This week's review of ad fraud and quality in the digital advertising space.
The Super Bowl had 96.4 million viewers across all platforms, according to eMarketer (via Nielsen data). It was the least-watched Super Bowl in 14 years. "One bright spot, however, was CBS’s streaming audience—there was a record-setting 5.7 million viewers, a 65% increase from last year," eMarketer noted.
While CTV devices like Roku and Amazon Fire TV remain the primary ways in which people stream TV, Digiday reports that smart TV markers are "beginning to challenge those companies’ dominance over the connected TV screen, attracting more attention from audiences as well as streaming services and advertisers."
Google's YouTube has received MRC accreditation for brand safety. Yahoo Finance reports that YouTube "effectively protects its advertisers from appearing on content deemed inappropriate for paid ads" and that Google is "committed to remaining at least 99% effective at making sure ad placements on YouTube are brand safe."