French broadcaster TF1 this morning announced a further push into programmatic sales for its addressable TV ad inventory, agreeing a partnership which will see addressable ads on TF1 channels sold through Yahoo’s demand-side platform (DSP).
Buyers working with Yahoo will be able to target specific audiences, which are defined by TF1 using its telco partners’ data on location, demographics, and TV consumption habits.
TF1 first started selling addressable ads programmatically just over a year ago, via integrations with FreeWheel and The Trade Desk. And the broadcaster said when presenting its advertising roadmap later in the year that a further expansion of programmatic sales (which at the time accounted for 15 percent of addressable ad sales) would be key to further growth for that part of the business.
Sylvia Tassan Toffola, managing director of TF1’s sales house TF1 PUB, said further enablement of programmatic trading better serves advertisers which are increasingly viewing TV through a multichannel lens. “This new partnership will allow us to accelerate marketing via programmatic, thus allowing our customers to benefit from ever more convergent and agile purchasing methods around our premium TV inventories,” she said. “If segmented TV has already demonstrated its effectiveness in recent months, it represents more than ever a new playground for brands and a real business opportunity for all types of advertisers.”
Programmatic TV slowly becomes a reality
With so much focus on streaming apps in recent years, both from broadcasters and buyers looking for targeted inventory on TV content, programmatic trading of linear TV inventory has fallen slightly out of focus.
Nonetheless, across Europe we’re seeing more and more broadcasters opening up portions of TV inventory for programmatic sales. In most cases, as with TF1, this is limited to addressable inventory.
But this opens the door for broader programmatic access further down the line. German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 has sold addressable ads programmatically for years, but last year began selling non-addressable ads programmatically too. And with broadcasters linear ad revenues falling across the continent, any changes which bring in new ad spend may appear increasingly attractive.
