Everyone wants more transparency in CTV.
With that in mind, today—timed to the NewFronts—DoubleVerify and Charter’s Spectrum Reach have announced a partnership to plug the gap. Spectrum Reach will join DV’s Certified Transparent Streaming program as its first partner, which lets publishers share verified program- and episode-level data through a clean room environment.
DV certifies that the data is accurate and compliant, and it’s then used to help advertisers measure and optimize campaigns.
Why This Matters:
Fragmentation across platforms—each with its own data policies—has made transparency in streaming difficult. Advertisers may know which apps or platforms their campaigns ran on at a high level, but getting down to the specific program or episode has been much harder.
Still, they (very understandably) want this specificity. Last year, a global survey of nearly 2,000 marketers found that nearly 70% say they need better transparency to justify the high and growing cost of CTV advertising, including visibility into exactly where their ads are running. Basically, if you buy something, you should know “what you’re getting.”
That’s what DV and Spectrum are aiming to address by making more granular data available. According to the announcement press release, Spectrum Reach will “share key show-level data across their programming including news and live sports, spanning both direct IO and programmatic buying.”
The data will be available through DV Authentic Streaming, the company’s platform launched at CES, designed to give CTV and streaming advertisers more transparency and control over how they buy media. DV also announced an IMDb data integration tied to that launch, allowing advertisers to evaluate inventory based on factors like show rating, air date, and overall content alignment.
Taken together, this points to a broader push from DV to bring more visibility into what has historically been a black box for CTV buyers.
Experts React:
In December, Todd Randak, GM of CTV at DV, published a blog post calling for greater accountability in CTV. Here’s a useful excerpt given today’s news:
We invite platforms, publishers, agencies, and measurement partners to join us in building a streaming ecosystem that is regulatory-compliant, measurable, open, and accountable.
Transparency is not only beneficial for measurement but also essential for the long-term health of the streaming industry.
Our Take:
This partnership reflects a broader shift in streaming ad buying. As spend increases, advertisers want more visibility into where their ads actually run, and how that impacts performance. Obviously, you need the former for the latter.
The more granular the reporting, the better the decision-making on the other side. Moving from app-level to program- and episode-level insight isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore. As spending goes up across the category, it’s quickly becoming table stakes. Whoever can enable or facilitate that wins.
AdTechRadar is owned by Chris Harihar, who leads PR at Mod Op. DoubleVerify is a Mod Op client.
