The Trade Desk is working on its own smart TV OS: report
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The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD), a pillar of the advertising technology space, is reportedly secretly working on plans to expand its footprint via the base guts of smart TVs themselves.
The company has been working on its own smart television operating system, according to the news site Lowpass. That work started during the pandemic with the help of dozens of employees, some of which formerly worked for Roku (ROKU).
A Trade Desk smart TV OS could be licensed to device makers as an alternative to Google TV (GOOG) (GOOGL), Amazon’s Fire TV (AMZN) or Roku (ROKU) — not to mention custom systems from hardware markers including LG, Hisense, Samsung (OTCPK:SSNLF) and soon Vizio (VZIO), headed for acquisition by Walmart (WMT).
Xumo, the joint streaming venture from Comcast (CMCSA) and Charter (CHTR), is also looking to lure TV makers to its system.
It’s a move for The Trade Desk to avoid getting shut out of the lucrative smart TV ad market by platform operators like Roku pushing for their own ownership of ad sales on the platform, according to the report — and The Trade Desk is looking to elbow into the space with more advantageous revenue sharing and interface customization.