Opinions

We have seen an explosion in streaming platforms, yet audiences often report that they struggle with searching for content and getting relevant recommendations. There is an opportunity for any organisation with good content to provide niche steaming services to suit specific, and under-served, audience interests. Maturing streaming technology has levelled the playing field and there are genuine end-to-end solutions available – from content ingest and management through to app development – that deliver great quality experiences. It is now more affordable than ever to operate a high-quality streaming service – and monetise it.

To maximise monetisation of FAST, operators and video service providers need to be strategic about the FAST channels they add to their portfolio. They need to cater to the specific preferences of end users and leverage enhanced discoverability tools – like AI-driven recommendations that suggest FAST channels – to enhance viewer engagement while boosting ad opportunities. This article explores ways to successfully launch a FAST channel offering. Among other things, it discusses tailoring channels to viewer interests, ensuring relevant ads, consolidating ad buyer demand, packaging ad spots, and developing FAST channels whose programme line-up is curated specifically for one person.

FAST is an opportunity to fuse the best of linear and digital – featuring addressability and interactivity (like the ability to click on ads and even buy products). Publishers need a strategy to ensure FAST commands the right price and attracts demand, and this article advises on what that strategy looks like, including the need to show advertisers the different audiences, content and ad experiences on FAST so they do not think of it as a one-for-one linear TV replacement. Publishers should encourage advertisers to test interactivity and targeting. And to make everything work they need insight and control across their entire ad product portfolio, with a unified ‘product’ catalogue.

In the dynamic arena of sports, fan engagement encapsulates a broad spectrum of activities – be it pre-game rituals, live-tweeting games, curating dedicated 'fan caves' or impassioned debate of team tactics among friends. These diverse expressions of fandom present a unique opportunity for sports brands to connect with their audience on a more personalised level and drive engagement using the power of television. With the right data that provides a view into who people are in both their personal and professional lives, sports brands can garner insights, sharpen targeting, refine strategies, and most importantly, improve the fan experience.

Faced with a tough economic climate, publishers are turning to FAST to keep revenues growing, but is FAST really the best strategic play? There is money to be made, but audiences skew older, CPMs may be lower, and long streaming sessions can reduce attention and hit frequency caps. Third-party vendor tech makes FAST distribution easy, but may offer little to support actionable analytics. Maybe content owners should spend their energy finding efficiencies in their onsite channels. Reducing ad errors has a significant impact on revenue and could be as rewarding as standing up a new channel. We can look at supply/demand path optimisation. Massive savings can be made on the existing set-up – and maybe it is worth investing there before turning to FAST.

Coinciding with the growth in high-quality live sports content on streaming services, consumer expectations are rising and the viewing experience is evolving. This article explores trends in live sports coverage and the technologies powering CX innovation. It looks at live events interfaces, low-latency sports streaming, and interactivity including sports data that is synchronised with content streams. You can read about double-box displays that allow viewers to watch a game while an ad is being displayed. Cloud scaling, video compression and server-side ad insertion are among the advances outlined.

The power of connected TV for advertising is well established. What marketers now need to know, in order to truly take advantage of ad-driven CTV, is how to achieve cost-effective scale. This article explores how the buying method can influence success, comparing direct IO buys and the different forms of programmatic, suggesting that additional flexibility plus the offer of tailored purchasing options will become a differentiator for programmatic. It also argues that the decline of third-party identifiers puts the spotlight on publisher and device manufacturer first-party data, and also places programmatic at a crossroads.

Communication service providers can unlock competitive advantage and deliver additional customer value through green field service aggregation, underpinned by the operator Intelligent Edge.

Streaming has opened the door to D2C services and the opportunity for sports organisations to cut out the middleman, but they must overcome a number of challenges if they want to monetise these offers successfully with advertising, from delivering a good ad experience to harnessing personalisation and measurement to achieve the highest CPMs. Third-party sales require integration with ad networks, and media companies must consider how to prepare ad content and ensure brand safety. You need the technical infrastructure to handle ad calls in a live environment at mass scale. So, Identifying the right approach to technology is essential, and we have reached a stage where media companies are turning increasingly towards third-party vendors as they seek best-of-breed solutions.

The rise of Connected TV (CTV) has been a shot in the arm for brands on the hunt for high-impact impressions in an advertising...