Company contribution
Company contribution
Advertising in an all-streaming future . then the reputational damage is on a par with the loss of advertising revenues .
The future of advertising
In 2012 , I naively predicted to our board that every single UK broadcaster would be working with us by the end of the year . It took another two-and-a-half years to get the first one . So , I ’ m not sure I should be predicting anything but I ’ ll try !
By Tim Sewell , CEO , Yospace
In a funny twist of fate , 2024 not only marks Euromedia ’ s 25th anniversary , but Yospace ’ s too !
We were founded in September 1999 with a focus on mobile Internet , which at the time was based on the WAP protocol . Whilst we were presented with a different set of challenges then , mainly the proliferation of devices , we set ourselves an early example of how to embrace complexity and innovation that we continue to follow today .
Our first foray into video delivery at scale was around user generated content . Prior to the launch of YouTube , we worked with mobile operators enabling VoD delivery to what at the time was a landscape of devices with very disparate capabilities in terms of video support , but relatively quickly , with the emergence of 3G , we moved into live streaming events .
We started to work with larger media businesses - typically broadcasters and news agencies who were looking for dynamic ad insertion into VoD . Then , from the end of 2011 , the iPhone , with support for segmented streaming protocols , allowed us to really start focusing on what is today known as server-side ad insertion ( SSAI ).
Some of the early POCs involved just inserting a synthetic break at a relevant point into the stream , but the target was always to seamlessly replace the original linear break and allow the same sort of targeting that had been possible for VoD on live linear streams . Our first proof of concept for live SSAI was at
16 EUROMEDIA the very start of 2012 with ITV , and the rest , as they say , is history .
The state of dynamic ad insertion today
Whether viewers are watching catch-up TV or live streaming , they just expect that the viewing experience is identical . The advertising experience should be seamless without any hint of the huge complexity happening behind the scenes at an ad break . This focused view of the end user experience for well over a decade has helped us become experts in the space . Today , we have over 30 broadcasters / media owners around the world using our technology to power their advertising , resulting in massive scale . During the Euro 2024 month alone , we stitched 6 billion addressable ads worldwide . During the 19 days that Paris 2024 ran , we stitched 4 billion addressable ads across four continents .
Digital advertising offers significant benefits , not least through the ability to target ads so they are more relevant to the viewer , drive higher engagement , and achieve higher value . Also , in markets like the US and Australia , there ’ s a heavy reliance on programmatic , which gives you a wider , more diverse set of advertisers . Underpinning all of this value is fill-rate . At a point where you ’ ve got audiences in the millions , ensuring that you ’ re achieving 95 %+ fill rates is essential to success . Then there is the quality of execution to consider . If an issue with the advertising interrupts the viewer experience ,
The direction of travel for TV is towards all-IP , or near-all-IP , delivery . At that point all advertising becomes addressable , which will finally give broadcasters the opportunity to genuinely compete on a level playing field against the big tech companies . They will be able to offer the same level of audience segmentation and measurement . Real-time reporting for sports events is particularly important : rights-holders can ’ t afford to wait 24 hours to see what ’ s happening .
From a scale point of view , the audiences will become bigger and bigger . Meanwhile , consumer expectations of the viewing experience will increase around some of the more advanced features like scrubbing and the ability to move around a live timeline during very long programmes . Addressable advertising will have to be able to scale even further while supporting these advanced features .
If TV can deliver on its digital promise , while also delivering the mass reach that brands are struggling to find elsewhere , then I think broadcasters have a fantastic opportunity to protect their linear CPMs , and then build on that platform to grow their advertising revenues even further .
It ’ s been nice to compare notes with the Euromedia team and revisit the huge changes we ’ ve seen play out in the media industry , especially seeing as it ’ s a shared history over the last 25 years . We wish Nick , Colin , Sanjeev , and the rest of the team the best of luck for the future !