How the Trade Desk Is Using SmartTVs to Protect Its Ad Business
However difficult it may be to succeed, the fact that The Trade Desk is trying to develop its own operating system is a sign of the direction of connected TVs and the ad markets that support them. There are fears among data-hungry advertisers that CTV could face the same restrictions that have come to the wider internet, with new privacy constraints that limit the sharing of data.
In some ways, The Trade Desk’s move is reminiscent of how Meta has taken multiple steps to get out from under Apple’s control on mobile. Apple has made changes to data-sharing through its iPhone and Mac operating systems, restrictions that affected the flow of digital advertising on apps. Meta even started developing mixed-reality devices in part to control the operating systems and to build a next-generation computing device where Apple did not hold sway.
In connected TV, there already are restrictions, for instance, in Netflix’s new advertising business. The Trade Desk and Google’s Display and Video 360 DSP both recently started buying ad inventory on Netflix. But the streaming giant has a well-known aversion to sharing internet IP addresses as a signal for targeting ads. IP addresses are among the data available to operating systems, according to ad tech experts.
