Digital TV and Video

2022 will stand out as the year that AVOD took center stage. Ad-supported video viewership growth surpassed subscription-only streaming and overall streaming viewership overtook cable for the first time.

Clean rooms are ad tech’s answer to data privacy. But they can also give advertisers more accurate reach and frequency measurement through first-party audience matching. Disney has been building out its clean room for roughly a year, and announced an integration with VideoAmp on Thursday, which will bolster clean room measurement with VideoAmp’s TV viewership data.

TV advertising is in the middle of a tectonic shift. GRPs are out, and impressions are on their way in. But plenty of advertisers still want to buy local and national spots based on region. And for small, local marketers accustomed to the relative simplicity of linear TV ad buying, the lack of standards in over-the-top (OTT) ad measurement is becoming a real pain in the tush.

To help solve TV measurement, NBCUniversal launched a “Currency Council,” a list of marketers who have committed to using alternate measurement currencies for at least a portion of their ad spend with NBCU. The program currently has about a dozen buy-side partners, including State Farm, Wayfair and T-Mobile.

After a five-year run as GM of Comcast-owned video ad tech platform FreeWheel, Dave Clark made the jump to programmatic ad platform TripleLift, which hired him as CEO in October. Clark spoke to AdExchanger about TripleLift’s IPO plans, how close its ambitious CTV ad formats are to market and more.

Pixability started out contextualizing advertisers’ digital video buys on YouTube to make sure they ran in brand-safe environments. But now that consumers are watching more YouTube on TV screens than on web browsers (and CTV buyers are demanding media transparency with proverbial pitchforks), Pixability is expanding its brand suitability metrics to apply more broadly to CTV environments.

It’s almost impossible for advertisers to know who’s really sitting in front of a TV screen, and they typically aren’t told what content their ads are running against, either. TV measurement companies are turning back to panels for help. Panel-based measurement provider TVision announced a $16 million venture round led by alternative TV measurement provider iSpot.

We’re halfway through the football season, but streaming sports is just kicking off. The Amazon Prime “Thursday Night Football” show began in September and it represents the first time that the NFL is streaming games without a linear broadcaster alongside.

CTV advertisers still don’t know much about what content they’re running against, other than the fact it’s on the big screen. And they’ve had enough of it already. Buyers’ lack of visibility into which network, program or distribution channel their ads are served is almost enough to wish for the good old days of program guides.

Turkey brand Butterball wants to reach millennials because they’re the most likely to become first-time Thanksgiving dinner hosts soon, at least according to the company’s research. But younger generations are less familiar with the brand than older ones, so Butterball is leaning heavily on streaming and social media, particularly TikTok, in its video campaign leading up to Thanksgiving this year.