MIAMI — In the future, advertisers could reach individual households with customized, targeted TV ads.

In fact, that future is already happening. It’s called “addressable TV”, and recent estimates of the number of addressable US TV households count about 45m properties.

So what’s next in the addressable journey? Beet.TV convened a panel of leading exponents to offer their views.

Innovation will start in Europe – Dave Downey, CEO, INVIDI:

“We launched the most sophisticated targeting system in the world in Brussels. It’s a cloud-based decision system, it supports several million simultaneous linear buys

“We pioneered that technology in Europe hoping to bring it back to the United States. You … get this system going in the United States and the first reaction of the MVPD owners is, ‘I want to keep this for my inventory,’ because they’re getting great results.

“Well we, of course, always wanted to do it with NBC and CBS and ABC because that’s where the big money is. So a lot of our innovation goes and happens in another market with an eye towards, ‘When will it be ready for the States?’ And I think we’re getting close.”

National addressable will happen – Scott Ferber, CEO, Videology:

“There will be MVPDs, broadcasters … all selling addressable-linear … in the future. It’s a combination of … the technological deployment, the business model and… the human condition.

“We all have to get comfortable with the fact that the world is changing, be okay with changing it. Twenty years ago, the idea of saying you were tethered to some sort of electronic device that was always with you, you’d be like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ So that’s the human condition element.”

Addressability will hit scale – Brian Cordes, director, AT&T AdWorks:

“The marketplace is demanding it. We’re at over 50 million households right now. Projections are that, by 2020, we’ll be in over 80% of households nationally.

“What’s been happening with advertisers demanding these increased metrics and accountability is something that’s going to drive us forward and I think it’s inevitable for it to happen on a national scale.”

This panel was moderated by The Vertere Group CEO Tim Hanlon.

This panel was conducted at Beet Retreat 2016: The Transformation of Television Advertising, an executive retreat presented by Videology with AT&T AdWorks and the 605. Please find more videos from the event here.