The TV home screen is the equivalent of page one of Google. It is the first screen a viewer sees when the set switches on, before any app is opened.
On 10 June 2026, Samsung announced that ads on the home screen will be available to buy programmatically for the first time. Until now these placements were sold directly, through one-off deals; soon they can be bought through the same platforms marketers already use for Meta and Google. The rollout is global, including the UK, from Q3 2026.
For marketers, the part worth understanding is what the home screen actually is.
The home screen is the moment of discovery, where viewers decide what to watch. Samsung's own research shows users visit it around five times a day, more often than any individual app, and spend more than ten minutes choosing what to watch.
It is also where the biggest names in entertainment compete for attention. A brand on the home screen sits in that same space, in front of the viewer before a single app is opened.
Three companies sit behind the change. Samsung owns the home screen, and as the world's biggest TV brand by global shipments, it reaches a large global audience. Magnite, through its SpringServe technology, packages the inventory so it can be bought programmatically. The demand-side platforms, The Trade Desk and Google DV360 to begin with, are where it is bought, the same way marketers buy Meta or Google advertising.
Programmatic buying suits scale, but it has trade-offs on a screen this prominent. An auction does not guarantee context: a home-screen placement works best alongside relevant content, and an open auction will not always deliver that.
Access matters too. Not all marketing teams have a seat in The Trade Desk or DV360, so programmatic availability does not mean every brand can reach the inventory directly.
Insight TV knows the home screen from both sides. As a pioneer of factual streaming and an early content partner on Samsung TV Plus, we reach over 50 million viewers a month, and we feature on the home screen ourselves when we premiere new shows.
It is also how we help brands appear there through our advertising and sponsorship solutions for brands, alongside relevant content rather than in an open auction.
The home screen is becoming one of the most valuable spaces in the living room. For the brands ready to be there, this is just getting started.
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