When most people think about Connected TV advertising, they picture streaming platforms like Hulu, Tubi, or Pluto TV, not the televisions themselves.
But behind the content and ad platforms you see every day lies a quieter group of power players driving the CTV economy: OEMs, or Original Equipment Manufacturers.
These are the companies that build and sell Smart TVs, brands like Samsung, LG, Vizio, TCL, and Roku, and they play a far bigger role in CTV advertising than most marketers realize.
What Exactly Is an OEM?
In simple terms, an OEM is a hardware manufacturer that produces the television and the operating system it runs on.
Today's Smart TVs aren't just screens, they're digital ecosystems. Each OEM controls:
The TV's home screen interface
Its preinstalled streaming apps
The app store that determines what viewers can download
The data collected from user behavior across those environments
This means OEMs own not just the device, but the entry point to the streaming experience. That access gives them a unique and powerful position in the CTV advertising supply chain.
How OEMs Make Money From CTV
Historically, television manufacturers made profit from selling hardware. But Smart TVs changed that business model.
Now, OEMs make a significant share of their revenue from advertising, data licensing, and content partnerships.
Their monetization strategy includes:
Home Screen Advertising: Featured placements and sponsored tiles on the TV's main interface.
Programmatic Ad Sales: Selling inventory from owned or partner FAST channels through their own ad tech stack.
Data Licensing: Providing anonymized viewing data to advertisers and measurement partners.
Revenue Sharing: Taking a cut from transactions or ad impressions on third party streaming apps integrated into their platform.
In short, OEMs no longer just sell TVs, they sell access, attention, and data.
OEM Owned Ad Ecosystems
Nearly every major OEM now operates its own advertising platform, built to monetize both hardware and viewer data.
Examples include:
Samsung Ads: Powers ads across Samsung Smart TVs, Samsung TV Plus, and connected devices.
Vizio's Inscape & Vizio Ads: Collects Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) data and sells targeted ad inventory.
LG Ads Solutions: Offers global CTV and cross screen advertising based on Smart TV data.
Roku Advertising: Integrates with The Roku Channel, its massive ad supported streaming environment.
These platforms give OEMs end to end control: from device level data collection to ad delivery and reporting.
The Power of ACR Data
At the heart of OEM influence is Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), technology built into Smart TVs that detects what content is playing on the screen, regardless of source.
ACR can identify whether a viewer is watching Netflix, a cable box, a YouTube app, or even a game console.
This data provides:
Cross platform viewing behavior
Real time audience insights
Competitive intelligence (which brands or shows are being watched)
OEMs use ACR data to help advertisers target households based on actual viewing habits, something no single streaming app or network can provide on its own.
How OEMs Fit Into the Ad Supply Chain
OEMs sit at the top layer of the CTV stack, the layer closest to the viewer's screen.
Here's how they interact with the rest of the ecosystem:
OEMs control the Smart TV interface, app ecosystem, and ACR data.
Publishers (like Tubi, Pluto TV, or Peacock) stream content and insert ads into programming.
SSPs make ad inventory from these publishers available to buyers.
DSPs represent advertisers who bid on that inventory.
Measurement and Attribution Platforms use OEM data to verify who saw the ads and what actions followed.
Because OEMs own both the screen and the viewer data, they've become the connective tissue between devices, content, and ad tech, even when advertisers don't realize it.
Why OEMs Matter to Advertisers
OEMs have several unique advantages in the CTV ecosystem:
Device Level Data
They see everything that happens on the TV, not just within a single app. This allows for more complete audience measurement.
First Party Relationships
OEMs collect data directly from millions of Smart TVs, creating a privacy compliant but highly valuable dataset for targeting and attribution.
Premium Inventory Access
Many OEMs operate their own FAST channels or premium ad placements that can't be accessed through third party DSPs.
Cross Platform Insights
ACR data helps advertisers understand how CTV complements other channels like linear, mobile, or desktop.
For brands, OEM partnerships unlock more accurate reach, frequency, and performance measurement across the entire household viewing environment.
The Growing Trend of OEM Led Ad Sales
As OEMs expand their ad operations, they're becoming more than just hardware companies, they're evolving into media networks.
This shift mirrors what's happening in retail media: companies that once sold physical products are now monetizing digital attention and data.
In CTV, that means more OEMs are:
Building in house ad sales teams
Creating preferred programmatic deals with agencies and DSPs
Developing direct relationships with brands for exclusive sponsorships
The result is a new competitive layer in the CTV landscape, one where device makers are also major media owners.
Challenges and Considerations
While OEMs offer unmatched visibility and data access, their growing influence raises a few important considerations for advertisers:
Data Fragmentation: Each OEM has its own data standard, limiting cross platform consistency.
Walled Gardens: Some OEMs restrict data sharing or inventory access to their proprietary systems.
Transparency: Reporting structures and attribution models vary widely by platform.
As OEMs continue to expand, advertisers will need to balance the benefits of device level precision with the complexity of managing multiple ecosystems.
The Bottom Line
OEMs are no longer silent partners in the CTV world. They're active participants shaping how ads are delivered, measured, and monetized.
By controlling both the hardware and the data, OEMs sit at one of the most valuable intersections in modern advertising, where viewer behavior meets ad opportunity.
For marketers, understanding the hidden role of OEMs is essential to understanding how the CTV economy really operates. Because sometimes, the most influential players aren't the platforms we see, they're the screens we watch them on.