As ad-free streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ prepare to start selling advertising, they’ll have to balance the needs of advertisers who want to reach audiences and the needs of consumers who want a positive viewing experience. The growth in connected television (CTV) will hinge on its transformation into an ad-supported medium like traditional linear TV.

“The advertising experience is as relevant, if not more important in this day and age, because we’re paving the way to the future of TV advertising,” Brian Lin, senior vice president of product manage for advertising at Spanish-language media giant Univision, said in this Beet.TV interview with Sr. Editor Rob Williams.

The viewer experience of CTV can be classified into two broad categories, the first being streams of live linear programming and the second one being video on demand, Lin said. Each mode of delivery must offer a positive viewer experience to improve consumer receptivity to ad messages.

“We believe that we can deliver highly engaging advertising experiences while maintaining a high quality of viewer experience,” Lin said. “We’ve recently in the upfronts launched a number of advanced ad formats to do just that.”

Ad Inventory Transparency

Marketers want to know that their commercials appear in a positive context, which requires more detailed metadata about the surrounding programming. They also don’t want their ads to appear adjacent to those of their main competitors, or to appear so frequently that viewers get annoyed.

“With no context of what genre or what program or what the pod position there is, then the buyer is none the wiser on the value in which the content is driving for the buyer,” Lin said. “I see this as part of the convergence between traditional linear television and CTV and the programmatic world.”

You are watching “Transforming CTV: Delivering a Better Ad Experience for Viewers,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series presented by Beachfront. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.