Pearl TV Adds Digital Monetization Capabilities To NextGen TV

Pearl TV, the coalition of U.S. broadcast companies transitioning to NextGen TV, has expanded support for digital video advertising technology in its Web TV platform, RUN3TV. It brings digital advertising capabilities “equivalent to the web and connected TV, and is a key driver for broadcaster’s return on investment in NextGen TV services,” Pearl said, adding: “Now with more monetization opportunities, broadcasters deploying NextGen TV gain a critical time-to-revenue advantage.”

Anne Schelle, Pearl TV managing director, said: “Adding digital monetization capabilities creates a game changing opportunity for over-the-air broadcast services. Expanding on the unique ability to deliver hybrid television service and better engage with their viewers, broadcasters are easily able to integrate with their existing over-the-air and connected TV monetization platforms.”

RUN3TV was built to support NextGen TV, otherwise known as ATSC 3.0, and bring content to life through two-way web interactivity. As NextGen TV has reached an inflection point — now reaching 55% of U.S. households, approximately 120 television models available at retail, and a growing device ecosystem — NextGen TV gives broadcasters the ability to directly engage with their viewers via their broadcaster applications supported by RUN3TV Web TV Platform.

RUN3TV has incorporated the commonly used server-side ad insertion (SSAI) model, including client-side reporting. SSAI is used to enable video advertising in many IP content distribution scenarios including over-the-top (OTT), connected TV (CTV), advertising-based video on demand (AVOD), free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) and IP broadcast channels. RUN3TV’s SSAI implementation includes the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s video ad serving template (VAST), dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) ad insertion specifications and the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard.

Robert Folliard, Gray Television  senior vice president, government relations and distribution, said: “NextGen TV is building an active, connected and digital audience using the same interactive technology of ad platforms and privacy models already in use in digital environments. By 2024, there will be 10 million addressable over-the-air households in the U.S. There’s a plethora of opportunities for broadcasters with RUN3TV — think of it as web pages over the air that are completely customizable. I am excited to see how broadcasters will lean in on this new capability, engage with the platform and harness a new revenue stream.”

Integrations are in progress with broadcasters’ ad tech partners that support SSAI, including Google Ad Manager, Madhive, Amazon AWS Media Tailor, Magnite, Springserve and Freewheel. Broadcasters that use these ad tech partners have deployed NextGen TV applications in 25 markets, according to Pearl TV.

“Connected TVs continue to be a driving force behind turning the TV screen into a full-funnel marketing tool, bringing together the premium environment of television with all the tools digital has and more,” said Adam Helfgott, Madhive CEO. “Now, with NextGen TV and the RUN3TV framework, we can bring these capabilities to over-the-air delivery, so that broadcasters can leverage our high-fidelity technology, such as our proprietary connected TV device graph of 100 million households, to deliver local-at-scale precision.”