• by Alex Weprin , January 18, 2019

2019 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for streaming over-the-top video, with new entrants and new technology poised to deliver breakthrough products for consumers and marketers.

It may also mark a turning point in how data is used to develop new advertising opportunities in the space. Great potential is joined by new risk factors.

The video advertising platform SpotX addresses some of those opportunities and risks in a new report, “2019 Video Advertising Trends.”

For starters, while online video overall is a fairly mature market, OTT/CTV is still growing.

"Advertisers need to understand that, compared to online video, the data strategy surrounding CTV is still scaling — which limits current audience matching — but that is set to improve in 2019 and beyond,” the SpotX report says. “Therefore, adding multiple audience segments to a targeting strategy will likely result in losing scale for CTV campaigns.”

Over time, the buying experience on OTT/CTV will be more similar to ad buying on linear TV.

On the risk side of the equation, data privacy and data security are expected to remain hot-button issues in 2019 and beyond. While many companies are still grappling with the fallout from Europe’s GDPR regulations, other regulations will follow — and marketers and media companies need to prepare.

Similarly, concerns around data are one reason many media companies are moving away from open marketplaces and i turning to private marketplaces to transact programmatically. New technologies may help marketers leverage the inventory in these private marketplaces to make better advertising investments, while still benefiting from the improves security and brand safety.

The full report is here.