The same premium CTV inventory, 10–15% cheaper
Pricing · July 16, 2026
Antebyte sells ESPN inventory at a $26.50 CPM. The same channel lists at about $31 on fixed-rate self-serve platforms like Vibe. It is the same premium inventory, reaching the same living rooms, for 15% less. Across the channels both platforms carry, the gap runs 10–15% on the ones marketers actually ask for.
This post explains where that gap comes from, and shows the numbers channel by channel so you can check them.
Two ways to buy the same channel
A fixed-rate platform buys CTV inventory through reserved deals and resells it at a list price. The list has to hold all year, through the expensive hours and the cheap ones, so it gets set with headroom. You pay the sticker regardless of what the market is doing underneath.
Antebyte buys the same channels in the open programmatic market, where prices move hour to hour, with a bidding strategy that adjusts to what inventory actually clears for right now. When the market softens, our buying follows it down. That is what lets our published rates sit under fixed lists on the same inventory: the price we pay tracks the market instead of insuring against it.
Our rates are still fixed for you. You get a published card that holds, invoices that reconcile to it, and no surprises when the market moves. The difference is which side absorbs the market: on a fixed-rate platform, the sticker protects the platform; on Antebyte, the dynamic buying protects the card.
The numbers, channel by channel
Antebyte's rates are on the pricing page. The comparison column is the list price published for the same channel on Vibe as of mid-July 2026.
| Channel | Antebyte CPM | Published list | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| ESPN | $26.50 | ~$31.00 | 15% under |
| FilmRise Western | $14.00 | ~$16.60 | 16% under |
| FilmRise | $15.00 | ~$17.70 | 15% under |
| CBS News | $18.95 | ~$20.30 | 7% under |
| Fubo Sports | $18.75 | ~$19.30 | 3% under |
| Vizio WatchFree+ | $13.80 | ~$14.10 | 2% under |
| Haystack News | $19.95 | ~$20.10 | parity |
Two honest notes on that table. First, the gap is not uniform: on channels where open-market supply is tight, we land close to parity, and we would rather show you that than round everything to a slogan. Second, there are long-tail channels where our current buying costs do not support a discount at all. Those exist on the platform, but we do not push them, and the rate card tells you what you would pay before you spend anything.
How you check this
Every impression Antebyte buys carries its full record: the app or channel it played on, the show, the device, the location, and the billed price. Your impression log lists them one by one, and the sum of billed prices reconciles to your invoice. So the claim in this post is not something you have to take on faith at the end of the month. Run a campaign on a channel from the table and read the log.
See the rate card, or create a campaign and buy a few thousand impressions of it.