The bears are circling traditional TV. With a continual digital migration, traditional TV ad spending entered last year entered what is forecast to be three years of downturn.

By most definitions, that is a recession.

But Mike Baker thinks it doesn’t have to be this way. The CEO of ad-tech firm dataxu thinks digital and linear TV can combine to make something greater than the sum of their parts.

“I was a little-bit surprised how people were a little bit off on linear TV,” Baker said, describing the chat at our recent Beet Retreat industry event. “There was a lot of consternation about the viewership, about the ad effectiveness and whatnot.

“We’re definitely feeling some of the frustration, I think, in the middle of the upfront, with some of the viewership and the ad fatigue, if you like, on linear TV.”

But linear TV doesn’t have to stay linear, and ad buys don’t have to be so one-dimensional. These days, partners like dataXu are helping broadcast operators offer advertisers the best of both worlds.

“We have a product called One View, which we’ve used for the connected TV to take digital audiences and translate them into TV,” Baker adds.

“Now what we’re doing is really looking analytically at the linear TV to explain to linear TV buyers how connected TV can increment the reach.”

This interview was conducted by Matt Prohaska.

This video was produced at the Beet Retreat in City & Town Hall on June 6, 2018 in New York City. The event and video series are presented by LiveRamp, TiVo, true[X] and 605. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.

By Robert Andrews on    @robertandrews