Collaboration continues to drive a substantial drop in falsified ad impressions mimicking Roku device traffic, strengthening transparency and accountability for advertisers

DoubleVerify ("DV") (NYSE: DV), a leading software platform to verify media quality, optimize ad performance, and prove campaign outcomes, and Roku, Inc. (“Roku”) (NASDAQ: ROKU), today announced new milestones and insights from their two-year collaboration to protect connected TV (CTV) advertising.

According to DV’s recently released report, Global Insights: Trends in the Modern Streaming Landscape, the ad industry continues to grapple with fraudsters targeting streaming environments that lack strong security measures. The scale of this problem is staggering, with 4 million infected CTV bot devices generating extreme volumes of invalid traffic daily. This relentless wave of bot activity can lead to wasted budgets, with losses exceeding $7.5 million monthly from just one bot variant, based on industry CPM estimations. This rise of falsification schemes underscores the need for enhanced protection measures across the CTV advertising ecosystem.

Since 2023, DV and Roku have partnered to block billions of fraudulent ad requests imitating Roku device traffic across the streaming ecosystem. This marked reduction—standing in sharp contrast to broader industry trends—demonstrates the effectiveness of DV and Roku’s combined technologies, including Roku’s proprietary Advertising Watermark, which ensures inventory authenticity and curbs invalid traffic (IVT) at scale.

“CTV remains one of the fastest-growing channels in digital advertising and, unfortunately, one of the most targeted by fraudsters due to high CPMs and the relative newness of the ecosystem,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify. “Our work with Roku shows how proactive, collaborative innovation can deliver real, measurable results for advertisers. And this is just the beginning—by the end of 2025, DV will be rolling out new advancements designed to bring even greater trust and performance to CTV.”

One of the more effective ways to block fake CTV ad impressions that falsely claim to be generated by Roku devices has been Roku’s Advertising Watermark. Roku’s Advertising Watermark is designed to ensure that only genuine Roku devices can display authenticated ads, providing an additional layer of protection against device spoofing and other falsification schemes.

“Our Advertising Watermark technology is instrumental in combating device and app spoofing,” said James Kelm, VP of Product, Advertising and Media, Roku. “Our partnership with DV enhances our collective capabilities to secure the TV streaming advertising ecosystem. Together, we are committed to ensuring transparency, accountability, and confidence for advertisers and partners.”

DV’s Fraud Lab leverages Roku’s proprietary Advertising Watermark technology and DV’s cutting-edge technology to mitigate ad fraud and support Roku’s efforts. DV and Roku have a strong track record of working together to combat major ad fraud schemes:

• Starting in 2022, they collaborated to shut down SmokeScreen, a sophisticated CTV ad fraud operation that used screensaver apps to generate fake ad impressions in the background. For a year, DV and Roku investigated the group of apps involved and used signals from Roku’s Advertising Watermark to reveal key technical details about how the scheme operated.
• From 2023 to 2024, DV also uncovered and mitigated CycloneBot, one of the largest CTV ad fraud schemes ever detected, which generated up to 250 million fake ad requests daily and employed advanced evasion techniques. DV’s early collaboration with Roku and its Fraud Lab played a critical role in dismantling CycloneBot, leveraging insights and signals from Roku’s Advertising Watermark.

DV and Roku’s partnership also extends beyond fraud protection, with measurement capabilities on Roku's home screen and native formats—allowing an effective way for advertisers to reach their audience on the largest screen within the household.

About DoubleVerify

DoubleVerify (“DV”) (NYSE: DV) is the industry’s leading media effectiveness platform that leverages AI to drive superior outcomes for global brands. By powering media efficiency and performance, DV strengthens the online advertising ecosystem, preserving the fair value exchange between buyers and sellers of digital media. Learn more at www.doubleverify.com.

About Roku

Roku pioneered streaming on TV. We connect users to the content they love, enable content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and provide advertisers with unique capabilities to engage consumers. Roku-made TVs, Roku TV™ models, Roku streaming players, and TV-related audio devices are available in various countries around the world through direct retail sales and/or licensing arrangements with TV OEM brands. Roku Smart Home products are sold exclusively in the United States. Roku also operates The Roku Channel, the home of free and premium entertainment with exclusive access to Roku Originals, and the #2 app on our platform in the U.S. by streaming hours. The Roku Channel is available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Roku is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., U.S.A.

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