A new analysis of more than 11 million ad impressions from 51Degrees, has revealed that nearly 5% of inventory sold as CTV is incorrectly labelled, artificially inflating the value of lower priced digital ad space.  Whether through fraud or accident, the findings mean that advertisers are overpaying for CTV inventory by nearly USD$2bn (£1.5bn) globally (Emarketer).

The research from precision data and technology business 51Degrees looked at 11.03 million OpenRTB ad impressions with a relevant device type ad signal between 15^th-20^th May 2026 and found that 4.92% of those that were labelled with the CTV signal were in fact lower value, non-CTV inventory.  By comparison, just 0.18% of traffic with an Ad Signal present was CTV inventory wrongly labelled as not CTV.

The research used 51Degree’s fast, accurate and efficient Device Detection capabilities to provide an independent classification of the device being used to consume the advertising impression and compared this with its OpenRTB specification label to verify its accuracy.

With CTV inventory commanding a significantly higher CPM than standard video, the mislabelling is inflating prices for advertisers whilst giving publishers who are misrepresenting their inventory a significant and unfair revenue uplift.  

James Rosewell, CEO of 51Degrees, said: "Accurately identifying CTV inventory should be straightforward so anyone misrepresenting non-CTV as CTV is likely doing so fraudulently.  Advertisers are effectively overpaying for their CTV impressions by up to 5% based on the fact that they’re unknowingly buying a lot of lesser value inventory in their media buys."

"CTV is a fast growing sector of the ad market and wherever there’s growth there’s fraud! Whether you’re a publisher, SSP or DSP it's a simple matter to use Device Detection to accurately and cost-effectively identify the device on which advertising is being consumed, and with USD$2bn (£1.5bn) on the table that investment will be more than justified."

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51Degrees helps businesses understand every device that visits their website, so they can serve the right experience, protect their ad revenue and make decisions based on accurate data....

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