Netflix paved the way for the OTT explosion, but subscription fatigue is starting to set in with consumers. And this is presenting a huge opportunity for ad-supported services like Hulu and Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV Services like Pluto, or FASTs as fellow TV[R]EV analyst Alan Wolk refers to them. 

Ad spend is expected to hit $5B by 2020, and brands are flocking to OTT to capitalize on the granular digital-esque targeting capabilities… But brands beware, because a recent study from advanced TV ad solutions company MadHive shows that 18% of OTT inventory is fraudulent. And worst of all, the predominant methods of fraud mirror that of digital. So, before you go throwing dollars at the hot new platform, make sure you have a way to identify and eliminate the crap.

Check out our video deep dive on the topic:

And here is a more in-depth look at the specific types of fraud and what to watch out for when executing an OTT ad buy: 

1) Misrepresentation: this refers to the inventory being sold and the data associated with it. For example, a fraudulent arbitrager is selling ads they claim are being shown to users in the US, but the ad is actually shown to a device in non-US countries.

2) Device-based fraud: this is when a single device shows a very high number of ads during a given time period, for example, 50 ads in a minute. 

3) App-based fraud: this occurs when the same ad-supported OTT app shows a very high rate of activity around the clock.

Header image by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash