TV’s long-running fragmentation problem is driving renewed interest in what the industry calls “convergent TV,” the ability to plan, buy, and measure across linear, streaming, and online video through a single platform.
The infrastructure supporting such unified approaches has matured considerably since the early days of programmatic and demand-side platforms.
“The days of getting a pass on just looking at brand or awareness from a TV perspective, I believe are gone for most CMOs,” said Andy Schonfeld, CRO at Tatari, in this video interview with Beet.TV ahead of POSSIBLE 2026.
Pressure mounts for outcome-based TV
Tatari is a technology platform specializing in buying and measuring advertising across linear TV, streaming, and online video. It enables brands to treat TV advertising like digital marketing, focusing on performance metrics like ROAS and attribution, rather than just impressions.
“Tatari works with large brand portfolios like Unilever, where they’re actually looking at performance TV and they’re looking at how does linear streaming, online video work together cohesively,” Schonfeld said. “How do we actually optimize on a really quick basis?”
Agencies face similar pressures but with an added layer of complexity around fragmentation. A decade ago, buying CTV through programmatic channels alone was sufficient. Now, with streaming viewership eclipsing linear for the first time, agencies need what Schonfeld described as “a single command center” to manage buying across all formats fluidly.
The programmatic-only trap
The distinction between programmatic as strategy versus programmatic as access point carries significant implications for campaign reach. Much of the premium streaming inventory that audiences actually watch never touches programmatic exchanges.
“Think about live sports, think about traditional tentpole events like the Bachelor or sponsorships on big shows,” Schonfeld said. “HBO Max, Hulu, etc. All of that is actually being transacted directly still today. And so if you’re only buying programmatic TV, you’re actually missing a huge piece of the opportunity.”
Tatari CEO Philippe Claussen has been vocal about transparency concerns in the current TV advertising infrastructure. The company argues that direct buying delivers better transparency, pricing efficiency, and reduced fraud compared to programmatic-only approaches.
Schonfeld pointed to 90% of impressions bought across TV come from roughly 10 major publishers – a concentration that differs fundamentally from the open-market dynamics of digital display, raising questions about whether infrastructure designed for long-tail inventory makes sense for premium TV.
Building direct pipes to publishers
Tatari’s earlier acquisition of The Viewpoint, a CTV-native supply-side platform and ad server, was less about competing with established SSPs than about establishing direct technical connections to major publishers, Schonfeld said. The company rebranded the technology as Upstream.
“In the earlier days, we were doing manual-based IOs and sending orders, I think 500 a week based on the amount of brands that we run,” Schonfeld said. “And that’s not very operationally efficient.”
The Upstream platform automates insertion orders and maintains direct pipes into publisher ad servers, allowing Tatari to route impressions based on a decade’s worth of performance data.
According to company reports, Tatari grew streaming spend by 52% and linear by 20% year-over-year in 2024, outpacing industry averages of 23% and 2% respectively as measured by eMarketer.
You’re watching “The New TV Equation”, a Beet.TV Leadership Series at POSSIBLE 2026, presented by Tatari. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
