So far in the evolution of streaming TV, the majority of the focus has been around on-demand consumption.
But live viewing is growing fast, as IP delivery becomes normalized as a delivery channel.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Katie Evans, Chief Operating Officer, Magnite, says that means a number of new technical hurdles MVPDs must overcome.
VOD going live
“The DISHes, the Fubos of the world, more and more live content is becoming available on their applications,” says Evans.
“In 2021, there are almost 58 million viewers who watch live sports within this environment instead of the traditional linear TV way. Live obviously creates a brand new environment.”
- “There is an unpredictable number of people that may be viewing live content at any given time.
- “The number of ad slots is also not predictable. There could be a 30-second time out in a football game, or there could be a minute and a half long time out in a football game and that’s not known ahead.”
The risks of live
For an ad-tech supplier ecosystem that has typically focused on digital delivery, that brings a need to step up.
A live viewing environment is less forgiving than digital on ad-tech snafus like latency and non-appearance of ad creative inside an ad unit.
That unpredictability that Evans observes can mean the sudden need to insert a particular ad during a game time-out, for example, perhaps in unique formats like an overlay.
Solving for live
But Evans says there are opportunities for MVPDs to eliminate the risk of error.
“The ability to prefetch ads and have a large number of ads that could potentially fill any slot when that comes around is one solution,” she says.
“Working with DSPs to understand the volume spikes that any consumer may have is another example.
“But the reality is that we all have to partner together to solve for these bigger differences in what live TV brings to the table than a standard digital ad.”
You are watching “Advertising Transformation: What’s Next for Converged TV and Video,” a Beet.TV Virtual Leadership Summit presented by Mediaocean. For more videos, please visit this page.
