Transparency at the forefront: Steering Europe’s CTV evolution
Opinion
Today’s CTV market demands accountability and outcomes from investment. With Europe still lagging behind the US, transparency is key here.
The European connected TV (CTV) market is entering a pivotal phase. While the US remains ahead in scale and programmatic sophistication, Europe is making measured strides to close the gap.
We’ve seen this in the recent efforts of major broadcasters and both local and global streaming platforms to expand their regional inventory and capabilities. This includes Channel 4 in the UK, which announced a suite of tools to help advertisers optimise their media performance; and TF1+, which has doubled down on its data-led strategy and has become France’s number one free streaming platform within its first 12 months.
The objective behind this shift is to create a clearer picture of performance for advertisers. With CTV having historically fallen short on transparency, not helped by multiple intermediaries obscuring spend and performance data, Europe is moving away from the opaque “programmatic pipes” model of old in favour of deep partnerships that can help drive clear, omnichannel results and eliminate inefficiencies.
A clearer picture
There’s a business need for platforms to provide this. As the amount of CTV inventory available to advertisers continues to increase, shifting the balance of power towards the buy side, just having an ad offering in place is no longer enough to entice advertisers.
Today’s market demands more than just ad placements — it demands accountability and outcomes from investment. Platforms must support advertisers with impactful and measurable outcomes to stay competitive.
For example, advertisers increasingly require granular insights into ad frequency, reach, fraud mitigation and precise audience segmentation. Without this comprehensive reporting on where ads are going and who is seeing what, advertisers can’t effectively gauge performance and so can’t justify spend at a time when budgets are experiencing increasing scrutiny.
This also hinders their ability to scale campaigns across the funnel and maintain cross-channel consistency — increasingly a must in today’s ad ecosystem.
Thankfully, adtech is evolving and European CTV players are partnering providers of solutions that can offer unobstructed and streamlined clarity to reporting. This includes the integration of signals including geography, IP, device ID, engagement, brand lift and more.
Indeed, there are now advanced solutions that can connect IDs across different channels and discover the single user behind them for effective retargeting, whether through a display ad or an online video to boost clicks and conversions.
The right processes
In the spirit of Europe’s regulatory tradition, a great deal of care is being taken behind the scenes to ensure transparency in where media spend is going and working. Disney, Channel 4 and TF1 are currently among those employing partner certification routines involving extensive legal documentation and iterative testing.
In many instances, these processes are managed through dedicated points of contact on both the publisher and tech sides to streamline communication, enforce consistency with approved adtech vendors and ensure that inventory is accessed in the way the platform intends.
This contrasts with the many intermediaries and resellers that continue facilitating limited access to CTV inventory — something that can harm transparency. Ultimately, the sell side should never be in the dark about what their tech partners are up to with their inventory and advertisers should never have to settle for unnecessary connections between themselves and the CTV platform.
For true accountability, advertisers, streaming platforms and broadcasters must insist on clear reporting facilitated by certified and trusted partners. Market needs will likely dictate the proliferation of these care frameworks as part of Europe’s next stage of CTV evolution.
A window into CTV
Indeed, this emphasis on transparency, accountability and measurable outcomes reshapes the dynamics between advertisers and platforms.
While Europe’s market lags behind the consolidated, direct-sold deals that characterise the US environment, if these commendable efforts continue to promote transparency, then we expect increasing alignment between the markets.
By embracing direct partnerships and advanced adtech solutions, the industry is moving towards a more efficient and effective advertising ecosystem.
Those that adapt to these changes will not only meet the current demands but also position themselves as the gamechangers at the forefront of the next phase in European CTV.
William Jones is senior director of advanced TV and omnichannel activation at Adform