Never underestimate the power of denial.
Speaking of, despite CEO Jeff Green’s denial about building a smart TV offering, a new report released earlier today suggests The Trade Desk is, indeed, developing one with home sound system company, Sonos. Sonos would handle the hardware while The Trade Desk builds the OS.
Following the report’s release a few hours ago, more industry insiders have now weighed in, commenting on the rumors and sharing additional context.
Why This Matters:
According to a LinkedIn post by Viant co-founder and COO, Chris Vanderhook, “Insiders have known about TTD’s TV OS for the last 2 years. It’s called Project Bridgewater.” He also refers to the project as “evil genius,” noting that The Trade Desk, a proponent of the open internet, “wants to turn it into their own walled garden.”
Ari Paparo also confirmed the project’s code name in a tweet: “Can confirm the project name is Bridgewater. Presumably because it is a hedge against TV platforms.”
So, Project Bridgewater we shall call it, at least for now.
Experts React:
Here are some of the most interesting reactions to the news (today’s report and the previous one) from peeps across the industry:
Our Take:
Our take hasn’t changed much since earlier today. It will be interesting, however, to see how The Trade Desk manages today’s report moving forward. Perhaps Green thought the denial would kill the story. Clearly, though, between the report by Lowpass and some industry comments, it’s sticking around for now.
