Pixalate Blog

Pixalate's April 2026 Most Common Programmatic Ad Fraud Types in CTV Apps

Written by Pixalate | May 5, 2026 1:00:00 PM

According to Pixalate research, ‘Proxy’ accounts for 67% of invalid traffic globally on Samsung Smart TV and 45% on LG Smart TV

LONDON, May 5, 2026 -- Pixalate, an ad fraud and privacy compliance platform, today released the April 2026 Most Common Connected TV (CTV) Apps Ad Fraud Types Report. The report examines the most common types of invalid traffic (IVT) found globally on Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, LG Smart TV, and Samsung Smart TV CTV apps.

Pixalate’s data science team analyzed over 2 billion open programmatic advertising impressions across 4,000 CTV apps during the month of April 2026.

Top 5 CTV IVT Types by Platform (Global IVT SOV):

Roku

IVT Type

IVT Share of Voice (SOV) - April 2026

App Spoofing

25%

High Risk Device ID

24%

Proxy

23%

High Risk IP

8%

IP Obfuscation

5%

 

Samsung Smart TV

IVT Type

IVT Share of Voice (SOV) - April 2026

Proxy

67%

High Risk Device ID

19%

Datacenter Proxy

4%

App Spoofing

3%

Device ID Stuffing

2%

 

LG Smart TV

IVT Type

IVT Share of Voice (SOV) - April 2026

Proxy

45%

High Risk Device ID

19%

High Risk Domain

13%

Datacenter Proxy

8%

Device ID Stuffing

6%

 

Apple TV

IVT Type

IVT Share of Voice (SOV) - April 2026

App Spoofing

73%

Proxy

15%

High Risk Device ID

6%

High Risk IP

2%

Datacenter

1%

 

Amazon Fire TV

IVT Type

IVT Share of Voice (SOV) - April 2026

App Spoofing

37%

High Risk Device ID

33%

Proxy

13%

Device ID Stuffing

4%

High Risk IP

3%

 

Download the April 2026 Top Ad Fraud Types by Platform:

        

    

 

About Pixalate

Pixalate is a global platform specializing in privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and digital ad supply chain data intelligence. Founded in 2012, Pixalate is trusted by regulators, data researchers, advertisers, publishers, ad tech platforms, and financial analysts across the Connected TV (CTV), mobile app, and website ecosystems. Pixalate is accredited by the MRC for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT).  pixalate.com

Disclaimer

The content of this press release, and the CTV’s Most Common Ad Fraud and IVT Types Report, reflects Pixalate’s opinions with respect to the factors that Pixalate believes can be useful to the digital media industry. Any data shared is grounded in Pixalate’s proprietary technology and analytics, which Pixalate is continuously evaluating and updating. Any references to outside sources should not be construed as endorsements. Pixalate’s opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees. Pixalate is sharing this data not to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but, instead, to report findings and trends pertaining to the time period studied. Per the Media Rating Council (MRC), “‘Invalid Traffic’ is defined generally as traffic that does not meet certain ad serving quality or completeness criteria, or otherwise does not represent legitimate ad traffic that should be included in measurement counts. Among the reasons why ad traffic may be deemed invalid is it is a result of non-human traffic (spiders, bots, etc.), or activity designed to produce fraudulent traffic.” Where the traffic characteristics are suggestive of deliberate intent to mislead, such IVT is often referred to as “ad fraud.” Also per the MRC, “'Fraud' is not intended to represent fraud as defined in various laws, statutes and ordinances or as conventionally used in U.S. Court or other legal proceedings, but rather a custom definition strictly for advertising measurement purposes.”