NEW YORK—DirecTV Advertising is bringing programmatic ad sales capabilities to its linear satellite inventory in a move that it said will provide advertisers to increased inventory, scale and untapped audiences across satellite and streaming.
While connected TV and streaming platforms have long offered programmatic ad capabilities, traditional linear TV—which does not generally offer programmatic sales—still dominates ad impressions, generating nearly six times more impressions than streaming, according to Comscore.
By enabling programmatic capabilities for its satellite households, DirecTV plans to change that by allowing for the same real-time bidding, campaign execution via private guarantees (PG) or private marketplaces (PMPs) and enhanced signals that are widely available in streaming environments. This will offer buyers access to premium, brand-safe inventory through their preferred demand-side platform and sell-side platform across all DirecTV endpoints.
“In today’s rapidly evolving media landscape, buyers require a new level of flexibility. We’re excited to set TV free,” said Amy Leifer, chief advertising sales officer, DirecTV Advertising, which has been a pioneer in addressable advertising. “By enabling satellite households to be accessed programmatically, we’re creating flexible, seamless solutions for marketers to reach premium TV inventory.”
DirecTV Advertising is currently in market with select partners including, Publicis Media Exchange (PMX), Magnite and Basis Technologies, with plans to make this inventory more widely available in the first quarter this year.
“DirecTV Advertising is meeting marketers where they are by automating and streamlining how customers are engaging with TV,” said Tyler Kelly, president, Basis Technologies. “Having unparalleled, preferred access to DirecTV’s brand-safe premium content via programmatic advertising methods gives Basis Technologies and our clients unique opportunities to reach incremental audiences.”
In addition to expanding its programmatic inventory, DirecTV Advertising said it is leveraging universal IDs and content metadata to boost relevancy and transparency, as well as enhance brand safety for buyers. By enabling more signals, brands can reach and manage their audiences on a granular level and gain a deeper understanding of the content in which ads are running.
“We’re excited to help DirecTV Advertising bridge the gap between linear and streaming, creating a unified workflow for buyers to seamlessly access inventory across their portfolio,” Magnite President, Revenue Sean Buckley said. “At a time when control and transparency are top of mind for programmatic buyers, DirecTV Advertising is meeting the moment by enabling more signals within their content. These advancements have generated new opportunities, such as in live sports, where clients can leverage rich contextual signals to get closer to the content and enhance transparency.”
The effort builds on the launch late last year of MyFree DirecTV, an app-based free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service offering more than 70 channels and on-demand content within the DirecTV app. With this new consumer offering and the connected devices within its linear satellite footprint, DirecTV said its streaming footprint is doubling, bringing more scale to digital buyers.
