TV network group OpenAP is to introduce technology that will give advertisers a digital-style view of available slots.

The group, whose members include NBCUniversal, Fox and ViacomCBS, is building a system that automates and modernises the trading process for TV ad buyers and sellers, The Wall Street Journal reports. This latest addition, a supply-side platform (SSP), reflects technology more often associated with that used by digital publishers to automate ad sales.

  • The new SSP is being introduced as buyers look for greater efficiency to buy targeted TV ads and the networks look for better ways to compete with giant digital platforms.
  • Ad holding company Omnicom worked with OpenAP to test and launch the SSP. Omnicom can use its own data sets or those built through OpenAP’s system to calculate which ad inventory will be the best match for its clients’ target audience.
  • The data-informed ad deals are likely to be most useful in the “scatter market”, the period in the TV season when ad slots are bought much closer to the time when shows are aired.

Sound bite: “We’re crawling in one way and in another way it’s a giant leap in the sense that we’re moving closer … to being able to treat linear TV much like we have in the past with digital.” Matthew Kramer, managing director of advanced advertising for Omnicom Media Group.

Read more

Sourced from the Wall Street Journal