SYDNEY: Connected TV, such as smart TVs and OTT providers, now make up more than a third (35%) of the online video supply offered by Australia’s broadcasters, but advertisers are failing to capitalise on the opportunity, according to a new report.

The IAB Australia’s Video Council has released a whitepaper on the growing influence of connected TV in Australia, which also revealed largely untapped opportunities for advertisers in the area.

In January 2016, smart TVs made up 42% of connected TV supply, with OTT devices such as Apple TV and Chromecast at just under half (48%) and gaming consoles with streaming capability, such as PlayStation, making up 10%.

Over the 15-month period to March 2017, the make-up had shifted significantly, with smart TVs comprising 26% of CTV supply, OTT devices making up 68%, and gaming consoles dropping to 6%.

Likewise, Australians are streaming more than ever. As of March 2017, connected TV in Australia saw well over 17m streams every month, up from just 5m streams per month at the start of 2016, across the connected platforms on all four of Australia’s largest broadcasters (SBS, Nine, Yahoo!7 and MCN).

While the report estimated 2.9bn ad opportunities across Australia’s main four free to air broadcasters’ CTV streams in 2017 – with that number set to increase next year – advertisers have been slow to move, perhaps due to measurement issues.

“Video is experiencing truly exponential growth with 82% of Australians consuming digital video each month and broadcasters are telling us anecdotally that approximately a third of this consumption is via CTV/over-the-top content (OTT),” said Vijay Solanki, CEO of IAB Australia.

“Consequently, it isn’t surprising that savvy advertisers are becoming increasingly interested in the CTV proposition and a wide range of content providers are seeing the big screen opportunity,” he continued.

“We see connected TV becoming one of the strongest opportunities for advertisers as the industry resolves some of the measurement issues.”

Data sourced from IAB Australia; additional content by WARC staff