The Trade Desk’s CTV operating system faces an uphill battle for adoption

The news: The Trade Desk (TTD) is creating an operating system for connected TVs (CTV) named Ventura to be launched in the second half of 2025, it said in an interview with Axios.

• Ventura will use Unified ID 2.0, TTD’s post-cookie privacy framework.
• The news follows reporting from Ad Age in September that TTD could also seek to acquire a smart TV manufacturer—something the company denied outright in its announcement.

Zooming out: TTD operates one of the leading demand-side platforms (DSP) that manages inventory for a variety of ad formats. CTV makes up nearly half of the company’s revenues, per its most recent earnings report. It has partnerships with Disney and Roku to offer their sought-after ad inventory on its platform.

• CEO Jeff Green told Axios the company’s entry into the operating system market will help create a more equitable CTV ad landscape since TTD doesn’t produce any content that it would have an interest in promoting.
• Running its own operating system would give TTD greater control in the CTV ad market and allow it to dictate pricing.

The path to adoption: Since the company has “no intention of getting into the hardware business,” TTD faces an uphill battle in getting manufacturers to use Ventura.

• The new system will see TTD get more directly involved with the CTV advertising space and thrust it into direct competition with Amazon and Roku, the two leading smart TV manufacturers in the US, and others who have their own operating systems.
• Those companies have no incentive to pivot away from their own platforms. Instead, TTD will have to forge relationships with smaller manufacturers like Sonos, Panasonic, and others to establish an install base. Manufacturers without their own ad tech can rely on Ventura to build their advertising businesses.
• TTD isn’t just focusing on TV manufacturers. Green said it is also hoping to partner with airlines, hotel chains, and video game console manufacturers to bring its operating system to their screens and help them scale their ad businesses. After Amazon and Roku, video game consoles are the most popular CTV device in the US, per Comscore.