As broadcast TV endures a quest for reinvention and transformation, the streaming revolution keeps on trucking – taking all our eyeballs along for the ride. The freedom to watch anywhere, anytime, on anything has become a foundation of the way we consume video content in the modern world.
And as traditional broadcasters launch their own streaming platforms, adapting and pivoting to find their place in this new world, viewers are presented with a multitude of services and platforms all competing for their attention, and a slice of their paycheque.
However, with the current high churn rate for streaming TV subscriptions many broadcasters are looking to FAST or “Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television” monetization models. Yet these come with their own set of potential challenges, particularly regarding advertising inventory.
Gone are the days of generic commercials interrupting our viewing experience, personalisation and targeting are key. Although the reality often doesn’t quite reflect that, I’m sure we’ve all seen our fair share of poorly targeted and endlessly repeated ads.
We’re are bombarded with innumerable ads each day – and the reality is that most of them likely don’t really “stick.” The need to establish effective ad-supported offerings that don’t alienate audiences is essential.
With advancements in AI, it’s possible to deliver targeted ads based on demographic, location, viewing history and all sorts of other audience segmentations created from combining those foundation parameters. This personalized approach not only improves the relevance of the ads we see but also maximizes the impact of the advertisers marketing campaigns.
Yet in order for this to be effective, ad networks must be able to provide that highly targeted ad inventory.
Unfortunately, as streaming TV has taken centre stage with viewers, there seems to be even greater fragmentation in the marketplace. With some notable exceptions, there appears to be a reluctance or at least a “dragging of the heals” to partner across publishers, advertisers, systems, and devices, which is hindering both innovation and scalability. A lack of common metadata and aggregated search makes delivering effective targeting challenging, despite the demand for such solutions increasing.
Without effective partnerships to combine technology and data we are left with universes of “walled gardens” and standalone “data siloes”, which ultimately benefit no-one.
The viewers are now in charge and, as recent history has shown, they will take their eyeballs to where they find the happiest balance of ease-of-access, content, cost and commercials.
