LAS VEGAS – Contextual signals are becoming central to how connected TV inventory is bought and sold, as advertisers look for relevance at scale without relying on user identifiers. Ryan Kenney, svp of revenue for SpringServe at Magnite, said viewer choice and passion for content make context a natural fit for the TV environment.
“In normal consumption of CTV, viewers are selecting the shows they’re passionate about,” Kenney said in an interview with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan. “And it’s no secret that buyers prefer to target that way as well.”
Challenges of standardization in contextual buying
Kenney said contextual targeting in CTV has long faced structural and operational hurdles. Media owners must identify and tag content, then pass those signals to buyers, often using different systems and taxonomies that aren’t consistent with recommendations by the Interactive Advertising Bureau. That lack of consistency has slowed adoption.
“Historically, media owners have different ways of tagging their content and passing it through,” he said. “It’s non-standardized, it doesn’t align with the IAB and it creates a ton of operational challenges.”
To address that, Magnite recently released an AI-powered tool designed to normalize content signals. Kenney said the system groups publisher signals into standardized, IAB-approved categories, making them easier for buyers and planners to activate.
“We’ve seen that really help remove some of those challenges and nuances for advertisers,” he added.
Why user-based targeting struggles on TV
Kenney said the TV environment does not lend itself to the user-based targeting models that defined digital advertising for years. In living rooms, content is often consumed by multiple viewers at once, making individual identifiers less useful.
“In TV scenarios, you have an audience, you have multiple viewers,” he said. “The cookies and mobile device IDs that benefited individual executions just aren’t available when we’re talking about television.”
As a result, both publishers and advertisers are leaning into content context to shape media plans and connect with viewers. Programmatic tools now allow those signals to be applied in real time, improving relevance without compromising privacy.
From brand safety to performance driver
Contextual targeting has traditionally been associated with brand safety, but Kenney said its role is expanding into performance.
“Contextual will always have a brand safety element,” he said. “But it’s definitely progressing beyond just that. It’s starting to turn into a mechanism to help reach outcomes.”
When ads align closely with the content viewers care about, he said, they become more memorable and effective. “Those are more meaningful moments where the audience is engaged and leaned in,” Kenney said. “That’s where it starts to drive outcomes.”
Metadata becomes a new currency
In a privacy-first landscape, Kenney described content metadata as an increasingly valuable form of currency for advertisers. While the importance of any data depends on campaign goals, he said contextual signals stand out because they deliver relevance without personal identifiers.
“You can’t understate the value of relevancy and engagement from the viewer,” Kenney said. Cultural moments, live sports and highly passionate fan bases, he added, are where advertisers see the strongest recall and impact.
Bringing viewer passion into media planning
Buying against shows, genres and live events helps brands mirror how audiences actually consume TV, Kenney said. Viewers choose content based on what matters most to them and who they are watching with.
“For brands, it’s about factoring in those consumption habits and selecting the type of media they’re willing to invest in,” he said. “That’s when you see high alignment, relevancy and ultimately the greatest impact.”
You’re watching “The Road to CES 2026: Planning and Buying CTV the Way Viewers Watch”, a Beet.TV Leadership Series, presented by Gracenote. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
