The upfronts kicked off this week with news of a megamerger between WarnerMedia and Discovery Communications.
But Xandr isn’t coming along for the ride. AT&T’s ad tech acquisition remains with the telco.
We can only speculate why, but one reason might be that AT&T is planning a second spinoff in light of the currently frothy market for public ad tech companies, thereby giving the company formerly known as AppNexus the IPO it’s wanted for so long.
But even though TV and ad tech are parting in one way, they’re coming together in other ways.
The AdExchanger team recorded this episode during our Innovation Labs conference on CTV during which we break down the hot topics of the day.
For example, we get into the need to understand supply paths in CTV, just as in digital media. Which paths count as “OTT” and which as “CTV?” How can advertisers know if a content owner or distributor is selling a CTV ad? And where is the fraud lurking in this new medium? CTV is a complex space and buyers need to turn the lights on before they step inside.
Speaking of caution, running CTV advertising with consumer privacy in mind also came up during multiple sessions at Innovation Labs, including questions arising regarding the use of IP addresses and whether programmers have a first-party data advantage.
