Ads on TV devices

Connected TV (CTV) — ads inside apps on Smart TVs and streaming boxes running Android TV. Unlike mobile scenarios, CTV is defined by TV-specific ad navigation (using focus states and the remote control) and unique ad targeting that prioritizes reach and impressions.

Supported formats

CTV supports some ad formats from our mobile SDK:

Banners have unique navigation requirements on Android TV.

Campaign reach and goals

On CTV devices, clicks work differently than they do on mobile and aren't the primary goal. Smart TVs often lack a proper web browser out of the box, and even if they do, it's not easy to navigate with a remote control.

The main goal of CTV ads is delivering impressions and building audience reach. Instead of standard clicks, some ad formats display a QR code that users can scan with their phones to visit the landing page.

Learn more about reach campaigns.

For banner ads on CTV, you need to make sure that remote control navigation isn't intercepted by parent containers and reaches the interactive elements of the ad.

If any parent ViewGroup containing the banner has descendantFocusability set to FOCUS_BLOCK_DESCENDANTS, the ad unit won't be able to gain focus. Set a value that doesn't block focus for child views — for example, ViewGroup.FOCUS_AFTER_DESCENDANTS or ViewGroup.FOCUS_BEFORE_DESCENDANTS.

Example:

parentContainer.descendantFocusability = ViewGroup.FOCUS_AFTER_DESCENDANTS

Check the container chain from the screen root down to the ad View. Make sure all intermediate ViewGroups with custom focus logic behave consistently so that users can reach the banner with a remote control.

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