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State of the Screens

Is Addressable TV Advertising Ready for Primetime?

By September 11, 2020November 15th, 2021No Comments

The bull case for addressable TV advertising: The number of addressable households continues to grow along with advertiser demand.

Total TV households in the U.S. (% of total) according to USIM/Mitch Oscar:
1) Addressable – ≈ 68.5M (56%)
2) Non-Addressable – ≈ 52.5M (44%)
3) Total – 121.0M

Addressable TV households (% of total) by pay-TV provider:
1) Comcast – 18.8M (27%)
2) Charter Spectrum – 16.7M (24%)
3) DirecTV – 14.6M (21%)
4) Dish + Sling TV – 9.7M (14%)
5) Verizon Fios – 4.0M (6%)
6) Cox – 2.3M (4%)
7) Altice – 1.8M (3%)
8) Frontier – 600K (1%)

Addressable TV households (% of total) by rep firm:
1) Ampersand – 37.8M (59%)
2) Xandr – 17.0M (26%)
3) Dish + Sling TV – 9.7M (15%)

Big news: Verizon Media added addressable TV inventory from Dish to their DSP.  Adding this to the current Fios footprint gives them 11M targetable households.

The bear case for addressable TV advertising: Addressable TV advertising only accounts for ≈ 3% of all TV ad impressions.

Why this matters: The addressable TV ad market (pre-COVID) will grow 44%, outpacing the overall TV ad market (≈ 1%).

Addressable TV spend by year (YoY growth) according to eMarketer:
1) 
2016 – $760M
2) 
2017 – $970M (↑ 28%)
3) 2018 – $1.5B (↑ 51%)
4) 2019P – $2.0B (↑ 37%)
5) 2020P – $2.9B (↑ 44%)
6) 2021P – $3.5B (↑ 21%)

U.S. video ad spend by targeting method (% of total):
1) Non-Targeted – $49.2B (51%)
2) Addressable Digital – $27.4B (29%)
3) Data Driven Linear – $15.9B (17%)
4) Addressable Linear – $2.9B (3%)

Video: MDC Partners CEO Mark Penn Is Placing His Bets on Addressable TV

More #1: Will AT&T Sell Off Xandr/AppNexus?

More #2: How To Grade An Addressable TV Beta

More #3: Introduction To TV Advertising: MVPDs, Local And Addressable TV

Michael Beach

Michael Beach is the Chief Executive Officer of Cross Screen Media, a media analytics and software company that enables marketers to plan, activate, and measure CTV and linear TV at the local level. Michael is also the founder and editor of State of the Screens, a weekly newsletter focused on video advertising that is a must-read for thought leaders in the advertising industry. He has appeared in such publications as PBS Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Axios, CNBC and Bloomberg, and on NPR’s Planet Money podcast.