Pixalate’s April 2024 Ad Fraud Research on Global CTV App Spoofing on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, & Samsung Smart TV: 8.3% of CTV App Traffic is Spoofed - TNT, Lifetime, USA Network Among Most at Risk
May 16 2024 - 1:02PM
Pixalate, the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and
compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile
Advertising, today released the April 2024 Connected TV (CTV) App
Spoofing Reports for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Samsung
Smart TV.
The reports reveal which CTV apps are most at risk of app
spoofing. Malicious actors can use invalid traffic (IVT)
techniques, such as app spoofing, to disguise the CTV app traffic
source. In this scheme, an app, like a ‘fireplace screensaver,’
might be misrepresented as a popular app, such as “ESPN,” to
attract advertisers. (See Pixalate’s ‘Monarch’ CTV ad fraud scheme
discovery for an example.)
Pixalate’s data science team analyzed over 2.8 billion global
open programmatic advertising impressions across over 6k CTV apps
(including delisted) across the Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and
Samsung Smart TV app stores in April 2024 to compile this
research.Global Open Programmatic CTV App Spoofing Data:
April 2024
- Apple TV: 13%
- Amazon Fire TV: 9%
- Roku: 6%
- Samsung Smart TV: 4%
Top Roku CTV apps at risk of spoofing in April
2024
1. Watch TNT 18%2. USA Network 50%+3. CNN 45%4. NHL 32%5. YWBD
50%+
Top Amazon Fire TV CTV apps at risk of spoofing in April
20241. Watch TNT 48%2. WSFL News 50%+3. KGWN News 32%4.
Lifetime 20%5. Plex: Stream Movies & TV 11%
Top Samsung Smart TV CTV apps at risk of spoofing in
April 20241. Pluto TV 20%2. CNN 22%3. Xumo Play 27%4.
Philo: Shows, Movies, and Live TV 11%5. YES Network 35%
Top Apple TV CTV apps at risk of spoofing in April
20241. Scripps News 33%2. ESPN: Live Sports & Scores
25%3. Atmosphere TV 12%4. AMC: Stream TV Shows & Movies 26%5.
Plex: Watch Live TV and Movies 11%Download to see more apps - the
top 15 per platform - at risk of spoofing in April 2024, as
measured by Pixalate.
- Amazon Fire TV
- Samsung Smart TV
- Apple TV
- Roku
MethodologyFor additional background
information, including methodology and definitions related to CTV
App Spoofing, visit Pixalate’s inaugural CTV App Spoofing Report
and view the FAQs there.
Pixalate's data science team compiled this research through 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 those that
have an app spoofing rate of 10%+ or thosethat 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 specializing in privacy
compliance, ad fraud prevention, and digital ad supply chain data
intelligence. Founded in 2012, Pixalate 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 accredited by the MRC for the
detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic
(SIVT). 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