely broad. Use more local precision when store coverage, distribution, audience concentration or campaign timing varies by market. A DMA can be too coarse for a multi-location advertiser: two households in the same DMA may have very different access to a store and to locally insertable TV inventory. The practical sequence is to map trade areas, identify high-indexing audience clusters, check whether inventory can actually be inserted there, and compare qualified impressions and cost against the national alternative. Precision is useful only if the seller can deliver and the marketer can measure it. \### Q: When should a planner combine network TV with advanced linear rather than choose one? \*\*Stansfield:\*\* When the network campaign delivers efficient broad reach but coverage against priority trade areas is uneven. Keep the network layer where it performs a clear job, then add local systems or stations where the audience indexes highly or where more frequency is needed. CTV can address further reach gaps, subject to inventory, overlap and measurement. Do not compare gross impressions alone. Ask: How many are in the target geography? How many reach the intended audience? What is the net-new household reach after overlap? Can we verify where the spots ran? A layered plan has to answer those questions with actual campaign data rather than a blanket claim that one channel is more efficient. \### Q: What should an agency ask before approving a cross-screen TV plan? \*\*Stansfield:\*\* Ask for the target audience and geography; the role of each screen; network, daypart and market-level inventory visibility; expected reach and frequency with a stated overlap method; delivery verification; and the attribution approach. Then ask who reconciles the files, logs and reporting when multiple local sellers are involved. That operational step is often where a good strategy becomes a difficult campaign. And we know, since we often have to coordinate under delivery and added weight to make up the difference with underperforming publishers. The strongest TV plan does not force a choice between linear and streaming. It tells you which households each part is meant to reach, what can actually be bought in their markets, and how the result will be checked. If you have a challenging market map or a cross-screen brief, we're happy to work through the options with you.     Topics: [Media Planners](https://blog.centriply.com/topic/media-planners), [Audience Buying](https://blog.centriply.com/topic/audience-buying), [Advanced Linear TV](https://blog.centriply.com/topic/advanced-linear-tv), [Ad Tech](https://blog.centriply.com/topic/ad-tech) ### Recent Posts ## Contact Us Rob Bochicchio President New York City C 646-872-9530 Rob.Bochicchio@centriply.com . Search [PRIVACY/COOKIE POLICY](http://www.centriply.com/privacy-policy/) | [TERMS OF USE](http://www.centriply.com/terms-of-use/) | © 2026 CENTRIPLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CENTRIPLY.COM, SECOND FLOOR, 63 PUTNAM STREET, SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY 12866 USA Search [PRIVACY/COOKIE POLICY](http://www.centriply.com/privacy-policy/) | [TERMS OF USE](http://www.centriply.com/terms-of-use/) | COPYRIGHT 2017 CENTRIPLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | CENTRIPLY, THE CHRYSLER BUILDING, 405 LEXINGTON AVE. 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