‘Fit for TV’ YouTube marketplace boosts reach for Dentsu planners
Dentsu’s UK AV planners can now extend campaign reach by using a ‘YouTube: Fit for TV’ curated marketplace.
The marketplace was developed by the agency Channel Factory and features YouTube content and high-quality, ‘brand safe’, user-generated video. It launched in October 2025.
IKEA is one of 38 Dentsu UK clients to use the solution.
Fit for TV is a designation given to content by Dentsu and Channel Factory, with brand safety at its core. It draws inspiration from Barb’s Fit for TV definition – introduced in 2023 after a market consultation about what the JIC should measure to help media buyers navigate the video sharing platform landscape.
Barb’s Fit for TV expects editorial input and oversight, regulatory compliance (or an intention that the content aligns with prevailing regulations), and a ‘safe and suitable environment’ for advertisers.
YouTube: Fit for TV’ aligns to this, but also comes with its own vetted YouTube channels with guaranteed CPMs and proven ROI.
Renee Losardo, trading partner at Dentsu, confirmed the YouTube: Fit for TV Marketplace is designed to help brands meet audiences where they are, “while maintaining the rigour and safety they expect from traditional AV environments”.
She added: “Audience behaviour is changing quickly, and more people are watching long-form, lean-back content on YouTube, particularly on televisions, and AV planning needs to accommodate this.”
Dentsu planners have a holistic planning view across the linear broadcast and streaming landscape. YouTube: Fit for TV is now viewed as an extension to linear and BVOD audiences, where required.
Losardo is especially interested in broadcaster content on YouTube (with Channel 4, ITV and Sky notable examples), while acknowledging that incremental reach can be achieved with high-quality UGC (user-generated content).
She would welcome more long-form broadcaster content appearing on YouTube, “and would be happy with broadcaster short-form if the audiences are there.”
2% incremental reach gains
Losardo estimates that YouTube: Fit for TV could deliver Dentsu planners approximately 2% incremental reach today – a significant number in a highly fragmented video landscape.
The broadcaster plus UGC content in the Fit for TV marketplace is treated as one buy by Dentsu planners. They do not look to YouTube content first to extend their linear/BVOD campaigns, then add UGC if they need even more incremental gains.
David Guy, commercial director at Channel Factory, points out that the high-quality UGC content represents fresh inventory for many AV planners, as it has not appeared on TV. “This adds scale without affecting quality,” he states.
The new marketplace uses Channel Factory’s content categorisation, harnessing its ViewIQ data platform plus human curation. The aim is for brand-safe content that is also scalable and cost-efficient.
Fit for TV is not a static, monolithic catalogue of content, or a list of defined channels. Guy explains that Channel Factory works proactively with Dentsu and its clients to find Fit for TV content that also meets their audience and contextual requirements, driving performance.
Selected themes and sentiments can be avoided. This means planners can pick and choose content within a YouTube channel, if they wish. They do not have to ‘take or leave’ a channel.
YouTube: Fit for TV Marketplace has been purpose-built for YouTube and AV planners. It is primarily a tool for brand campaigns, Losardo notes, with performance campaigns steering towards ‘the rest’ of YouTube.
Once the Fit for TV content has been planned, Channel Factory facilitates the campaign activation. Programmatic guaranteed buying provides pricing stability and control.
Channel Factory applies Nielsen digital ad measurement metrics and works with xpln.ai to gauge attention.
Good news for broadcasters
Losardo reckons YouTube: Fit for TV Marketplace is good news for broadcasters and will help them follow audiences and monetise that distribution.
The big win for the Dentsu AV planners is incremental reach, partly by hitting consumers who, five to 10 years ago, were watching linear broadcast TV, but are now on YouTube.
Guy believes there has been historical resistance to YouTube among AV planners, who did not accept it as television, but this marketplace will help change that.
There is strong interest among Dentsu’s AV teams in other markets, and with Channel Factory active in 31 countries, we should expect European and U.S. rollouts to follow.
In a press release, the two companies say YouTube: Fit for TV Marketplace enables brands to modernise their AV strategies without compromise.
Guy added: “This sets a new bar for digital video planning. It offers the consistency, brand suitability and measurement clarity AV buyers expect from TV, delivered within the flexible and data-driven YouTube environment.
“We’re delighted to support IKEA – one of the early adopters – in maximising the outcomes from their YouTube campaigns.”