There has never been a better time to watch TV. We have a plethora of choice, with big budget productions featuring A-list Hollywood movie stars released across multiple platforms. If new releases aren’t your thing, a back catalogue of previously released content is available at the touch of a button. The biggest issue is what to choose to watch and then where to go to find the content you’re looking for. Should you watch the latest period drama, comedy stand-up special or Scandi crime series? Is it on Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer or somewhere else? Decision paralysis, followed by a search for the actual platform is wasting your valuable viewing time!

This amount of choice affects advertisers too, providing both opportunities and challenges. TV used to be a simple choice between reach and performance. If you wanted to achieve reach, you would buy into premium peak programming. If you wanted cost efficient performance, daytime DRTV was the way to go. These days, brand and performance, or a combination of the two, remain the core aims of AV. But there are more choices that need to be made to achieve them. The market is increasingly fragmented; there are multiple routes to entry to access the same content. The lines between traditional and digital AV platforms are now almost completely blurred. An advertiser must consider traditional linear TV, addressable TV that targets at a household level, audience or specific programming on VOD, or programmatic access to TV through a DSP. All to access the same content on the same platform. It’s so easy to get lost in this that brands can be caught in the same decision paralysis that affects TV viewers.

With the right approach, AV is an environment where advertisers can achieve almost anything

There remains a contradiction in the AV advertising landscape, with a wealth of choice but a lack of uniform audience measurement. Without this, AV will remain a challenging landscape to tackle and there will continue to be many providers each with different measurement answers.

However, it is also an environment where advertisers can achieve almost anything. Reach or frequency, brand or performance, with budgets large or small. The ability to target audiences on a household level makes TV accessible and attractive to brands that wouldn’t have previously considered it. Big budgets aren’t always necessary. Niche audiences can be catered for. The key is to understand what each AV platform can offer and how to get the most out of it. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Advertisers that are clear in their objectives can use today’s AV landscape to reach almost any desired outcome in the way that best fits the needs of their brand.

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