By Kurt Burnette, chief revenue officer, Seven West Media
They say things worth having are worth waiting for. With that in mind, the Australian media landscape only has to wait a little bit longer for the arrival of VOZ Streaming in 2024. The platform, announced by OzTAM in late August, is set to be Australia’s first solution for enhanced multi-broadcaster programmatic BVOD trading. That is, it will be the trading and measurement solution for BVOD. But right now, there’s a journey to be taken to unify the streaming platforms around VOZ as broader adoption is still moving at a snail’s pace. It needs the entire industry’s support to get the momentum it deserves.
VOZ Streaming promises to be one of the most advanced measurement methodologies in the world by redefining TV advertising through accountability and privacy-first solutions that will truly reshape the industry’s practices for the better.
The new platform will tackle one of the most persistent challenges in the media industry: understanding cross-platform audiences. By assigning a universal ID to every viewer behind a device, VOZ Streaming creates new, stronger opportunities for optimising frequency on BVOD and measuring deduplicated reach and frequency with linear TV. It’s a big shift from anonymous device-level frequency management to a universal ID system, and one that sets a gold standard for total TV trading, both now and well into the future.
One of the more exciting aspects that VOZ Streaming brings is its ability to provide a seamless way to post-analyse BVOD impressions and broadcast TV spot schedules, measuring the incremental reach that BVOD brings to broadcast TV. This innovative feature will provide advertisers and agencies with crucial insights, enabling them to fine-tune their campaigns and maximise their reach effectively.
Until now, VOZ has primarily focused on planning and measurement for total TV. With the introduction of VOZ Streaming, the industry will have a comprehensive activation solution, enabling advertisers and agencies to plan, buy and measure total TV using a single standard currency, VOZ. This consolidation simplifies the complex TV advertising landscape and streamlines the entire process for both advertisers and broadcasters. What’s not to love?
This isn’t a love letter to VOZ Streaming, but it’s close. Because while it’s an extremely promising development, it’s still in the early stages. Several BVOD platforms including SBS On Demand, Foxtel Now, Foxtel GO, Binge and Kayo are not yet part of the initiative. Beyond that, a big challenge lies in achieving unity across the divided and competitive screen industry – yes, that means streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, and Disney+. Universal agreement among everyone is essential, which can be a protracted process, but it’s not impossible.
It’s about unity. Unity needs to be our industry catchcry moving forward and the more platforms we have in this together – across all ad-supported streaming services – the greater the access to inventory and the better, more unique audiences we are able to harness. The result will be more effective measurement and accountability for all. It’s time to break down the silos. Because the more that we put into it, the more we will get out of it.
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Top Image: Kurt Burnette