TV, mass media and clarity: A real life media margin call
Opinion
Helping advertisers navigate addressable TV is made more difficult by the prevailing language, which hasn’t evolved since the mid-1980s, writes the senior director of strategy and partnerships at Sabio.
“Total TV” isn’t a forecast or a future goal. It is an established, undeniable fact.
For once, the industry isn’t dragging the consumer toward a new tech solution or an advertising moneymaker. It’s the other way around. Viewers have already moved on, gliding seamlessly between devices and channels. Yet, while viewing habits have leapt into the future, the way we talk about them is stuck in the past.
It’s a regular industry trope asking us to ditch the jargon, only for most to fall straight back into the same old language. It’s safe, it’s familiar, it’s practised, and it’s actively limiting us.
We are still framing the conversation around a false binary: Mass vs. Addressable. As if addressable were still emerging or niche, rather than the default primary method for home entertainment.
Across the US and Europe, at least 70% of households now access addressable TV environments via streaming and connected devices. In the UK alone: over 17m connected households, out of a total of 23m. At that level of penetration, addressability is more than a “niche targeting layer” or a digital add-on.
It is simply how TV works.
Today’s challenge
The challenge today isn’t explaining what addressable TV is; it’s helping advertisers navigate a fragmented ecosystem without losing transparency, measurability, or commercial impact. It’s an impossible task when the prevailing language hasn’t moved on since the mid-1980s.
Advertisers are ready. With CTV budgets projected to grow nearly 17% this year—a stark contrast to the general advertising stagnation seen in recent Bellwether reports—the premium allure of the main household screen remains the pinnacle of the media plan. It delivers on mass reach by any definition, finally backed by the rigorous ROAS metrics the industry has long craved.
Scale, this significant, deserves clear, confident communication. We are no longer an “emerging tech” sector that needs to hide behind opaque jargon or “technical wizardry” to prove its value. The only reason not to update the lexicon is attempts to hide something, and that’s usually a vested interest in keeping things in the past.
In the film Margin Call, there is a standout scene featuring a plea to an analyst: “Speak as you might to a young child or a Golden Retriever”. The character isn’t asking for a lack of sophistication or for a concept to be dumbed down; he is asking for the bottom line. The unvarnished truth of the situation and the scale of the opportunity laid bare.
Our industry needs that same level of bold, clinical clarity. One of the core tensions in current media discourse is transparency. If we claim to champion open, clear solutions, that transparency must start with the language we use. What once was niche is now mass. It should be discussed and championed in just those terms.
Total TV demands plain, direct speaking. Its impact is too great to be buried under flowery, complex words.
We need to stop talking about the “potential” of addressable TV and start acknowledging the reality of the powerhouse it has become.
Let’s stop over-complicating the obvious.
Christian Gladwell is the senior director, strategy and partnerships at Sabio