Can You Buy Samsung Smart TV Home Screen Ads Programmatically in 2026?

Yes — as of 2026, Samsung Ads has opened its smart TV home screen advertising inventory to programmatic buying through two major demand-side platforms, The Trade Desk and Google Display & Video 360 (DV360), with a global rollout across all regions beginning in the third quarter of 2026.

What Inventory This Actually Covers

The inventory in question is Samsung's non-skippable home screen ad placements — the ads that appear on a Samsung smart TV's home screen before a viewer even opens an app, which is premium, high-visibility real estate that Samsung previously sold mostly through direct and managed deals. Making it available programmatically means advertisers can now buy that placement through the same DSP workflows — bidding, targeting, and reporting tools — they already use for other connected TV inventory, instead of negotiating a separate direct deal specifically with Samsung's sales team.

Why Two Specific DSPs

Opening home screen inventory to The Trade Desk and DV360 specifically, rather than every DSP at once, mirrors how most CTV publishers phase in programmatic access. Both platforms are among the largest independent and walled-garden-adjacent DSPs running CTV budgets, so partnering with them first gives Samsung immediate access to a large base of existing CTV advertisers without building out dozens of individual DSP integrations simultaneously. Other DSP partnerships may follow, but the two confirmed so far are The Trade Desk and DV360.

The Rollout Timeline

Samsung's programmatic access to home screen inventory is set to begin rolling out in the third quarter of 2026, with global availability as the stated goal rather than a staged, region-by-region limitation. That timing matters for media planners: a Q3 2026 start means campaigns built around this inventory were not bookable at the start of the year, and early access may have been limited to specific markets before global availability caught up.

How This Fits Samsung's Broader Ads Strategy

Samsung already runs its own self-service demand-side platform, giving advertisers a direct path to Samsung TV inventory without going through a third-party DSP at all. Opening home screen inventory to The Trade Desk and DV360 on top of that doesn't replace Samsung's own DSP — it adds parallel buying paths, which is consistent with how other CTV publishers have layered direct, self-serve, and third-party-programmatic access rather than picking just one distribution model.

What's Still Unclear

Neither Samsung's announcement nor the trade coverage of it specifies a minimum spend for buying this inventory programmatically through The Trade Desk or DV360 — pricing and spend minimums for this specific placement weren't part of the public rollout details found. Advertisers evaluating it should confirm current CPMs and any minimum commitment directly with Samsung Ads, The Trade Desk, or DV360 rather than assuming it follows general CTV benchmarks.

Bottom Line

If your media plan already runs programmatic CTV through The Trade Desk or DV360, Samsung's home screen inventory became a biddable line item in those same platforms starting Q3 2026 — add it as a test placement rather than assuming pricing or availability matches your existing CTV buys until you've confirmed both directly.

Sources: StreamTV Insider ("Samsung enables programmatic CTV home screen ads with DSPs") and PPC Land ("Samsung opens smart TV home screens to programmatic via Trade Desk and DV360").