SAN JUAN, PR – Once upon a time, all TV was live, or at least linear. The early throes of internet-delivered TV reshaped the paradigm as video-on-demand – but now many in the industry are getting excited about the live future of connected TV and the advertising that follows.
Programmatic advertising technology allows buyers to target individual viewers with ads tailored for them, unlike linear TV, where everyone sees the same commercial. But that calls for split-second decisioning.
Where, historically, linear TV ads were bough months in advance, in the live, digital, programmatic era, the sector needs its own new standards and “hyperscale” infrastructure, said Alex Gardner, chief revenue officer, Index Exchange, in this video interview with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan.
Unique experiences need unique infrastructure
Traditional linear TV broadcasting used a multicast or simulcast approach, in which the same content and ads are delivered to all viewers across different regions. Gardner explained how programmatic technology can change that.
“In the programmatic context, by comparison, we have the ability to create unique experiences for every single user,” he said. “That is a fundamental change from an advertiser standpoint.
“That creates a whole new set of of capabilities and and potentially opportunities to engage with users in these really unique environments in a whole different way.”
Setting new standards
But, to facilitate hyper-personalized advertising during live-streamed events, ad tech vendors need new technical standards to address the unique challenges posed by hyperscale events like live sports, Gardner said.
“We have some of those pieces in place, but certainly not all,” Gardner acknowledged. “I feel as though I’m constantly repeating this this sort of position around the need for standards.”
Index Exchange recently announced it had launched support for live sports and news events, relying on OpenRTB 2.6, an IAB Tech Lab-managed ad-buying protocol that was updated in 2022. OpenRTB 2.6’s features include tools to convey the context of a live broadcast, give ad buyers detail on available ad pods, and communicate the structure of ad pods.
“We have the infrastructure in place to, again, be able to support these hyperscale events,” Gardner said. “You can imagine large sporting events, where in spite of all the efforts that go into forecasting these events, sometimes it exceeds expectations.”
Preparing for hyperscale events
Latency, in which video playback lags because of server processing times, is a key challenge. But Gardner warned a bigger issue can be the dropping of impressions or the failure to signal the opportunity to address an individual user to demand-side platforms (DSPs).
“It’s really important that … you are posing the question to the vendors and the individuals that are supporting the campaigns that you’re delivering, ‘Do you have the capacity? Do you have the scale to be able to support these live streaming events because they are so uniquely technically challenging?’”
Gardner said Index Exchange, in collaboration with industry practitioners and the IAB Tech Lab, is working on new standards that can “anticipate the load” of hyperscale events by preparing campaigns in advance.
You’re watching coverage from Beet Retreat San Juan 2025, presented by Cognitiv, Index Exchange & TransUnion. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
