Pump The Brakes
Can FAST be too fast? As in, there’s been a FAST revolution, but can it last?
That’s the question posed in a report by Puck.
FAST channels have immense appeal. Not only are they free for viewers, but they have huge libraries for everything from “Judge Judy” and “Westworld” to “Portlandia” and “Peppa Pig” powering ad-supported channels that simply run all day long. Many streaming services and TV manufacturers are happy to carry these channels and share in the ad revenue.
It’s also a big opportunity for smaller, niche players. For example, there are whole channels dedicated to game and sport fishing, timbersports and pickleball. Yay, fun! For pickleball fans, at least.
There’s a dark side, however. The explosion of FAST programming has led to a worrisome glut of supply – which sounds counterintuitive. Don’t buyers want more supply?
The problem is that FAST supply is undisclosed at the impression level. Linear TV may seem outdated, but at least those advertisers knew when their ads ran and during or between which shows.
But FAST advertisers don’t get to know, and they’re left with a nagging question: If the data is so great and FAST inventory so premium, why can’t they see it?
Bot-Supported Streaming
Streaming TV viewers must constantly choose between higher subscription fees, watching with ads or both.
Well, now there’s a new option: Renting out your device and IP address as a residential proxy for bot crawlers.
Web data aggregator Bright Data works with streaming app publishers looking for new revenue streams. If a publisher integrates Bright Data’s SDK, viewers who download its app to their smart TV can opt into hiding bot activity using their home IP – in exchange for ad-free streaming.
Bright Data supports publishers using Samsung’s Tizen and LG’s webOS platforms, and has published 200 apps to LG’s app store, writes tech reporter Janko Roettgers in his Lowpass newsletter. The company says it operates 150 million residential proxies.
To be clear, Bright Data’s business is legal, akin to using a VPN to mask your IP address. And the company tells Roettgers it only supports legitimate bot crawling, such as for web archiving, academic research, helping reporters and – of course – to train AI models.
But residential proxies are a common way for bot crawlers to hide from IVT detection. And they also circumvent blocklists of known bot IP addresses, like the IAB Tech Lab’s Spiders & Bots List.
So not only do services like Bright Data help viewers avoid ads; they also make it harder to avoid serving ads to bots.
The Genisys Of IVT
Speaking of IVT, IAS recently uncovered a fraud network that sent invalid traffic from 25 million mobile devices to 500 AI-generated web domains.
The scheme, which IAS dubbed “Genisys,” was propagated via dozens of infected apps promoted in mobile app stores, Adweek reports. Once a user downloaded one of these unassuming apps – including QR code scanners and PDF readers – the app would hijack their device to manufacture fraudulent activity.
The hijacked device would send traffic to AI-generated sites that were apparently created to monetize the IVT with ads. The apps would also misrepresent their bundle IDs, making it appear to advertisers that the traffic came from apps like Netflix and Instagram.
IAS did not estimate the ad spend associated with this IVT, but it says the traffic generated millions of invalid bid requests.
After working with IAS to uncover the scheme, Google removed at least 115 infected apps from the Google Play Store, which the companies say reduced the fraudulent bid requests by 95%.
Call it good PR for IAS and Google. But catching this kind of IVT is a never-ending game of Whac-A-Mole. Novel tech is often accompanied by novel types of fraud, and generative AI is the latest innovation that makes it easier to create apps and websites to launder such schemes.
But Wait! There’s More!
Paramount Skydance seems set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery after the WBD board deemed Paramount’s new offer “superior” and Netflix declined to raise its bid. [Variety]
Does The Trade Desk need to buy a retail data platform to stay competitive? [Next In Media]
Google plans to tweak its search results layout to spotlight more competitors, complying with last year’s EU antitrust ruling. [The Verge]
Big Tech companies will likely borrow tens – and in some cases hundreds – of billions of dollars to invest in AI data centers. [The Information]
Regulators from 61 countries (but not the US) signed a joint statement backing the enforcement of privacy laws against companies that enable the use of generative AI for creating nonconsensual deepfakes. [Tech Policy Press]
The European Parliament calls for pushback against US sanctions on four European regulators who were targeted as retaliation for recent Digital Services Act penalties against American companies. [Tech Policy Press]
You’re Hired!
Permutive hires former Audigent marketing chief Dave Rosner as CMO. [release]
The Brandtech Group names three new country heads to accelerate AI adoption among brand marketers. [release]
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