We define connected TV advertising as ads served to TV sets via the internet, be it via a smart TV or another device, such as a Blu-ray player, game console or Roku.
Though the degree to which connected TV inventory is changing varies depending on what research you look at, the trend is clear.
“The inventory out there has opened up substantially over the past 12 to 16 months,” said April Weeks, executive vice president of media operations and services at demand-side platform Centro.
From 2016 to 2018, the share of total ad impressions that video ad platform Innovid served through connected TVs jumped from 13% to 27%. Video ad serving firm SpotX saw the share of impressions it serves through connected TVs increase from 15% in Q1 2018 to 33% in Q1 2019.
In a quarterly review of digital video ad impressions served by Extreme Reach to various devices across North America, the firm found connected TV’s impression share jumped from 15% in Q4 2017 to 44% in Q4 2018.