Directory · Technology

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

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

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

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

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.

ESPN

the walt disney company

ESPN is Disney's sports media brand, encompassing the linear cable networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, ESPN Deportes), the ESPN.com / ESPN App digital footprint, and the direct-to-consumer streaming services ESPN+ ($11.99/mo) and ESPN Unlimited ($29.99/mo, launched August 21, 2025). The brand is the central node of Disney's Sports segment, which generated roughly $17.7 billion in FY2025 revenue.

ESPN Unlimited

the walt disney company

ESPN Unlimited is The Walt Disney Company's standalone direct-to-consumer streaming service for ESPN's full network portfolio, launched August 21, 2025 at $29.99 a month. It carries all 12 ESPN linear networks plus ESPN+ content, and sits above ESPN Select (the rebranded ESPN+ tier) in Disney's sports streaming stack.

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.

HBO Max

warner bros discovery

HBO Max is Warner Bros. Discovery's flagship subscription streaming service, combining HBO's premium-scripted catalog with Warner Bros. film and TV, Discovery non-fiction, and select live sports via TNT. Originally launched in 2020, rebranded to Max in 2023, and rebranded back to HBO Max on July 9, 2025.

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.

Kokai

the trade desk

Kokai is The Trade Desk's AI-assisted media-buying platform, introduced as the successor interface to the company's earlier DSP console.

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.

OpenPath

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OpenPath is The Trade Desk's direct buyer-to-publisher buying solution, launched February 2022, that lets advertisers bid on premium publisher inventory through Prebid without routing through a traditional SSP. It is the most visible expression of TTD's supply-path optimization strategy and a structural pressure point for SSPs like Magnite and PubMatic.

Paramount+

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Paramount+ is Paramount Skydance Corporation's flagship subscription streaming service, launched March 4, 2021 as a rebrand of CBS All Access. It anchors the company's direct-to-consumer business with two tiers (Essential ad-supported; Premium ad-free with Showtime), and carries CBS Sports inventory including the NFL on CBS and UFC. Slated to share a unified tech stack with Pluto TV by mid-2026.

Peacock

comcast corporation

NBCUniversal's flagship streaming service, owned by Comcast. Launched nationally July 15, 2020 with a free, ad-supported and premium tiered model; restructured to paid-only Select / Premium / Premium Plus tiers. Reached 46 million paid subscribers and crossed $2 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time in Q1 2026 on the back of NBA, Super Bowl LX, and the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

Pluto TV

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Pluto TV is one of the largest free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services globally, originally launched in 2014 and acquired by Viacom in 2019 for $340 million. It is now a Paramount Skydance Corporation (NASDAQ: PSKY) subsidiary and reaches roughly 68.6 million US viewers across more than 425 channels, with a backend integration onto a unified Paramount+ technology stack scheduled for mid-2026.

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

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

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.

The Roku Channel

roku

The Roku Channel is Roku's owned-and-operated free streaming hub: a FAST service with 500+ linear channels, an AVOD library of 80,000+ movies and shows, and a Premium Subscriptions marketplace that resells 55+ third-party services (Paramount+, HBO Max, Peacock, Showtime, Starz, AMC+, Shudder, Acorn TV) through a single Roku-billed login. Ad-supported is the core engine; Premium Subscriptions add a revenue-share layer.

Ventura Ecosystem

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Ventura Ecosystem is The Trade Desk's open CTV advertising framework launched Feb. 24, 2026, repositioning the original Ventura smart-TV OS as a collaboration layer across third-party operating systems. V (formerly VIDAA, Hisense's TV OS) and Nexxen joined as the first collaborators, gaining access to OpenPath, UID2/EUID, OpenAds, and OpenPass.

YouTube TV

alphabet

Alphabet's virtual MVPD, launched April 5, 2017. With more than 8 million subscribers as of YouTube CEO Neal Mohan's February 2024 update, it is the largest US vMVPD by paid subscribers, ahead of Hulu + Live TV. Holds the exclusive US distribution rights to NFL Sunday Ticket through a seven-year, roughly $2 billion-per-year deal that began in the 2023 NFL season.