Last updated: 13 October 2026

There are four ways to buy connected TV programmatically: the open auction, a private marketplace (PMP), programmatic guaranteed, and a deal negotiated by AI agents. The first three are deal types. The fourth is a way of reaching terms, and the resulting deal usually still runs as one of the other three. Choosing between them is a trade between price, certainty of volume, visibility of where ads run, and the effort needed to set the deal up, and agent negotiation mainly changes the effort.

TL;DR. The open auction offers the most flexibility and the least certainty about price, volume and placement. A private marketplace gives invited buyers access to selected inventory with a floor price, but no guaranteed volume. Programmatic guaranteed fixes price and volume in advance and is the closest programmatic equivalent of a direct TV buy. Agent-negotiated deals let software on each side agree terms within mandates set by people, which makes negotiated deals practical at budgets and volumes where a human negotiation would not be worth running.

What are the four ways to buy CTV?

The four ways to buy CTV differ in who sets the terms and when. In the open auction, terms are set impression by impression. In a private marketplace, the seller sets them for a group of invited buyers. In programmatic guaranteed, buyer and seller agree them before the campaign. In an agent-negotiated deal, agents acting for each side agree them, within limits their principals have approved.

A fifth arrangement, the preferred deal, sits between a PMP and programmatic guaranteed: a fixed price for first look at inventory, without a volume commitment. Most comparisons fold it into one of the two.

How does buying CTV in the open auction work?

In the open auction, a CTV impression is offered through an SSP and any eligible DSP can bid on it in real time. The buyer pays the clearing price and can stop or shift spend at any moment.

The costs are visibility and quality control. Open auction CTV inventory can arrive with limited information about the app, channel or content, and some of it runs on screens other than a television. Ads.txt, introduced in 2017, and its app-based counterpart, together with sellers.json from 2019, let a buyer check whether a seller is authorised and who is being paid, but they do not describe the content. The open auction suits buyers testing CTV, chasing reach at low cost, or running performance campaigns where placement matters less than price.

What does a private marketplace offer a CTV buyer?

A private marketplace is an invitation-only auction. The seller makes selected inventory available to chosen buyers through a deal ID, usually with a floor price, and buyers still bid against each other for each impression.

A PMP gives better visibility than the open auction, because the seller defines the package, and it carries no volume commitment on either side. That flexibility cuts both ways. The buyer is not guaranteed delivery, and the seller is not guaranteed revenue. PMPs are the common route into premium CTV for buyers without the budget or relationships for a guaranteed deal, and curated packages assembled across several sellers work the same way.

What is programmatic guaranteed CTV, and who is it for?

Programmatic guaranteed is a deal in which buyer and seller agree a fixed price and a fixed volume of impressions in advance, then deliver it through programmatic systems. It is the closest programmatic equivalent of a traditional TV booking.

Programmatic guaranteed gives the most certainty: the buyer knows what it will get and at what price, and the seller knows what it will earn. It also needs the most up-front work. Price, volume, flight dates, targeting, frequency and any make-good terms have to be agreed before launch, and sellers often set minimum spends that put it out of reach of smaller budgets. It suits brand campaigns that need guaranteed reach on known content.

What is an agent-negotiated CTV deal?

An agent-negotiated CTV deal is one in which a buyer agent, acting for an advertiser or agency, and a seller agent, acting for a publisher, agree terms between them, with people approving the mandate and any commitment above a set threshold. The output is a deal, typically a PMP, preferred or guaranteed deal, that then runs through existing programmatic systems.

Standards for this are being built in the open. AAMP, IAB Tech Lab's open-source framework for agentic advertising announced in early 2026, includes reference buyer and seller agents and OpenProposal, a format for publisher products and RFP responses. According to IAB Tech Lab, AAMP's Deals API support covers programmatic guaranteed, preferred deals, private marketplaces, the open marketplace and linear GRPs. AdCP, the Ad Context Protocol from AgenticAdvertising.org, is a separate protocol that defines tasks for agents across a campaign, from discovering inventory to reporting delivery.

Agents do not make negotiation reliable by default. In Concourse Bench v1, a published simulation of AI buying agents negotiating with three software-controlled sellers under one budget, 55 of 96 attempts ended in a completed buy, and 95 of the 110 contracts secured promised a viewability floor below 70%. Completion and protection both depend on the agent and on what its mandate requires.

How do the four methods compare?

Price certainty. The open auction offers none. A PMP sets a floor. Programmatic guaranteed and agent-negotiated guaranteed deals fix the price.

Volume certainty. Only programmatic guaranteed, whether negotiated by people or agents, commits volume. The open auction and PMPs deliver what the buyer wins.

Placement visibility. Lowest in the open auction, higher in a PMP, and highest in guaranteed deals where the package is named in the terms.

Set-up effort. Lowest in the open auction and PMPs, highest in programmatic guaranteed. Agent negotiation aims to lower the cost of reaching negotiated terms, which is why it matters most to smaller buyers and smaller sellers.

Record of terms. The open auction has no negotiated terms to record. PMP and guaranteed deals depend on what buyer and seller each logged. In an agent-negotiated deal, the record is whatever the agents wrote, and the question is whether both sides hold the same one.

Which method should a CTV buyer choose?

Most CTV plans combine methods. For example, a hypothetical £60,000 campaign might place a guaranteed deal on the content the brand most needs to appear against, run a PMP for scale on approved apps, and keep a small open auction line for testing.

Whichever method is used, the agreed terms need to survive the campaign. The ISBA/PwC study of May 2020 found only 12% of impressions could be matched end to end. The Agree. Transact. Verify. simulation found that across 90,202 simulated deals, separately kept buyer and seller records disagreed in 95.3% of cases, against 0.19% with one shared record. Alkimi, which publishes Concourse Bench and that simulation, is a neutral agentic advertising marketplace working within IAB Tech Lab's AAMP framework, where agents agree terms on a DealSheet held by both parties and humans keep approval rights at the deal level.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a PMP and programmatic guaranteed?

A PMP is an invitation-only auction with a floor price and no volume commitment. Programmatic guaranteed fixes price and volume in advance.

Is the open auction safe for CTV?

It can be used safely with checks, but it offers the least visibility of where ads run. Buyers should check seller authorisation, screen type and app or channel information.

What is a preferred deal in CTV?

A preferred deal gives a buyer first look at inventory at a fixed price, without committing to buy a set volume.

Is an agent-negotiated deal a new deal type?

No. Agents negotiate the terms, and the resulting deal usually runs as a PMP, preferred deal or programmatic guaranteed deal.

Which way of buying CTV suits smaller advertisers?

PMPs and curated deals are the usual route. Agent negotiation may bring negotiated and guaranteed terms within reach at smaller budgets.

What Are the Four Ways to Buy CTV: Open Auction, PMP, Programmatic Guaranteed or Agent-Negotiated?