We’ve reported on Project Bridgewater before—the rumored smart TV OS in development by The Trade Desk (TTD). Janko Roettgers first broke the news in August, and it was later kind of confirmed by Viant co-founder and COO Chris Vanderhook, as well as Ari Paparo. However, TTD CEO Jeff Green denied the rumor onstage at a conference saying “they’re wrong.”
Well, that denial didn’t last long.
About an hour ago, AdTech Congratulating Itself tweeted that The Trade Desk is “reporting big news tomorrow.” Naturally, we wondered if this could be the long-anticipated smart TV OS launch. After some quick Googling of “smart TV” and “The Trade Desk” (filtered to results from the last 24 hours), voilà:
We cracked it. It appears The Current—The Trade Desk’s owned media publication—has a placeholder link live for a Jeff Green article that will break or support the news. Here’s the link:
Clicking the link takes you to a page with no actual content but this headline: “Jeff Green on how The Trade Desk’s new OS can improve the CTV ecosystem.” See the screenshot below (in case link gets pulled):
So yes, it looks like TTD is gearing up to launch its smart TV OS imminently. And it will frame the OS as improving the CTV ecosystem.
Is this journalism?
Why This Matters:
A smart TV OS from The Trade Desk creates a new entrant in the smart TV ecosystem and would give TTD direct access to CTV data it currently doesn’t have. When Roettgers broke the story in August, he reported that “The Trade Desk has secured agreements with a number of major streaming services to participate on its platform.”
Per his report, former Roku staff have been working on the project, which started during the pandemic and is a kind of Android AOSP (Android Open Source Project), similar to Amazon’s Fire TV OS. TTD’s OS would also reportedly offer better monetization for OEMs.
Experts React:
In September, Trey Titone, in a deep dive on The Trade Desk’s rationale for developing a smart TV OS, wrote:
“The Trade Desk would want to develop a smart TV operating system for various reasons. Most of these motivations stem from fear of current operating system owners exerting too much control and implementing strategies counter to TTD’s goals.”
Our Take:
The Trade Desk is doubling down on CTV, and launching a smart TV OS is a bold and ambitious move to cement its presence in the space.
However, there are questions to address:
- If The Trade Desk controls a smart TV OS powered by its own content deals, how can it ensure partner inventory is targeted and measured independently?
- Will content partners need to integrate UID?
- And perhaps most crucially—will the OS actually be good?
Ultimately, consumers need to want to use this OS. Hardware success often hinges on strong software, and without compelling features, adoption could be a challenge. Also, will this initiative include the rumored Sonos standalone TV, or is this just about the OS?
Let’s see what happens tomorrow.
