CTV

Tony Katsur, CEO of the IAB Tech Lab, shares how he’s trying to solve for universal reconciliation, universal audit, audience interoperability and creating strong anti-fraud mechanisms in CTV among an ambitious list of other priorities in 2023. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

Lisa LaFlamme was dismissed after a decades-long TV career, not long after she stopped dyeing her hair, setting off debates across Canada about sexism, ageism and going gray.

The bulk of advertising spend on Roku and Amazon Fire TV — two major streaming video distributors’ devices/platforms — comes via virtual pay TV providers such as Hulu + LiveTV, Pluto TV, Tubi, FuboTV and Sling TV. In November, 71% of Roku ad advertising spend and 62% of Fire TV ad spend was through vMVPD (virtual multichannel program distributors) apps, according to Pixalate, the CTV analytics company.

Estrella Media said today it’s working with Comcast’s FreeWheel unit to help boost its connected TV advertising businesses. The combination will take advantage of the growth in Hispanic CTV viewing, the companies said.

Agency executives surveyed by Pixability said they plan to invest more in CTV, even in an environment when some advertisers are being more conservative about spending in a cloudy economy.

The recent news that Comcast and Charter are branding their joint venture into connected TVs, devices and free streaming Xumo — with the existing FAST and AVOD service now known as Xumo Play — shows the two pay TV giants are getting serious about safeguarding future revenue streams.

People have become dependent on content from YouTube to help them do everything from learning how to fix a flat tire on a car, to how to bake a loaf of sourdough bread. These are moments that matter, so to help advertisers reach engaged viewers, YouTube will launch a feature it calls Moment Blast, designed for brands looking to raise awareness in key moments in a day, such as during major sporting events, movie releases or product launches.

FuboTV said that it saw ad spending on its streaming platform grow rapidly since it started using Unified ID 2.0 to make transactions on The Trade Desk’s platform. FuboTV became the first Unified ID 2.0 connected TV partner in February.

Media agency Magna Global forecasts that video advertising revenue will drop 3.1% next year, with gains in connected TV and other forms of over-the-top and ad supported VOD offset by declining spending on national linear TV. Magna sees national linear TV falling 5.8% in 2023, following a projected 3.3% drop in 2022. So far in the first half 2022, national linear ad revenue is up 2.4%.

Video platform Zype and ad tech company TripleLift said they are working together to offer in-show advertising placements that can be inserted in connected TV streams and executed programmatically. TripleLift’s said its ad formats are non-disruptive and enable content owners to reduce ad breaks without sacrificing revenue, while giving advertisers contextual relevance.

The chief executive of a Canadian news network pushed back against allegations that sex, age or gray hair were factors in the abrupt dismissal of the veteran journalist, Lisa LaFlamme.

DoubleVerify said its new system for dealing with the issue of advertisers paying for connected TV ads that appear on devices and apps hooked up to TVs that are turned off has cut down on fraud and improved performance.

Tremor International said it agreed to acquire Amobee for $239 million, continuing the dealmaking and consolidation in the ad tech business. Tremor International provides an end-to-end advertising technology. Amobee offers an advertising platform that optimizes outcomes for advertisers and media companies across linear TV, connected TV and digital media.

TiVo parent company Xperi Holding Corp. said it acquired Vewd Software Holdings Ltd. for $109 million in cash and debt, a move designed to bolster TiVo as a smart TV middleware provider at a time when connected-TV viewing is growing. Vewd software has shipped on some 450 million connected-TV devices.

Rapidly growing connected TV (CTV) ad revenues are expected to climb 35% to $6.41 billion this year — from “upfront” sales — and to rise another 35% to $8.14 billion in 2023, according to eMarketer’s projections. This estimate includes all CTV advertising deals made in advance, resulting from the traditional TV upfronts, IAB NewFronts and other events.

MadHive, the enterprise software company that powers modern media, and Katz Media Group, the largest media representation company in America, today announced a partnership to bring scale, transparency, and privacy […]

TiVo parent Xperi has said it expects connected TV and TiVo to bolster its growth in 2022, and during the upfronts the company is sending the message that it can bridge the gap of CTV and linear worlds for marketers.

Viamedia, an independent ad company serving local cable operators, said it launched its Parity Ads Platform, which simultaneously inserts regionally targeted ads on linear streams to match local commercials appearing on cable. The platform is designed to help local operators take advantage of the growth of CTV in their markets.

The explosive growth of connected TV advertising has left a wave of fraud schemes in its wake, according to a new report from DoubleVerify. DoubleVerify says the number of fraud schemes it uncovered jumped by more than 70% from 2020 to 2021.

Music-video service Vevo, pushing further into connected TV, said it will be adding more long-form content to its lineup. At its NewFront presentation Thursday (May 5), Vevo executives said the new programming will include live performances and full-length concert footage.

TiVo has launched Xtend, a group of new advertising solutions using the company’s first-party deterministic TV viewership data. The platform will offer deterministic data to identify who has or has not tuned into programming or seen a message from a brand or its competitors; programmatic audience segments, scaled and tested for targeting on connected TV, PC, tablet and mobile; connected TV inventory layered with Xtend or custom audiences to add incremental reach and frequency to linear across 40 million households; and clickable ads placed within native TiVo Guides.

Smart TVs may be growing their own ad-supported channels, but streaming viewers are flocking to better-entrenched AVOD and SVOD apps. Smart marketers must assemble a diverse media plan incorporating not only CTV, but third-party streaming platforms to capture enough eyeballs.