• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, June 11, 2020

AMC Networks has become the first independent programmer to join On Addressability, a consortium formed last June by Comcast, Charter and Cox.

The initiative seeks to expand the national availability of addressable advertising inventory, particularly within linear TV, which still accounts for about 75% of viewing.

As part of the pilot, AMC will allocate a portion of its linear and on-demand ad inventory to addressable — ads targeted using household data — delivered to the cable customers served by the three MVPDS (multichannel video programming distributors). Their combined footprints total to about 30 million households.

MVPDs control two minutes of ad inventory within each hour of network programming.

The participation of AMC — whose cable channels include AMC, BBC America, We TV, SundanceTV, IFC and IFC Films — is significant because getting cable and broadcast networks on board is the key to achieving scalability for addressable. Although OTT and streaming platforms are expanding addressable inventory, including through ads dynamically inserted in video-on-demand content, without more linear availability, addressable reach has still been limited.

“Even though MVPDs have inventory across all platforms — IP, VOD, online included — linear television is still where the majority of viewing takes place, so if we can bring better targeting and more scale to TV advertising, while maintaining security and brand safety, everyone wins,” said David Kline, executive vice president, Charter Communications and president of Charter’s ad sales division, Spectrum Reach. “We’re looking at a really big opportunity, and with the cooperation and support of forward-thinking programmers like AMC, we’re well on our way.”

Networks stand to gain by being able to sell addressable directly at a national level — and at higher rates, due to the data enrichment that enables more precise targeting and results measurement.

For their part, the distributors receive fees for facilitating the process of linking individual identifiers, such as email addresses and mobile device IDs, to households. On Addressability is using Canoe Ventures—also owned by the three distributors in the consortium—to tie advertisers’ data to addressable households.

As part of its goal to expand addressability, On Addressability has said that it is working on industry definitions and standards; educating advertisers on achieving a fully activated addressable world; and identifying best practices and business standards for transacting on addressable campaigns.

On Addressable is not alone in focusing on addressability.

In January, Nielsen expanded its beta test of an addressable TV platform, adding AMC Networks, as well as A+E Networks, CBS, Discovery, Fox, NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia.

TV networks-based industry consortium Project OAR (for Open Addressable Ready) launched an addressable advertising group in March 2019. Members include NBC Universal, CBS, Disney Media Networks, Fox, Discovery, AMC Networks, Turner, AT&T's Xandr, Comcast's FreeWheel and Hearst TV.