Programmatic TV

Programmatic TV is buying airtime inventory through a system, by defined rules, instead of through negotiation, email and phone calls. The word came from digital, but on television it means something different.

How it differs from digital programmatic

Online, programmatic is an auction for one impression shown to one person, settled in milliseconds. On television the impression is shared by everyone watching, and there is no way to bid for it one viewer at a time. So "programmatic TV" means automating the buying process rather than auctioning an impression: an agency's request lands in the broadcast grid by the system's rules, with conflict checking and without manual approval.

What actually gets automated

• Access to inventory: slots, prices and availability are visible online rather than sent as a file on request
• Placing a request into the grid with automatic checking for overlaps and double sales
• Applying rate cards, discounts and special terms as rules of the system rather than as understandings
• Tender procedures with every bid and every decision logged

What it changes for a broadcaster

Transparent inventory is a sales channel, not a concession to the buyer. When an agency can place its own request, buyers who never got that far start reaching air: in the NTRC Uzbekistan case, opening the inventory brought 120+ new advertisers in the first year and raised occupancy by 47%.

How this works in OpenMediaLogic is on the features page; the full state-broadcaster scenario is in the same case study.