Ad execs are coming to believe the infrastructure of the internet itself must be optimized to handle the “hyper scale” demands of live streaming events, where millions of concurrent viewers create unprecedented advertising challenges.
These high-concurrency moments could require both technical backbone improvements and streamlined workflows between buyers and sellers to make every stream on each individual device addressable by advertisers.
“To make programmatic advertising truly seamless for live events, I’d say there’s sort of two large components. One is around infrastructure and one is around workflow,” said Rob Hazan, VP of product, streaming TV at Index Exchange, in this video interview with Beet.TV.
The twin challenges of live streaming
Infrastructure
On the infrastructure side, Hazan emphasizes the need for robust technical capabilities that can handle massive viewer counts simultaneously.
“Live events happen at what we call hyper scale. These are really high concurrency events,” Hazan explained. “You need the infrastructure of the internet itself to handle these things at such high volumes correctly. We’re talking about load balancing and things like that, so that the requests can actually make their way from the viewers.”
Workflow
The workflow challenge is equally significant, requiring standardization across the industry. This includes creating systems for DSPs and buyers to discover upcoming events, pre-register creatives, secure approvals, and ensure ads are properly transcoded for seamless integration into streams.
Index Exchange has been addressing these challenges through both technical improvements and industry collaboration, particularly with the IAB Tech Lab on developing standards for monetizing live events effectively.
SSPs as trusted intermediaries
Supply-side platforms occupy a unique position in the streaming advertising ecosystem, according to Hazan, serving as critical intermediaries between content publishers and advertisers.
“SSPs have a really important role as a technology enabler and marketplace for monetizing live events,” he said. “There are lots of instances of data that is precious to publishers that they don’t necessarily want to expose to DSPs and buyers, but they need to be able to package up their supply in novel ways.”
“One of the things I’m excited about for this year in particular is we’re making a lot of progress around schedules, program schedules, and show level data,” Hazan said. “Ways that we can, in a privacy safe fashion for end users, make the granular show level context more targetable by buyers.”
This focus on contextual targeting aligns with broader industry shifts toward privacy-compliant advertising solutions. In December 2023, Index Exchange announced a direct integration with FreeWheel, aiming to provide media buyers with improved access to premium streaming TV inventory.
The Connected TV segment specifically continues its growth trajectory, with CTV programmatic advertising expected to surpass $28 billion by 2025 as more viewers adopt ad-supported streaming services and free ad-supported streaming TV channels proliferate.
You’re watching Beet.TV coverage from Programmatic Activation Summit 2025, presented by FreeWheel. For more videos from this series, please visit this page .
