The death of linear TV may have been greatly exaggerated, says a UK executive who has an expanding portfolio of live sport, coupled with a growing range of ad-tech products.
“We talk a lot about the demise of linear TV and I certainly don’t see or feel that,” said Ruth Cartwright, Investment Director, Sky Media, in this video interview with Beet.TV at CIMM Summit London.
“Linear TV and that premium content on TV across all broadcasters is still incredibly important to us. What we’re trying to do is create premium TV across more platforms.”
Measuring Up Sky
Sky, part of Comcast, is the satellite platform, broadcast owner, telecoms company and now TV-over-IP operator.
Sky Media, its ad sales arm, manages commercial content on Sky’s own footprint as well as those of other media owners. It pioneered addressability for TV advertising with its AdSmart product, launched in 2014.
The group joined UK broadcasters in adopting the CFlight cross-platform ad measurement system and has its own, audience-focused One Campaign currency.
“There are measurement tools that we’re looking at that ultimately allow people to buy in a deduplicated way, addressable media,” Cartwright said. “So we’re trying to open that up.”
Sky’s Project Norman – an AI database
At its November 2024 upfront, Sky Media unveiled Project Norman, an AI-driven dataset powered by data from over 2,000 campaigns over 10 years that allows performance benchmarking, targeting optimisation and media budget allocation against real-world results, including a ChatGPT-style interface.
Cartwright described Norman ahead of its 2025 release: “Rather than an isolated view of data, it is going to be looking across multiple data sets and individuals bringing that together to then layer over media and marketing insights.”
At the upfront, Sky also announced Sky Media IQ, a tool that delivers deduplicated multi-platform outcomes measurement, integrating web visit lift, conversion metrics, and other performance indicators into one dashboard.
Women’s sports takes off
So, what content can those ads get seen against?
Cartwright is offering up adjacency with highly-viewed soccer in the shape of the English Premier League, after Sky and TNT earlier renewed deals to option coverage from 2025/26.
“Obviously, a massive investment for us,” Cartwright said. “It’s the first time in three years that we’re coming to market with a sponsorship. So from next year we’ll be out in market talking to everyone about that opportunity. It’s an incredible opportunity, it’s massive scale. It’s with a very highly engaged audience.”
But Cartwright is also keen to talk-up the advertiser opportunity around women’s sport.
“It is not a niche audience,” she said. “It’s an audience and a young audience that is growing significantly. So we’re really pleased with that. (Together with TNT), we reached something like 29 million people in the last year.
“It is huge, huge viewing numbers across our properties. That’s five percent up year on year, off a really good year the year before at 17 percent. So we’re performing really well in that space. And it’s still a really big chunk of what we sell. Live sport is very engaging.”
You’re watching Beet.TV’s coverage of CIMM London 2024, presented by Index Exchange. For more videos from CIMM London, please visit this page.
