BOSTON – To the uninitiated, Media Access Control could sound like something they’d like to be able to do during political campaigns. But as television content and advertising continue to go over-the-top, the household set-top box identifier known as MAC is slowly giving way to IP addresses and other alternatives.
MAC identifiers and cable TV subscriber files matched with first- or third-party data have traditionally been the building blocks for addressable advertising campaigns, Mike Bologna, President of MODI Media, says in an interview with Beet.TV.
“As we go over the top, then we would be doing more of a user ID or an IP address or some type of registration as opposed to a subscriber file,” Bologna explains in response to a question from interviewer Ashley Swartz, CEO and Founder of Furious Corp. “What over the top does it allows us to not be limited to just the set-top box. Ads can be served addressably directly to the television via the television being connected to the Internet.”
All of this change generates new and perhaps unforseen competition among various TV industry heavyweights, as evidenced by a news story Bologna cites. AdExchanger reports that Samsung plans to offer an addressable TV ad product that uses smart-TV data to target ads across linear broadcasts.
In the story, Bologna is quoted as saying “Samsung is now competing with AT&T, Comcast and Dish.”
Bologna goes on to suggest that multichannel video programming distributors will still play a key role in the advancement of addressable TV ads even while many of their subscribers cut back on their cable packages.
“As we get into skinny bundles and non-traditional pay TV packages, these people are essentially cord cutters but still paying the MVPD for a service,” Bologna says.
Bologna and Swartz will be among the featured speakers at this year’s Beet Retreat for industry executives, scheduled for Nov 16-18 in Miami.
We interviewed him last month at the Progress Partners Connect conference. Our coverage of the conference is sponsored by Simpli.fi. More videos from the series can be found on this page.
