The television industry is in the midst of a massive change. The rise of new content models and connected devices has led to more choice than ever--both for content creators and consumers. But with this choice and opportunity comes new challenges to solve as well.

I spoke to the TV industry at the Closing General Session of the National Association of Broadcasters Show. In the keynote I discussed the rebirth of TV and how we’re helping Broadcasters and Distributors with discovery, monetization and content creation.

Discovery

Announcing new ways to find where and when to watch your favorite shows.

There are now more ways to watch your favorite TV shows than ever before. This shift has some even saying that we’re in the “golden age” of television. And what we're seeing is that more and more, viewers are turning to their phones to find out what to watch, where to watch it and when it’s available -- in fact, searches for TV shows and films on mobile have grown more than 55% in the past year alone.

Last year we launched video actions in Search to help viewers find direct options to watch the shows they are looking for on programmer and distributors mobile apps and sites or stores like Google Play.

Today, I'm excited to announce that, coming soon, Google Search will have live TV listings. So now if you're looking for a movie or TV show like The Big Bang Theory, we'll not only show you the apps and sites where you can find the latest episode, but also show which channel you can turn your tv to later in the evening or week to catch it live.

Monetization

Announcing personalized TV ads with DoubleClick Dynamic Ad Insertion

Viewers no longer expect content personalized to them, they demand it. And that includes ads.

Today we are taking big steps to bring new addressable advertising capabilities to TV Broadcasters and Distributors by announcing DoubleClick’s Dynamic Ad Insertion. This makes ads hyper relevant for viewers across any screen that they watch. By creating individual streams for every viewer using server side ad insertion, we are able to deliver a better, more personalized viewing experience that looks and feels as seamless as TV today.

And not only will this work for both live and on-demand TV but it works across directly sold and programmatic.

We put this technology to the test with two of the highest rated TV events in the last year: the Rugby World Cup Finals on TF1, the leading network in France, and the Republican Presidential Debates on Fox News, a leading news network in the US. Politics and sports are pretty personal topics, so it’s only appropriate that TF1 and Fox News created a fully addressable viewing experience for the millions of viewers that tuned in using Dynamic Ad Insertion.

Announcing smarter TV ad breaks

Today we’re also announcing that DoubleClick for Publisher clients will soon be able to seamlessly enforce the level of control that has been firmly established in TV -- across all inventory, whether it was sold directly or indirectly. That means, we are able to honor competitive separation - so two automotive ads don’t appear in the same commercial break - and other rules like making sure an alcohol and children's cereal ad don’t appear in the same commercial break.

This has been major blocker to enabling programmatic to work for TV. And now you no longer need to turn down attractive opportunities from advertisers interested in transacting programmatically because of compliance concerns.

Announcing New TV Partners

DoubleClick is focused on building advertising solutions that meet the changing needs of the TV ecosystem. We’re proud of our longstanding partnerships with industry leaders like AMC Networks in the US and Globo in South America.

Today we add three more to the list: we’re happy to welcome MCN, Roku and Cablevision as partners. They’ve all signed on to use DoubleClick for Publishers to serve ads and monetize cross-screen TV and video content.

“As the conventional TV and digital video worlds converge, people are watching more content than ever across a variety of screens. At Cablevision, we’re focused on developing innovative solutions that deliver the best experience for our viewers in this new cross-screen world and unlocking new opportunities for our advertisers. We are enthusiastic about using Google's DoubleClick for seamless advertising delivery across our set-top boxes and connected devices. Together, we are enabling more personalized and relevant ads with addressable and dynamic ad insertion.”
- Kristin Dolan, Chief Operating Officer, Cablevision

Content creation

Announcing Autodesk collaboration to enable 10x improvement in rendering efficiency

Autodesk software has been behind the past 21 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects and we’re bringing this capability to Google Cloud Platform. Yesterday we announced (link) that Autodesk, maker of industry-leading 3D animation and modeling software, is collaborating with Google on a new cloud-based rendering solution called Maya^® for Google Cloud Platform ZYNC Render. This allows artists to focus on creating incredible TV & movie content using the tools they already know, while shifting even the largest rendering jobs seamlessly to the cloud.

TV is the midst of a revival. And just like other media types which have been reimagined for the digital age like music, the arrival of this ‘new TV’ was preceded by change and tumult. But TV’s past was built on a rich history of creativity and innovation, and I’m incredibly optimistic that TV’s future will be as well. Our job is to help make that future become the present and we are excited to partner with the TV ecosystem to build it.

Posted by Daniel Alegre President of Global Partnerships, Google

Today, Daniel Alegre, Google’s President of Global Partnerships, will share an update on new partnerships for DoubleClick’s video business and announce two new features for broadcasters in DoubleClick for Publishers in his keynote at the NAB Show. The new features are Dynamic Ad Insertion, enabling ads to be personalized for each unique viewer watching live or on-demand TV programming; and smarter ad breaks that give broadcasters and distributors greater control.

Personalized TV ads with DoubleClick Dynamic Ad Insertion

Addressable TV advertising, with ads tailored for individual viewers, has long been on the wish list for broadcasters, distributors and advertisers. Tailored ads tend to perform better for advertisers, since they reach the right audience with the right message. They also mean more relevant and useful ads for viewers.

Dynamic Ad Insertion in DoubleClick is a big step towards bringing addressable advertising to TV broadcasters and distributors. Rather than a “one-size-fits-all” approach, this feature lets broadcasters create individual streams using server-side ad insertion, which can then seamlessly deliver tailored ads, across both online screens and set-top box video on demand. This builds on our experiments with dynamic ad insertion into live linear TV through the Google Fiber set-top-box that we announced at last year’s NAB Show.

Some of our partners have already put this new feature to the test, with Dynamic Ad Insertion supporting two of the highest profile TV events in the last year: the Rugby World Cup Finals on TF1, the leading network in France, and the Republican Presidential Debates on Fox News, a leading news network in the US. For the millions of viewers that tuned in, TF1 and Fox News were able to deliver a fully addressable viewing experience using Dynamic Ad Insertion.

Smarter TV ad breaks

Daniel will also announce new capabilities for DoubleClick clients that will give them more control over what ads run together during ad breaks, a long-time standard for television. This could mean being able to separate competitors’ ads, like making sure that two automotive ads don’t appear together. It could also help broadcasters comply with other rules, like ensuring an alcohol ad and children's cereal ad don’t run in the same break. This new capability will be available across all of a broadcaster’s ad inventory, direct sold and programmatic.

New partnerships

DoubleClick is focused on building advertising solutions that meet the changing needs of the TV ecosystem. We’ve had the good fortune to work with some of the leading brands in TV like AMC in the US and Globo is South America on advertising technology tailored for TV. Today we add three more to the list: we’re happy to welcome MCN, Roku and Cablevision as partners. They’ve all signed on to use DoubleClick for Publishers to serve ads and monetize cross-screen TV and video content.

“As the conventional TV and digital video worlds converge, people are watching more content than ever across a variety of screens. At Cablevision, we’re focused on developing innovative solutions that deliver the best experience for our viewers in this new cross-screen world and unlocking new opportunities for our advertisers. We are enthusiastic about using Google's DoubleClick for seamless advertising delivery across our set-top boxes and connected devices. Together, we are enabling more personalized and relevant ads with addressable and dynamic ad insertion.”
- Kristin Dolan, Chief Operating Officer, Cablevision

You can watch the live stream of Daniel’s keynote at 9 AM PT here.

Posted by Rany Ng Director of Product Management, Video & TV Advertising, Google

Today we’re announcing that First Look is available to all DoubleClick for Publishers clients globally and that we’ve begun testing exchange bidding in Dynamic Allocation.

Our goal is to help publishers thrive and create sustainable businesses with advertising. With the transition to mobile, publishers only have a split second to deliver the most relevant and highest paying ads to maximize their overall yield. Research shows that an extra 1 second of load time on mobile can result in 58% higher bounce rates.¹ That’s why we’ve been working on two new features that use the power of real-time bidding and the efficiency of server-side connections to generate greater revenue for publishers without compromising user experience.

Higher revenue with no client side code or added waiting

A few months ago, we announced the Beta of DoubleClick for Publishers First Look. Since then, we’ve had over 200 partners test the feature and the results have been great. Publishers like Gannett, Grupo Zeta, Gumtree, Sankei Digital, Scripps, Time Inc., and Zoopla have seen their programmatic revenue increase by double-digit percentages. Today, we’re happy to open this feature to all our DoubleClick partners.

“We want to monetize all of our inventory and all of our audiences to the greatest extent that we can. Since implementing First Look, we’ve seen a 15 percent lift in eCPMs of our programmatic channel.”
-Tim Wolfe, VP of Revenue Operations, Gannett

Testing server-side connections for more accurate pricing

While First Look makes it easy for publishers to capture new revenue from high-paying buyers, we are also testing a new technology to help publishers manage yield between multiple exchanges and supply-side platforms (SSPs).

Exchange bidding in Dynamic Allocation will allow publishers to invite trusted third-party exchanges and SSPs to submit real-time prices using industry-standard RTB calls. These prices will be considered along with bids from the DoubleClick Ad Exchange and the publisher’s reservation campaigns to pick the highest-paying ad. Exchange bidding also empowers publishers with unified and accurate reporting on the revenue they are earning from each exchange/SSP. And just like First Look, exchange bidding works with no additional client-side code.

We are working on this new technology with exchanges like Index Exchange and Rubicon Project, along with a select group of publishers including About.com, Hearst, Meredith Corporation, and Zillow. Before we scale exchange bidding to more partners, we will evaluate the results from our pilot testing and consult with participating buyers, sellers, and exchanges/SSPs to ensure that this solution helps the programmatic marketplace continue to grow and thrive.

With First Look and exchange bidding in Dynamic Allocation, we are continuing to help publishers get the highest yield for every impression without sacrificing user experience.

Posted by Jonathan Bellack Director, Product Management

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