The Trade Desk pitches Ventura TV OS as neutral OEM revenue partner

The Trade Desk is positioning Ventura as the 'Switzerland' of operating systems, directly challenging the vertical integration of market leaders. By removing the conflict of interest inherent in owning both the OS and a content service, Ventura appeals to OEMs who feel sidelined by the economic dominance of Google and Amazon. For the broader ecosystem, this marks a shift where the OS is treated as infrastructure for ad-tech transparency (via UID2 and OpenPath) rather than a vehicle for proprietary content. Success depends on whether independent hardware makers value revenue-share margins over the pre-built ecosystem scale offered by established tech giants. Watch for OEM adoption announcements at CES 2027 to gauge market traction.

The entry of The Trade Desk into the OS market follows years of increasing platform concentration. Per Parks Associates in April 2026, the U.S. market remains dominated by a small group of players, with Roku OS holding a 28% share and Samsung’s Tizen OS following at 23%. These leaders manage the critical layers of ad inventory and data collection, often prioritizing their own FAST services—such as Samsung TV Plus—to drive high-margin monetization. This dynamic has led to what analysts describe as a 'conflict of interest' for OEMs who must distribute a competitor's content to maintain a modern interface.

In early 2026, The Trade Desk expanded its strategy by launching the 'Ventura Ecosystem.' According to StreamTV Insider, this initiative allows independent OS providers to access Ventura’s monetization tools without fully adopting the OS. The first major collaborators include Nexxen and V (formerly VIDAA), the latter of which powers over 50 million devices globally for brands like Hisense and Toshiba. This modular approach suggests The Trade Desk is less interested in hardware control and more focused on embedding its ad-tech stack, including Unified ID 2.0 and OpenPath, as the standard infrastructure for the open internet.

Financially, the push into CTV infrastructure is a response to maturing growth in the DSP sector. While The Trade Desk reported $2.89 billion in 2025 revenue, an 18% year-over-year increase, analysts from Zacks noted in February 2026 that this represents a slowdown from previous quarters. By owning the OS layer, the company aims to bypass 'middleman' costs and capture a higher percentage of the growing programmatic CTV market, which reached an estimated $38.3 billion globally in 2024 per recent industry spending reports.