Here's a question the ad industry still hasn't agreed an answer to: what actually counts as connected TV? For us it means one thing, a television connected to the internet. Yet our latest analysis suggests nearly 5% of the inventory sold as CTV isn't CTV at all.
CTV is one of the fastest-growing, most exciting corners of digital advertising. It blends the trust and engagement of television with the measurability and targeting of digital, which is why it's become the media of the moment for brands and ad tech alike. It's also why CTV impressions rightly command a premium over standard digital video, and where there's a premium, there's an incentive to game it.
Part of the problem is that the buy side and sell side haven't aligned on what CTV actually is. Without an agreed definition, it's all too easy for non-CTV inventory to be passed off as the real thing, by accident or by design.
So we dug into the data. We analyzed more than 11 million OpenRTB ad impressions carrying a device type signal between 15-20 May 2026, then checked each one against our own fast, accurate Device Detection to confirm the device that was really consuming the ad.
The results surprised us. Nearly 5% (4.92%) of inventory sold as CTV was incorrectly labeled. Tellingly, just 0.18% was mislabeled the other way, genuine CTV tagged as something less valuable. When the errors run almost entirely in the direction that inflates price, accident starts to look a lot like intent.
CTV commands a far higher CPM than standard video, so this mislabeling quietly inflates prices for advertisers while handing misrepresenting publishers an easy revenue uplift. Applied to global market-size figures from eMarketer, we estimate advertisers are overpaying for CTV by close to $2 billion a year.
The fix isn't complicated. Whether you're a publisher, SSP or DSP, Device Detection identifies the device behind every impression quickly, accurately and cost-effectively. With $2 billion on the table, it's an easy investment to justify.
Want to know what's really in your CTV inventory?
Talk to us about Device Detection