GLOBAL: The rapid growth in connected TV (CTV) viewing around the world has not been matched by a comparable increase in addressable advertising because of a lack of scale and concerns around the accuracy and consistency of CTV measurement tools, according to a new WARC report.

A WARC Trend Snapshot – Connected TV’s next phase – explains how, unlike traditional broadcast television, CTV enables the automated delivery of “addressable” ads which are relevant to individual households.

Broadcasters have been slow to invest in the necessary technology, however: around one third of US TV viewers watch content via an internet-connected device but some estimates suggest as little as 6% of TV ads will be purchased programmatically by 2020.

That may change given M&A activity in the media sector – including AT&T’s merger with Time Warner, Comcast’s bid for Sky and Disney’s proposed acquisition of 21st Century Fox – which may provide a further catalyst for the increased adoption of CTV advertising.

“Such deals are accelerating the convergence of distribution, content and technology, and may pave the way for a significant increase in the volume of CTV inventory and the greater robustness of measurement and data demanded by brands,” the Snapshot says.

Phil Duffield, managing director, EMEA, at Adobe Advertising Cloud, sees the scale increasing and expects the channel to move ever closer towards digital media standards; it is already being traded on a CPM basis, for instance.

“Historically it was probably closer to the TV piece, where you were looking at audiences and households, but now you’re moving towards having more rigorous measurement and targeting tools,” he told WARC.

Alongside these requirements, media owners will have to address issues such as brand safety and ad fraud.

“A lot of brand safety tools are based around cookies, and we don’t have that in CTV,” Duffield noted. “I can pretty much guarantee you, where there’s inventory and revenue, there will be someone trying to do something.”

And, crucially, there will need to be a shift in mindset among media buyers and planners in order to incorporate addressable TV into broader, cross-channel planning.

Sourced from WARC