CTV

After a difficult year for traditional advertising, top ad-tech executives see some changes coming in 2024. Growing in importance are connected TV as a channel for advertisers, the need for accountable data and a continuing shift to automation. Here are some predictions as 2024 gets underway.

Bite-size clips, granular targeting and simple buying afford advantages to the Alphabet-owned platform.

Recent research shows news outperforms all other categories in the FAST ecosystem, yet another reason for local broadcasters to leverage their content there and on as many CTV platforms as they can.

Giant media buyer GroupM expects U.S. TV ad spending to fall 5.1% to $62.3 billion in 2024, excluding political ad spending, following a 5.2% decline in 2023. Traditional TV spending is seen dropping 10.7 to $45.7 billion, while spending on connected TV advertising climbs 14.8% to $16.6 billion in 2024, getting a 26.6% share of TV ad dollars.

The company has hired Google exec Rachel Berk as SVP, distribution, platform partnerships. In the newly created role, Berk will manage partnerships for Fox brands including Tubi across connected TV services. Reporting to BJ Elias, EVP of distribution, advanced services, Berk will lead the platform distribution team, responsible for the domestic and international distribution of connected TV services from Fox brands including Tubi, Fox Sports, Fox Local, Fox News and Fox Nation across platforms including Amazon, Roku and Samsung.

Supply-side platform/SSP OpenX is eliminating all resellers and removing all non-TV content from its ad inventory. The moves are part of the launch of TV+, a solution that OpenX claims combines the most powerful aspects of linear and programmatic buying models. The overall aim is to streamline and improve transparency in CTV programmatic buying.

Its execs tells analysts to expect more sports deals and more new CTV networks. CEO Adam Symson says his company is “leading the broadcast renaissance in live sports” with deals impacting results with both advertisers and MVPD distributors. Pictured: WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and Scripps CEO Adam Symson.

Advertisers spent $1 billion buying advertising on connected TV in June, a significant milestone, according to Vivvix, Kantar’s ad tracking unit, in its first-half report. “This milestone validates the projections on CTV’s ascendency from experimental to a ‘table stakes’ medium,” said Andrew Feigenson, CEO of Vivvix.

Upfront TV primetime advertising spending will sink 3.6% to $18.64 billion — the first time the market will decline since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the upfront market in the summer of 2020, according to Insider Intelligence/eMarketer estimates. This will come due to  “shrinking ad budgets and an abundance of options [that will] spark a buyer’s market,” according to the report.

TVision has created a partnership with DoubleVerify in an effort to offer marketers advertising attention data attached to ad exposure and viewable data for connected TV (CTV) commercials. TVision’s technology will measure eyes-on-the-screen data for advertising attention, while Double Verify’s advertising exposure CTV data will offer specific granular performance on CTV,  beyond general viewership. Double Verify is a platform for digital media measurement and analytics.

What is on the horizon for the U.S. syndication business in this massive moment of change — with all things moving to streaming and digital? Can TV stations keep up? At a recent event, Mort Marcus, co-president of Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury, said things may not be so bad. But many are taking nothing for chance, looking to expand their locally produced TV news content — programming where they can control all the ad inventory versus national syndicated programming, where stations must share ad inventory/revenue with major TV-studio based media companies.

As the start of the national TV upfront ad market draws near, total advertising — for live, linear TV — is estimated to drop 8% to $61.31 billion this year while total connected TV will rise 21% to $25.09 billion, according to eMarketer. YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix are among those that will see big gains, according to this analysis — with YouTube seeing the strongest rise. In terms of the upfront itself — where big brand advertisers typically commit 75% of their September- to-August TV season media before the season begins — eMarketer says YouTube will get “as much money as any TV network.”

PubMatic said it launched Activate, a new technology that enables buyers to access premium video and CTV inventory on Pubmatic’s programmatic platform via direct deals. Launch partners include Dentsu, GroupM, Havas, LG, Mars and Omnicom Media Group Germany.

Washington, Atlanta and Detroit Are Leading the summer rollout of the CTV service from the group’s 14 other stations.

A report from DirecTV Advertising ahead of the upfronts suggested that even sponsors who are buying connected TV continue to lean into linear addressable advertising. The DirecTV report says that in 2022, 59% of CTV buyers also bought linear addressable advertising from multichannel video programming distributors and virtual MVPDs like Sling TV and YouTube TV.

Tony Katsur, CEO of the IAB Tech Lab, shares how he’s trying to solve for universal reconciliation, universal audit, audience interoperability and creating strong anti-fraud mechanisms in CTV among an ambitious list of other priorities in 2023. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

Lisa LaFlamme was dismissed after a decades-long TV career, not long after she stopped dyeing her hair, setting off debates across Canada about sexism, ageism and going gray.

The bulk of advertising spend on Roku and Amazon Fire TV — two major streaming video distributors’ devices/platforms — comes via virtual pay TV providers such as Hulu + LiveTV, Pluto TV, Tubi, FuboTV and Sling TV. In November, 71% of Roku ad advertising spend and 62% of Fire TV ad spend was through vMVPD (virtual multichannel program distributors) apps, according to Pixalate, the CTV analytics company.

Estrella Media said today it’s working with Comcast’s FreeWheel unit to help boost its connected TV advertising businesses. The combination will take advantage of the growth in Hispanic CTV viewing, the companies said.

Agency executives surveyed by Pixability said they plan to invest more in CTV, even in an environment when some advertisers are being more conservative about spending in a cloudy economy.

The recent news that Comcast and Charter are branding their joint venture into connected TVs, devices and free streaming Xumo — with the existing FAST and AVOD service now known as Xumo Play — shows the two pay TV giants are getting serious about safeguarding future revenue streams.