We have the technology for true Total TV unification, says Imagine Communications
A decade after we started talking about ‘Total TV’ (the combination of broadcast linear TV and broadcaster streaming), Steve Reynolds, chief executive at adtech vendor Imagine Communications, believes we finally have the technology to support full unification of those audiences.
This will help grow revenues for media owners and give advertisers greater total reach in a fragmented TV universe, he reckons.
Imagine Communications believes one of the key building blocks for unification is audience-based buying, so advertisers pay for a demographic or for buyers with select purchase preferences, regardless of whether they are watching linear TV, live streaming, time-delayed or on-demand content.
That frees scheduling systems to find a target viewer anywhere – including in streaming or addressable TV – without being constrained by requests for specific broadcast spot inventory against programmes or dayparts.
A more recent development supporting platform-agnostic buying is the extension of broadcast-like inventory controls and guarantees into streaming. This means a sales house can offer competitive separation or category break exclusivity within streaming ad pods, for example.
Imagine Communications offers this capability through its SureFire video ad server, which gained its first customer, TVNZ, last year. The New Zealand broadcaster heralded a significant step forward in Total TV campaign management, as it can now extend already sold linear broadcast campaigns to its TVNZ+ streaming service at scale.
Linear-like controls
Any digital inventory with linear-like controls is called a ‘digital extension spot’ and is made possible because TVNZ can book digital ad-served inventory as if it were linear. Effectively, a linear booking becomes a new (direct) demand source for the streaming service, alongside programmatic.
Reynolds (pictured) views this technology as another building block for convergence, because it blurs the dividing line between the ad experience buyers receive in broadcast and streaming.
He believes it has major implications for advertisers seeking mass, simultaneous reach to drive family and social conversations.
“There are brands that want to be the last message anyone sees before kick-off during a football match. They want every viewer to see it, regardless of platform.
“In linear, we can offer a ‘roadblock ad’ that ensures nobody else can buy this spot. Now, with SureFire, we can override every ad decision in streaming and on-demand to achieve the same outcome there.”
Reynolds emphasises that cross-platform audience fragmentation has been a challenge for advertisers seeking to be part of the national conversation. Now they can achieve that big, mass-reach hit more easily.
Imagine Communications argues that we should stop classifying TV inventory by whether it is broadcast or streamed and instead differentiate by whether it is premium or non-premium broadcaster inventory.
Under this definition, premium includes live sports, top-rated originals, and other prime-time programming, is sold directly to advertisers, and allows broadcasters to maintain control over placements and provide buy guarantees about how and where they appear.
This should apply across linear broadcast and streaming. Swathes of streaming inventory can be pulled into this categorisation thanks to a solution like SureFire.
Non-premium inventory comprises lower-demand content with high reach potential, including off-peak and niche-interest programming. The company believes this will be sold programmatically, with targeting.
Improved revenue opportunities
Reynolds notes improved streaming revenue opportunities as linear-like ad control extends to streaming.
“All these inventory options have a price premium [for the buyer]. You want a roadblock ad? That’s a premium price. You want category separation so you are the only car advert in the pod? That’s a premium price. You want brand exclusivity in a pod? That’s also a premium price.”
Growing streaming revenue becomes a higher priority as more viewing migrates from linear, his company believes. The vendor also supports Total TV endeavours with its Landmark sales, traffic and billing solution and its GamePlan linear ad placement optimisation tool.
The Total TV vision Imagine Communications outlines – with audience-based trading and true holistic inventory and campaign management – has been held back in the U.S. by resistance to unified buying models, according to a report the vendor supported last year, called: ‘Smashing the Silo Barrier: How Total TV is Revolutionizing Ad Sales’.
As with other markets, significant broadcaster value could be unlocked there when Total TV is done right, the company believes.
Reynolds argues that, in any market, the main barriers to advanced Total TV are now organisational, whether in siloed digital and linear teams at sales houses or agencies. However, he is confident that cross-platform, audience-based sales will become the norm.