Though connected TV is expected to be one of the fastest-growing ad channels for years to come, the amount of spending being done through open programmatic marketplaces is starting to decline, according to the latest connected TV trend reporting from Pixalate.

Pixalate compiled its data by analyzing programmatic advertising activity across over 300 million connected TV devices and billions of individual ad transactions globally. Citing Simpli.fi data, Pixalate estimates that roughly half of spending on connected TV is done through open programmatic, with the remainder done through other forms of buying, such as private marketplaces and direct deals.

Through the first half of 2023, $8.4 billion USD was spent on connected TV through open programmatic marketplaces, which is down 4% from the previous year.

Looking just at Q2, open programmatic spending was down 6% year-over-year in North America and 58% in EMEA, though it was up 7% in Latin America. It was also up 164% in AMEA, however the total spend was still behind other regions.

In terms of device, Roku still leads in market share, growing by 2% to reach 45%. Samsung is beginning to close the gap, as its share grew by 23% year-over-year to reach 20% for the first time. Amazon managed to hold on to third, even as its share dropped 18% to 10%.

On Roku devices, the share of open programmatic spending that went to sports-centric channels doubled year-over-year, with food and home channels growing by 33% and news by 14%. On the flip side, the share that went to general movie and TV channels dropped 12%, with kids content dipping by 8%. Similar trends were seen on Amazon devices, though in different proportions: the share that went to sports was up 89% year-over-year and news by 19%, while movie and TV share dropped 7% and kids content dropped 49%.

The quality of traffic on connected TV also seems to be improving. Pixalate found that 17% of traffic through open programmatic deals was invalid, inclusive of ad fraud, which is a 19% decline from the 21% observed in Q1. The company did point out that the invalid traffic rate has historically been lower in Q2 compared to Q1, though this year’s drop was steeper than it was in 2022.