Study: Nearly Half Of All TV Buying Will Be Programmatic Within 3 To 5 Years

Nearly two-thirds of advertisers and agencies polled in a study believe more than half of all TV buying will be programmatic within three to five years. The survey -- released on Wednesday by ad-tech firm Videology and Advertiser Perceptions -- sought to evaluate advertisers' and agency executives’ attitudes toward advanced TV, or programmatic TV (PTV), advertising.

For the purposes of the study, conducted in February, advanced TV was defined as both linear TV that uses advanced data to define a consumer target known as data-enabled TV, as well as TV advertising delivered at the household level, or addressable TV.

The results show that most advertisers and agencies are already embracing advanced TV as an advertising medium. And among those currently spending on advanced TV, 57% say they plan to increase their data-enabled TV budgets this year, and 75% in the next 12 months.

According to the survey, advanced TV is the fastest-growing among TV advertising types, with the same percentage of respondents planning to use advanced TV next year as those who plan to use traditional TV advertising.

Other findings:  

--Among advertisers and agency executives polled, 88% say they have used linear TV advertising in the past 12 months, with 77% saying they plan to in the next 12 months.

--Thirty-one percent of TV/video campaigns are planned holistically, and respondents predict that by 2018, this number will jump to 44%.

--Among advertisers and agencies who buy both TV and video, 61% say the TV/video buying is done under one integrated team, while 55% say they prefer to learn about both digital and TV opportunities at the same upfront events (the lines between traditional upfronts and digital newfronts are blurry).

The study found more education is needed, as there is confusion about the definition of advanced TV:

--More than half (57%) of advertisers and agencies say they don’t understand the difference between data-enabled TV and addressable TV. Furthermore, 20% say that advanced TV advertising is still funded primarily from test budgets.

“This research reinforces that advanced data has become critical to advertising across all screens, including TV. And while this survey focused on the demand side, we’re also seeing acceleration by the supply side to support this new direction of the market,” Scott Ferber, founder and CEO, Videology, told Real-Time Daily via email. “The shift toward bringing technology-driven, data-enabled planning and buying to premium TV content is no longer in the future.” 

7 comments about "Study: Nearly Half Of All TV Buying Will Be Programmatic Within 3 To 5 Years".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 19, 2017 at 11:12 a.m.

    Just goes to show you that a lot of people in the media and advertising business are totally clueless about "programmatic" time buying and selling. Fortunately most of the advertisers and agencies as well as the sellers employ a few level headed people who actually look at the data and probable consequences or outcomes and will wise up the dreamers and high flyers when the time comes to make serious decisions---assuming that we are really heqading there in the first place.

  2. Leonard Zachary from T___n__ replied, April 19, 2017 at 2:10 p.m.

    “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

    ― Henry Ford

    horses: Neilsen panel
    future TV: programmatic & ATTRIBUTION

  3. James Nail from Forrester Research, April 20, 2017 at 9:23 a.m.

    @Ed Papazian: I'm with you! this use of the term programmatic is stupid. This is index-based buying, something that I learned for planning spot TV in the 1980's: prioritizing markets by BDI/CDI.  We just happen to have the data to be able to bring it down to the network/daypart/program level now and the industry is forcing the programmers to (slowly) shift to guarantees on this rather than age gender. Do marketers not learn any fundamentals any more?

  4. John Harpur from Yellow Submarine, April 20, 2017 at 1:48 p.m.

    And so, we have two names for the same thing: Advanced TV or Programmatic TV? And Advanced TV is defined as one thing or another thing. And most are already using it (whatever it is) even though 57% don't understand the difference between the two. But we're supposed to be thankful for their insights??!! Blind leading the blind?

  5. Dave Morgan from Simulmedia replied, April 21, 2017 at 9:38 p.m.

    Totally agree Jim. Data-optimized linear TV advertising, what you called proto-addressable years ago, should not be called programmatic. The term is very misleading. While predictive analytics and machine learning have made it much more powerful than index buying, that is is heritage and a more apt way to think about it. Calling it data-optimized or data-enabled is much more appropriate.

  6. Doug Garnett from Protonik, LLC, April 23, 2017 at 2:51 p.m.

    I get really tired of surveys of attitudes that are headlined as if there was some kind of scientific reliability to the research. It's not. And these studies are generally 100% wrong...

    Their only validity is a conclusion "programmatic is a great hype/fad to jump onto to sell services for the moment. We will just shift to a different fad in a few years."

  7. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 23, 2017 at 4:28 p.m.

    Doug, the "findings", themselves, give you a good idea of the projectability of  the sample that participated in the "study". Having conducted surveys of advertisers, myself, I know how difficult it is to even contact, let alone conduct such a survey with CMOs and others in at the kinds of advertisers that really count---the big branding spenders. They have better things to do than answer vague questions such as these---if you can even get through to them....and that's not even close to being a given.

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