{"id":885824,"date":"2026-01-17T17:30:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T23:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/17\/why-pinterest-wants-to-buy-tvscientific-and-what-it-signals-for-the-ctv-ads-business\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T17:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T23:30:36","slug":"why-pinterest-wants-to-buy-tvscientific-and-what-it-signals-for-the-ctv-ads-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/17\/why-pinterest-wants-to-buy-tvscientific-and-what-it-signals-for-the-ctv-ads-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Pinterest wants to buy tvScientific, and what it signals for the CTV ads business"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Ronan Shields<\/a><\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 December 16, 2025<\/span> \u00a0\u2022<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n Ivy Liu <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Pinterest intends to buy tvScientific to turn its intent-rich audience data into a performance engine that extends beyond its own app and onto the connected TV screen \u2014 effectively using CTV to close the loop between inspiration, intent, and measurable outcomes.<\/p>\n

Announced last week<\/a>, Pinterest expects that the purchase will give it immediate access to one of the few remaining pure-play performance CTV businesses, at a time when advertisers are demanding that television behave more like search and social.<\/p>\n

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In recent years, a small crop of performance-centric CTV companies \u2014 tvScientific\u2019s peer set includes MNTN and Vibe \u2014 have emerged in response to make CTV ad-buys more outcome-driven, as opposed to a brand-led offering. Such companies have found quarry, pitching to smaller and mid-sized businesses, whose marketers do not want television as a vague awareness channel; they want proof that spend translates into measurable results which can be closely attributed to purchases.<\/p>\n

While large demand-side platforms such as The Trade Desk and Google\u2019s DV360 dominate agency-led, high-budget buying, performance CTV platforms have carved out a niche serving advertisers that value accountability over scale.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/h2>\n

That niche is precisely what makes tvScientific attractive to Pinterest. The social platform runs a self-serve ad business and has spent the past two years repositioning itself as a performance marketing player through automation and AI-driven products such as Performance+. What it has lacked is a credible off-platform video channel that allows advertisers to extend campaigns beyond Pinterest itself without losing measurement.<\/p>\n

Mike Brooks, a consultant with extensive experience in CTV, explained his theory of the rationale behind the deal to Digiday, noting that tvScientific bridges a gap in many marketers\u2019 requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re acquiring one of the very few beachheads at the intersection of performance, especially mobile performance, and CTV,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead of spinning up all of the supply relationships and all of the demand relationships and building a performance-specific algorithm, they [Pinterest] just acquired this as an audience extension tool for their performance business versus an audience extension tool for their brand business that they then have to figure out how to turn to performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0Tatari CEO Philip Inghelbrecht, added, \u201cAdvertisers will ultimately judge this acquisition on reach and outcomes. Pinterest\u2019s intent data is powerful, yet without full inventory access (i.e., programmatic only, executed via a 3P licensed DSP) brands may still find themselves capped in scale and cost efficiency. As the market evolves, the winners in CTV will be those who pair transparent, full-funnel measurement with truly comprehensive supply access.\u201d<\/p>\n

How much?<\/h2>\n

The financial details of the deal were not publicly disclosed. However, as<\/span> AdExchanger<\/a><\/span> observed, \u201cPinterest did reveal that the transaction is subject to regulatory review, suggesting that it is valued at or above the Federal Trade Commission\u2019s reporting threshold of $126.4 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

One source, who declined to be named to maintain relationships, estimated the deal valuation was in the range of $300-to-$350 million, with separate sources \u2014 who cited conversations with people close to the deal \u2014 independently informing Digiday tvScientific was generating approximately $100 million in revenue per annum, net $50 million.<\/p>\n

The communications team for tvScientific did not respond to Digiday\u2019s requests for comment on these assertions by press time. Pinterest declined the opportunity. <\/p>\n

Founded during the post-pandemic digital boom period by former OpenX C-suite executive Jason Fairchild, tvScientific set out to make CTV function like paid search by bundling ad buying, attribution, and optimization into a single workflow and matching ad exposure to downstream actions.<\/p>\n

In 2022, it then raised a $20 million Series A<\/a> led by Norwest Venture Partners, with NBCUniversal and Hearst Ventures participating, underscoring the industry\u2019s belief that performance-led CTV was viable at scale.<\/p>\n

As scrutiny around CTV measurement intensified, tvScientific doubled down. A $9.4 million convertible note in 2024<\/a> helped fund product and data science investment, followed by a $25.5 million Series B<\/a> in early 2025 that brought in Roku and NewRoad Capital Partners.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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\n More in Media Buying<\/span>
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Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ronan Shields \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 December 16, 2025 \u00a0\u2022 Ivy Liu Pinterest intends to buy tvScientific to turn its intent-rich audience data into a performance engine that extends beyond its own app and onto the connected TV screen \u2014 effectively using CTV to close the loop between inspiration, intent, and measurable outcomes. Announced last week, Pinterest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":885825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23462,91],"tags":[48018,5583],"class_list":{"0":"post-885824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pinterest","8":"category-wants","9":"tag-pinterest","10":"tag-wants"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}