• by Wayne Friedman , March 23, 2021

Amid the surge in global spending for connected TV advertising -- up 123% in 2020 -- CTV advertising fraud continues at a steady rate of around 24%, according to Pixalate.

For all of 2020, “invalid traffic” in programmatic CTV advertising was between 19% and 24%, according to the fraud management company.

Programmatic CTV spending is roughly 50% of all CTV ad spending.

eMarketer estimates U.S. programmatic CTV advertising spending for 2020 was $4.36 billion, expected to rise to $6.73 billion in 2021. Overall, U.S. CTV ad spending was projected to total $8.11 billion in 2020, and to increase to $11.36 billion in 2021.

In the fourth quarter, Pixalate says, 78% of U.S. TV households are now reached by programmatic TV advertising -- up from 56% a year before.

Roku, the big TV-video streaming platform for channels and content, continues to dominate programmatic CTV advertising, with a 46% share in the fourth-quarter 2020.

After this comes Samsung at 11% for its advertising platform, followed by Apple at 9%; Amazon, 8%; Vizio, 4%; Chromecast, 2%; and LG, Sony, Microsoft, and Jadootv, each at 1%.

Pixalate notes the biggest gainer in programmatic spend over the year was Apple, up 380% versus 2019. Samsung is next -- 165% higher -- followed by Vizio, up 46% in programming spending. Declines in programmatic spending were seen by Roku, down 9%; Chromecast, 12% lower; and LG, falling 19%.