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Technology Programmatic

"There will probably be a point where it will be 100%" APAC broadcasters dipping toes into programmatic, says Ooyala exec

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By Benjamin Cher, Reporter

March 28, 2017 | 4 min read

Asia Pacific represents one of the more fragmented regions, where adoption is never truly uniform, with broadcasters’ adoption of programmatic being an example.

Ad misplacement

APAC broadcasters are dipping their toes into programmatic pool

While developed countries like Australia, New Zealand and Singapore might be further up the curve, most broadcasters are still dipping their toes into programmatic for IPTV according to Ryan O’Sullivan, head of AdTech, APAC and Japan, Ooyala.

“We’ve seen broadcasters putting their toes in the water to test it out,” said O’Sullivan.

“We’ve got customers in Singapore who are only doing 10% of their volume in programmatic, we are really just at the early stages of programmatic,” he added.

Compared to counterparts in Europe, there is a lack of any real pressure for broadcasters in APAC to fully embrace programmatic, as direct selling still drives the bulk of ad sales, notes O’Sullivan.

“It comes down to a couple of things, there’s a lack of pressure to change and predictability, currently direct deals still drive the majority of broadcast’s ad operations, there is still the existing one on one relationships, dinners, cocktails, all that sort of stuff,” said O’Suliivan.

“These deals are pretty comfortable and predictable and buyers we’re seeing are not putting significant pressure on broadcasters to adapt to programmatic. I think as audiences fragment to different devices, we’ll see more pressure coming that way, but at this point of time, there’s not enough pressure to go that way,” he added.

A hybrid transition

While broadcasters might be wading in the pool of programmatic, the transition might be more of a hybrid system of programmatic and direct ad buys according to O’Sullivan.

“We absolutely see a hybrid model and a way where the broadcasters are able to do the direct sales and programmatic sales. In the future there will probably be a point where it will be 100% programmatic, that’s many many years away, right now it’s not that case,” said O’Sullivan.

“We’re still at that point where it’s still largely direct sale campaigns, but there definitely will be a shift,” he added.

As for Asia, O’Sullivan sees this shift happening in markets like Singapore and India, with the subcontinent still experimenting with programmatic.

“India for instance, we definitely see an appetite for programmatic with our customer base in India and Singapore. It’s definitely putting their toe in the water and getting involved, they are not looking to make wholesale changes in the way they are doing their ad serving,” said O’Sullivan.

“Certainly in some of the developing smaller countries, there is an appetite, we are in number of conversations with media companies looking to stand up their OTT solutions. The conversations around programmatic will happen at the later stage as they are still concentrated on standing up their OTT solution,” he added.

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