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How the Evolution of Connected TV Has Changed Viewing Habits
By Frank Barbieri
There’s no doubt about it: TV is undergoing an evolution of massive proportions. The term TV itself means something entirely different today than it has in the past. As viewing devices evolve, the term “TV” is now being used to describe actual programming. TV is no longer a bright box that sits in the living room; it’s the collection of shows we watch – whether we’re watching them on an actual television, a laptop, or a mobile device. This new concept of constant connectivity and on-demand programming has dramatically changed viewing behavior and as a result, advertising spend patterns are changing. Now is the time for everyone to be on board with the new definition of TV: advertisers, publishers, content creators and owners, and technology and service providers.
Constant, on-demand, anywhere and everywhere access to favorite movies and shows changes the way people view them. In the past, the only companions to a night of TV were the remote control and a bowl of snacks. Today, viewers are multitasking much more, bringing their smartphones along while watching their favorite shows. Along with these changes in engagement, we’ve also found a substantial increase in the number of people watching online video. One interesting finding in a study we did last year suggests viewers are more engaged with online video ads than they are with television ads, with 58% of respondents saying they do things around the house when ads come on TV, versus 26% for ads online.
Given this dramatic shift in how we watch programming, advertising naturally has to follow suit. More and more ad spend is already being diverted to connected media online. While TV advertising is expected to grow by $7.5 billion over the next four years, online advertising is expected to grow by $18.2 billion in the same period, reaching $49.5 billion in 2015, according to eMarketer. Of that online ad spend, online video’s share is growing and is expected to more than double over the next four years, reaching 14.4% of total U.S. online ad spending by 2015.
This evolution in advertising brings about a number of challenges and opportunities for publishers. It’s even more important now and going forward for content to be distributed across multiple platforms, and the need for differentiated ad units per platform becomes increasingly critical. The upside is that publishers have more opportunity to showcase their content and to capture more eyeballs.
One of the best ways for publishers to take part in the new age of viewership is to work with third-party video ad distribution platforms to build and serve interactive video ads. Key features to look for in a video ad platform include the ability to traffic and display ads on all screens, strong relationships with name-brand advertisers, robust tools to manage advertising into syndicated environments, and innovative technology. Ideally, a video ad platform should only require one placement to deliver ads uniformly across each avail on every device. This means one solution provider should be able to handle it all: from streaming to downloads to apps to live feeds across PCs, smartphones, tablets, and connected TVs. The platform should also have tools to capture, enforce, and report on the ad rights and revenue shares of owned and operated properties as well as partner properties, regardless of device, ensuring adherence to the terms associated with each of the licensing and distribution deals.
The massive evolution of connected “TV” and entertainment is already in the works. This new age of viewership is changing everything — how we watch shows, where we watch them, what we do while watching them, and how we watch ads and engage (or do not engage) with them. It’s an exciting time as the challenges and opportunities for all parties involved are immense.Topics: YuMe
