FreeWheel On the Merging of Linear and Digital Ad Inventory

Brightcove’s team caught up with a number of industry thought leaders at VideoNuze’s’s Video Ad Summit back in June, including Videology CEO Scott Ferber, Operative CEO Lorne Brown, and Roku’s VP of Advertising Scott Rosenberg. We’re excited to share one more snippet of valuable conversation -- this time with Melissa Roberts, GM of Enterprise Solutions at FreeWheel. Brightcove and FreeWheel have had a long-standing collaborative relationship enabling some of biggest brands in broadcasting to deliver well-monetized video experiences.

Melissa notes the large challenges that publishers are working through to package their inventory across distribution channels but is accurate in her observation that traditional linear TV and digital inventory are merging. The comment jibes with recent findings on the buy-side, like noticeable year-over-year increases in campaigns run across multiple screens. According to a study earlier this year from Videology, the percentage of campaigns that ran across more than one device grew from 17% to 58% between Q1 ‘14 and Q1 ‘15.

Until the complexities (e.g., unifying data) are solved, both the sell- and buy-sides will continue to experiment in order to grow closer to the end goal of enabling brands to get in front of a unified audience and publishers to truly monetize “across screens.” Fortunately, events like the Video Ad Summit provide a great platform for discussing the industry’s progress.