LONDON — It owns several of the leading pay-TV platforms in Europe – but Liberty Global says enabling addressable, targeted TV ad opportunities for channels may involve a mix of third-party partnerships.

“It’s (about) picking the right model for the right market,” says Liberty Global MD, advanced ads and data, John Paul in this video interview with Beet.TV.

  • Belgium: Liberty Global’s Belgian operator Telenet has already rolled out house-hold-customised, addressable TV ads for channel operator SBS, using technology from INIVIDI.
  • Chile: The group has also rolled out similar functionality through its subsidiary in Chile.
  • UK: And it just announced its Virgin Media would launch addressable TV ads in the UK early in 2019, partly through a partnership with technology firm Cadent.

“The UK is a very heavily regulated and controlled ad trading environment, so the opportunities that present themselves are very specific. Sky has done a very fantastic job – in this market, we’ve partnered with Sky to deliver addressable advertising,” Paul says.

“We believe that partnering and accelerating these opportunities is critical. It’s moving so fast, so Cadent for us is a very forward-thinking, almost like a leap frog type of partner.”

Paul says the US addressable market, currently with up to 75 million homes now addressable, is moving faster than the UK’s due to regulation in the latter market.

This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the Future of TV Advertising Forum 2018, London. The series is sponsored by Finecast. For more segments from the series, visit this page.