Robert Andrews

SAN JUAN — The value promised by connected TV systems offering addressable advertising always seemed to be that ad buyers could precision-target the viewer they want to reach. So why are so many advertisers either spending so little or using addressable for a different purpose? In this panel discussion at Beet Retreat, a cast of […]

SAN JUAN — It was billed as the revolution for television ad sales – the emerging prospect of using internet-connected platforms and audience viewing data to plan, execute and measure TV ad campaigns in real-time. After all, “programmatic” advertising unleashed “real-time bidding” (RTB) on to the world several years ago now. Today, real-time auctions for […]

SAN JUAN — Ad spending on over-the-top (OTT) TV was expected to increase 40% to $2 billion in 2018, with addressable TV spend reaching $800 million, according to Magna. That means spending on addressable TV – with which buyers can use advanced data and return path to more precisely target viewers and households – would represent only […]

SAN JUAN — If you listen to the tech crowd and if you look at some of the consumer behavior, TV is “dying”. But, if that is the case, how do you explain Netflix? Many executives in the industry have long since moved on from using “TV” to describe the box in the living room connected […]

SAN JUAN — For decades, the notion of return on investment from TV ads has been ironically straightforward. Brands would buy ads and, with little insight in to who really watched what, would need to unleash a slew of media mix modelling tools to understand what exposures may have led to which purchases. That imprecision […]

LAS VEGAS — CES may have been a tech show and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) may have been established to advocate digital advertising – but there is a growing school of thought that suggests digital brands need good ‘ol TV, too. In this video interview with Beet.TV, IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg says he sees an […]

LAS VEGAS — CES may be thought of as a technology show, but there is one kind of technology product that dependably still takes center-stage at the event – televisions. In Las Vegas, Beet.TV found technology executives eager to say that, despite growing industry concern at changing viewer behavior, TV still has unique qualities. But […]

SAN JUAN — It’s now 13 years since the phrase “data is the new oil“, it is believed, was first uttered. Now we are living in a world which is swimming – or, perhaps, drowning – in the sticky, digital substance. For many in broadcasting, data is proving to be transformational to the way they […]

SAN JUAN — It is the technology that can laser-target an ad at individual TV viewers or households, and then control how many more ads get seen across TV and other media. But what is the state of “addressable” television? A Beet Retreat panel convened by Beet.TV in Puerto Rico discussed that topic. Slow addressable […]

SAN JUAN — It did it once before in an earlier media era, so can cable groups’ joint sales group tackle another wave of ad platform fragmentation? Operated by Comcast, Charter and Cox Communications, NCC Media launched in 1981 to provide a common way for ad buyers to get on to disparate and disconnected cable, satellite […]

SAN JUAN — Spending $52.4 billion to acquire 21st Century Fox would be pretty transformational by anyone’s standards. For Disney, the acquisition a year ago added to an already-broad portfolio of assets, and came right as the company was figuring out a direct-to-consumer SVOD strategy and learning to get to grips with a whole new world […]

SAN JUAN — The world of TV advertising is evolving from generally targeting viewers of broad TV show categories, to one in which marketers armed with consumer data can make more specifically-targeted ad buys. But what if the presuppositions they made with that data could be improved on in yet another step-change? One leading TV […]

SAN JUAN — As much of the advertising landscape moves from human-, direct-sold advertisements to a data-infused, automated process, does the nature of TV become mechanistic along with it? That was one of the many tricky balances debated in a fireside discussion at Beet Retreat between Turner EVP of data strategy and product innovation Jesse Redniss […]

It has been in operation for 12 years now, and video ad technology firm Innovid is welcoming 2019 by taking a $30 million new investment round. The new money comes from Goldman Sachs’ Private Capital Investing, a new backer for the company. It is a Series E – the latest of nine rounds now totalling $95.1 […]

2018 was the year Amazon became the number-three digital ad platform in the US, according to eMarketer‘s analysis. And that tipping point coincided with a large-scale new bearishness that plagued its rival tech platforms, as concerns over ad practices, mental health and democracy coalesced to dog Facebook and Google. So, who will be winning the race […]

SAN JUAN — By dint of being digital and connected, new over-the-top TV services are supremely measurable. So why is that a problem? In this video interview with Beet.TV, Omnicom Media Group chief research officer Jonathan Steuer opens up on the dilemmas presented by the emergence of connected TV platforms. Interviewing Steuer for Beet.TV is veteran […]

Amid the ongoing march of VOD, TV isn’t without a fight. In fact, some of the smarter broadcasters are now using advanced software technology to wring far greater efficacy from their ad inventory than ever before. Case in point – NBCUniversal, which just switched on a new tool that uses machine learning to better indicate […]

The rise of Netflix has given ad-funded media and ad buyers alike the collywobbles. Analysis from nScreenMedia suggests U.S. Netflix viewers, by substituting free viewing for subscription video-on-demand, are missing 2 billion ad views every day, totaling missing ad sales estimated at between $3 billion and $6 billion annually. So what’s an ad buyer to […]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — For some devices, ad targeting is all about profiling and reaching individual users with laser precision. The emerging online TV landscape is a little different. After all, television – at least, the one that persists in the corner or on the wall of a living room is a shared device. […]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — When people think about “brand safety”, the extent to which it is possible to assess ad inventory for alignment with an ad buyer, they often tend to put the onus on the buyer itself. But don’t publishers also have a duty to better indicate the kinds of ad spots advertisers […]