The “TVOS Wars” are often measured by device penetration, but what about the market share of connected TV (CTV) advertising that’s delivered over the respective device platforms?
Pixalate, a McLean, Va.-based global intelligence platform and real-time fraud protection provider, published this week its latest series of regionally based quarterly reports, ranking CTV device ecosystems by global “share of voice” (SOV) for open programmatic CTV advertising.
Pixalate said Roku was No. 1 across CTV device ecosystems with a 37% “share of voice” (SOV) – meaning that percentage of all open programmatic CTV ads in Q3, as measured by the company, were delivered to Roku devices. Roku’s leading share is followed by Samsung smart TVs (17%), Amazon Fire TV (15%), Apple TV (11%) and LG (10.8%). For Roku, that Q3 figure marks a 29% decline from the third quarter of 2023 when it commanded 52% of global share.
According to a Tyler Loechner, VP Platform Growth & Research at Pixalate, SOV is determined by “the percentage of open programmatic CTV ads (as measured by Pixalate) that were shown on a given device in a given region.”
For its report, Pixalate said it analyzed programmatic advertising activity across more than 100,000 CTV apps and nearly 6 billion global open programmatic ad transactions during the third quarter.
The company only tracks open programmatic CTV traffic, meaning not programmatic CTV ads transacted in private marketplaces, the latter which Loechner noted “may use programmatic ad-trading technologies but are in a closed system.”
With North America, specifically the U.S., being far and away the largest spender on programmatic advertising, it’s not surprising that Pixalate’s rankings for that region almost identically mirror its global ranker — Roku also controls 37% of SOV in North America versus 17% for Samsung. Roku also dropped 29% YoY in the North American ranker.
Why is Roku’s market share declining in the U.S.?
“The CTV market expanding. It was previously dominated by Roku, but other platforms have opened up and attracted users,” Loechner told StreamTV Insider via email.
Amazon, for example, saw its North American quarterly SOV share increase by 40% YoY to reach 15% SOV in Q3.
“Similarly, other platforms had been behind from an ads strategy perspective and they are now catching up,” Loechner commented in terms of what’s contributing to Roku’s yoy decline in SOV.
But Roku is still expanding its share in Latin America, where its devices account for 50% share of open programmatic CTV ads sold in Q3, up 81% year over year compared to its 28% SOV in Q3 2023. Samsung ranked second in LATAM at 21% share – though saw a drastic 47% yoy decline from its previous 40% SOV in the region during Q3 2023.
Notably, in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), where penetration of Samsung smart TVs is much heavier, and Roku’s presence remains diminished, Samsung controls 30% of open programmatic CTV device SOV, up 52% year over year. LG (16%), Amazon Fire TV (15%), TCL (12%) and Sony (6%) and Roku (5%) trail Samsung in EMEA. Samsung’s programmatic CTV presence is increasing in the region — a year ago, Amazon Fire TV devices were the SOV leader in EMEA, capturing a quarter of market share, with Roku close behind at 23% SOV - but both saw notable yoy declines in the region in Q3 2024, according to Pixalate.
Updated to correct Pixalate's headquarters to McLean, VA. A prior version incorrectly stated it was Santa Monica, Calif.-based.
Also updated to attribute quotes to Tyler Loechner, VP Platform Growth & Research at Pixalate.