Screening TV’s Future: What Will Tech Bring in 2020?

The television world will continue to evolve and some of what appeared promising in 2019 will become vital parts of the business in 2020.

Executives working on the edge of how technology will impact video and advertising here offer their predictions about connected TVs (CTVs), streaming and advanced advertising in the new year.

“In 2020, more broadcasters will start adopting and supporting the convergence of four screens to better package audiences across devices. We’re going to see an absolute inflection point on the sell side — leaning in on converged packaging for upfronts that are audience-based and cross-device using a common currency. As such, 2020 will mark the first truly converged upfronts and key players will need to adapt to keep up in the four-screen world.”
— Philip Smolin, chief strategy officer, Amobee

“From where I sit — as CEO of a video-advertising firm — the biggest opportunity in 2020 lies in evolving the ad unit that holds the greatest promise for conversational storytelling: video. Because of its ability to deliver stories and with the timeless dimensions of sight and sound, video may be poised for the biggest transformation yet: the reunification of story with conversation.”
— Tod Loofbourrow, CEO and chairman, ViralGains

“In 2020, we will see more CTV media flowing through programmatic pipes. Large, scaled OTT inventory owners like Hulu will establish more PMPs [private marketplaces] through the likes of the Trade Desk and others to simplify buying for marketers while ensuring premium CPMs. We will also see announcements from OTT inventory owners about how they are making buying easier, in addition to headlines about how CTV is hard to buy, hard to measure and an overall cry for cross platform measurement. Innovid expects the research community will publish studies on the efficacy of using ACR [automatic content recognition] to measure TV viewing behavior. Marketers need to be thinking about how CTV and addressable augment their linear strategy and deliver incremental reach and frequency and they should be looking for case studies that show what actual household level reach and frequency in CTV look like. We will see slightly more budget invested in CTV but the political environment, heavy sports year and more will make traditional linear upfront strong.”
— Jessica Hogue, GM of measurement, Innovid

“A Q4 2019 report from Vorhaus Advisors indicates time-based metrics for social video will help unlock $13 billion of unrealized annual revenue in social video. Heading in to 2020, industry analysts have further indicated publishers stand to make 2.5 times their annual revenue utilizing time-based metrics, while advertisers stand to gain much better confidence allocating media buys across video platforms.”
— Rob Gabel, CEO, Tubular Labs

“Forgive the pun, but OTT makes the picture clearer. A primary advantage of OTT over linear TV is the quality of attribution information it provides on served ads. In 2020, more data metrics will become available, while brands will be better able to understand which advertisements drive the most traffic and shape plans accordingly. Furthermore, the way OTT will influence the way business is done at the retail level and in the political forum in the coming year will drive revenue and votes.”
— Matt Fanelli, senior VP, digital, MNI Targeted Media

”Media companies will experiment with different OTT business models. 2020 will see more experimentation with bundling and economic models, to create options for viewers to choose the ’size’ that is right for them.”
— Devra Prywes, chief product officer, Applicaster