Pixalate's CTV Ad Fraud Series: App 'Spoofing' could cost advertisers $135MM in 2022 on apps appearing to be on Roku & Amazon Fire TV devices - PBS, Telemundo, NBC Sports biggest victims at 75%+ in July 2022

Pixalate's Connected TV (CTV) Ad Fraud Series for July 2022 reveals that app "spoofing" impacts 3% to 5% of open programmatic ad traffic on apparent Roku and Amazon Fire TV apps.

PALO ALTO, Calif. and LONDON, Aug. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pixalate, the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising, today released its July 2022 Connected TV (CTV) Ad Fraud Series update to reveal the 30 most-"spoofed" Roku and Amazon Fire TV apps — and the impact this form of ad fraud has on the CTV ad industry.

Pixalate, which holds MRC accreditation for sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) detection and filtration across CTV inventory, analyzed open programmatic advertising intended for more than 4,000 Roku and Amazon Fire TV CTV apps during Q2 2022 and found that app "spoofing" — a sophisticated form of invalid traffic (IVT), or ad fraud — in which one app masquerades itself as another — impacts 3% (Roku) to 5% (Amazon) of ad impressions purportedly served on these devices. Pixalate estimates that over $135 million in open programmatic CTV ad spend in 2022 intended for Roku and Amazon devices is impacted by this form of ad fraud.

NBC Sports, PBS, Fox News, and USA Network were among the top apps "spoofed" most often between July 1-15, 2022, according to Pixalate's analysis. This means that CTV advertisers could have been spending millions thinking they were reaching their audience on these apps but, in reality, their ads were not appearing on these high-value apps.

While Pixalate measured the overall CTV app spoofing rate at 3.4% in Q2 2022, the top 10 apps spoofed (shown below) were hit much harder. These apps were victimized at 5x to 15x industry averages, climbing up to over 75%.

Download a list of the top 30 Roku and Amazon Fire TV apps spoofed most often in July 2022 here.

Pixalate holds accreditation from the MRC for SIVT detection and filtration across desktop, mobile web, mobile in-app, and Connected TV (CTV) environments, including across 12 distinct Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) measurement metrics. Pixalate detects app spoofing in traffic where the app identifier (e.g., bundle ID) reported in the bid request does not match the characteristics of the app detected directly by Pixalate.

Pixalate is able to detect the true bundle ID, user agent, and other properties of a generated impression using our patented, patent pending and trade secret IVT detection technologies, even when these characteristics may be declared as something else in the bidstream. When Pixalate detects mismatches in this data, the resulting impression is flagged as IVT.

This report is limited to alleged Amazon Fire TV and Roku apps with an app spoofing rate, as measured by Pixalate, that meets a materiality threshold to narrow the scope only to apps that appear to be significantly affected by app spoofing/misrepresentation in the global ecosystem. This filtered list is then ranked by the total number of flagged app spoofing impressions measured for each app.

For more information about our methodology, including the ad spend impact estimation, visit our blog.

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Pixalate is the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising. We work 24/7 to guard your reputation and grow your media value. Pixalate offers the only system of coordinated solutions across display, app, video, and OTT/CTV for better detection and elimination of ad fraud. Pixalate is an MRC-accredited service for the detection and filtration of sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) across desktop and mobile web, mobile in-app, and OTT/CTV advertising. www.pixalate.com

The content of this press release, and the CTV Ad Fraud Series (the "Report"), reflect Pixalate's opinions with respect to the factors that Pixalate believes can be useful to the digital media industry. Pixalate's opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees; and neither this press release nor the Report are intended to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but instead, to report findings and apparent trends pertaining to apps in the Roku and Amazon app stores.

Media Contact:
Liz Margolis
[email protected]
610-613-5174

SOURCE Pixalate