1 in 4 CTV Ads Run When TV Sets Are Off, DoubleVerify Finds

by Wayne Friedman , February 2, 2022

DoubleVerify, a digital media measurement and analytics service, says a recent test found that advertising content continues to “play” while a TV set is off.

The company says this happened in “one of four top environments” that continue to play programming, including “recording ad impressions... when the TV screen itself is in fact turned off but a CTV device or app remains on.”

DoubleVerify -- which tests and evaluates CTV devices and apps to ensure that ads are only displayed 100% on-screen and when the TV screen is turned on -- says it continues to see viewability challenges with connected TV.

On Tuesday, DoubleVerify launched an onscreen pre-bid targeting platform -- its “Fully On-Screen” effort -- which enables connected TV advertisers to target inventory from sources that have received its “Fully On-Screen Certification” -- in order to address the problem of a TV set being off.

In 2020, its “Fully On-Screen” post-bid platform was launched -- a Media Rating Council accredited service.

The new pre-bid effort complements the company's post-bid measurement capabilities. “Fully On-Screen” pre-bid segments are currently available on Amobee, MediaMath and Xandr, DoubleVerify says.

These data problems have occurred in the past with cable TV set-top boxes -- where viewing data was transferred from cable set-top box to measurement companies while the TV set was turned off.

“CTV commands some of the highest CPMs in digital advertising, which means brands expect that their ads deliver to engaged audiences while the TV set is on,” according to Jack Smith, chief product officer, DoubleVerify, in a release.

ad targeting, advertising, analytics, apps, connected tv, digital, media measurement, television, viewability

3 comments about "1 in 4 CTV Ads Run When TV Sets Are Off, DoubleVerify Finds".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, February 2, 2022 at 12:44 p.m.
Gulp! I wonder if this kind of issue affects the results of the various smartset panels that are trying to tell us how much time we "spend" with streaming TV relative to "linear TV"?
Reply

Jack Wakshlag from Media Strategy, Research & Analytics replied, February 2, 2022 at 2:49 p.m.

The sets would have it right. The connected set top devices, l would have it wrong. We've know for years that many people leave their cable boxes on but shut off the tv so the set top box data incorrectly reports viewing. Some have applied "algorithms" to correct. Not very precise. Some don't bother correcting and happily give credit where none is due.

Dave Morgan from Simulmedia, February 7, 2022 at 12:50 p.m.

Yep. Big problem. As Jack points out, those of us who use cable set-tob box data built rules to deal with the boxes that keep running, but it's imprecise, which is why balancing to a panel like Nielsen's respondent data is critical.
Fortunately, when it comes to smart TV acr data, if you have access to the TV device metrics (apps won't, but core operating system will), you check to see if monitor is on, and exlude counts when it is not.
We are just getting started in this area and, for sure, a lot of data that we're seeing on CTV is not yet ready for prime time.