Why Cutting Streaming Inventory Supply Is a Bad Idea, Mostly

In today’s programmatic landscape, the notion of handpicking specific “ideal” streaming inventory is simply unnecessary. An audience-first strategy leverages data to identify auto-intending households wherever they’re streaming, effortlessly tracking their activities and automating the bidding process. Marketers no longer need to guess where their audience is watching; they can precisely target them based on real insights. Whether they’re watching in a hit series or niche content, it doesn’t matter—what matters is where the data has found them. With programmatic advertising, the guesswork is eliminated, empowering advertisers to reach their target audience across all ad-supported streaming services.

Streaming isn’t limited to just one or two services anymore. The CTV market is highly fragmented, boasting over 35,000 streaming apps and an average U.S. household subscribing to four services in 2024 (Cord Cutter). And while those subscriptions may include the usual suspects like Netflix, Prime Video, and Hulu, recent market analysis reveals that no single streaming app commands even 30% market share; the “other” category accounts for nearly 15%, highlighting significant fragmentation (Nielsen 2024 Streaming Report).​

We’ve witnessed this firsthand through our data; our inventory reporting consistently shows auto-intenders of every type spread across hundreds of ad-supported streaming apps. Viewer habits are wildly diverse and often unpredictable—not every truck driver is tuning into ESPN, and luxury car buyers aren’t exclusively on “premium” subscription platforms. To truly maximize reach, advertisers must allow their campaigns to access the entire ecosystem because their audience is everywhere.

With such a fragmented market and consumers scattered across numerous platforms, why confine your ads to just one or two? Programmatic advertising excels at identifying and reaching your audience wherever they are, so let the data do its job and reveal where your viewers were found. We bet you’ll be surprised.

You may have caught the word “mostly” in the title, signaling a few exceptions to the general rule of not cutting supply. While it’s typically unwise to reduce inventory, there are instances where trimming is necessary—especially when the inventory is designed to attract anything but human attention.

Consider content aimed at babies, dogs, or even users who are asleep. Unfortunately, many of these anti-human attention apps and shows offer ads, leading unsuspecting advertisers to inadvertently purchase them. That’s where deterministic attribution data comes in. It uncovers underperforming inventory so it can be eliminated. If specific supply consistently yields poor results and minimal conversions compared to other supply through an audience segment, it’s likely built against human attention and fails to engage real viewers.

At EMG, we’ve blocked over 300 inventory supply nodes that cater to non-human attention, ensuring that every ad we manage reaches engaged, relevant viewers. While identifying and eliminating these anti-attention inventories is critical, it’s best left to media buying companies equipped with reliable attribution data. Reducing supply for any reason other than targeting non-human attention can hurt your campaign’s reach and effectiveness.

This might sound confusing, but while bad inventory certainly exists, the concept of “good inventory” is a myth. Inventory that doesn’t target human attention performs similarly across the board. Since we target audiences rather than inventory, all human-focused supply yields highly comparable results. Whether your ad airs during an ESPN game or a niche horror movie on an obscure app, as long as the viewer is relevant and engaged, the inventory will perform.

Remember, it’s the audience targeting that drives conversions, not the inventory. As long as the ad reaches an awake, engaged user, the content in between doesn’t matter. Cutting supply to exclusively advertise on “good channels” can actually harm your campaign’s potential.

There’s no such thing as “good inventory,” but there is excellent audience targeting. Reach auto-intenders in your market up to 10x more efficiently with EMG’s end-to-end automotive streaming solution. We’ll eliminate the bad supply and retain what works—ensuring your campaign always hits the mark.