By Ronan Shields and Seb Joseph • November 20, 2024 •
Ivy Liu
The Trade Desk is indeed building a CTV operating system. So much for shutting down those rumors. Weeks ago, CEO Jeff Green insisted they were off-base. Turns out, they’re only off-base if you think this OS will compete with others in the space. Classic ad tech boss sleight of hand: What they don’t say is often as revealing as what they do.
Here’s the lowdown on what this move is (and isn’t).
WTF is The Trade Desk doing?
It’s rolling out its own smart TV operating system Ventura, giving it direct control over the streaming TV experience. This paves the way for even more growth in its booming CTV ad business, which already makes up nearly half of its ad revenue and is still surging.
Why is that important?
An OS of its own, cements The Trade Desk’s grip on CTV ad dollars at a deeper level. With its OS baked into some of the world’s most common TVs, it widens the scope of data it can control — what people are watching, what ads they’re seeing — and feeds that intel straight back into its own ad-buying platform. It’s a classic tech power move: own the pipes, own the game.
What about TV manufacturers? Will they play ball?
Maybe — but it’s a crowded field. Roku, Google, Amazon, LG, Hisense and Samsung are just some of the players that already dominate the TV OS market. Winning over manufacturers will likely come down to economics. The Trade Desk will need to offer more favorable revenue-sharing deals to make this worthwhile for everyone involved. In other words, they’ll have to pay to play.
What does The Trade Desk say about its chances?
No surprise, Green and his team are optimistic. They’re betting manufacturers will jump on board, drawn by the opportunity to make more money from advertising — a high-margin business. As far as they’re concerned, Ventura is a win-win: more ad revenue for manufacturers and a tighter grip on CTV for The Trade Desk.
“Everyone from OEMs to airlines and hotel chains are now in the streaming TV aggregation business, and they’re all trying to figure out the advertising business model while improving the viewer experience,” said Matthew Henick, vp of Ventura at The Trade Desk. “With our content objectivity and our scaled streaming TV advertising demand, The Trade Desk is uniquely positioned to drive innovation at this key moment.”
How is The Trade Desk spinning this?
The narrative around Ventura hits all the familiar beats of The Trade Desk’s playbook.
There’s the “cleaner supply chain” pitch: for years, the company has worked to own its routes to supply, from UID 2.0 (its alternative to third-party cookies) to OpenPath (direct publisher integrations). Ventura fits right in. As the press release put it, it’s about “minimizing supply chain hops and costs — ensuring maximum ROI for every advertising dollar and optimized yield for publishers.”
And there’s transparency, another favorite buzzword. According to the release Ventura will integrate UID 2.0 and OpenPath, allowing advertisers to “value and price ad impressions across all streaming platforms more accurately, while finding relevant audiences with greater precision.”
In true The Trade Desk style, Ventura isn’t just an OS — it’s a full-on pitch for why the company should be front and center of the future of streaming TV.
As Green explained: “This innovation has to come in the OS, and it has to come from a company that brings the objectivity of not owning any streaming TV content. At The Trade Desk, all we want is a fair marketplace, where supply chain costs are minimized, and advertiser trust can thrive.”
https://digiday.com/?p=561151
