Trade Desk building own smart TV OS, Lowpass says

Digital advertising giant The Trade Desk (TTD) is “getting ready to more directly compete with Roku, Google and Amazon” as the company has been secretly building its own smart TV operating system and aims to license it to device makers that don’t want to run Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google TV, Amazon’s (AMZN) Fire TV OS or Roku’s (ROKU) OS, according to Janko Roettgers, who cites five sources with knowledge of the company’s plans. The reporter, who said in a Lowpass blog post that representatives for The Trade Desk did not respond to multiple requests for comment, added: “People working on the project include former senior Roku employees, and at least some team members have been hiding the fact that they are employed by The Trade Desk on LinkedIn. Altogether, The Trade Desk is said to have dozens of people working on the project.”