Magnite and Tubi Partner to Bring Programmatic CTV Ads to SMBs
Magnite and Tubi are collaborating to enable small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to access CTV advertising through programmatic placement and AI-powered creative production, showcased at the recent L26 event. This initiative aims to lower the historical barriers of high cost and complex production for SMBs to advertise on television. Factors enabling this include generative AI reducing creative costs and programmatic distribution leveraging extensive CTV inventory for precise targeting.
Key Takeaways
- Magnite and Tubi showcased their SMB CTV ad framework at the recent L26 event.
- Generative AI reduces video ad production costs from $10,000-$15,000 and a month-long cycle to hundreds of dollars and minutes.
- Magnite's network includes 99% of CTV ad inventory, per Jounce Media, enabling broad reach for SMB campaigns.
- Tubi contributes access to 100 million monthly active users, allowing for targeted audience segments.
- Programmatic targeting helps address media waste, letting SMBs target specific audience segments, geographies, and content.
Why It Matters
This collaboration directly tackles two major barriers for SMBs — high production costs and inefficient ad distribution — by integrating AI-driven creative tools with programmatic CTV placement. By enabling more direct and affordable access to premium video inventory, the partnership expands the addressable market for CTV advertising. This move pressures other ad tech platforms and publishers to develop similarly streamlined solutions for SMBs, accelerating broader adoption of CTV advertising beyond large brands. Moving forward, watch for the adoption rates and return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) reported by SMBs utilizing these new tools, as well as competitive responses from other SSPs and streaming platforms.
Additional Context
Magnite is aggressively pursuing the SMB CTV market, with its acquisition of streamr.ai playing a central role (TVREV, September 2025). Streamr.ai, co-founded by Jonathan Moffie, who is now Magnite’s Head of Agentic Product, focuses on enabling broadcasters, ad tech platforms, and agencies to offer white-labeled AI-powered video creation tools to SMBs. This strategy aims to bring new advertisers into CTV through established partners, rather than Magnite engaging directly with individual SMBs. Magnite’s Chief Product Officer, Adam Soroca, emphasized that the acquisition was driven by streamr.ai’s use of AI models, workflow packaging, and team strength, noting that the goal is to lower the bar for sophisticated, big-screen advertising (TVREV, September 2025). The company has also been working to localize its streamr.ai platform, introducing compliance standards for markets like Canada, including regulatory and cultural nuances (Magnite Blog, February 2026). Separately, Magnite partnered with MNTN to open up live streaming ad inventory for SMBs, giving these advertisers access to premium live content, including sports and news, which was previously inaccessible due to high costs and complex buying processes (StreamTV Insider, February 2026). This further signals Magnite's intent to democratize access to high-value CTV inventory for a broader range of advertisers.
Read full article at localogy.com
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