In A Complicated World, Distributors Want To Change The Way We Talk About TV
One of the many problems facing the television industry is that the way we talk about the old boob tube has become too complicated.
The old-fashioned networks our parents grew up with are having their lunch money stolen by the big digital bullies, including Alphabet, Google and Facebook. The cable, satellite and telco folks — who go by the catchy name of multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs)-— want to make TV simple again, mostly for the people who buy TV advertising and control billions of dollars in ad revenue.
TV has always had confusing nomenclature. (If you never took a media math class to learn what a VPVH is, you’re in the right place.) But since the dawn of digital video and streaming, it’s gotten worse. The names for old-fashioned TV scream ”irrelevant,” especially when comparing the quaint “linear TV” to the space-age “connected TV.”
Add in stuff like SVOD and AVOD and well, it’s a mess.
Today, the ad sales units of forward-thinking distributors including Comcast Advertising, Cox, DirecTV Advertising, Dish Media, Optimum Media, Spectrum Reach (Charter) and Verizon Fios, plus Ampersand and the Video Advertising Bureau, have decided it's time to make defining what they sell simpler.
Henceforth, they say, the industry should “align” around the terms “multiscreen TV,” “streaming” and last, but not least, “traditional TV.”
The group, which calls MVPDs a “key link in the changing TV ecosystem” and claims they “often serve as industry advocates for new TV products, including addressable advertising,” says its members will start rolling out this new language today.
Below are handy definitions of the “recommended terminology” and “aligned terms” they intend to use.
When referring to video content delivered via an internet connection, use the term streaming.
When referring to content delivered via wired cable, telco, satellite or over-the-air distribution (versus internet), use the term traditional TV. (One wrinkle the group points out: As MVPDs transition to IP-based infrastructures, some or all of the ads within a viewer’s “traditional TV” experience may be dynamically delivered.” O.K. Noted.)
When referring to multiple TV/streaming endpoints, use the term multiscreen TV.
“As TV proliferates across screens, everyone agrees that we need to simplify the buying and selling experience,” said Jason Wiese, executive VP, Strategic Insights & Measurement at the VAB. “While some areas of complexity are more difficult to resolve than others, one relatively easy fix is to make sure everyone is speaking the same language. By partnering together across companies to define how we’re talking about multiscreen TV, we can clear up inconsistencies and confusion and bring greater clarity to our increasingly complex industry.”
According to research from Advertiser Perceptions, which interviews buyers and marketers, only 20% of advertisers say terms are consistently used by their partners, and there is little consensus around the advertising vocabulary being used today.”
Unfortunately, even the new lexicon is not as simple as 1, 2, 3.
The group notes that terms like “connected TV” may still be used when discussing a device, while “premium video” may still be used when referring to content that is delivered transparently in a trusted brand-safe environment, and seen by real people in a high-quality viewing experience.
At the same time, “linear TV” is not the same as “traditional TV” because linear is a viewing style that can be applied to both traditional and streaming (in the case of free ad-supported streaming television channels (FAST), which are watched on a linear, pre-determined schedule, the distributors say.
(It’s worth noting that last month, the drive for simplicity lead many of the same companies to form Universal Advertising, which they called an “Easy Button” aimed at making it easier for the millions of small businesses who “like” Facebook (and advertise there) to purchase targeted commercials from legacy media (not one of the approved terms)
For the MVPDs, anything is better than Googling “what is TV” in a digital age.
“The release of this lexicon is a unique opportunity for MVPDs to align at the most basic level—the words we use to talk about our advertising offerings,” said James Rooke, President, Comcast Advertising. “In many ways, MVPDs sit in the center of today’s multi screen advertising opportunities, and the onus is on us to lead by example. We hope others will adopt the terms so we can all speak the same language and simplify on behalf of the industry.”
Or as Shakespeare said: “a rose by any other name . . . “
