Furious's Blog

The marketplace for TV and video advertising is incredibly dynamic right now, and it’s hard to be certain of anything. On the one hand, major sports have all returned, which is great news for buyers and sellers alike, but we can’t necessarily count on an uninterrupted NFL season. And while studios are finding ways to safely resume production, we’re still left with much less premium primetime programming than we can usually count on in the fall.

We continue to live in a weird time with high uncertainty. Although it sometimes feels like a semblance of normalcy could be returning, it’s also clear that things can quickly turn the other way.

Likewise, the fate of premium content this fall is still very much unknown. Although studios should theoretically be able to limit access and institute intelligent procedures in order to resume production, one virus carrier can set off a chain of events that puts everything in jeopardy—as we’ve seen with Major League Baseball.

For that reason, content providers need to have a thoughtful plan B. Although networks might be inclined to lean on recent reruns or old standbys like “How I Met Your Mother” or “The Big Bang Theory,” now would be a smart time to look into the extent of your catalog and make more of it available on VOD.

If we’ve learned anything from the streaming wars, it’s that a range of content can have a firm place in the hearts of millions of viewers—from decades-old movies and shows to recent programming with small but intense cult followings. Obtaining VOD rights may be less expensive and easier than airing rights for linear TV content, and there’s no time like the present to start converting traditional linear advertising dollars into digital ones. Given the prevailing uncertainty, going all in on your VOD library is a smart idea.

Here are three steps to get started.

When live sports disappeared before our eyes in mid-March, many of us in the industry saw the pandemic in a dramatically new way. The virus became real. Aside from wondering how it would affect us and our families, there was real worry as to what advertisers and broadcasters would do in the absence of sports.

Golf returned to tournament action with the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, earlier this month, which was a watershed moment for live sports in the wake of the pandemic.

I’d like to begin with a bold statement. If you haven’t redone your rate card across your entire portfolio of linear, spot-sold inventory during this lockdown period, you’re missing revenue opportunities.

The marketplace for buying and selling TV advertising has never looked like this before.

As if struck by a tornado, the majority of Tier 1 programming was wiped out. Live sports are gone entirely with no certain return date, and the volume of new primetime programming available for networks to unveil in the fall will be limited due to ongoing production delays.

At Furious, we focus on helping TV sellers maximize the yield of their advertising portfolios. We’d like to unpack that concept for people who are more familiar with portfolio optimization in the context of finance.

image credit: HAKINMHAN/shutterstock.com

TV ad sales is a high-volume, fast-paced business with many clients to please, KPIs to track and deliver against and sales budgets to hit. As a result, TV sellers are pressured to come up with creative plans to reach their clients’ goals at the right price, all while leveraging their inventory. Too often, they are forced to rely on what they know advertisers will respond to, rather than exploring their entire house of wares. This is mainly due to the inability of systems to deliver quick and accurate information.