Pixalate’s February 2024 Ad Fraud Research on Global CTV App Spoofing for Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, and Apple TV: 4.6% of CTV Traffic is Spoofed - ESPN, Fubo, Among Most-Spoofed Apps
March 28 2024 - 5:36PM
Pixalate, the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and
compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile
Advertising, today released the February 2024 Connected TV (CTV)
App Spoofing Reports for Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV,
and Apple TV.
This report covers CTV App Spoofing numbers in February 2024 on
apps found in the Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, and Apple
TV app stores. For background information, methodology and
definitions related to CTV App Spoofing, please visit our inaugural
CTV App Spoofing Report and view the FAQs there.
Global Open Programmatic CTV App Spoofing Numbers:
February 2024
Pixalate’s data science team found that 4.6% of global traffic
in CTV was “spoofed” in February 2024. The breakdown by platform is
as follows:
- Roku: 2.8%
- Amazon Fire TV: 10.1%
- Samsung Smart TV: 3.4%
- Apple TV: 4.6%
Fraudulent actors can utilize app spoofing - a form of invalid
traffic (IVT) - to misrepresent the true origin of the traffic. For
example, a fireplace screensaver app may masquerade as “ESPN” to
lure advertisers. (See Pixalate’s ‘Monarch’ CTV ad fraud scheme
discovery for an example.)
Top 10 Roku CTV apps with the highest volume of spoofed
impressions in February 20241. Classic Movies Plus - Free
(13%)2. Joycraft (50%+)3. How to Travel (50%+)4. Getreel Fireplaces
(50%+)5. Tastyland (50%+)
Top 10 Amazon Fire TV CTV apps with the highest volume
of spoofed impressions in February 20241. Fubo: Watch Live
TV & Sports, Shows, Movies & News (46%)2. TVBAnywhere North
America (50%+)3. FOX Sports: Stream live MLB, NFL, Soccer and more.
Plus get scores and news! (11%)4. ESPN for Fire TV (12%)5. HGTV GO
(12%)Top 10 Samsung Smart TV CTV apps with the highest
volume of spoofed impressions in February 20241. ESPN
(14%)2. Xumo Play (10%)3. The Weather Channel (17%)4. WeatherNation
(43%)5. OnDemandKorea (50%+)
Top 10 Apple TV CTV apps with the highest volume of
spoofed impressions in February 20241. Nat Geo TV: Live
& On Demand (13%)2. ABC 7 (20%)3. Univision Now (19%)4.
Cineverse - Stream Movies & TV (20%)5. ABC 10 News San Diego
KGTV (19%)
Download Pixalate’s CTV App Spoofing Reports Per
PlatformDownload to see more apps - the top 15 per
platform - with the highest volume of spoofed impressions in
February 2024.
- Roku
- Amazon Fire TV
- Samsung Smart TV
- Apple TV
MethodologyTo compile this research, Pixalate’s
data science team took the following steps:
- Identify “Highly Impacted” CTV apps: On each respective
platform, Pixalate identified apps with the highest rate of spoofed
traffic (e.g., the percentage of all traffic purporting to come
from the app that does not actually come from the app). In the
context of this research, “Highly Impacted” apps are apps that have
an app spoofing rate of 10%+ or apps that have an app spoofing rate
in excess of 90% of other apps on a given platform, whichever rate
is lower.
- The “Highly Impacted” apps are then ranked by volume of spoofed
impressions.
About Pixalate
Pixalate is a global platform for privacy compliance, ad fraud
prevention, and data intelligence in the digital ad supply chain.
Founded in 2012, Pixalate’s platform is trusted by regulators, data
researchers, advertisers, publishers, ad tech platforms, and
financial analysts across the Connected TV (CTV), mobile app, and
website ecosystems. Pixalate is MRC-accredited for the detection
and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT).
www.pixalate.com
Disclaimer
The content of this post, and the App Spoofing Report (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 post 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 in the time period studied. Per the MRC, “'Fraud' is not
intended to represent fraud as defined in various laws, statutes
and ordinances or as conventionally used in U.S. Court or other
legal proceedings, but rather a custom definition strictly for
advertising measurement purposes. Also per the MRC, “‘Invalid
Traffic’ is defined generally as traffic that does not meet certain
ad serving quality or completeness criteria, or otherwise does not
represent legitimate ad traffic that should be included in
measurement counts. Among the reasons why ad traffic may be deemed
invalid is it is a result of non-human traffic (spiders, bots,
etc.), or activity designed to produce fraudulent traffic.”
Nina Talcott
Pixalate Inc.
ntalcott@pixalate.com