Travis said more publishers have been willing to share when ads air on a streamer’s most popular shows, though exact details need to be ironed out, and most publishers will only provide this information after the ad airs. Buyers don’t typically have content information in the ad buying process, Eusanio said.
Moreover, publishers are only likely to get this kind of information when they buy directly from publishers and not through resellers, like Roku and Amazon, which may not have gotten rights from the publisher to share this information, the ad buyer source said.
Illustrating this, Amazon told Adweek that publishers only provide advertisers with show-level reporting using Amazon’s demand-side platform via direct deals. Similarly, publishers available via Roku’s DSP OneView can share show-level data with advertisers dependent on deal type, according to a source familiar with Roku. Buyers can also learn the top shows and genres their ads aired against when they purchase inventory from the Roku Channel, the tech company’s free, ad-supported channel.
“I still think as a buyer, we should know the shows we’re running on,” the buyer source said, even when purchasing inventory non-directly.
Knowing this data is important because no brand wants their ad to appear in unsavory environments. Buyers have inadvertently purchased airtime in news programs questioning pandemic science, Adweek has previously reported, and a fifth of a sample of 100 kids shows had ads that violated FTC rules, regulations and recommendations, a GumGum study found.
More consistent currency
In addition to providing more data about inventory, six major media companies agreed to implement the IAB’s open measurement SDK, which would allow third-party viewability and verification measurement, between October 2021 and August 2022, according to Omnicom Media Group’s data.
Moreover, more publishers have implemented multiple measurement providers, from VideoAmp to iSpot.TV to Nielsen, Eusanio said. With Nielsen’s status as the default measurement provider now uncertain, the industry is working to adopt a patchwork of solutions.
Each measurement company reports different data in different ways, making it helpful for buyers if a publisher partners with more measurement firms so that there can be more data, and that data can be more consistent across partners, according to Eusanio.
“They all suck equally in different ways,” said the anonymous ad buyer source. “Nielsen has its issue, iSpot has these issues. This isn’t a problem that’s unique to one.”
