Beachfront, a leading video supply-side platform, said that connected TV ad requests jumped to approximately 30 billion in November, 2018, a stunning 1,640% increase from November, 2017 when it received approximately 1.8 billion requests.
Beachfront works mainly with mid-tail and long-tail video providers as well as virtual MVPDs.

Roku continues to dominate, with Beachfront saying that 87% of CTV ad requests in November ’18 were on Roku devices. Trailing well behind were Amazon Fire TV, LG, Samsung TV, Vizio and Chromecast, in that order.

Frank Sinton, founder and president of Beachfront, told me that numerous factors are behind the surge. Of course connected TV devices have continued their rapid adoption in the past year, but Frank noted that with cord-cutting accelerating, subscriptions to virtual MVPDs like Fubo TV have increased creating more usage. In addition, discovery is getting better on CTVs, leading to users accessing many new apps that are often ad-supported. Frank also cited a spike in election-related activity.

Looking ahead, Frank is bullish on CTV advertising’s ongoing growth. The big hurdle to clear is measurement; Frank believes that once CTV measurement is firmed up to the satisfaction of both digital and TV buyers, even more demand will be unlocked.