• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, November 15, 2012

Digital video ad spending is up 27% over last year, buoyed in part by real-time bidding. That’s the finding of online video technology firm Adap.TV’s latest survey of advertisers, publishers and brands released this week in its fourth quarter state of the industry report .

Spending should continue to rise next year, to the tune of another 20% in 2013, the study said.

The study also found that the number of agencies planning TV and digital video buys in tandem is up 10% from six months ago, with 58% of agencies now planning the buys together. But nearly 80% of ad buyers expect to be planning the two together a year from now.

How agencies are buying is changing. Ad networks are still tops among buying methods for video, with 81% of buyers using them, compared to 61% a year ago. One of the biggest increases came in demand-side platforms; about 36% of buyers use them for video, up from 11% a year ago. Buying on exchanges is also up, with 32% of buyers doing so, compared to 11% last year.

On the flip side, direct buying and TV upfront buying are shrinking, Adap.TV found. Only 52% of buyers this year are buying direct, compared to 78% a year ago. “Online video, for its part, is moving inexorably toward more automated buying and selling,” Adap.TV said in the report. “The gap that remains between buyers employing such channels and sellers willing to make their inventory available the same way is troubling. As publishers increasingly employ automated channels like ad networks and exchanges, their CPMs have held firm, even as their inventory has increased. An understanding that both audience qualification and audience verification will play an increasing role in who wins the sale may well cause publishers to ‘get with the program’ when it comes to programmatic selling.”