Opinions

CTV is often presented as the Holy Grail for advertisers – the best of TV’s big screen branding power with digital precision and targeting, but then you hear reasons why the Holy Grail is so elusive: that measurement isn’t quite there, that brands would prefer to run campaigns through one DSP, with universal ID techniques and perfect data matching. This is not realistic yet, but it is possible to harness addressable TV on CTV today, at scale, to help offset the decline in traditional content viewing. Buyers have to embrace cross-platform advertising and the diversity of the CTV environment, considering every TV endpoint with quality content. There are ways to pull addressable CTV campaigns together, and third-party research firms are shedding light on audiences – and those audiences are there.

OTT streaming, accelerated by D2C services, the migration of sports rights to streaming services and more interest in 4K, is placing an unprecedented load on networks and creating a danger of congestion and reduced QoE. By joining forces and using the latest advanced CDN and multicast ABR technologies, content providers and network operators can deliver exceptional quality at lower costs, and even create new revenues for both parties. Innovative partnerships can be born, like a network operator offering free or discounted OTT services to broadband customers, so that money does not even have to change hands. This article argues that streaming content providers should shift their attention from global CDNs to local network operator infrastructure to improve their content delivery strategy.

ITV’s powerhouse results earlier this year and its determination to build on its streaming success with ITVX illustrate the opportunity for advertisers working with connected TV. With the Pluto TV FAST service running big outdoor campaigns across London and Disney looking towards AVOD, plus a cost-of-living crisis, CTV advertising has fast growth potential. Real-time data and precise targeting, and ways to link ad exposure to brand engagement, plus the opportunity for brands to harness their own CRM data for campaigns, means more budget will flow to connected TV.

Sustainability in the media world is most likely an initiative undertaken by IT or facilities teams, but this article argues that change programmes should include more stakeholders in the decision-making process, with possibly a matrixed structure across offices of the CTO, CRO, and even the products team. “This will enable greater alignment of sustainability initiatives,” says the author, who lists the questions the CRO and products teams should be ready to answer for a sustainability project led by the office of the CTO.

Julie Selman, SVP Head of EMEA at Magnite, summarises the advertising trends to watch during the rest of 2022 and the best practices that will drive advertiser success. These include the ability to pivot media buying strategies to become truly omnichannel, and development and testing of new identity solutions ahead of third-party cookies being phased out. This article also highlights the opportunity for broadcasters and native OTT platforms to increase their footprint as AVOD adoption increases.

Free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services benefit from a lack of U.S. viewer access to free linear TV, partly because of a national amnesia about the presence of over-the-air broadcast. Tens of millions are already using FASTs, generating billions in ad revenue. But it will be much harder in the UK for FASTs to carve out an audience. In the first of his monthly columns for Videonet, Colin Dixon, Founder & Chief Analyst at nScreenMedia, reviews the numbers and explains what is driving the growth trajectory in each market.

The OTT video industry has only just started its journey to fully understand user behaviour and how to drive engagement. While most video executives acknowledge the need to experiment in order to improve engagement, only 27% are currently using data to decide how to adapt the UX. There is experimentation, but success is judged on overall usage, or more qualitative user group studies. UX adaptations often rely on the Product Team’s opinion which may, or may not, align with real behavioural insights. But it is possible to consult data to see which initiatives boost engagement – and then turn behavioural trends into actual UX changes.

The key to long-term success in TV advertising is to transform how you think about your inventory. Instead of thinking about inventory as spots and breaks, start to think about it as an audience that you are trying to monetise, across screens and across linear and VoD. There is a five-step programme that leaders like Sky in the UK and Nine in Australia are pursuing and that other sales houses can adopt. It starts with decoupling programme, spot and audience, uses daily and ultimately real-time refinements to placement, and leaves media companies in such a strong position that they could eventually choose to offer advertising management as a service to others.

Fans have enthusiastically embraced the return of live sports, with a pandemic-influenced twist. Digital habits, intensified by stay-at-home orders, look set to stick as...

James Collins, Senior Vice President – Media at Rakuten Advertising explores how CTV providers can showcase the value of free ad-supported streaming channels to ad buyers as they build strategies for 2022 and beyond. He argues that broadcast TV remains essential, but buying ad space there is expensive, and not very agile. Building in a CTV campaign alongside broadcast enables advertisers to be smarter with their remaining budget, with the promise of more cost-effective incremental reach.