Opinions

Whether you observe it in your digital usage or consult statistics, the viewing time of audiovisual content continues to grow. A recent publication by...

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a welcome opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women in the adtech industry. But in order to forge inclusive...

Marketers have rightly recognised the benefits of Connected TV, firstly as a result of compatibility with advanced reporting tools and secondly for the flexibility it gives them to pivot campaigns according to clear consumer behaviour insights. However, linear has long been a trusted source of reach and awareness for brands, so they must keep a holistic view of their investment to optimise results, binding together CTV and linear as a complementary partnership. The advice in this article is to implement incremental shifts in budget (from linear to CTV) for a more balanced approach between the two channels.

From FAST to HVOD, the past two years have witnessed an explosion of ad-funded streaming services, and CTV is forecast to take over one-third of ad spend by 2026. But Cameron Church likens this market to adolescence, from the awkward and non-uniform growth spurt to helicopter parents in the form of shareholders. Here, the big changes everyone needs to handle are analysed, as the industry adapts to new formats, behaviour and technology.

This article hails Android TV Operator Tier as an important example of standardisation that has resulted in a win-win for Pay TV operators and consumers, with greater access to on-demand streaming an obvious benefit. Supporting operator brand identity within the UI, with operator VOD catalogues alongside broadcast channels and OTT content, all with minimal development time and costs, Android TV has become an undoubted success. There are now at least 170 Pay TV operators who are Android TV partners, and the author reckons Operator Tier has levelled the playing field and made Pay TV more competitive.

Once upon a time, TV was a reliable source – of engaged viewers, of measurable audiences, of quantifiable advertising reach. Now that the once-quaint delivery...

The race for TV and video advertising budgets is fierce and this article shows how FAST services and now SVODs with advertising tiers compete with broadcasters in the streaming space. It argues that it is now critical that the traditional TV advertising business model transforms to addressability. The routes to addressability for broadcasters are outlined: Broadcast TV via HbbTV, broadcast TV via managed (operator/telco) platforms, and linear live streaming or BVOD. RTL AdAlliance and smartclip say European broadcasters are the true advertising powerhouses and are in a good position to drive a shift in TV ad budgets towards digital.

The TV video ad ecosystem would not run anywhere near properly, in a technical sense, without metadata. This article outlines the three types of metadata you must get right, starting with Breakpoint data, which shows where to start and end a commercial break in the entertainment content. The second type of metadata to master is Ad Maps, which tell the ecosystem how many ads you want in a piece of entertainment content. Finally, there is Entertainment and Ad Metadata, with the former covering things like series name, episode and show description, and the latter spanning company, brand, file name and release date, among other things. Getting everything right, at scale, in a multi-platform world is a key challenge for TV operations folks.

Programmatic is one of those “new” ad technologies that scares many people into not participating in it. Truth is that many of the basics of programmatic video buying and selling follow the old rules of buying and selling media. It’s just some tactics that are different. Make a plan, utilise good technology to execute, and act on timely reporting. These have been the hallmarks of good media buying and planning for a long time, and they are still the Top 3 even in a programmatic world. There are issues in programmatic - like whether the cost of a DSP or SSP is worth it for your organisation at this time. But to sit programmatic out because of fear – that is not recommended.

Advertisers need to think about the best privacy-safe plan for ad tracking that doesn’t rely on cookies, and this article outlines the options, with their strengths and weaknesses. It looks at hashed emails, clean rooms and micro cohorts (which are described as the biggest opportunity today for privacy-first, cross-platform campaigns). The advice to any business that has not already started to wean itself off cookies is ‘do it now’!