EPTVI: Developing a roadmap for programmatic TV in Europe

Commercial opportunities heralded by programmatic TV and its underlying technologies, which leverage data and automation to streamline ad buying and delivery against TV content on different platforms, are an increasingly prominent topic as the shift from linear TV to streaming accelerates. As it stands, however, significant obstacles remain in preventing programmatic TV from achieving its full potential.

That’s the central position of a new venture, the European Programmatic TV Initiative (EPTVI), which has been formed by media tech companies – including The Trade Desk, PubMatic, Equativ, Magnite, Cadent and Adform – in conjunction with The Project X Initiative and up to 14 major European broadcasters, streamers and agency groups. As well as seeking to “create a comprehensive understanding of programmatic TV”, including its benefits and drawbacks, it also has a very defined objective of authoring a roadmap for the future development of programmatic TV in Europe.

“There are a lot of players in this space,” observes Hitesh Bhatt, Senior Director, CTV/OTT, EMEA and video at programmatic advertising technology company PubMatic. “Some are legacy, others are much newer to this space, and they can have very different approaches. So it’s been clear for quite a while that there needs to be a lot more collaboration in order to realise the full opportunity of programmatic TV.”

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Consumer connections

Outlining why he feels that a dedicated initiative was needed to improve the understanding of programmatic TV, Teiffyon (Ty) Parry, Chief Strategy Officer at advertising technology company Equativ, remarks: “There has been a significant shift in how consumers watch and engage with TV, a trend that is only set to intensify in the coming years. This shift represents a massive platform for brands and TV businesses alike, to engage consumers effectively. However, in Europe, there needs to be more connection between the shift in consumer behaviour, and the levels of marketing investment that connected TV (CTV) has attracted.”

This is certainly not down to a lack of demand; indeed, says Parry, “there is no better platform than CTV for brands to engage with audiences effectively. Its data-driven targeting, high engagement, measurable results, and cost-efficiency are evident. However, as an ecosystem, and especially in Europe, we have yet to make CTV more accessible and scalable. As a result, this potential remains untapped.”

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Phil Duffield, UK VP of programmatic marketing automation technologies company The Trade Desk, points to siloed operational practices as a primary pressure point. “Programmatic technologies have streamlined the ad-buying process significantly – enhancing efficiency, targeting and measurement,” he says. “However, the industry’s shift to data-driven buying has been fragmented for too long with buy-side and sell-side players acting in silos. Collaboration between broadcasters, ad agencies and advertisers is essential in defining the future of TV buying.”

Hence EPTVI, which is being directed by media thought leadership and advisory collective The Project X Initiative (PXI). Executive Director Ian Maude says that upon inspection of the obstacles facing programmatic TV, it soon became clear that “there’s still no consensus around a lot of the challenges and the basic foundations that need to be in place. So we started to talk to some of the broadcasters and big agency groups, and we got the sense that – whilst there wasn’t yet a consensus – there was a desire to find some common ground and even some compromises on both sides of the market. So we began to reach out [and now] have a really solid group of partners from all sides of the market who can hopefully come up with solutions and begin to get some momentum behind them.”

Methods and measurements

As to the priority issues to be addressed, one appears more foundational than others. “There isn’t yet agreement on some basic definitions related to programmatic TV – not just about defining what it is, but also going into areas such as the sort of taxonomies used for audience groups, because a lot of the players in the market define audiences and formats very differently,” says Maude. “Obviously that creates some challenges on the buy-side because you’re not necessarily comparing like-for-like. If we can help to create a dialogue about this, at least, it would be [important progress].”

Of course, all of this is being played out against the backdrop of TV viewing undergoing a phenomenal level of fragmentation in the past decade. As Bhatt notes: “It used to be that you could reach a large number of people across only two or three channels. Now there are literally hundreds of channels and that’s causing challenges [for advertisers], not only in terms of having to deal with lots of different players, but also reach and measurement of results. [It is an issue] that’s holding back growth; if advertisers can’t measure how successful the campaigns are, or how many people they’re reaching, it’s hard for them to commit money to a medium.”

The lack of consistency in commercial processes is also highlighted by Duffield, who notes that “there isn’t a unified and reliable industry approach to cross-publisher, cross-platform measurements. So advertisers may run a campaign on multiple publisher sites, but if these are measured in different ways it limits their ability to optimise and build efficiencies. Identity is the foundation to addressing this. Openness and interoperability between [publishers/broadcasters] data and ad-tech will enable marketers to find the right connections with the right people, which leads to a media world that is a responsible supply chain, and is transparent, data-driven and centred on the consumer.”

Equally “non-trivial” are the issues Maude describes as “data sovereignty and ownership of the advertiser relationship, which are completely legitimate concerns. One of the things we want to show is that broadcasters can set up programmatic in a way that they’re comfortable with; they can set the rules and therefore don’t necessarily have to sell programmatic through the open marketplace – it can be done through a private marketplace and on whatever terms they want. So there is also a role for us in trying to dispel some of the myths or misconceptions around programmatic.”

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Seeking clear consensus

In terms of the roadmap/project report – expected to be issued alongside a related summit later this year – Duffield hopes that it will establish “clear recommendations and timings for the expansion of programmatic TV in Europe that are achievable for all parties. Particularly when it comes to TV campaign measurement, buyers and sellers need to take bigger and bolder steps towards building unified and consistent measurement tools, but this will only come from a clear consensus amongst ad buyers and sellers.”

The roadmap will define objectives like enhancing targeting capabilities and improving ad effectiveness; specify technology needs such as data management standards and broadcast system integration; establish GDPR-compliant regulatory frameworks; promote industry transparency and fair competition; initiate educational programmes on programmatic TV and analytics; propose market-specific pilot programmes; and create monitoring mechanisms for ongoing evaluation. Parry adds: “We aim to guide Europe through a successful transition to programmatic TV, driving innovation, collaboration and sustainable growth while meeting regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations.”

Moreover, adds Parry, the work is already underway: “We have kicked off several cross-business and functional workshops that are aligning leadership and domain experts from all sides of the supply chain to define initial priorities. The real success here has been having 360 viewpoints, with honest and pragmatic discussion around foundational issues, and shorter-term solutions. These forums are generating spin-off workstreams that the PXI team and members are then owning before our next round of collaboration workshops.”

“Having the players discuss, collaborate and understand each other’s positions is going to be really helpful for us all to develop our businesses,” says Bhatt. “One of the great benefits of this particular initiative is that it’s really looking to provide clarity, create some practical solutions and things like case studies, and [thereby] demonstrate the power of programmatic TV.”

Endemic ad experiences

With the prognosis for linear TV advertising becoming increasingly perilous, and companies looking to advertise with streaming services currently facing an astonishing array of options, the initiative may also have to contend with what is destined to remain a highly unpredictable commercial landscape. But approached correctly, that could also yield exciting new possibilities.

“It is true that cross-screen consumption is continuing to transform the way advertisers engage with consumers,” agrees Duffield. “However, this is an opportunity for advertisers, broadcasters, and streaming services to introduce new and endemic ad experiences, viewer-first formats and impactful storytelling. Programmatic TV advertising is a way for both parties to see out uncertainty within the market and ultimately, allows ad placements and investments to be optimised in a way that keeps audiences engaged. This is why CTV ads are regarded as premium content by advertisers as programmatic gives them the key to unlocking greater cut-through in TV audiences by delivering relevant ads that can be turned on and off, based on real-time insight.”

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