IHS: Euro broadcasters must collaborate to level the digital ad playing field
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Editor
| 21 January 2019

To mount a stand against online behemoths as advertising revenues across Western Europe continue a gradual shift toward digital at the expense of TV-based outlays, IHS Markit has noted that that broadcasters are increasingly revising their business strategies.

Putting these necessary moves into perspective, IHS Markit calculates that in Europe’s five biggest markets – the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – traditional TV ad revenue grew just 9% between 2014 and 2018, reaching $20.8 billion. In contrast in the same period, online video advertising revenue grew 187% to reach $3.8 billion. Most tellingly, the analyst noted that as broadcasters only captured a of this market in 2018, Google’s and Facebook’s influence increased.

Offering some hope European broadcasters might regain market share from the Google-Facebook duopoly, IHS Markit suggested that thee way forward were alliances among the companies that pooled content, distribution rights and their addressable ad inventory, while leveraging the enduring power of TV for brand building.

In addition to citing AT&T’s launch of Xandr in the US and RTL AdConnect and Sky AdSmart as examples to study, the IHS Markit study pointed to European broadcaster VOD partnerships taking content and ad-sales inspiration reminiscent of Hulu’s hybrid model.

Such as case it said was France Télévisions teaming up with commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6 to create Salto to offer live and catch-up content, as well as exclusive content through various subscription offers, an in Spain, public broadcaster RTVE similarly teaming up with commercial broadcasters, Mediaset España and Atresmedia, to launch a free-to-air service LOVEStv.