DoubleVerify Reports AI-Fueled CTV Fraud Surge

DoubleVerify released its 2026 Global Insights report, 'Must-CTV: Streaming's Shift From Promise to Performance', revealing a 140% surge in connected TV (CTV) fraud schemes and variants in Q1 2026 compared to Q1 2025. The report, based on billions of impressions and surveys of marketers and consumers, indicates that fraudsters are leveraging AI to create more sophisticated operations. Gilit Saporta, VP of Fraud Lab at DoubleVerify, emphasized the need for brands to adopt proactive protection against these evolving tactics. The study also found that bot activity and fraudulent apps are rapidly increasing, with significant financial implications for unprotected campaigns, estimated at $1.8 million per billion CTV impressions. Regional variations in fraud tactics were noted, with bot fraud dominating North America and data center fraud prevalent in APAC, EMEA, and LATAM. DoubleVerify's research challenges the perception that direct deals inherently reduce fraud, showing bot activity in major global advertisers' direct CTV buys. The report highlights the effectiveness of DV-protected campaigns, which had fraud rates below 1% compared to nearly 9% in unprotected ones. DoubleVerify also noted that fewer than a quarter of advertisers use fraud detection as a KPI for CTV performance. In response to these challenges, DoubleVerify launched DV Authentic Streaming TV in January to provide verification and optimization solutions.