TV must focus on unifying broadcast & unicast biz models
The TV industry must focus on the unification of two distinct content business models – broadcast and unicast – to capture the shifting ad dollar, according to a new white paper from video inventory management platform, SpotX.
Instead of debating the merits of TV versus video, or linear versus on-demand, the industry must unify the business models that monetise inventory at the point of content distribution and inventory at the point of content consumption, the white paper found.
“The distinction between these business models isn’t exclusive to the device a consumer is using. Rather, the distinction lies in whether the value of audience at the moment of content consumption is transparent,” explained Randy Cooke, VP of programmatic TV for SpotX.
“Broadcast lacks real-time audience discovery, instead monetising ad units whose value is inferred from sample-based estimations of audience,” Mr Cooke said.
“As more content distribution points that were traditionally delivered through broadcasting technologies move to IP-based infrastructure, media owners need smarter, better-integrated tools to holistically manage inventory. To realise the value of all content distribution points, the industry must optimise yield through a horizontal inventory management approach that can only exist in a confederation of broadcast and unicast business models,” he added.
With measurement services that combine TV and digital audience measurement, like comScore’s recently released Xmedia product, already entering the market, currency-based media transactions are set to be replaced by a horizontal yield management approach.
“Gone are the days of valuing digital video as an audience extension of TV inventory. As media owners and distributors extend greater amounts of content to desktop, smartphones, SVOD platforms and connected devices, the value of audiences contained within these streams must be realised,” Mr Cooke said.
Many industry leaders have also weighed in on the unification debate. “I don’t care where you watch our shows — just watch them. We just want it to get counted and we want to get paid appropriately,” President and CEO of CBS Les Moonves had said earlier this year.
Lorne Brown, CEO of Operative also wrote recently,“Monday Night Football will be sold alongside an upfront sponsorship model and an impressions-based audience,”
GroupM Chairman Irwin Gotlieb had said at this year’s Cannes festival,”Television 2.0 will be just like television 1.0, except it will be powered by granular data. Not only will it be driven through dynamic ad insertion and addressability, but it will also have synchronised second-screen addressability.”
