With 2019 quickly approaching, executives are beginning to think about what the new year will hold for the TV industry. Among these industry voices are leaders engaged in programmatic, digital engagement measurement, a global ad-tech company, AI-driven advertising and a “second screen” DSP.
Don’t think they have anything of relevance to say? If so, you could be digging your company’s grave in the coming decade.
RBR+TVBR connected with key leaders who agreed to offer their predictions on what 2019 will look like for TV and video.
To them, marketers will learn to leverage data and creativity together in advanced TV. That’s because 2018 was the year of testing CTV advertising. As such, 2019 will be the year of implementing and strategizing.
Further, because of a consumer-led shift to ad-free TV experiences, brands will need to discover new ways to integrate ads. And, as many foresee, there will be a secular shift toward programmatic.
Here’s what they have to say:
“The television landscape as we know it continues to shift with consumers expecting access to content whenever, wherever and however they want to view it. As 2020 comes roaring toward us with marquee events like the U.S. Presidential Election and the Tokyo Summer Olympics, passionate content consumers, be that political news junkies or avid sports fans, will expect content across their preferred platforms. Local broadcasters continue to benefit from the unique advantages of their established brand equity — name recognition of the brand, talent and programs — and relationships cultivated on the local level. In 2019, we will see local broadcasters begin to tap into their available data more and more to drive tune-in across their platforms to lay a strong foundation for these and other national and international television events ahead.”
“2019 will by no means be the end of linear TV — it is still the screen on which advertisers have the biggest leverage. As connected TV and other smart devices have dramatically changed the way users consume content, especially news, broadcast TV stations must learn how to incorporate aspects of digital onto linear TV to provide viewers with a more interactive and relevant experience.”
“With the availability of addressable OTT/CTV inventory targeted by household behavior and household demographics, local and spot TV buyers will shift part of their linear budgets over to OTT/CTV to test reach, frequency and effectiveness. Local broadcast groups have already partnered with OTT/CTV advertising platforms to serve the demand from local buyers and will continue to do so. While buyers will initially move budgets over to OTT/CTV in order to “follow the eyeballs,” they will get hooked on the targetability and improved analytics and attribution of OTT/CTV, which will cause an acceleration of budget shifting.”
“In 2019, we will see the industry continue to change and update how we think about buying TV. One of the major changes that we will see is regarding marketer expectations of audience-based buying. With innovations in advanced TV recently, full 1-to-1 addressable capabilities are possible to a scale never seen before and this will quickly become the standard for audience-based buys, as opposed to indexing and proxies.”
“The competitive pressures by direct to consumer services like Netflix and Amazon will force ad-supported networks to drastically lower ad load, both to build their own direct to consumer services and to slow the decline of the linear audience on broadcast and cable TV.” — Ari Lewine, co-founder and CSO, TripleLift (https://triplelift.com/)
If you are thinking OTT is the future, you are thinking too small. What’s happening is a larger shift that’s already transforming marketing as we know it. Advertisers must get ready.
The growth of smart home connectivity will lead to a new era of TV advertising where consumers can engage with ads across voice devices, TVs, mobile, etc.
What about the future of broadcast TV, and how ATSC 3.0 — the Next-Gen broadcast TV standard — will revolutionize UHF?
MOBITV CEO Charlie Nooney spoke up.
“From what I’ve seen in the industry, all broadcasters must embrace the next generation of television in order to remain competitive,” he tells RBR+TVBR. “ATSC 3.0 provides further advancement to the overall evolution of delivery in the video space in order to allow people to watch what they want when they want it on any device. On a technical front for platform provider, it not only represents a different method of acquisition but offers higher resolution feeds for viewers to enjoy.”
From a business perspective, MOBITV’s operators see ATSC 3.0 as a major driver in terms of increasing the viability and reliability of additional avenues of distribution, like 5G and connected cars, which has promise to be a large part of content distribution in 2019. “It will also advance the ability to further target ads, much like existing DAI capabilities,” Nooney says. “These advancements will increase the competitiveness of broadcasters both from an overall quality perspective and from the standpoint of added monetization opportunities.”
