Pixalate Blog

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

Written by Pixalate | Apr 14, 2026 1:00:00 PM

According to Pixalate research, ‘Proxy’ accounts for 42% of invalid traffic globally on Roku, 69% on Samsung Smart TV and 50% on LG Smart TV

LONDON, April 14, 2026 -- Pixalate, an ad fraud and privacy compliance platform, today released the March 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.

Pixalate’s data science team analyzed over 887 million open programmatic advertising impressions across 4,000 CTV apps during the last two weeks of March 2026.

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

Roku

  1. Proxy 42%
  2. High Risk Device ID 18%
  3. App Spoofing 17%
  4. IP Obfuscation 5%
  5. Masked IP 5%

Samsung Smart TV

  1. Proxy 69%
  2. High Risk Device ID 20%
  3. Datacenter Proxy 3%
  4. Device ID Stuffing 2%
  5. Masked IP 1%

 

LG Smart TV

  1. Proxy 50%
  2. App Spoofing 16%
  3. High Risk Device ID 14%
  4. High Risk Domain 7%
  5. Datacenter Proxy 5%

 

Apple TV

  1. App Spoofing 75%
  2. Proxy 15%
  3. High Risk Device ID 5%
  4. Masked IP 1%
  5. High Risk IP <1%

 

Amazon Fire TV

  1. App Spoofing 43%
  2. Proxy 34%
  3. High Risk Device ID 16%
  4. Device ID Stuffing 1%
  5. High Risk IP 1%

 

Top CTV 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.”