Ask a Samba TV Expert: A Look at Australia’s Advanced TV Landscape

BY KATIE NORTH-FISHER

August was an exciting month for Samba TV Australia. We officially announced our new managing director in the region, Yasmin Sanders. We also revealed a foundational partnership with MiQ, a global programmatic media partner, on the heels of our announcement with The Trade Desk. Yasmin is an industry leader in Australia and an expert on the country’s progressive advanced TV market.

Yasmin and I sat down to discuss the region and the intricacies of this landscape.

Welcome to Team Samba TV! We’re excited to have your leadership in Australia. What can you tell us about the advanced TV market there?

If I could boil the Australian advanced TV market down to one word, it would be “collaborative.” We have large industry bodies and initiatives like ThinkTV and Virtual Australia (VOZ) that continue to help move the TV industry forward as one. It’s also not often that you can get all of the major free-to-air (FTA) broadcasters and our only cable operator to come together to provide unified TV trading solutions. This has been important to Australia’s advertisers and agencies as they’re able to lower the transactional friction and work toward a globally recognised total TV planning, measurement, and activation solution.

We’ve seen new trends emerge out of the COVID-19 restrictions around the world. In Australia, these trends have caused advertisers and agencies to turn more attention to the TV screen as a means to reach audiences. Looking at broadcast-video-on-demand (BVOD), ThinkTV reports that almost 60% of BVOD is being streamed on connected TVs. Deloitte recently published its Australia Media Consumption Survey, where 17% of respondents with an existing SVOD subscription, added an additional subscription.

What’s one of the biggest differences between Australia’s advanced TV market and, say, the U.S.?

All markets are experiencing fragmented viewership, given the growth of streaming services and timeshifting. When you look at the Australian market, however, one of our biggest differences is that it’s still pretty concentrated. The five major FTA broadcast channels and one cable provider have a lot of appetite to continue to execute best-in-class, advanced trading practises that can be replicated in other markets. Regarding advertising-based video-on-demand (AVOD) and streaming-video-on-demand (SVOD), like the rest of the world, Australia is seeing this trend climbing at irreversible speeds.

How does Samba TV fit in with some of the other players out there? What’s our opportunity?

Samba TV is unique in our agnostic approach in Australia, working with strategic partners across the ecosystem. We are the only Smart TV data provider in the market offering organisations the ability to access the largest TV ACR dataset, linking linear TV and over-the-top audiences to boost reach and manage frequency. Alternatively, advertisers, agencies, broadcasters, and publishers can take our Smart TV data in-house to define and craft the product offering to fit the needs of their business and clients.

We’ve signed some partnerships with The Trade Desk and MiQ, what can you tell me about what those announcements signal in the market?

Australia is an important market for The Trade Desk and MiQ. Both partners have taken our Smart TV data in-house, combining it with their tech stack and data points, to bring actionable TV insights forward in a level playing field and boost the overall effectiveness for their clients’ media mix.

The shift from time-based viewing to demand-based streaming is not slowing down. It’s important for every business to understand not only what’s happening in the traditional commercial landscape, but what’s also happening on AVOD and SVOD. Additionally, connected TV’s market penetration and the increase of content streamed via broadcast or otherwise is pertinent for advertisers to consider in their overall campaign media strategy.

We’re stepping up efforts in Australia at an exciting time. We’re collaborating with robust measurement practices and sophisticated datasets that have supported the buying and trading of Australian media for decades. We are excited to continue introducing new, actionable datasets to support, complement, and enhance advanced advertising capabilities that bring benefits to the entire advertising ecosystem.