This may come as a surprise given CTV’s similarities to mobile, where data flows in abundance, even with Apple’s restrictions to ID-level targeting. Both operate through devices and apps, but where they diverge is in the availability and accessibility of data. Equipment manufacturers and, to a lesser extent, streaming providers are holding their assets close to their chest, perhaps seeking to avoid the commodification which devalued data on mobile and the open web.

While this guardedness is understandable, it is impeding cross-platform measurement and targeting capabilities, making it challenging for buyers to deliver consistent ROI while driving up CPMs for sellers.

To solve this problem, brands need to explore how adtech can bring life to this parched ecosystem, allowing data to flow to those who need it without compromising its value or its safety.

Lack of identity spine weakens CTV’s cross-platform capabilities

ID solutions are perhaps the most essential adtech solution for delivering effective targeted CTV campaigns, as they allow brands to identify users across different platforms and devices. With ID solutions, brands can deliver relevant ads to consumers no matter where they are, ensuring they reach the right audience at the right time.

For example, an ID solution can help advertisers pseudonymously recognise a user who watches a show on a connected TV and then clicks on a social media ad on their phone by linking the user’s CTV device ID with their mobile advertising ID. Being able to consistently recognise users is also vital for universal frequency capping and limiting ad exposure across platforms to maximise incremental reach. The advertiser can also deliver relevant ads on other connected devices that the user interacts with, providing a personalised and sticky experience across devices.

Unfortunately, with so many Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) in the market offering their own variation of device IDs and strictly controlling access to them, CTV lacks the identity spine needed to deliver accurate frequency control and measurement. The static nature of big-screen TVs has seen IP addresses stand in as identifiers, but this falls apart the moment a brand wants to measure outside of the CTV ecosystem (for example, in a cross-channel campaign that also targets mobile and web) or target an individual rather than a household.

Data exchanges are a bustling market of consumer insights

Data exchanges are marketplaces that act as intermediaries between data owners and buyers, making it easier for brands to access the information they need for effective targeting. Data exchanges can offer a range of data types, including demographic, behavioural, and location data.

For the media owners that set the boundaries of what is possible in CTV campaigns, data exchanges offer an opportunity to apply data targeting to campaigns — à la programmatic deals. This, in turn, increases the value of their inventory to a wider range of advertisers.

Brands, meanwhile, can use data exchanges to overcome limitations within their own data. This is particularly useful for brands that have been unable to use first-party data to make up for the shortfall of data availability in the post-GDPR era, as is the case for many CPG brands, for whom TV is a key touchpoint.

Most of all, CTV needs technology to empower data collaboration

The best way to help brands quench their thirst for data in the CTV ecosystem is to open the floodgates of data collaboration. If all siloed pockets of data (whether first, second, or third-party) along with all identifiers and ID-enriching signals can be unified and appropriately pseudonymised, the limitations of each component part can be overcome. Overlapping audiences between brands and platforms can be segmented and targeted not just within CTV, but across the wider advertising ecosystem.

Clean rooms are one of the ad tech solutions built to facilitate data collaboration. These are secure environments that allow brands to share and analyse data without accessing it directly, with cryptographic scrambling preserving user privacy and data ownership while still delivering valuable insights. In the UK, CTV broadcaster Channel 4 and retail media network Nectar used a clean room to discover shared audiences.

However, clean rooms are far from plug and play. Both parties must have their data organised to be compatible with the clean room they are using, which does not guarantee compatibility with any other clean rooms the brand may want to use. It is a significant investment of time, resources, and money to set up a clean room, and data sets must be regularly re-matched to ensure insights are up to date. Then, after all of that, there is no guarantee that anything actionable can be taken out of them.

Data collaboration, then, must not be limited to certain tools but be embraced at a cross-platform, cross-solution level. ID resolution and data exchanges can make more data available on CTV, while data collaboration tools can facilitate the smooth exchange of first and second-party data between the supply and demand side. A dedication to interoperability and an acknowledgement that no single approach can solve the ecosystem-level data drought will be necessary for CTV to thrive.

As CTV continues to grow and evolve, the role of adtech solutions in unlocking the full programmatic potential of the ecosystem will become increasingly important. With the right adtech tools, the promise of a CTV ecosystem that delivers the best of both linear TV and digital advertising can be realised. It will take collaboration, a more open attitude to data sharing, and perhaps some consolidation for us to bring life to CTV’s data desert.

Disney is no stranger to advertising, so this is not the kind of strategic pivot we saw from Netflix in November when ‘Netflix Basic with Adverts’ was introduced after a lifetime aversion to advertising support. Disney+ with advertising should be viewed as part of a big advertising picture, with the Disney+ Basic consumers rolled into a scaled audience offer that spans linear broadcast TV, multiple streaming touchpoints and even social media feeds, sold through a unified team who specialise according to category and business type rather than which screen or platform the ads appear on.

Not surprisingly, given their advertising sales heritage and the premium environment of Disney+, the ad-supported tier attracted 100 advertising partners at launch including all the major agency holding companies like GroupM, Dentsu, Havas, Publicis, IPG, Horizon, Omnicom Group, RPA and Stagwell. Hundreds of creatives covering products and services across retail, apparel, autos, financial services, restaurants, technology, telecom, CPG and travel are being shown to consumers.

Speaking at The Future of TV Advertising Global last week, Rita Ferro, President, Advertising at Disney, inferred that there was a certain inevitability to Disney adopting a hybrid model for Disney+, as she emphasised how Disney has always believed in customer choice and wanted as many people as possible to enjoy the product. Hulu already uses this hybrid model successfully, with ad-supported and ad-free tiers.

Asked what differentiates Disney in ad-supported streaming, Ferro pointed to its experience in that marketplace (especially with Hulu) and therefore an understanding of both consumer behaviour (including correct ad loads) and the technology needed “to drive scale and connect brands with consumers”. Beyond content and environment, she also pointed to a unified ‘Disney ID graph’. Built inhouse, this identifies consumers (in a privacy compliant manner) as a basis for audience segmentation, including advertiser/Disney data matching. There has also been a focus on automation, including a self-service platform for buyers.

Disney is also helping to pioneer cross-platform measurement, working with agencies and advertisers to harness new (alternative) measurement solutions to show de-duplicated reach and frequency across the whole Disney television and streaming portfolio. Like a handful of leading media owners, the company has bought into the idea that no single measurement entity has all the answers in an increasingly fragmented viewing landscape, and it is working with no less than 100 vendors today on this next-generation approach.

She also explained how the unified sales teams would draw upon the exact tools needed for a client, product type or category, with pharmaceuticals and retail being different propositions, for example. So, that could mean different mixes from the automation, measurement, attribution, insights and creative cupboards.

One thing that Disney has in common with Netflix as a new SAVOD (Subscription with Advertising VOD service) is lots of exclusive content. The company has been more assertive than most ‘legacy’ studio/channel groups in repatriating content it owns, putting it behind the Disney+ wall as existing licensing deals run out rather than continuing to license it to third-party streamers.

Disney+ is one of the most successful streaming launches of all time, gaining 164 million paid subscribers (so excluding any free trials) by October this year. After a November 2019 launch, the growth trajectory was boosted by lockdowns, but as with all streamers, Disney+ must now grow in the face of what analysts have called an attention recession (now the lockdown stay-at-home viewing is no longer a factor) and a cost-of-living crisis that is forcing consumers to make tough spending choices.

There is also increasing competition in premium streaming. Other studios are improving their game (e.g., Paramount+ from Paramount) and national broadcasters are doubling down on digital (e.g., ITV has nearly four times as much content in its new streaming service ITVX compared to its predecessor ITV Hub, and is putting some of its best drama into ITVX months ahead of their broadcast debuts).

Disney+ subscriber growth was still healthy even ahead of the ad-supported offer, with the U.S. and Canada clocking 20% growth for paid subs (so excluding any free trials) last year (October 2021 to October 2022). The figure for international excluding India was 57% and there was subscriber growth of 42% for the Disney+ Hotstar collaboration in India. Domestic ARPU for Disney+ did fall slightly in this period.

The Walt Disney Company owns ABC (the American broadcast network giant), one of the world’s major sports broadcasters and streamers in ESPN and ESPN+, and Hulu, which pioneered multichannel streamed VOD/linear aggregation, and the company is now a direct-to-consumer giant, with 235 million D2C customers in total (including the 164 million for Disney+). Revenue streams show the direction of travel: D2C earned Disney £19.6 billion to the year ending October 2022 compared to $28.3 billion for linear networks and $8.1 billion for content sales and licensing.

Those D2C revenues are up 20% year-on-year versus linear revenue growth of 1% (and content sales/licensing growth of 11%). The company expects Disney+ to hit profitability in 2024.

Recent cross-platform campaign analysis from InnovidXP highlights how the combination of FOX (with its news, sports and entertainment content) and Tubi will enable advertisers to scale a wide range of desired audiences across content types. It shows the value of ‘Tubi Unique Content Categories’ in building incremental reach, harnessing genre-based environments that are contextually relevant to the advertiser. Findings have shown that, on average, eight out of ten Tubi households cannot be reached with broadcast linear TV. Innovid says buyers will be able to achieve incremental audience reach averaging 75+% when adding a Tubi buy to a FOX linear campaign.

“As more viewers engage with content across multiple screens, it remains vital that we continue to work with our ad partners and provide them with the necessary data and insights that further display the value of converged TV and the engaged audiences and concentrated impact FOX delivers,” says Dan Callahan, Senior Vice President, Data Strategy & Sales Innovation at FOX. “Our partnership with Innovid is another step forward in expanding and delivering cross-platform measurement solutions that further align with our advertisers’ objectives.”

Tyler Fitch, Senior Vice President, Advanced TV & Partnerships at Tubi, adds: “For more than a year, Tubi has been working in lockstep with Innovid to quantify the unique reach that streaming delivers to advertisers beyond linear [broadcast] – providing top TV advertisers with actionable insights. Tubi and Fox have a shared vision to create the optimal environment for advertisers to efficiently reach the right audiences across multiple platforms and screens. InnovidXP brings this vision to life with consistent, accurate and scalable cross-platform TV measurement.”

Jo Kinsella, President, InnovidXP, concludes: “Fox and Tubi are redefining the way advertisers approach TV investments by prioritising analytics that prove the value of converged TV. We are thrilled to support this collaborative effort to unite linear and streaming with cross-platform audience measurement, and we look forward to delivering advertisers the insights and metrics that matter today.”

Tubi is available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand Mexico and a small number of other markets (but not in Europe).

The company stated that measurement partners will need to incorporate feedback from the buyside (as well as input from the Association of National Advertisers), and gain universal acceptance and utilisation by all of GroupM’s media partners. Measurement partners will also need to provide traditional and digital partner coverage, while creating space to add new metrics (such as attention).

The company also affirmed the need for “fair and accurate audience representation” from its measurement partners and that they “move towards standardisation and greater transparency.” This requirement includes undertaking the MRC audit process, if they are not already accredited by the body. GroupM also wants its measurement partners to share new commercial models to fund measurement.

Kirk McDonald, CEO of GroupM North America, said: “Marketers are leaning into new tools and technologies to bridge the measurement gap, raising important questions about the accuracy and sustainability of panel-based measurement as changes in the digital media environment continue to accelerate beyond one currency.

“Outlining expectations with our measurement partners and working together to implement standards is critical to create real change that makes advertising work better for our clients and to better track our progress towards client growth goals.”

Matt Sweeney, Chief Investment Officer of GroupM US, commented: “The industry requires a robust measurement solution that can solve the problem of cross-screen reach and frequency and is representative of how consumers watch video. The industry agrees that panel-dependent measurement needs to shift to a transparent path built on a stable, reliable methodology and a foundation of proven technology, which captures the shift in viewer consumption habits.”

The company says that, for the 2022/2023 Upfronts and for the following year, it will continue to transact using Nielsen data, while alternative currencies (which include outcome-based approaches for some clients) will be used to shadow Nielsen deals. It is currently testing a range of measurement solutions – including iSpot, Comscore, Videoamp, and Nielsen One Alpha – with over a dozen of its largest clients, including: Unilever, Nestle, Ferrero, Domino’s, and Mars.

Nielsen says: “For example, if an automotive advertiser launches an ad campaign for a new vehicle and the target audience is competitive brand purchasers, the advertiser will be able to see the reach and frequency of the campaign among those segments. Alongside that data, the advertiser can see how effective the campaign was at delivering outcomes.”

Initially, the solution will integrate Polk automotive audience segments by S&P Global Mobility, followed by additional groups and audiences – including client first party segments. The first set of outcomes data will reflect the attribution metrics for consumer packaged goods, with the following set focused on automotive campaigns.

Karthik Rao, Chief Operating Officer at Nielsen, said: “We continue to make tremendous progress to bring cross-platform metrics to market by the end of this year, following the initial launch of Nielsen ONE Alpha.  And we continue to innovate our solution to add more features, while bringing in additional metrics that matter most to marketers.

“By previewing advanced audiences and outcomes measurement alongside reach and frequency metrics, we are helping marketers with a next generation solution where they will be able to better understand the value of the investments they are making, the targeted audiences they’re reaching, and the actions being taken in a single view.”

Nielsen ONE Alpha will have general availability at the end of 2022, with these new features remaining in alpha form upon introduction into the user interface in the following year.

The measurement platform is driven by over one billion TV impressions (delivered to more than 95 million households) which are processed daily. The “currency-grade” impression data processed by the solution is linked to an ad serving footprint that represents 88% of U.S. CTV homes, according to Innovid.

InnovidXP measures a range of KPIs to help brands achieve their reach and performance objectives across all advertising categories. Metrics include audience reach and frequency, as well as creative performance, and lower-funnel metrics linked to both online and offline activities. The company also emphasises that the solution has an automated and secure, tag-free process for onboarding brands at scale.

Jo Kinsella, President, TVSquared by Innovid said: “Advertisers have long called for an independent measurement solution that can provide a unified, consistent, cross-platform view of advertising, alongside meaningful, actionable metrics. InnovidXP has answered that call.”

The launch of InnovidXP comes a few months after the company’s acquisition of TVSquared.

The massive shift of brands moving into the streaming world is one of the main factors driving the change in measurement, with brands now spending “north of 20% of their total TV budgets in the streaming space,” according to Chalozin. He believes that, in the next few years, marketers will move away from correlating campaigns by reach and towards optimising campaigns by tying them to specific business KPIs. Chalozin notes that several large companies working with Innovid – such as Peloton, GoDaddy and Expedia – have already taken an interest in tying TV spending to outcomes in a much more centralised way.

Innovid believes its measurement platform provides a unique value proposition due to the company’s access to ad server data. Chalozin argued that one of the most important elements for measurement in the CTV space is access to the raw data of the ads that were delivered, with data on as many attributes as possible such as device ID, the app and the user. With Innovid being an ad server that serves individual ads into properties across many territories, the company does not need to license data from any external party. He remarked: “We don’t need data partnerships because we are generating the data and building the measurement product on top of it.”

Since buying TVSquared – a cross-platform measurement company originating from the UK – Innovid has worked with brands to tie campaigns to digital outcomes, such as app downloads, website visits and search lifts. The company has also increasingly done more offline attribution such as store visitations, “but those are a lot more probabilistic than deterministic obviously,” Chalozin said.

He remarked that many large legacy and multinational companies are still focused on the upper side of the marketing funnel, looking to determine true reach and unduplicated reach for their campaigns. Chalozin said: “You spent 10 million dollars on your campaign, and you bought media from 50 different media owners – ESPN, Pluto TV, Tubi, ITV etc. – and you want to know what exactly is the individual reach, how many households each and every one of those suppliers contributed, and what is the true overlap throughout the campaign, not on an overall basis but on a day by day basis to really know how you should optimise your campaign – either the next one, or this one in real-time. We’re looking for the most coherent way to tell that story.”

Conviva’s platform currently supports more than 500 million unique viewers watching 200 billion streams per year across 4 billion applications on devices. Its clients include DAZN, Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, Sky, Sling TV and WarnerMedia.

The company’s first major streaming measurement partnership was with NBCUniversal, which came after “highly successful cross-platform measurement pilots” for the Winter Olympics and Superbowl (in collaboration with iSpot, as well). WarnerMedia (Warner Bros. Discovery) and Paramount pursued a measurement strategy for the NCAA Basketball Tournament 2022 using Conviva’s technology to support linear and digital partnerships with Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp.

Keith Zubchevich, CEO of Conviva, comments: “Audience measurement represents the streaming industry’s biggest opportunity and Conviva’s technology definitively unlocks its potential. For Conviva’s customers, streaming audience is continuously, census-level measured with comprehensive, standardized data.

Having solved for this problem technically, we will now work in lock-step with the industry to provide a unified streaming ad packaging and measurement solution fully interoperable with any cross-platform currency in market today.”

TVSquared has reported that its total preliminary revenue for 2021 is expected to be $20-22 million. The company – with clients and partners that include NBCUniversal, Sky, Roku and Hulu –  says it tracks more than 100 million households across the globe, and over 75 CTV platforms. The purchase price agreed in the deal consists of $100 million in cash and approximately $60 million in stock consideration. The transaction is expected to conclude by the end of Innovid’s fiscal second quarter.

Zvika Netter, CEO and Co-Founder of Innovid said: “In acquiring TVSquared, we aim to provide the most complete view of the total TV and digital universe through a scalable, currency-grade measurement platform. Additionally, we immediately accelerate and broaden our scope globally, as brands, agencies, publishers, and broadcasters on six continents rely on TVSquared to maximise reach, identify the right audiences and drive business growth with TV. As the market demands greater accountability, Innovid and TVSquared are reimagining the future of cross-platform TV measurement together.”

Calum Smeaton, CEO and Founder of TVSquared, also commented: “Innovid and TVSquared share complementary visions to transform TV measurement through a comprehensive view of audiences across all devices and platforms worldwide. Joining forces establishes a cross-platform measurement solution that maps one of the largest datasets of audiences, homes, and devices, at scale, across linear, CTV, and digital video.”

In July 2021, NBC Olympics – a division of the NBC Sports Group – selected Innovid to provide ad management solutions for its coverage of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad which took place in Tokyo last summer. Later in the year, the company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and has since released preliminary full-year 2021 financial results, estimating revenues of $89 million-$90 million (with a 30-31% year-over-year growth).

A significant theme on the agenda is the imperative of establishing adequate cross-platform measurement for TV advertising, and the major initiatives currently taking off. Tom Sherwood (Product Lead at YouTube), Rhian Feather (Head of Media Planning, OMD), Kristin Dolan (CEO of 605) and Martin Greenbank (Head of Advertising Research and Development, Channel 4) will reflect on the core challenges associated with cross-platform measurement, and assess how fast the industry should adopt impressions, deterministic data, attention metrics or pure business outcomes as a standard for measurement. CFlight – the Total TV campaign evaluation tool developed by Sky and NBCUniversal, which is set cover 98% of broadcaster advertising exposures in the UK – will be discussed on a panel, which includes Lucy Bristowe (Director of Insight & Research, Sky), Greenback and Glenn Gowen (Head of Audiences – Commercial, ITV).

Chrissie Hanson (Global Chief Strategy Officer, OMD Worldwide) and Nicholas Grand (SVP Transformation, Global Investment, Omnicom Media Group) will take a deep dive into attention metrics as a way to increase brand awareness and business outcomes, as viewers become exposed to fewer ads in their migration to connected TV platforms.

Thomas Bremond (GM International, FreeWheel) is joined by Verica Djurdjevic (Chief Revenue Officer, Channel 4), Paola Colombo (General Manager at Publitalia ’80 Mediaset), and Katie Coteman (Vice President, Advertising and Partnerships at Discovery), to explore the impact of CTV on TV’s evolution and discuss the key role and strategies of media brands in sustaining TV’s value. They will provide broadcaster perspectives on the current landscape and discuss why it is time to ‘reset’ TV, ensuring interoperability and growth opportunities across the entire ecosystem.

The event also tracks the latest developments for improving media planning, campaign outcomes and targeted advertising. A panel discussion between Lara Izlan (Director of Data Strategy, ITV) and Jean Paul Edwards (Chief Product Development Officer, OMD EMEA) will take a look at advertiser/media owner data matching, including what is possible, and practical considerations when using these first-party data sets.

Samira Ebrahim (European ICP Strategy Director, Mars Pet Nutrition) and Richard Fuller (Senior Director of Engagement at Finecast) will explore how brands can target high value audiences in a new era of TV and data driven solutions. The extent to which connected TV is able to achieve incremental reach in Total TV campaigns will be evaluated in a panel discussion including Andy Jones (Samsung Ads), Paul Gubbins (CTV Strategy, Publica), Julie Selman from Magnite and Mara Negri (Publieurope EBX Board Director).

Several sessions will look at broad shifts in strategy across the industry. Research Director at Ampere Analysis, Guy Bisson, will shed light on the distribution and content strategies leading media companies are using to maintain and grow audiences, reviewing the different approaches employed by broadcasters, studio/subscription channel groups, AVODs and SVODs. Additionally, Emmanuelle Godard, Digital Marketing and Innovation Director, Canal Plus, will explain how CONNECT+ allows advertisers to measure and optimise broadcast campaigns on their own KPIs.

Eleni Marouli, Head of Market Developments at Ofcom, will run attendees through the latest developments in UK television with regards to viewing, revenue and spend, and the impact of the pandemic on linear and online viewing patterns. Christian Kurz (SVP, Global Streaming and Corporate Insights, ViacomCBS) will outline the profound cultural importance of TV, revealing the results of a study where ViacomCBS challenged consumers aged 16-49 in Italy, the UK, USA, Mexico, South Africa, Indonesia and Australia to go about their lives without engaging in any conversations about TV in any of its forms (including streaming). He also reflects on the dynamics informing the health of the television industry.