Over the last few years of growth in data-fuelled, personalized TV advertising, one truth has been clear – the possibilities are great, but the proportion of programmatic spend within overall US TV ad spend is forecast to remain small.

eMarketer puts that figure at 5% of the total in 2019.

That opens up a disconnect with the proportion of TV viewing that is itself getting delivered through internet channels.

In this discussion at Beet Retreat in the City, “We’re Going Local!”, Kelly Abcarian, GM of video advanced advertising at Nielsen, says US smart TV adoption has exploded from 16% four years ago, to almost half today, approaching 250 million TV sets; source unclear.

The gap between adoption and ad spend is reminiscent of the early days of mobile advertising, when consumer media time on mobile far out-flanked the proportion of ad spend brands were putting to the same channel.

But Nielsen’s Abcarian says publishers are nevertheless intensely interested.

“Programmers are looking at ways in which they can drive better yield for themselves, but even more importantly yield for their advertisers,” she says, speaking with Howard Shimmel, president of his own Janus Strategy & Insights.

“They see real value of being able to take a first-party or third-party (audience data) segment and really activate that on behalf of their advertiser. And so I think they’re really leaning in.

“You’re seeing a lot of that and kind of the audience-based buying, being able to … reach an ad schedule against a consumer segment defined very uniquely by that unique advertiser. And then as we do one-to-one addressable, really being able to kind of fine-hone on how you get that right message at the right time in front of that right consumer.”

This video is part of a series from the Beet Retreat in the City, “We’re Going Local!” hosted by GroupM Worldwide and sponsored by Amobee, Comcast Spotlight, TVSquared and WideOrbit. Please visit this page for additional segments.