Viant Technology has extended its Direct Access supply path from open-market buying into private marketplace and programmatic guaranteed deals, the company said on September 24, 2026. The move lets advertisers book negotiated streaming TV deals without an exchange in the middle, and Viant says neither buyer nor seller pays to set up or run a deal on the route.
The expansion is live across four connection types: FreeWheel, Magnite’s SpringServe, Publica and custom OpenRTB integrations. Viant, citing Jounce Media, says participating publishers account for 94% of demand transacted programmatically. It has not clarified whether that figure covers connected TV demand specifically or programmatic demand across all channels.
Why this matters for CTV budgets
Much of premium CTV inventory is still traded through deals rather than open auctions. Buyers lean that way: a State of Programmatic survey found 76% of decision-makers rated curated marketplaces, private marketplaces or deal ID-based supply as important for 2026, while IAB research put buyer confidence in publisher-direct and guaranteed deals at 57%, versus 33% for the open exchange.
The problem is the plumbing. In a conventional deal, a deal ID travels inside each bid request and an exchange or supply-side platform clears the transaction, charging for the service. Direct Access removes that step by connecting buyers to publisher ad servers directly. Viant’s claim is simple: more of each advertiser dollar becomes working media instead of transaction costs.
What “no fee” really covers
The fee-free claim concerns the route itself. It does not cover Viant’s platform charges to advertisers, ad serving fees paid to FreeWheel, Magnite or Integral Ad Science, or data costs. Viant has not published cost figures for deals, so marketers cannot yet compare a deal on Direct Access with the same deal through an exchange.
The only public cost number predates deal support. CFO Larry Madden attributed an average 35% CPM reduction to Direct Access on an August earnings call, but that covers open-market buying and is not independently verified.
Industry benchmarks show what’s at stake. IAB Spain’s April 2026 SSP guide, citing the ANA Programmatic Transparency Benchmark 2025, put working media at 41% of programmatic investment, with 26.1% consumed by transaction costs. It estimated direct publisher-to-SSP connections deliver 70% to 80% of buyer money to publishers, against 40% to 50% on indirect paths.
The competitive picture
Viant is not the only DSP building a direct route, but its pricing stance is aggressive. The Trade Desk charges publishers a flat 4.5% fee for OpenPath; Dentsu and WPP were reported to have left that program in February 2026 over transparency concerns and what they described as hidden fees. Viant says its Direct Access participation is free for publishers.
Richie Hyden, Viant’s senior vice president for supply and CTV, framed the update around buyer behaviour: “By extending Direct Access to support deals, we’re closing the gap for how advertisers actually transact CTV, via deals.”
- Audit your current CTV deal path and ask for working-media share, not just CPM.
- Run a small programmatic guaranteed buy through a direct route and compare CPM, transparency and outcomes.
- Press vendors on what “no fee” excludes before reallocating budget.
The move also matters because Direct Access already carries more than 80% of Viant’s CTV spend, up from roughly half in the first quarter of 2026. Whether exchange-based deals now migrate to the route is the next number to watch.
Source: PPC Land
