Programmatic To Temper Digital Ad Growth

BIA/Kelsey’s latest ad forecast reveals that spending on local video to target local audiences will grow by $5 billion from $32.6 billion in 2016 to $37.6 billion by 2021. Most of this growth, it says, will come from digital video and local TV.

This digital growth could be tempered as programmatic becomes more of a reality in broadcast and MVPD video platforms, with a portion of the video forecasted spend being directed to linear video platforms. A new report by BIA/Kelsey, Programmatic is Coming to Local TV in 2017, examines the economic potential of local programmatic TV and its current state.

“The innovation being displayed in local TV and programmatic is becoming more widespread,” said Rick Ducey, managing director, BIA/Kelsey. “Our latest research reveals the landscape of programmatic players is growing more complex as companies offer more cross-platform and cross-functional solutions. These developments are being supported by new alliances and partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and sophisticated product road maps. When you step back and examine the possibilities, any movement of local TV toward programmatic buying and selling will significantly impact the amount of spending and could win more spending that might have gone to digital.

The paper includes an assessment of the local programmatic TV space at the start of 2017 and analyses five key factors that it says must be addressed for continued successful expansion:

• Data-Driven Audience Targeting — Marketers and agencies demand more than gender/age audience measurement at local level. The current mix of data at the household level is a start but the market wants more in this direction.

• HH Targeting — At the local level, there is no system offering targeting to households; Programmatic trading is always at the DMA level. Addressability or advanced TV buying is offered by MVPDs but it’s not yet connected to programmatic. Cable buys may be based on the DMA but can only deliver the subscribed homes footprint within these DMAs.

• Data Quality and Transparency — Varying data quality and data modeling, governance, architectures, integration and quality assurance issues are a concern. Duplication of panel data across providers licensing same data creates concerns. Ultimately, two big issues are the costs and quality of data.

• Workflow Integration — Advanced integration across different workflow software among and within buyer and seller communities is necessary.

• ATSC 3.0: Looking ahead, ATSC 3.0, the new transmission standard for broadcast TV, will offer new data capabilities for targeting audiences. The next step is how to plan for it. This technology supports personalized content delivery including programs and ads but relies on a larger ecosystem including an installed base of media gateways, connected TVs and mobile devices with ATSC tuners.

The 44-page report includes interviews with a panel of industry experts from key companies, including: AdMore, Cox, Empower, NCC Media, Nielsen, TubeMogul and Turner. They reflect on topics including key partnerships, compatibility of programmatic TV with traditional selling process, Impact on commercial inventory sales and acceptance of programmatic TV at agencies.