• by Tobi Elkin , Staff Writer @tobielkin, December 24, 2015

RTBlogspoke with Scott Braley, GM of programmatic at Ooyala, which aims to provide analytics to help broadcasters, media companies and brands monetize and build more engaged and profitable audiences on any screen. Braley weighed in with some predictions and top-line themes for 2016:

Expect to see more mergers and acquisitions between telcos/cable operators and tech players.
"This is an effort to monetize their data around audience viewing habits and to develop new revenue streams outside of legacy pipes businesses."

Connected TV/over-the-top (OTT) will mature and become a bigger component of advertisers' spend. "Viewer migration from linear TV to OTT is accelerating, and the dollars will follow. This will drive ad-tech investment in platforms that provide audience measurement across, online, OTT and more."

The drive for media being bought on a viewability CPM will stagger a little, instead of premium CPMs being paid for by guaranteed viewability.
"This will lead to a more definitive reallocation around sources that have a stronger track record with viewability."