Glossary

In this glossary, we try to provide a complete overview of the CTV advertising acronyms & keywords you are likely to hear if working in, or about to start exploring the space.

At Publica, we try to do away with a lot of the complex & unnecessary jargon that surrounds data-driven advertising. However, there is no escaping the fact it can be a little technical at times as the programmatic CTV ecosystem is growing & evolving so quickly.

Addressable TV

Addressable TV is the technical ability to create a different ad experiences between households for the same program. Although Traditional Cable TV has become addressable in certain capacities, modern Connected TV offering has taken addressability to a far more advanced level.

Advanced TV

Advanced TV is an umbrella term that refers to television content that evolves beyond traditional, linear TV delivery models. Advanced TV targeting enables advertisers to serve one ad to one household as opposed to broadcasting the same ad to all households. Includes Addressable TV, Over the Top (OTT) and Connected TV (CTV).

Ad Supported Video On Demand (AVOD)

AVOD is an acronym for Ad-Supported (or Ad-Based) Video On Demand, which is a streaming video service that offers consumers access to a free catalog of on-demand content and contains advertisements. Examples: YouTube, Tubi, Crackle.

Ad Pod

An ad pod is a group of ads expected to play back-to-back in one commercial ad break similar to how consumers experience commercial ad breaks in broadcast television. An ad pod can be of varying lengths and can be inserted at any point in a stream of content (pre, mid, or post). Each pod has a given number of ad slots, which correspond to the number of ads contained in the ad pod. Ad Podding is used to describe all the logic and mechanism involved in constructing the Ad Pod.

Auction Logs

Auction logs are the raw information transmitted via the OpenRTB protocol between DSP & SSP. CTV publishers are increasingly looking at these to establish if there are any insights they can extract to improve their yields & sell through, this practice of optimisation from the sell side is commonly referred to as demand path optimisation (DPO), the opposite of what programmatic buyers are doing today with their supply path optimisation (SPO) strategies.

Audience Based Targeting

Ability to forecast, sell & transact CTV inventory using data segments, which represent a subset of users. Publishers have the ability to pass data programmatically to advertisers, layering first or third party data to their demand partners. The usual way to dynamically pass a segment from the publishers to advertisers is to use Deal Id, which is a unique number that will be identified from both sides, enabling ad delivery against targeted audience.

Creative Deduplication

Creative deduplication is a layer of intelligence applied at the Ad Pod level, enabling publishers to deduplicate video creative being assembled into an ad-break. This logic enables the publisher to ensure an enjoyable experience for the audience, avoiding identical ads to play back to back during a commercial break.

Competitive Separation

Competitive separation is an other layer of intelligence that impact the series of ads contained in an Ad Pod: by identifying the brand behind the video creative of an ad, the algorithm makes sure that no ads from competitive brands are featured in the same ad-pod – for instance, back to back insurance ad in a single commercial break. As a result, brands can ensure a perfect user experience for their target audiences.

Content Distribution Network (CDN)

CDN is a service that hosts online assets and delivers them to the end user via servers located around the globe to reduce latency. For CTV, CDNs are part of the video content delivery process, responsible for delivering a stream to an OTT app.

Cost Per Point (CPP)

CPP is a pricing model based on the cost of a campaign divided by each full percentage rating point of a targeted demographic that the campaign successfully reaches, used in the media-planning process for linear TV campaign.

Cost Per Mile (CPM)

CPM is the pricing model for ad impressions in the digital world – price per thousand impressions over a given inventory. As a publisher, CPM should be one of the top KPIs, reflecting the efforts put into selling CTV inventory overtime.

Connected Television (CTV)

CTV is a Smart TV receiving content from the internet instead of a traditional cable connection. Most TV manufacturers now sell devices that connect directly to the internet (Samsung TV, Vizio, LG, etc.). Other TV sets can also be “connected” through third-party devices such as Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV or Roku, which leverage a wifi connection themselves in order to deliver content from the internet to the TV screen. Connected TV relies on OTT services to feed the content to the device through OTT apps installed on the device, much like the mobile environment.

CTV Ad Inventory

Encompasses the amount of ad opportunities available for CTV, almost 100% in the form of video ads today. Length of the ads varies from 5 to 120 seconds. Advertising budget spent over CTV inventory is forecasted to reach $10Bn in 2021.

Cord-Cutter

A cord-cutter is a person who switches from a pay TV subscription (cable, satellite or telephone company) to an Internet-based streaming service such as Netflix. The purpose of cord cutting is to save a considerable amount of money each month.

Cord-Shaver

Cord shaving is the idea of keeping your cable TV subscription but canceling all the costly channels, packages, and add-ons. As a result, your bill drops significantly, but you still retain some of the essential basic channels, along with your internet connection.

Cord-Nevers

The cord-nevers have never used commercial cable for a television service but instead, relied on internet sources from the start. This is a growing group of consumers that can no longer be targeted via linear TV ad buys.

Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI)

DAI is sometimes used interchangeably with SSAI or Ad Stitching. Dynamic ad insertion (DAI) is a technology that allows advertisers to insert ad creatives in linear, live or video-on-demand content. DAI allows advertisers to serve different ads to each viewer based on insights on targeting or performance.

Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST)

It stands for free, ad-supported streaming TV and refers to services like Roku’s Roku Channel, Amazon’s IMDb TV, Viacom’s Pluto TV, Xumo and Tubi that stream the kind of programming that people normally would have to pay to watch on TV.

Gross Rating Points (GRP)

GRP is used in Linear TV to measure the size of an audience reached by a specific media vehicle or schedule. It is used to measure the exposure to one or more programs or commercials, without regard to multiple exposures of the same advertising to individuals. It represents a percentage of the target audience reached by an advertisement using the formula: GRP = frequency X % of each. For example, an advertisement that is aired/served 5 times reaching 50% of the target audience each time it is aired would have a GRP of 250 (5 x 50%). GRP values are typically used by media buyers to compare the advertising strength of various media vehicles.

Inventory Split

Inventory Split, also referred as Inventory Routing is a process used to determine which entity is responsible for monetizing a particular ad break. Much like traditional TV, the split usually happens between the content owners and the distributor (the vMVPDs). Technically speaking, the router decides to call a certain ad server for a given inventory.

IPV6 & IPV4

IPV6 is the new generation of Internet Protocol (IP) assigned to each connected object to access the internet and be identified by other services . As the number of IPV4 had reached its capacity, IPV6 is now used for most recent devices including Connected TVs.

Manifest File

A file that is sent to the video player containing information about the video to be played, such as the title, thumbnail, and location of the streaming files. In SSAI scenarios, the Stitcher manipulates the manifest file to combine content and ads for the video player to consume.

Over The Top (OTT)

OTT is the broad term used for the delivery of content via the internet with no subscription to a satellite or cable pay-TV service required. It includes CTV as part of the OTT device ecosystem but also designate video streaming played from a mobile device. OTT apps usually references to the leading players like Hulu, Netflix, PlutoTV, Tubi etc.

Set-up Box

A set up box is a device that connects to the TV deliver internet. A large chunk of Connected TV are receiving content via those device, the most popular set up boxes being Roku, Amazon Fire TV, or TiVo – they pre-embark a set of OTT applications.

Sever Side Ad Insertion (SSAI)

SSAI is the process of stitching video content and ads together on the server-side level rather than on the browser level. SSAI creates smoother ad experiences for viewers, avoiding any latency from the client (ie. the browser or application rendering the stream). Also referred as “server side ad-stitching”. SSAI is poised to be the prime ad delivery method for CTV and OTT applications in general.

Streaming

Video Streaming refers to providing video to a user in real-time as it is being consumed, as opposed to a video download, which must be completed before being consumed. Video Streaming is available for both live events (“Live Streaming Video”) and for pre-recorded digital video assets (VOD). OTT streaming video content publishers (“streaming services”) compress extremely large video content files and then “stream” small packets of that information over the internet to the user, who then can access the content on their connected device as it is received.

Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD)

SVOD designate a streaming service that consumers subscribe to for a fee to access a catalog of on-demand content. Examples include Netlfix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+. Some service are opting for a “hybrid” pricing model where they offer free tier supported by ads, along with some paying tier which are semi-free or free of advertising.

Target Rating Point (TRP)

TRP is the percentage of an advertiser’s target audience that sees its commercials, advertisements, or campaign. Typically advertising is bought against a guaranteed demographic or audience segment. The TRP expresses that guaranteed audience.

TV Everywhere

An online business model in which television broadcasters, particularly cable networks, allow their customers to access live and/or on-demand video content from their networks through Internet-based services. The fee for such access is covered as part of their subscription to the service, via an MVPD. The viewers use credentials from their MVPD for authentication and access to the content.

Transactional Video On Demand (TVOD)

TVOD is a distribution method by which customers pay for each piece of video-on-demand content. For example, a customer would pay a fee for each movie or TV show that they watch. Examples: iTunes, Vudu.

Video Ad Serving Template (VAST)

VAST is a specification created by the International Advertising Bureau (IAB) that gives video players information about which ad to play, how the ad should show up, how long it should last, whether users are able to skip it, as well as all of the corresponding ad trackers. This method is specifically designed for popular on-demand video players where ad responses are measured by each video play, but are not an executable ad format. Publishers may call “VAST tags” to request video ads from an ad server or SSP.

Virtual Multi-Channel Video Programming Distributor (vMVPD)

A vMVPD is a virtual TV service provider or streaming service, that delivers video programming services over the internet without producing the content itself. It usually enables cord-cutters to pick a personalized subset of TV channels and streaming service for a subscription fee, much like linear MVPD aka Pay TV. Most popular services are Sling TV, Pluto TV (Viacom), Xumo, FuboTV, etc.

Video On Demand (VOD)

VOD is video content that is controlled, enabled, and consumed whenever a viewer wants after its official release date or original air date and time. VOD content can be found on set top boxes, OTT devices, mobile web, mobile apps, and video streaming services.