Ads Playing on Streaming Services While TV Is Off Waste Brands $1 Billion Per Year

Even if the TV is turned off, commercials might still play on ad-supported streaming services, wasting brands about $1 billion per year, new research from GroupM and iSpot found. On average, 8-10% of overall streaming impressions were delivered when the TV was off. However, that statistic jumps to 17% when looking solely at impressions delivered through CTV streaming devices like dongles, sticks and gaming consoles. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the news. This happens because a signal isn’t necessarily sent to a streaming device through the HDMI port when a TV is turned off, meaning the show (and ads) will keep playing unless users exit or pause the app. On the other hand, native smart TV apps—which account for about 50% of all CTV viewing—had “virtually no incidence” of the same issue. GroupM Unveils New Standards for Partners to Bridge the Measurement Gap "One of the most important findings was that there are dramatic variances in rates of continuous play, driven by the combination of TV set model, streaming device and publisher app being used," said Adam Gerber, executive director, investment strategy for GroupM U.S., in a statement. "This is one of many measurement challenges facing the industry as consumption continues to fragment across device, time and location. These realities make a unified industry initiative to set standards and measurement solutions that are much more urgent. It is part of a larger need to ensure that measurement accurately reflects the number of people who have the opportunity to see an ad." The study was conducted across 20 million Vizio smart TVs for six months last year. GroupM and iSpot are partnering for a second ongoing measurement phase with an expanded data set. Additionally, ads were more likely to be shown after the TV was turned off when it came to free AVOD content like Tubi and Pluto versus on-demand content. "Efforts around continuous play represent efforts to continuously improve the connected TV advertising marketplace, and we are in full support. Tubi and Fox have been researching and taking steps to improve this along with our device partners, and we were excited when we learned about GroupM and iSpot's approach,” said Mark Rotblat, CRO of Tubi, in a statement. “We have committed to working in partnership, as this will take all parties from TV OEMs to connected devices, to apps, measurement services and buyers, in order to most effectively understand and address the occurrence of continuous play." GroupM unveiled a new standard for its audience measurement partners, and iSpot developed a product called iSpot CTV Verification that measures continuous play incidence at the campaign level, which GroupM will have access to during its beta period before it goes wide to the marketplace. Companies including Disney, Fox/Tubi, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Vizio and Warner Bros. Discovery have committed to working with agencies and advertisers on the new standard to create a streamlined measurement framework. The study comes following research from GroupM that found TV ad spend is expected to grow 4% in 2022 and become more global in nature. Connected TV+ advertising is estimated at $21 billion in 2022, up 24% from last year and making up 12% of all global TV spend. GroupM attributes this to a growing number of streaming platforms—including Pluto, Tubi and Roku—attracting money that would otherwise have gone into digital channels.