Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of ad inventory through real-time auctions rather than manual insertion orders. When an ad opportunity arises, the platform's supply-side stack offers the impression to demand sources, which bid; the highest valid bid wins and its ad is served, all in milliseconds.
For OTT it is the engine behind scalable AVOD/FAST fill: it connects a service to broad demand without negotiating every deal directly, and techniques like header bidding put multiple demand sources in competition to raise yield. The trade-offs are revenue share to intermediaries, the need for brand-safety controls, and added technical complexity in the ad path.
