Pixalate Releases Q2 2026 CTV Seller Trust Index 2.0: Less Than 1% of CTV Inventory In US Resold Through Arbitrage, Lowest of Any Channel; Magnite, Google AdExchange, OpenX Among Top-Ranked 'Direct' Sellers

Pixalate’s CTV STI 2.0 rates sellers by arbitrage risk and invalid traffic (ad fraud) risk across Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Samsung TV in the United States; Google AdExchange, Magnite, OpenX, Xandr Monetize among leaders

LONDON, Aug. 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pixalate, an ad fraud and privacy compliance platform, today released the Q2 2026 Connected TV (CTV) Seller Trust Index (STI) 2.0 rankings. The CTV STI 2.0 ranks 125+ open programmatic CTV ad sellers across Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Samsung TV, and LG Smart TV in the United States. The index is free, public, and updated quarterly.

For each seller, the model measures:

• What Sellers Claim: How many publishers selling ads list the seller as DIRECT in their app-ads.txt file, as detected by Pixalate
• Verification of Seller Claims: The scale and ratio of a seller’s impressions that actually flowed through an authorized-direct path, per Pixalate’s SupplyChain Object (SCO) analysis
• Seller Arbitrage Risk: Independent Pixalate risk rating for selling >50% of inventory as a reseller, according to Pixalate’s SCO analysis
  
  

Arbitrage Trends in CTV (Q2 2026)
In CTV, 0.7% of ranked U.S. inventory was resold rather than sold publisher-direct in Q2 2026, by far the lowest of any channel (web: 15.3%; mobile: 15.2%).

Only 2 of 195 ranked seller listings — about 1%, down from 8% in Q1 — were primarily arbitrageurs, and no ranked seller on Roku, Apple TV, or LG Smart TV resold more than half of its measured inventory.

Q2 2026 CTV Seller Trust Index 2.0: Top Sellers in United States
The following tables show the top-ranked sellers in the United States based on CTV Seller Trust Index scores for Q2 2026. Full rankings for all 5 CTV platforms are available at pixalate.com.

Roku

Amazon Fire TV

Apple TV

Samsung TV

CTV Seller Trust Index 2.0 Metrics
The following metrics are disclosed for each seller on each platform:

Seller overall rankings are a composite score based on Arbitraged Inventory Ratio, DIRECT Publisher Penetration, and Authorized-Direct Volume.

CTV Arbitrage by Platform: Percentage of SSPs That Are Primarily Resellers
The following table shows the share of CTV SSPs ranked on the STI 2.0 on each platform that are primarily resellers in the United States — meaning over half of their measured impressions were not delivered through an authorized-direct path, as assessed by Pixalate.

Download CTV Seller Trust Index
The Pixalate Seller Trust Index ratings are free and open to the public. See the full Q2 2026 CTV Seller Trust Index ratings at pixalate.com.

Pixalate also publishes the Mobile Seller Trust Index and Web Seller Trust Index.

About Pixalate
Pixalate is a global platform specializing in privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and digital ad supply chain data intelligence. Founded in 2012 and recognized by UNICEF as a “key innovator” for children’s online privacy, 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 Seller Trust Indexes (collectively, the “Indexes”), reflect Pixalate’s opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes may be useful to the digital media industry. As cited in the Indexes, the ratings and rankings in the Indexes are based on a number of metrics and Pixalate’s opinions regarding the relative performance of each seller with respect to the metrics. The data is derived from buy-side, predominantly open auction, programmatic advertising transactions, as measured by Pixalate. Any references to outside sources in the Indexes and herein should not be construed as endorsements. Pixalate’s opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees; and neither this press release nor the Indexes are intended to impugn the standing or reputation of any person, entity or app.

IVT rates and scores derived from each vendor’s own proprietary methods and independent analysis may depict differing results and opinions across measurement providers. Any party’s reliance on Pixalate’s Indexes, rankings, IVT opinions, or related data is entirely at that party’s own risk. Pixalate makes no guarantees, representations, or warranties — express or implied — regarding the accuracy, completeness, or applicability of its opinions or data to any particular purpose or circumstance.

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. Also per the 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.”

All company, product, and service names referenced herein, including but not limited to Google AdExchange, OpenX, Magnite, Xandr Monetize, are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Use of these names does not imply any affiliation with, sponsorship by, or endorsement from the trademark holders. References to these companies are for identification purposes only, in connection with Pixalate's independent analysis of publicly observable programmatic advertising data.

press@pixalate.com