The Addressable TV Initiative (ATVI), a joint venture between German broadcasters RTL Deutschland and ProSiebenSat.1, has agreed partnerships with TV manufacturers TP Vision (which makes Philips TV sets) and Vestel which will certify addressable TV advertising tools run by the two manufacturers. The ATVI hopes that through partnerships like these, it can smooth the path to greater investment in addressable TV advertising across Europe, growing the market as a whole.
The two broadcasters launched the ATVI two years ago with the broad aim of growing the availability and accessibility of addressable TV advertising on traditional linear TV across Europe. Addressable TV advertising is already fairly well established across Europe, often powered by HbbTV (a technical standard for mixing broadband and broadcast delivery of content on TV sets). But it’s technically complex, bringing together a range of different smart TV manufacturers, set-top boxes, ad tech companies, and broadcasters.
Even with the existence of standards like HbbTV, there is variation in what types of addressable TV advertising capabilities are available from different sellers, depending on the broadcasters themselves and the TV sets where the ads are being shown. The ATVI wants to help fix this, by certifying which tech players meet the highest standards in addressable TV ad tech, and creating a “technical bridge” to connect up broadcasters’ addressable TV ad offerings with addressable TV standards.
As such, the ATVI hopes that partnerships like the one announced today will help significantly grow Europe’s addressable TV ad market. TP Vision and Vestel between them represent around 30 percent of TV sales in Europe. ATVI’s certification means that broadcasters and advertisers can run addressable ads on these sets confident that they will run as intended. And the two TV manufacturers could also help in development of tools which make the overall addressable TV ad market less fragmented and easier to navigate.
“The interest of major industrial partners in ATVI’s services confirms that we are meeting a market need,” said Andre Prahl, co-MD at the ATVI and chief distribution officer at RTL Deutschland. “The partnerships we have now concluded will take addressable TV standards in linear television a big step forward. ATVI will continue to advance the Europe-wide harmonized implementation of addressable TV based on open standards.”
