On 10 June 2026, Samsung Ads announced that the home screen of every Samsung Smart TV globally will become available for programmatic purchase, starting in Q3 2026. This means UAE advertisers can now bid for the most valuable moment in connected TV — the second a viewer powers on their set — through The Trade Desk and Google Display & Video 360, using the same platforms they already use for display and video campaigns. The ad unit is non-skippable, appears before any app or content loads, and sits at the operating system level rather than inside a streaming service. It is premium inventory that has never before been accessible through automated buying.
Programmatic CTV advertising in the UAE is growing fast. Connected TV’s share of global media budgets doubled from 14% in 2023 to 28% in 2025, and globally programmatic CTV spend reached $36 billion last year — 71% of all CTV ad spend. Samsung alone reaches 88 million monthly active users through Samsung TV Plus across 25 or more countries, including the UAE. Until now, brands wanting that home screen placement had to negotiate a direct deal with Samsung’s sales team. As of Q3 2026, any advertiser on The Trade Desk or DV360 can bid for it automatically.
For UAE brands and their agencies, this is a meaningful new channel. The UAE digital advertising market is forecast to reach USD 3.71 billion in 2025, with the broader MENA digital advertising market projected to surpass USD 44.8 billion by 2032. CTV is one of the few premium formats that has remained largely walled off from self-serve buying. That wall just came down. Here is what you need to know.
In this article
What Samsung Announced on 10 June 2026
The announcement came from Samsung Ads and was reported across every major ad-tech publication on the same day. The headline is straightforward: Samsung’s native home screen ad units — the full-screen placements that appear the moment a viewer switches on their Samsung Smart TV — will be made available through programmatic channels beginning in Q3 2026.
The transaction layer powering both integrations is Magnite’s SpringServe ad server, which Samsung has adopted to manage home screen inventory. Two demand-side platforms launch in the first wave: The Trade Desk and Google Display & Video 360 (DV360). Additional DSP partnerships are expected to be announced before the Q3 rollout date.
Eldad Persky, SVP at Samsung Ads, framed the significance plainly: “By making this inventory available through the platforms advertisers already use, we’re giving brands easier access to premium, non-skippable placements.” Will Doherty, SVP at The Trade Desk, described it as “a major move in an untapped category” of premium home screen inventory.
The scale of the opportunity is real. Samsung is the world’s number-one TV brand by global shipments, with more than 77 million active Samsung Smart TV households worldwide. Samsung TV Plus, the free ad-supported streaming service built into Samsung sets, already reaches 88 million monthly active users. The home screen sits above all of that, on the OS itself, seen by every user before they launch any app or content. Until last Tuesday, you could only buy it by calling Samsung’s sales team directly.
How Programmatic CTV Home Screen Advertising Works
Through The Trade Desk and Google DV360, UAE advertisers can now bid on Samsung Smart TV home screen inventory in real time — the same workflow used for programmatic display and video, applied to the moment a viewer powers on their television.
Connected TV advertising has been growing at a pace that is outrunning most agencies’ buying strategies. The shift is structural: viewers moved from linear broadcast television to streaming apps on smart TVs, and advertising dollars are following. Global CTV advertising revenue is projected to nearly double from $44 billion in 2025 to $81 billion by 2030, according to Omdia. CTV is already forecast to exceed 40% of total global ad spending by that date.
Despite this growth, most CTV inventory has required direct negotiation with publishers, platforms, or TV OS owners. Programmatic access has been available on some in-app streaming inventory through platforms like The Trade Desk for some time, but premium OS-level placements have stayed behind closed doors. Netflix, Disney, and Amazon have each opened programmatic access to in-stream inventory in recent years. Samsung’s move extends that trend to the home screen itself — one step above content, at the device layer.
What the home screen ad unit actually is
The Samsung Smart TV home screen ad is a full-screen or banner-format placement that appears when the TV powers on, before the viewer selects any app or content. It is non-skippable. The viewer sees it for several seconds, then the TV’s home interface loads. Unlike in-stream video, it does not interrupt a viewing session — it intercepts the viewer at the very start of their TV time, with full attention and no competing content.
Think of it as the television equivalent of a roadblock placement: high share-of-voice, guaranteed visibility, no adjacent competing brands. Premium publishers have charged a premium for exactly this reason. Programmatic access changes the economics by making it biddable, automatable, and measurable in real time, rather than fixed-price and sold quarterly.
The role of Magnite SpringServe and the two DSPs
SpringServe, now part of Magnite, acts as the ad server that receives bid requests from DSPs and returns the winning creative to the Samsung TV OS. The Trade Desk and Google DV360 connect to SpringServe as buyers. From an advertiser’s perspective, activation looks familiar: build the campaign inside The Trade Desk or DV360, define audience targeting, set bid parameters, and add Samsung CTV home screen inventory as a supply source. The ad server handles the auction in milliseconds when a TV powers on.
The new setup also aligns Samsung’s home screen inventory with the direction of the wider industry. Nearly half of all advertisers now expect CTV inventory to be biddable, according to research published in 2026. The deals that were being negotiated directly last year are becoming automated supply by Q3. Samsung is not ahead of the curve — it is at exactly the right moment.
The UAE Opportunity: Why This Matters for Brands Here
Samsung’s home screen inventory is available globally, meaning UAE advertisers using The Trade Desk or DV360 can apply the same geo-targeting and audience parameters they use across all other programmatic channels — reaching Samsung Smart TV households specifically in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and across the Emirates.
The UAE is one of the most connected consumer markets in the world. Smartphone penetration is among the highest globally, broadband speeds are exceptional, and streaming has long replaced linear television for a significant share of the population. Smart TV penetration in the UAE is high and growing, driven by rising demand for OTT platforms and the rapid normalisation of premium in-home screens across every income bracket.
Samsung is the leading smart TV brand globally and holds a strong position in the Gulf region. The UAE leads the Gulf in Smart TV market share, and Samsung’s dominant global position makes it the most likely primary screen in many UAE households. That matters because Samsung’s home screen programmatic access is a global rollout — UAE advertisers can use The Trade Desk or DV360 to target Samsung Smart TV households locally, applying the same audience and geo-targeting parameters they use for every other programmatic channel.
For categories where TV has always been powerful — real estate, automotive, fast-moving consumer goods, financial services, luxury, and tourism — this is a direct upgrade. You get broadcast reach on the premium screen in the home, combined with the precision and measurability of digital. The home screen placement is seen by the whole room. That kind of attention is genuinely rare in an era of fragmented digital consumption.
Why UAE agencies should move now, not in Q4
Programmatic auctions are more competitive when more buyers participate. Right now, most UAE advertisers have not yet built Samsung CTV home screen into their media plans. That means inventory will be available at lower clearing prices in Q3 than it will be once the channel is widely adopted. The brands and agencies that test this in Q3 will have benchmark data, creative learnings, and a bidding strategy ready before their competitors are even aware the channel exists.
There is also an audience quality argument. Samsung Smart TV home screen viewers are, by definition, in their homes, on a large screen, in lean-back mode. That context is valuable for brand awareness campaigns. The non-skippable nature of the ad unit guarantees impression quality in a way that most digital formats cannot.
Programmatic vs Direct: A Practical Comparison
Before this announcement, any UAE brand that wanted Samsung Smart TV home screen inventory had to go through a direct negotiation. The table below shows how the two buying routes compare, now that programmatic access exists.
| Factor | Direct Deal (Before) | Programmatic (From Q3 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Via Samsung Ads sales team | Self-serve via The Trade Desk or Google DV360 |
| Minimum budget | High (negotiated package) | Auction-based, lower floor |
| Targeting flexibility | Broad audience packages | Custom audience, geo, time-of-day targeting |
| Buying speed | Weeks of negotiation | Launch within hours |
| Measurement | Post-campaign reporting from Samsung | Real-time DSP reporting, pixel and brand lift |
| Creative format | Managed by Samsung team | Advertiser-controlled via DSP |
| Ad unit type | Non-skippable home screen placement | Non-skippable home screen placement |
| Optimisation | Manual, limited in-flight | Automated, continuous bid optimisation |
The shift to programmatic does not reduce the quality of the placement. The home screen ad unit is identical. What changes is how you buy it, at what cost, and how much control you have over targeting and measurement. For mid-market UAE advertisers who could not meet the minimums of a direct deal, programmatic access opens a door that was previously closed.
Five Steps UAE Advertisers Must Take Before Q3 2026
Q3 2026 starts on 1 July. That gives UAE brands and their agencies roughly two weeks to prepare. Here is the practical sequence.
1. Confirm your DSP access and inventory source
Samsung CTV home screen inventory will be available through The Trade Desk and Google DV360 in the first wave. If you or your agency are already running programmatic campaigns on either platform, the integration requires no additional onboarding. Contact your Trade Desk or DV360 account team to confirm that Samsung CTV home screen inventory has been activated in your seat. If you are not on either platform yet, talk to a programmatic specialist about access options. This is where Rothian Digital can help UAE brands move quickly without building in-house trading capability from scratch.
2. Identify your CTV-ready creative
Home screen placements are non-skippable and full-screen. That means your creative must work immediately and work on a large screen without relying on sound. A social video repurposed from a 9:16 vertical format will not perform here. You need a 16:9 landscape video or static creative designed for the lean-back environment, with a clear brand mark visible in the first second and a message that reads even without audio. If you do not have CTV-ready creative, this is the week to commission it.
3. Define your UAE audience parameters
Programmatic CTV targeting follows the same audience segmentation logic as other digital channels. You can layer on geo-targeting (UAE, specific emirates), audience data from your DSP’s data marketplace, and time-of-day settings. Smart TV usage peaks in the evening, typically between 8pm and 11pm. Consider dayparting your Samsung CTV campaigns to hit that window, when household viewing is highest and viewer intent is leisure-mode. A family in a Dubai apartment switching on the living room TV at 9pm is a different audience context than a commuter scrolling Instagram — and worth targeting differently.
4. Set a test budget and clear measurement goals
Because this is a new inventory type, treating Q3 as a test phase is sensible. Set a discrete budget — even AED 15,000 to 30,000 — specifically for Samsung CTV home screen, separate from your existing digital campaigns. Define what you are measuring upfront: brand awareness (brand lift study), reach, completed view rate, or downstream website visits via pixel. Do not blend it into a broader campaign budget where you cannot isolate the channel’s contribution. The learning from Q3 is as valuable as the awareness the ads generate.
5. Review your creative and brand safety requirements
CTV ad placements carry strong brand safety characteristics by nature: they are served in a premium, controlled environment with no user-generated content adjacent to your ad. Nonetheless, confirm with your DSP account team what brand safety layers and content adjacency controls are available for Samsung home screen inventory. Set your frequency caps early to avoid over-exposure to the same household across a short period. A viewer who sees your ad three times in one evening is more likely to associate your brand with annoyance than awareness.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is programmatic CTV advertising?
Programmatic CTV (connected TV) advertising is the automated, auction-based buying of ad placements on internet-connected television devices — including smart TVs, streaming sticks, and gaming consoles — using demand-side platforms (DSPs) such as The Trade Desk or Google DV360. Unlike direct deals, programmatic buys occur in real time through an automated auction, allowing advertisers to target specific audiences, set bids, and optimise performance without manual negotiation.
What are Samsung Smart TV home screen ads?
Samsung Smart TV home screen ads are non-skippable full-screen placements that appear when a Samsung Smart TV is powered on, before any app or streaming content loads. They sit at the operating system level — not inside an app like Netflix or YouTube — meaning they are seen by every user regardless of which streaming service they prefer. The format gives advertisers a guaranteed, high-attention impression at the very start of the viewer’s TV session.
When does Samsung’s programmatic CTV access launch?
Samsung Ads announced on 10 June 2026 that programmatic access to its home screen placements will begin rolling out globally in Q3 2026 — starting from 1 July. The first DSPs to gain access are The Trade Desk and Google Display & Video 360 (DV360), powered by Magnite’s SpringServe ad server. Additional DSP partnerships are expected to be announced before the rollout date.
Which platforms can UAE advertisers use to run Samsung CTV home screen campaigns?
At launch, UAE advertisers can access Samsung Smart TV home screen inventory through The Trade Desk and Google Display & Video 360 (DV360). Both are enterprise-grade DSPs available through specialist programmatic agencies. If you or your agency already use either platform for other programmatic display or video campaigns, adding Samsung CTV inventory does not require a separate onboarding process — it is activated within your existing DSP seat.
How does Samsung CTV compare to YouTube or social video advertising?
The key differences are screen size, context, and skippability. Samsung Smart TV home screen ads appear on the primary household screen — typically a 43-to-75-inch display — in a lean-back environment where the viewer’s full attention is on the TV. YouTube and social video often appear on a phone or laptop, amid competing content. Samsung home screen ads are non-skippable, unlike most YouTube pre-roll. The tradeoff is that social video offers broader reach and more granular interest targeting, while Samsung CTV delivers premium attention in the home environment at scale.
What creative format do I need for Samsung CTV home screen ads?
Home screen placements require 16:9 landscape video or static creative designed for a large-screen, lean-back viewing environment. Your creative should be immediately legible on a large display, carry visible branding from the first second, and communicate clearly without relying on audio (many viewers do not have their TV’s sound enabled when they first switch it on). Vertical or square formats designed for social media will not translate well to this context.
Is Samsung the leading smart TV brand in the UAE?
Yes. The UAE leads the Gulf region in Smart TV market share, and Samsung holds the number-one position in global TV brand rankings by shipments — ahead of TCL and LG. Samsung’s Tizen operating system powers a significant share of the smart TV install base across the MENA region. This makes Samsung’s home screen inventory particularly relevant for brands targeting UAE households, since Samsung is likely the OS running on the largest share of living room screens in the market.
How is programmatic CTV performance measured?
Through programmatic platforms like The Trade Desk and DV360, CTV campaigns are measured on impressions delivered, completed view rate (the percentage of ads watched to completion), reach and frequency, and — via pixel or SDK — downstream website visits or conversions. Brand lift studies are also available through these platforms, measuring recall and consideration uplift among exposed versus unexposed audiences. Because the Samsung home screen placement is non-skippable, completed view rate will be high by default; the more meaningful optimisation metric is reach and downstream intent signal.
The Bottom Line
Samsung’s announcement on 10 June 2026 is one of the most practically significant developments in CTV advertising in recent years. For the first time, the moment a viewer turns on their Samsung Smart TV — on the world’s number-one selling TV brand — is programmable, biddable, and accessible to any advertiser running The Trade Desk or Google DV360 campaigns. That is not a small change.
For UAE brands, this is an opportunity that sits at the intersection of television’s proven reach and digital advertising’s precision. Connected TV is already the fastest-growing programmatic channel globally, with budgets projected to grow from $44 billion in 2025 to $81 billion by 2030. Being early in a channel with growing inventory and limited competition means better rates and better data than you will get in twelve months’ time.
The brands that win in CTV are those that treat it as a distinct channel, not a repurposed social video buy. They invest in proper 16:9 creative. They set clear measurement frameworks. They test now, when CPMs are lower and the learning is free.
Ready to add programmatic CTV advertising to your UAE media mix? Explore Rothian Digital’s paid media capabilities or get in touch with the Rothian Digital team to build your connected TV strategy before the Q3 rollout window opens.
Sources
- Samsung Ads: Makes It Easier for Brands to Advertise Programmatically on Home Screens — Samsung Newsroom, 10 June 2026
- Home Screen Ads on Samsung TVs Will Soon Be Available Programmatically — AdExchanger, June 2026
- Samsung’s Home Screen Offers Programmatic Ad Access for DSPs — MediaPost, 10 June 2026
- Samsung Opens Smart TV Home Screens to Programmatic via Trade Desk and DV360 — PPC Land, June 2026
- Global CTV Advertising Revenue to Reach $81bn by 2030 — Broadcast Pro ME / Omdia, 2025
- CTV Will Exceed 40% of Global Ad Spending by 2030 — MNTN Research, 2026
- CTV Advertising in 2026: Updated Market Forecast — AdWave, 2026
- UAE Advertising Market Size, Share & Trends Forecast 2033 — IMARC Group, 2025
- UAE Leads Gulf Region’s Smart TV Market Share — Khaleej Times
