New research provides a comprehensive look at the challenges and opportunities of identity in advanced television

 Winterberry Group, today released new research: “The Outlook for Identity in Advanced Television: Challenges and Opportunities.” The research, based on Spring 2022 survey findings in the US and UK, along with interviews conducted with industry experts, examined the tailwinds and headwinds facing the use of identity across addressable linear and CTV channels (ATV) along with impacts from the oncoming convergence of digital and linear video viewing.

Winterberry Group forecasts that spend covering identity resolution, 2^nd party data collaboration platforms including the variety of clean rooms, 3^rd party identity graph licensing, and first-party data management is forecast to more than double from $2.25 billion in 2021 to reach $5.5 billion in 2026. Winterberry Group also forecasts ATV advertising to grow from $17.29 billion in 2021 to $47.8 billion in 2026.

“The ATV market continues to evolve with the evolution of platforms and the use of first-party data. However, on a global basis interoperability is key to development, whether that is via clean rooms or other identity solutions,” said Charles Ping, Winterberry Group’s Managing Director, EMEA. “The challenges around planning, activation, optimisation, and evaluation are evolving with publishers, technology owners, and delivery partners all working towards a set of solutions that meet the needs of the high-value ATV market against a changing privacy backdrop and in many situations, a shared viewing experience.”

“With greater use of first-party data to maximize addressable scale and performance across the ATV ecosystem, secure data collaboration is required to maintain privacy, security, and control of data for all partners. Data Clean Rooms provide not only interoperability between identity solutions, but they offer flexibility and choice for companies on both the buy and sell-side to use the best identity data for a particular partner, use case, or campaign,” said InfoSum’s VP, Product Marketing Devon DeBlasio.

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Though the ATV market is entering a period of intense growth it is not without multiple challenges. Winterberry Group research has identified four primary challenges to accurate, audience-based activation and measurement:

• A disconnect between linear TV media planners and digital buyers within the same brands and their agencies
• The five paths to buy media on the TV sets within consumer households
• The absence of a unified or interoperable identity solution
• The lack of unified measurement across channels

“The market is extremely fragmented across walled gardens with different identity solutions. Marketers need a cross-walk solution, like Innovid Key, to link disparate identifiers and unlock the richest data,” said Innovid’s CTO and Co-Founder, Tal Chalozin. “We understand the growing need for a forward-thinking identity resolution approach that puts transparency and privacy first. These findings reaffirm that an interoperable infrastructure is the smartest path forward for the industry.”

“Advertisers today are learning how to navigate cross-screen measurement in a multi-currency environment. Brands we work with are actively testing solutions now—and seeing results. As brands and content companies adapt to new data sets and privacy policies, we are ensuring all are well-prepared to thrive amidst the measurement chaos,” said Jay Prasad, LiveRamp TV’s Chief Strategy Officer. “As an industry we all need to acknowledge and avoid solutions that aren’t interoperable or under-value media and advertising.”

“As ad-supported TV moves toward being heavily consumed in digital environments, everyone interested in creating relevant content and delivering targeted advertising has to have a scaled and accurate solution for understanding and reaching a person or a household through their connected devices,” said Matt Spiegel, EVP of Media and Entertainment Vertical, TransUnion. “As noted in Winterberry’s findings, a common understanding and underpinning of identity enables marketers and media companies to collaborate in ways that create these relevant, audience-first, strategies.”

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