Planet V, ITV’s new addressable TV platform, to launch in 2020
With the promise of optimisation and control over the purchase of campaigns, ITV is to launch a new addressable TV platform next year.
Planet V, to be unveiled at ITV’s annual upfronts on Tuesday evening, is a “fully programmatic” and premium advanced advertising platform built by Amobee technology.
ITV said Planet V will give advertisers and agencies control over the purchasing of their campaigns across ITV’s VOD service, the ITV Hub, allowing them to optimise and monitor campaigns in real time. The platform will also help build audiences with ITV’s first party data which can be blended with advertiser data.
The platform is the culmination of a partnership with Amobee, which was announced earlier this year. ITV said it will now extend “an open invitation” to any other broadcaster to join the platform.
Planet V will launch externally in February next year, following a testing period beginning next month where the product will begin being rolled out to agencies with ITV support. Throughout 2020 updated versions of Planet V will be brought to clients with “enhanced features” and capabilities.[advert position=”left”]
“Planet V is a significant step forward for us, meeting the widening demands of advertisers and bringing ITV’s unparalleled combination of mass simultaneous reach and targeted advertising,” said Kelly Williams, ITV’s commercial director.
“It will be a continually evolving platform, providing the very best frictionless, data-driven buy, in a premium, brand safe environment, for our clients.”
Commenting on the announcement, Steve Ballinger, managing director of commercial and trading at Dentsu Aegis Network said: “It’s fantastic ITV has taken a leadership position in this area. Planet V is exactly what the industry needs. ITV is investing in technology to enhance and evolve how we buy programmatic, data targeted VOD in premium inventory and that can only be a good thing for clients.”
Meanwhile, Mihir Haria-Shah, head of broadcast at behavioural planning agency Total Media, said the launch was exciting for advertisers.
“Being able to implement learnings from first party and third party data to target users of ITV Hub based on behaviours is a huge addition to the reach and scale that ITV delivers on linear TV.
“The programmatic nature of the platform also speeds up the buying process and will allow brands to be more reactive and relevant. However, it is worth noting that advertisers are still holding out hope that ITV will look at rolling out an addressable offering onto linear TV.”
At Mediatel’s Future TV Advertising Forum last year, during the first ever panel to feature all three CEO’s of ITV, Sky and Channel 4, ITV CEO ITV CEO Carolyn McCall told the audience that ITV had been discussing targeted advertising for a long time.
Rejecting the possibility of using Sky’s Adsmart technology as it would not make “strategic sense”, she confirmed that ITV would be putting together its own adtech stack so it could be more “client responsive” and creative.
ITV claims that the Hub has over 30 million subscribers, with over 79% of all 16-34 year olds in the country registered on the service.
Event: The Future of TV Advertising Global, 10 – 11 December 2019, King’s Place, London.