The Trade Desk Ventura: When Efficiency Calls
An analysis of The Trade Desk's strategy to create a CTV operating system
Trey Titone
November 21, 2024
The Trade Desk finally confirmed it is working on a CTV operating system following rumors and leaks that preceded the official announcement. The operating system, called Ventura, allegedly will solve some lofty goals:
"Ventura represents a major advance in streaming TV operating systems as it solves key issues with prevailing market systems today, including frustrating user experiences, inefficient advertising supply chains, and content conflicts-of-interest."
I wrote about why I think The Trade Desk would build a TV operating system back when the rumor dropped in September — and my thoughts in that article still hold today. However, I have learned some new details after listening to an interview with The Trade Desk's Founder & CEO, Jeff Green, about Ventura.
Jeff Green joined The Current podcast (owned by The Trade Desk) to discuss Ventura. Given the obvious conflict of interest in The Trade Desk's owned and operated podcast essentially interviewing itself, I didn't expect any juicy new details. Surprisingly, Jeff Green shared some practical insight into why they chose to build a new CTV operating system.
I will share the most insightful quotes from the podcast and my takeaways. I timestamped each quote so you can jump to the relevant part of the interview to hear Green's complete answers.
You will notice that the conversation surfaces some recurring themes, so some quotes appear out of order as I attempt to craft a linear narrative. It begins with the problem TTD identified and then focuses on the different players in a given CTV transaction: Publishers, Advertisers, Consumers, and OEMs.
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