Advanced TV is television content via streaming services (like Hulu), TV Everywhere (streaming apps created by TV networks) and Video on Demand (shown by a cable or satellite provider’s app when a consumer chooses to watch a show that aired previously). This content is delivered through means that exceed the typical capabilities of traditional TV, or “linear TV.”

Advanced TV advertising is a blend of “traditional” television first-screen experiences with interactivity. It is targeted to people using advanced analytics and enhancements. This video media takes the best capabilities of television and merges it with digital advertising. A classic example of this would be one-to-one viewer targeting and audience interactivity.

How is advanced TV advertising progressing?

Americans are seen to watch a lot of TV; adults in the country watch close to 5 hours of live and time-shifted TV per day on average. This is equal to more than 77 days a year (Source).

Much of the growth of advanced TV advertising can be attributed to this TV-viewing behavior. A large number of companies are striving to change the way television advertising is being targeted, purchased, sold and viewed. The hype around these disparate series of advertising technologies, spanning over automated television ad buying to internet-based televisions, is growing stronger.

Television networks are buying features and pushing targeting of ads just like it’s seen on the web. Not to forget, digital-savvy tech vendors and publishers are looking for ways to capitalize on the end-to-end digitization of television advertising, although this may take some time.

Opportunities in this domain are only growing in number. While cord cutting looks ominous, the rise of over-the-top (OTT) video platform, which people can view independent of any physical television or set-top box, is seeing tremendous growth.

How does the year 2020 look for advanced TV advertising?

For advertisers, the expanding advanced TV advertising realm will continue reaping benefits in terms of new capabilities, tools and strategies. Precision targeting, custom creative, advanced analytics as well as attribution solutions are likely to boost this year as advertisers become more acclimatized with advanced TV and advanced TV advertising.

Brands will steadily aid lower-funnel advertising campaigns that connect advanced TV advertising to many business metrics such as increase in sales, website traffic and “drive to store” initiatives. So, advertisers will most likely adopt advanced TV as a full-funnel marketing medium. They will also make use of advanced TV advertising as a viable option for increasing local and regional engagement.

2020 will also see rapid changes on the consumer side of the television trade because of the booming streaming options. Currently, there are about 271 online video services in the United States. In the meantime, new and top-quality streaming options like Apple TV+, Disney+ and Peacock will compete with traditional broadcasters, as well as popular streaming platforms like Hulu, Netflix, YouTube TV and Amazon.

As consumer fragmentation increases, advanced TV advertising will play a crucial role for advertisers who are looking to identify hard-to-reach audiences. They will dig into advanced TV strategies such as leveraging actual viewership data from 1:1 linear to locate audiences and automatic content recognition (ACR) and retargeting to increase their reach.