The lines between TV and digital video are blurring.
Big-screen viewing through IP delivery – via STB, VOD and OTT devices – is growing fast. Video consumption via these channels is rapidly catching up with desktop viewing and is already an integral part of the living room experience alongside traditional linear TV. At the same time experimentation with automated trading models is increasing, with programmatic now accounting for almost 20% of premium video monetisation across Europe.
The video ecosystem has received more than its fair share of bad press over the past year – with questions around brand safety, transparency and audience reach – so how will it evolve and progress past these concerns as the distinctions between TV and digital continue to dissolve?
Programmatic must mean automation not automatic
Programmatic may be a way to automate the mechanics of ad trading, but it should still be about a direct relationship between buyers and sellers. It therefore needs rules and boundaries to be effective. Once publishers have created a private exchange framework they must be selective over which buyers they invite to the party, allowing them to maintain ultra-premium inventory.
programmatic is a far more secure environment than its detractors would have us believe
Premium video is increasingly being traded programmatically using deal IDs, which are effective at creating the right controls and boundaries, and the use of deal IDs means eCPMS are significantly higher than with non-deal ID transactions.
When there is a healthy one-to-one relationship between buyers and inventory, and there are the right rules in place, programmatic is a far more secure environment than its detractors would have us believe.
Digital needs the safe environment of TV
There are two roads publishers can take to monetise their video inventory. The first is the quick wins and short-term gains of the walled gardens, where the closed end-to-end ecosystem has an appealing simplicity and an addictive revenue-first philosophy. But there are risks in taking a path where all video content is put in the same basket – an ‘if it moves it is video’ approach. The publisher quickly becomes a dependent part of those walled gardens, with no independent platform of their own, and little control over technology, media or demand.
The second avenue is the safer, more TV-like approach of premium video. Premium video is professionally produced, rights managed, brand safe content that caters to engaged audiences. Publishers who take this approach have a longer-term vision of control, safety, compliance, and transparency in their models, that reflects the traditional TV environment and ultimately gives them more control over content monetisation.
TV needs the scale and precision of digital
There are efficiencies in the programmatic digital transaction model that TV can learn from. First, TV must build its own ecosystem, with broadcasters aligning with operators, as well as amongst themselves on issues such as measurement.
TV has to embrace what is good about digital
This is already starting to happen in the UK with Virgin Media and Sky creating an alliance around the AdSmart addressable TV platform.
In addition to evolving towards a more digital trading environment, TV also has to embrace what is good about digital, including its ability to precisely target audiences and the potential it has to bring scale to inventory. The combination of TV and digital – encompassing multiple environments such as STB, VOD, and mobile in-app – is a very powerful proposition for agencies and advertisers.
Content monetisation will be more holistic
There is a tendency to focus in on specific monetisation models, whether that’s ad-funded, subscription, or ecommerce, without joining the data bridges to better understand the wider content monetisation mix. Different monetisation methods are kept separate, despite using the same data and the same metrics – such as revenue per piece of content – for optimisation.
By taking a more holistic approach and funnelling all monetisation data through a single platform, the consumer journey and the all-important user experience can be better understood. Bringing data together to make smarter decisions and improving the content monetisation mix will be vital as video convergence progresses.
The foundations are being laid for a new TV ecosystem that doesn’t distinguish between TV and digital video. A more holistic content monetisation mix, the efficiency of programmatic, the safety of TV and the scale of digital will be the key drivers of growth as we move ever closer to that converged reality.
