Commentary

The Expanding Programmatic TV Marketplace

by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer, April 6, 2015

Programmatic television may be several years from full maturity, but it's an expanding segment of the market.

Perhaps nothing indicates that more than the literal expansion of programmatic TV marketplaces.

Visible World, a TV audience targeting firm, and its subsidiary AudienceXpress, a programmatic TV-buying platform, have announced partnerships with SintecMedia, a broadcast management software firm. Visible World and AudienceXpress will use SintecMedia’s TV marketplace -- dubbed OnBoard -- to buy and sell TV inventory programmatically.

“This partnership will enable television networks to sell underutilized ad inventory,” the companies write in a release. The word underutilized sticks out, reminding us of how real-time bidding (RTB) came to display largely in the form of remnant inventory.

Advancements and chatter about the programmatic TV industry have come in spurts. There was a wave of programmatic TV-related announcements in December 2014, following by a smattering of items (though not unimportant items, such as NBCU’s audience-targeting platform, or ESPN’s first programmatically sold spot, or Mondelez’s local Super Bowl buy).

The next big wave, however, came in March. Last month saw Nielsen acquire eXelate, ESPN announce plans to launch a DMP, trading desks enter the fray, market analysts get bullish on the potential of programmatic TV, and more.

If we cheat a bit and include the first month of April, we also saw TiVo put its data into the market and Discovery Communications put some of its inventory for sale via programmatic.

In and of itself, the Visible World-AudienceXpress-SintecMedia announcement to expand a programmatic TV marketplace is more of a footnote, but it serves as a microcosm of the programmatic TV industry at large.

ad technology, programmatic, television

2 comments about "The Expanding Programmatic TV Marketplace".

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Tyler Loechner from MediaPost, April 7, 2015 at 9:47 a.m.
@Ed, thanks for the comment. Perhaps it's better categorized as "data-driven TV buying." You could argue that has always been the case too, however. It's using first- and/or third-party audience data to see which avails to buy. It also lets marketers adjust campaigns faster based on fresh data (at least I've been told). Of course, the algorithms may suggest they buy inventory they would have bought anyway based on years of TV buying experience.
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Neil Ascher from The Midas Exchange, April 7, 2015 at 10:58 a.m.

I wonder just how accommodating the TV sellers (networks, cable nets, mvpds) will be as more marketers decide they want to cherry-pick programming? You've also had a way to select the best programs for your brand per Ed's comment-- the vendors just wouldn't sell it that way without a HUGE premium attached .