In the ever-evolving landscape of media consumption, the world of television has witnessed a monumental shift in viewing behaviors. Traditional broadcast television, once the undisputed king of mass reach, has been disrupted as consumers increasingly turn to digital environments, such as connected TV (CTV), for their entertainment needs. This seismic change in the media landscape has created both challenges and opportunities for publishers, advertisers, and technology providers alike.
Understanding the Shifting Landscape
The rapid migration of viewers from traditional television to streaming environments is undeniable. Ratings, long considered a vital metric for traditional television viewership, have seen a consistent downward trend over the past few years. Notably, digital video and CTV have emerged as formidable contenders, even surpassing traditional television in viewership. And this trend is expected to only continue; by 2025, adults in the US will spend over an hour longer consuming digital video content than they will watching traditional TV, according to eMarketer.
This shift in viewer behavior has presented many challenges for the supply and demand sides of the advertising ecosystem. On the supply-side, many CTV publishers face the daunting task of standing out in a saturated marketplace dominated by media conglomerates and streaming giants. Discoverability becomes a significant hurdle when competing with industry giants that have deep pockets and OEM integrations.
Smaller publishers, in particular, struggle to capture ad dollars and secure a piece of the growing CTV advertising pie. Without dedicated sales teams, this segment of publishers is left with limited resources to navigate the complex CTV advertising landscape.
Meanwhile, broadcasters and large publishers are also compelled to adapt to the shift in consumer behavior. They understand that programmatic advertising is a vital component of this transformation, but navigating the legacy television industry’s evolution and different monetization solutions can be challenging.
Advertisers face similar challenges in cutting through the noise of a shifting television landscape to reach and engage with consumers efficiently and effectively. A complex digital advertising supply chain with evolving consumer privacy considerations leaves many advertisers seeking more transparency and control over their media buying strategy.
Our Role in Addressing These Challenges
One of the most pressing issues in this new era of advertising is fragmentation. With advertisers and publishers seeking to reach audiences across myriad platforms, fragmentation creates significant friction in delivering a seamless viewing experience for consumers. We are committed to removing these friction points, streamlining the digital advertising supply chain, and making streaming media more accessible and efficient for all stakeholders including programmatic media buyers.
In response to these challenges, PubMatic has developed a comprehensive approach that addresses both the supply and demand sides of the CTV advertising ecosystem.
- Alternative IDs and addressability capabilities: Our products, like Connect, support multiple alternative IDs, making it easier for publishers to surface inventory enhanced by these identifiers. We are helping to future-proof audience targeting strategies ahead of a cookieless future.
- Creative Approval Tool: To help publishers monetize the tremendous opportunity in sectors such as political advertising, we launched a leading Creative Approval Tool to streamline workflows and allow publishers to selectively approve creatives while increasing revenue opportunities. This, in turn, enables buyers to maximize inventory scale for political ad spend, including key channels like CTV.
- Support for OpenRTB 2.6: We are an early adopter of OpenRTB 2.6, bringing greater efficiencies to the programmatic ecosystem, particularly for CTV transactions. PubMatic’s support for OpenRTB 2.6 helps buyers and sellers address issues like competitive separation and ad repetition.
- Brand protection: To counteract the potential rise of bad actors and fraud attracted by higher CPMs in CTV, our third-party partnerships and internal technologies work in tandem to ensure a brand-safe and brand-suitable advertising environment.
- Education and expertise: We recognize the need for education in the programmatic ecosystem, especially for larger broadcast and agency clients. Our insights and expertise help clients understand the value of CTV and programmatic advertising and how to effectively implement these strategies.
- Operational support: We understand the challenges faced by agencies and larger brands in managing the operational aspects of programmatic advertising. We offer not only account resources but also guidance on operationalizing solutions for maximum efficiency.
- Insights and reporting: Our commitment to providing actionable insights and reporting solutions to optimize advertising campaigns further demonstrates our dedication to delivering results for clients. We offer detailed reporting on content-level signals passed in the bidstream like genre, channel, and network. This gives advertisers more transparency into where their ads are delivered, further closing the gap between traditional and digital TV.
The shift in viewing behaviors from traditional television to streaming presents both challenges and opportunities for the advertising industry. We have made substantial investments in technology and resources to deliver a broadcast-quality viewer experience in CTV environments, while also driving revenue growth for publishers.
Please reach out to learn more about how we empower CTV publishers and advertisers in this dynamic programmatic landscape.