More than half of CEOs and senior executives from egta members – the European organisation for television and radio sales houses – expect the TV and radio advertising segments to grow over the coming three years, with less than a quarter forecasting contraction, according to a new, high-level survey carried out by egta.
Senior decision-makers, whose companies together collect approximately €60 billion in advertising revenues, participated in egta’s survey, covering every major European market, including Ireland.
Respondents to the survey, who together represent the lion’s share of broadcast media advertising revenues in Europe, see the most promising opportunities for further enhancing their offer to consumers and advertisers as centred around two poles: new ways to deliver content to audiences and the targeting possibilities enabled by sophisticated data leveraging techniques.
In terms of content delivery, subscription and advertising-funded video on-demand (S-VOD, A-VOD) are highlighted as particularly important growth areas. With regards to advertising, addressable TV, programmatic marketing and data-driven targeting are clearly high priorities, and are likely to be key drivers of innovation among broadcasters and their sales houses.
Senior executives’ top priorities include the pressing need to develop the next generation of audience measurement techniques, as well as to adapt to competition from major digital players and changes in the ways young people consume media. With their online platforms offering advertisers 100% guaranteed brand safety, completely accountable delivery and near certain viewability and audibility, broadcasters are seeing less impact from ad fraud and ad blocking, issues that are causing massive disruption to the by-now traditional digital business of overly abundant and inadequately measured digital display and long-tail video advertising, as brands re-evaluate how to achieve maximum value and return from their investments.
In a strong indication that TV and radio broadcasters are poised to take full advantage of digital innovation, respondents to the survey are targeting significant increases in the proportion of advertising they derive from online, as opposed to broadcast sources. On average, respondents expect to more than double the percentage of television advertising coming from online (target 16% of revenues by 2020), and to triple the percentage of radio advertising from online (target 15% of revenues by 2020).
More than half of respondents indicate that they have created dedicated data teams, established first-party data collection and/or developed addressable targeting in online video or audio, suggesting that the industry is strongly positioned for its digital today and tomorrow.
The survey suggests that while many have made progress on this front, some companies may need to pay additional attention to preparation for the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will come into force in 2018 and likely have a profound effect on the industry.
80% of respondents note that they now employ some form of programmatic advertising – considered by egta to encompass a range of automation technologies – predominantly for online display and non-linear VOD advertising, reflecting the significant investments in technical development and the forging of new partnerships evident among egta members over the past few years.
Commenting on the results of the survey, Katty Roberfroid, egta Director General said: “We now have a unique insight into where our industry is headed. And that place is very good indeed: good for TV and radio broadcasters as they become total video and total audio, good for their agency and advertiser partners and – most importantly – good for the millions who watch, listen and enjoy our great content every day of their lives, whatever device they chose to use.”
