It's been a slow go for addressable TV advertising, which allows marketers to target consumers by household. The lack of reach, expensive prices and lack of standardization has deterred advertisers from allocating meaningful TV budgets to the approach.

Now spending is set to grow by a huge percentage ... to a still-small proportion of total TV spending.

Addressable TV advertising in the United States will surge 119.4% this year, according to a new report from research firm eMarketer. That will bring it to $890 million from $400 in 2015, when addressable TV spending "merely" doubled.

It will also still comprise just 1.3% of TV advertising.

What's more, growth will peak this year and then drop sharply in 2017 and 2018, eMarketer said. The expansion of addressable TV advertising is limited by the number of households with addressable capabilities and the amount of inventory that pay-TV providers control, eMarketer noted.

By 2018, targeted TV ad spending will near $3 billion but remain less than 3% of the total.

The total household reach of addressable advertising is expected to hit about 50 million by the end of the year, according to Starcom MediaVest Group.