Pinterest’s CTV Move: Expansion, Late-Stage Acceleration or the Beginning of a Platform Shift?
Pinterest’s acquisition of tvScientific, a CTV performance ad platform, represents one of the more strategically aligned moves in the digital media and streaming landscape this year. Axios confirmed the deal and noted that tvScientific’s ~160 employees will continue operating independently while the two companies explore data, attribution and performance integration. Pinterest now reaches ~600MM monthly active users powering more than ~15B boards, all feeding an AI engine designed to understand intent at scale.
The play is clear. Pinterest wants its intent graph to travel. Instead of confining performance to mobile and desktop surfaces, Pinterest is now extending its signal ecosystem to the largest screen in the home. That gives advertisers a way to tie inspiration, consideration and conversion into a measurable CTV environment that is increasingly accountable to performance outcomes.
The broader questions remain whether this is a pivot, why Pinterest is showing up after a decade of CTV acceleration by others and what advertisers gain once the systems are fused.
What tvScientific Actually Brings
tvScientific is a performance-first CTV platform built for automated media buying, AI-driven optimization and outcome-based measurement.
According to Axios, the company has raised around $60MM in total funding, including a ~$25.5MM Series B backed by NewRoad Capital Partners and Roku. Its proof points include delivering ~1MM installs at roughly $1.90 CPI and day-7 ROAS above 1.25x.
Pinterest plans to align tvScientific with its Performance+ engine, allowing Pinterest to bring its intent model, dynamic creative and attribution framework into CTV without building or owning content.
Why This Strategy Makes Sense for Pinterest
Extending Full-Funnel Performance
Pinterest’s platform narrative has been evolving toward full-funnel performance for several years. CTV is the next logical extension. Advertisers can connect upper-funnel discovery, mid-funnel planning and lower-funnel action within one ecosystem that finally includes television.
Turning Intent Into a Cross-Screen Identity Layer
Pinterest’s signal set is rooted in declared intent. Search behavior, saves and boards represent purposeful planning. Bringing that intent into CTV creates a cross-screen optimization layer that sits on top of multiple streaming publishers. Pinterest is not buying content. It is buying the ability to scale its intent graph across more media surfaces.
Aligning With Outcome-Based TV
Global CTV ad spend is expected to reach ~$48B in 2025. The market is increasingly driven by automation, incrementality, measurement and performance accountability. Pinterest’s entry aligns with a moment when CTV finally behaves like a performance channel that rewards its strengths.
Is This a Pivot for Pinterest?
This move does not represent a pivot away from Pinterest’s core. It expands the reach of that core. The company has been strengthening its foundation around AI-driven personalization, shopping, creative systems and declared intent.
tvScientific extends those strengths into a new medium. Pinterest still avoids the cost structure of content, distribution rights or streaming infrastructure. It remains a neutral platform with value tied to intent, personalization and measurable outcomes.
What does shift is advertiser perception. Pinterest is moving from a channel-specific environment into a cross-screen performance partner that competes more directly with Google, Meta, Amazon, Roku and The Trade Desk.
Why Pinterest Is This Late
CTV Only Recently Became a Confident Performance Channel
For most of the last decade attribution in CTV lacked the rigor needed for a platform like Pinterest. Marketers used QR codes, device graphs and unreliable lift studies. Pinterest’s entry aligns with the moment when measurement, identity frameworks and incrementality methodologies finally matured.
Pinterest Needed to Strengthen Its Own Engine First
Pinterest spent the last few years stabilizing growth, rebuilding its ad stack, launching Performance+, and maturing its AI-driven optimization engine. Extending into CTV prior to that work would have created friction rather than value.
tvScientific Provides a Modern Technical Foundation
Founded in 2020, tvScientific built a platform designed for a privacy-centric, automated, multi-screen world. Pinterest avoids adopting legacy systems built for linear TV and instead acquires a modern CTV engine built for the current market.
Advertiser Benefits
One Cross-Screen Performance System
Advertisers gain a unified environment connecting Pinterest’s high-intent discovery with CTV exposure and down-funnel actions. This reduces silos and improves incremental signal clarity across screens.
Intent-Based Targeting on the Largest Screen
Pinterest’s intent graph can be applied directly to streaming environments, improving relevance and potentially lowering CPAs for commerce, app installs and mid-funnel journeys.
A Neutral Buying Framework
Pinterest is not a streaming publisher. It has no inventory to force. Spend allocation is driven by performance rather than internal supply needs.
Advertiser Risks
Integration Depth Will Determine Real Value
If Pinterest cannot tie its intent graph cleanly into tvScientific’s optimization engine, signal noise and unstable attribution could diminish results.
Competing Attribution Claims
CTV is a crowded measurement marketplace with publishers, DSPs, smart TV OEMs and incrementality vendors all fighting for credit. Pinterest must present a transparent and credible view of attribution or advertisers will stay hesitant.
Privacy and Regulatory Scrutiny
Cross-device identity and outcome-based measurement require rigorous consent and compliance. Pinterest must show that extending its signal set into CTV is privacy-safe and future-proof.
Strong Competitive Pressure
YouTube, Amazon, Disney, Roku and The Trade Desk have established CTV performance narratives. Pinterest must deliver real incremental ROI to pull budget from incumbent platforms.
What This Means
If Pinterest executes well, this becomes a meaningful expansion of its performance ecosystem. The timing aligns with a market that is finally ready for outcome-based television at scale.
If the integration only partially lands, the acquisition becomes another incremental CTV capability inside a crowded landscape.
Right now Pinterest is betting that its ~600MM users and high-intent signals can finally move into a medium where performance rigor is achievable.
Sources
- Acquisition details (Axios + Pinterest press release)
- Employee count (~160, Axios)
- Funding total (around $60MM, Axios + Mediagazer)
- Series B (~$25.5MM, multiple outlets)
- Performance metrics (~1MM installs, ~$1.90 CPI, ~1.25x ROAS directly from tvScientific case study)
- Pinterest scale (~600MM MAUs, ~15B boards, from Pinterest filings and press materials)
- CTV market size (~$48B global in 2025, widely reported from eMarketer-derived datasets)
- CTV becoming performance-ready (consistent across industry analyses, tvScientific materials and IAB insights)
- Integration into Performance+ (from Pinterest’s own release)