# Directory — Technology — The State of Streaming

> The category maps and the named products inside them — measurement, programmatic, identity, ACR, data clean rooms, FAST, AI creative tools, DSPs, SSPs, and more.

Directory URL: https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/
Profiles: 11

## All entries

- [Addressable Advertising](https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/addressable-advertising/) — Addressable advertising delivers different ads to different households or devices watching the same program — the targeting paradigm that underpins all of CTV and the growing addressable-linear footprint inside traditional pay-TV.
- [Attention Metrics](https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/attention-metrics/) — Attention metrics measure whether viewers actually engaged with an ad, going beyond viewability and impressions. They combine eye-tracking panels, behavioral signals, and biometric proxies to score creative and placement quality, and have emerged in 2024-2026 as the industry's third measurement currency alongside reach and outcomes.
- [Automatic Content Recognition](https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/acr-automatic-content-recognition/) — Automatic content recognition (ACR) is the smart-TV technology that fingerprints what is on the screen — broadcast, streaming, gaming, even individual commercials — by sampling audio and video at the OS level. The data feeds CTV measurement, addressable advertising on linear feeds, and the OEM first-party ad businesses now central to smart-TV economics.
- [CTV Programmatic Bidding](https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/ctv-bidding/) — The technical layer — OpenRTB extensions, server-side bid orchestration, ad-pod composition — that makes Connected TV inventory programmatically transactable. Distinct from web/display bidding because of CTV's player constraints, the absence of third-party cookies, and the need to fill multi-ad commercial breaks under tight latency budgets.
- [Data Clean Rooms](https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/data-clean-rooms/) — Data clean rooms are managed compute environments where two parties can run queries against their combined datasets without exposing raw records, used for cross-platform measurement, audience building, and campaign optimization.

- [Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV](https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/fast-free-ad-supported-streaming-tv/) — Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) services deliver linear, scheduled channel feeds over the open internet at no cost to the viewer, monetized entirely through advertising. By 2026 the category counts more than 1,300 channels in the US, reaches roughly 131 million viewers, and pulls more combined US TV viewing time than any single broadcast network.
- [Identity Resolution](https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/identity-resolution/) — Identity resolution is the cross-device, cross-platform stitching layer that lets advertisers and platforms recognize the same user across browsers, mobile, CTV, and email. It is the foundational layer for addressable targeting, attribution, and cross-screen measurement after the collapse of third-party cookies as the universal web identifier.

- [Measurement Currencies](https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/measurement-currencies/) — TV measurement currencies are the audience-data sources that buyers and sellers contractually agree to use to value impressions and reconcile delivery. After six decades of Nielsen monopoly, the post-2023 market has multiple certified currencies — Nielsen, Comscore, VideoAmp, iSpot.tv — competing alongside attention-based providers and the ANA's Aquila cross-media initiative.
- [Programmatic Guaranteed](https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/programmatic-guaranteed/) — Programmatic guaranteed (PG) is the deal type that pairs the workflow automation of programmatic with the inventory commitment and fixed CPM of an upfront — the dominant transaction shape for premium CTV inventory where supply is finite and sellers refuse to expose it to open auction.
- [Server-Side Ad Insertion](https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/ssai-server-side-ad-insertion/) — Server-side ad insertion (SSAI) is the streaming-video plumbing that splices ads into the same video manifest as the content, server-side, before bytes reach the device. It is the foundational primitive that makes CTV, AVOD, and FAST monetization possible at broadcast quality.
- [Sports Rights Fragmentation](https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/sports-rights-fragmentation/) — The structural shift breaking up U.S. sports rights — NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, NCAA — across an expanding mix of streamers, broadcast networks, vMVPDs, and league-direct apps. The 2026 cycle is the first season the consequences are visible end-to-end at the household, the ad market, and the antitrust desk.