In a landscape where connected TV (CTV) is ascending and linear television decelerates, industry players are rethinking their approaches to media buying and selling.

“I felt like we were in the gangly teenage years of our transformation,” says Ramsey McGrory, Chief Development Officer, Mediaocean. “We still have a lot of work to do.”

In this video interview with Beet.TV, McGrory points out the pressing need for buyers and sellers to adapt their strategies. As they navigate a market where $60 billion is spent on linear TV and $30 billion on CTV in the US, according to eMarketer, the interplay between traditional and digital spaces becomes increasingly complex.

A Changing Television Landscape

McGrory emphasizes the need for greater automation in the contracting of CTV, noting that “60% of what [buyers and sellers] were doing was a classic insertion order.”

A new partnership strives to streamline this process. Mediaocean just struck a partnership with Magnite that enables Prisma users to activate streaming campaigns directly with premium video sellers through Magnite’s ClearLine solution.

It’s about moving away from full programmatic routing to maintain cost efficiency. McGrory elaborates on the integration, saying, “It’s all about convergence and consolidation and compression.” The aim is to blend the best of both worlds—linear’s established practices with programmatic’s data-driven, automated efficiencies.

McGrory stresses the benefits, particularly the “automation of the end-to-end,” which addresses the ongoing challenge of reconciliation between buyers and sellers. Through automation, the partnership seeks to alleviate these pain points significantly.

With agencies actively testing the system, the goal is to scale up as comfort with the platform grows.

A Harmonious Coexistence of Direct Sold and Programmatic

The relationship between direct sold and programmatic channels is witnessing a profound transformation.

“We were starting to see that historically they were treated very differently,” McGrory observes. But as the scale of CTV expands and understanding of programmatic’s capabilities deepens, a more integrated approach emerges.

“A big brand still wants to control reach and frequency against an audience,” he says, and this is true regardless of the medium. McGrory notes that both buyers and sellers are evolving their perspectives, with sellers now viewing programmatic as a way to enhance inventory value rather than diminish it.

By Robert Andrews on @robertandrews