Analysis

The opportunity for telco and Pay TV providers to diversify their retail offer has arrived but those with RDK and Linux middleware-based video devices risk getting left behind. The provision of apps to users outside of Google’s own Android TV ecosystem remains challenging. Native apps are costly to develop and maintain while control over UX and customer data is often ceded outside of the operator’s domain. A new advanced application delivery platform changes this at a stroke. AndApps™ keeps operators firmly in control of their service delivery and their customer’s experience.

Adwanted Events (which produces Connected TV World Summit, Future of TV Advertising Global and publishes Videonet) has launched ‘The Top 50 Women Gamechangers in TV’ – an awards scheme to recognise brilliant women who are changing the TV industry (across both TV advertising and TV distribution markets).

GroupM clients in the UK can see the unique reach contribution that addressable TV adds to a broadcast linear campaign using the Total TV Measurement solution developed by Finecast in collaboration with AudienceProject and TechEdge. A PwC assurance review has confirmed the accuracy and consistency of the measurement solution, having assessed the end-to-end process and methodology, including how Finecast-sourced cross-channel addressable audiences are de-duplicated and how this total addressable reach is then de-duplicated from linear exposures (using BARB data). The PwC seal of approval has prompted an official go-to-market launch for Total TV Measurement, although it has already been used on multiple campaigns to drive reach gains alongside cost savings.

France is a fast-follower in the addressable TV market and its impressive industry-wide collaborations have ensured a rapid lift-off for this market. One of the next steps is to improve measurement and demonstrate how addressable fits into a planning mix that also includes linear TV and BVOD, with audience de-duplication and channel mix optimisation as key goals. Some advertisers are interested in how addressable TV can drive consumers to online activities. The RTL Group/smartclip subsidiary Realytics is helping the buyside and sell-side with this drive towards optimisation and proof of effectiveness.

The global subscription economy is set to grow by 81% in the next three years, according to Juniper Research, and consumers are already suggesting they would welcome the availability of a single platform that manages all their subscriptions. There are compelling arguments that telcos are in the best position to capitalise on this new opportunity, as the subscription hub and super-bundler. Verizon and Optus have already made this a distinct feature of their consumer offer. This concept can help both telcos and subscription service providers improve customer value. However, there could be competition from other verticals.

Upwave, the brand analytics platform, is focused on giving TV ad buyers short-term evidence that their campaigns are working at the top of the funnel, and then using that as a predictor for future sales and lifetime customer value. The company has industrialised consumer survey data and combined it with deterministic exposure data to demonstrate uplift in key brand metrics. It has also created a ‘persuadability score’ that shows the households most likely to respond positively to brands and messages and is testing the use of this score as an optimisation tool for programmatic buying. Overall, Upwave is trying to bring a Google Analytics feel to brand measurement – less like post-campaign research consultancy and more like hands-on, inflight daily insights.

A white paper authored by Realytics provides a deep assessment of the French addressable TV market from 2020-23, drawing on interviews with senior buyside and sell-side executives. It plots market growth, who is using addressable TV and how they are using it, and considers advances in addressable TV measurement, including how you show incrementality vs linear TV. In 2023, attention is turning to proof of effectiveness and the use of advertiser first-party data to enhance campaigns. This paper also argues that the deep collaboration across most of the major sales houses and service providers in France, and alignment around consistent standards, sets the benchmark for what a successful launch-industrialisation-growth roadmap should look like, and that all European markets should take note.

Vevo is a brand-safe, premium video reach extender for broadcast TV campaigns, increasingly present on connected TV and achieving audience goals with inherently low frequency. The company used the NewFronts in May to outline the appeal of its genre and decade-specific FAST channels, which themselves have tiny audience overlaps. The company has also been pitching its AI-enabled contextual intelligence as it goes beyond mood-based targeting to enable the creative within a music video to match the creative of an ad.

Foxtel and Multichoice have already signed up to syndicate the Sky Glass platform and experience from Sky/Comcast, and Sky has been giving more details on how the syndication programme works, what operators get from it, and what they control. Sky acts as systems integrator and provides a full managed service, and if a syndication partner wants to retail their own Smart TVs, they will leverage Sky’s established hardware supply chain. Sky’s motivation is partly to build scale for its own global technology platform, and the company says it is excited by the opportunity to help international Pay TV services break into a new market segment and stay ahead of the innovation curve.

ViewersLogic is looking to disrupt the market for TV attribution and media optimisation solutions using a single-source panel with some smart technology and data flourishes. Panellists are rewarded for the data they supply, covering TV viewing, location and online and offline behaviours. A smartphone app is permissioned to mimic a remote-control, only without the commands, thus syncing with an STB to understand which channel is playing. The app uses Wi-Fi triangulation to determine which room the panellist is in, in order to demonstrate ‘person present’ when an ad is played out. And GDPR data portability rights are being leveraged to ingest supermarket loyalty card data relating to each panellist, to provide rich purchase insights.