10 December 2024

Publisher upfronts round up

In summary

• Partnerships with data providers are a major focus, as the industry continues to move towards privacy safe data solutions.
• Converging linear and digital media buying and measurement was another hot topic across publishers as advertisers grapple with growing fragmentation in the TV landscape.
• New content slates were announced across all major publishers.

It’s a wrap

It’s that time of the year where we wrap up all the big news announced by the major Australian publishers during the Upfronts season. Key call outs are summarised below, with a focus on increased data-based partnerships to enhance publisher offerings, such as improved ad tech stacks and integrated buying and measurement across linear and digital.

Foxtel

Foxtel brings a variety of exciting updates to this season’s Upfront focusing on increased content offerings, expanding existing partnerships and building new ones, alongside improvements to the publisher’s tech stack.

Partnerships

• Foxtel revealed its partnership with tvbeat a global TV advertising platform, to help digitise linear ad impressions. This will enhance advertiser targeting capabilities and increase media buying flexibility.

• The publisher is also partnered with CommBank IQ, which brings forward both a depth of industry data and a large set of de-identified payment data. Advertisers will find improved capabilities in tracking sales conversions data alongside access to information relating to market size and performance of relevant verticals.

• Foxtel’s partnership with Adgile will bring further benefits to advertisers, by providing access to independent verification of impression delivery across the Foxtel ecosystem.

Audience

One of Foxtel’s most exciting updates was the reveal of a soon to launch total audience measurement solution. Based on an existing partnership with Kantar, Foxtel will aim to better report on viewership behaviours across their wide breadth of linear and streaming audiences. Advertisers have been told they will be able to trade on the measurement solution by the end of 2024. 

Hubbl and Binge updates

An interesting first in the Aussie market shows Hubbl, Foxtel’s OTT streaming subscription provider, due to launch a combined Netflix and Kayo bundle for $25 a month for 12 months.

Video streaming subscription service, Binge will expand its content offering to include Live and On Demand premium sport, as well as Live news channels. 

VFC

The publisher was also sure to note the addition of new member Amazon to the Video Futures Collective (VFC), who will now join Foxtel alongside Disney, Samsung Ads, SBS and Youtube. Two new investigative research projects were also announced which will focus on topics related to video streaming and advertising. 

Nine

Nine brings a wide variety of updates to this year’s Upfronts season, with news on brand new and returning content, updates to ad tech, audience targeting capabilities and vendor partnerships.

Ad Manager & VOZ

Due to recent developments in inventory expansion, Nine’s Ad Manager will be the first self-serve platform in Australia where small businesses can buy tv, display, search and social all in one place.

VOZ streaming, due to be released on 25th November, was a key discussion item. OzTam’s brainchild aims to allow linear and digital TV audiences across 9Now, Seven Plus, SBS and TEN to be measured and traded on a singular system.

Audience developments

Audience Plus, an audience targeting product intended to unify 9Tribes segmentation across various channels, will now be available across streaming and podcast content.

In addition to this, a new set of intent based audiences (Intenders) will be developed across all categories to expand Nine’s Tribes data in the coming year.

Audience Match has been introduced for audio, to help advertisers match first party data with Nine’s 22 million IDs across all platforms.

Reporting and data partnerships

• Reporting on audience data and gathering key insights will become easier for advertisers with the release of automated campaign reports for 9now via a self-serve dashboard. This will include analysis on Tribes audiences, delivery results and more.

• Insights will be further deepened via Nine’s partnership with DataCo, backed by ANZ transaction based data, and Agile, to provide details on sales uplift and consumer category spend.

• Nine’s new partnership with Adobe’s CDP will collate data from 40 different publisher sources to further develop audience profiles and push granular advertiser targeting.

• Expanded partnerships with clean room providers Karlgate and Liveramp, will also enable advertiser access to clean room data matching solutions.

Content

Investment into iconic Aussie sporting events such as the NRL, State of Origin and the Australian Open continue, with the addition of exciting high-profile events including Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, Lions Tour and Spring Carnival.

Additionally, Nine’s partnership with BBC brings with it six new 9Now FAST channels that will focus on content favourites to improve the publisher’s digital offering and present more targeted offerings for advertisers to take advantage of.

SBS

SBS celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and continues to build upon its history of diversity with fresh and culturally significant content plans for the coming year.

Inventory and targeting

On the topic of inventory offerings, SBS announced the integration of their live audio channels into their existing On Demand app. 

The publisher also attempted to sow the seeds for a shift in advertiser targeting trends by promoting broader targeting behaviours. Investment towards the 35-64 age group was encouraged, in order to target the significant drivers in consumer behaviour across the ageing Australian demographic.

Sustainability 

A new initiative with existing partner, Scope3 was revealed. The aim is to promote transparency surrounding the publisher’s digital media footprint and enable advertisers to take a step closer towards efficiently measuring emissions across their advertising campaigns.

Content

A big talking point revealed the launch of NITV Muy Ngulayg, a streaming hub committed to sharing First Nations storytelling via films, documentaries and TV Series from Australia and around the world.

They will also be premiering new content in the coming year relating to food programming, true crime documentaries and original dramas. Programming for major sporting events will be covered, including Tour de France and Tour de France Femme, in which there was a YOY 40% increase in audience between 2023-2024. Preparations are also underway to cover the 2026 Fifa World Cup.

Seven

Seven’s upfront season this year focused largely on content offerings with some talk on digital tech and data offerings. The publisher proudly boasted record breaking audience growth, specifically in the BVOD sphere, with daily active audiences growing by 20% YOY. 

Tech and data

Seven’s recently developed total TV trading platform, Phoenix, has undergone testing in recent months with bookings open during the end of year period for a March 2025 launch. The key benefit focuses on streamlined media buying opportunities across the Seven ecosystem, rather than siloed buying via channels. 

Newly launched predictive analysis tool, REDiQ4U, was another key topic with the publisher claiming the tool will predict audience viewership behaviour across Seven’s video ecosystem, including both live and on-demand content. The tool will function on a 28-day prediction model with a supposed accuracy rate of 95%. Such audience insights are based on partnerships with Ovation and Databricks, and will be used to provide advertisers with future foresight to move beyond retrospective data.

Content

As part of their content highlights, Seven discussed their ‘bonfires and fireworks’ strategy, with the aim to draw users into the 7plus BVOD bubble with ‘fireworks’ or new and exclusive content. Once drawn in, the publisher ensures a high quality content library, or a ‘bonfire’, to keep the spark alive and keep users interested. Bonfires, or returning favourites, include new seasons of Australian Idol, The Voice, Home and Away for example.

In sporting content news, both the AFL and cricket will stream live and free for the first time on 7plus.

Ten

This year’s Upfront had Ten introduce a new trading platform, present the expansion of CTV contextual advertising opportunities and showcase content plans for 2025.

Ad Tech

Ten introduced a new trading platform, Paramount Connect, which will launch in January 2025, aimed to help advertisers buy audiences across the entirety of Paramount’s content ecosystem.

The launch will occur in two phases, the first collating channels such as BVOD platform 10Play, streaming platform Paramount + and over 60 FAST channels available via Pluto TV into a unified digital ecosystem that will allow advertisers to purchase inventory via a blended CPM.

The second will see the publisher bring linear TV into the mix in the latter half of 2025, aiming to limit the silos associated with linear and digital buying, and offer a more complete and holistic overview of audiences.

Ten will also expand media buying opportunities via CTV contextual ads in two ways:

• ‘Pause to Shop’ will enable advertisers to present product discovery during key moments across premium content that will drive brand exposure.

• Own the Moment will allow advertisers to target specific content moments via the first ad in break that evokes emotional responses and aligns with the advertiser’s brand and narrative. This will help advertisers take advantage of the developed emotional connection and further utilise the high levels of engagement to deliver context-based and highly relevant ads.

Content

Aussie hits such as Big Brother and House Hunters will be brought back to Channel 10 next year, and will join new and premium local and international content in the form of series, blockbusters, live sport and more.

A multi-platform media rights deal signed with Football Australia will also ensure sport programming continues to excite audiences. Ten will be home to CommBank Matildas’ and Subway Socceroos’ games until 2028, providing exclusive Australian viewership of key events such as FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027 and more.

Yahoo

Yahoo brings strong updates to its 2024 Upfront with a round up of key updates to products made this year and new partnerships and integrations that have been unlocked to provide better targeting capabilities for advertisers.

New partnerships

Starting with a bang, it was announced that Yahoo DSP will support the launch of Afterpay’s very own retail media network, allowing advertisers to take advantage of the data rich partnership to target audiences based on transaction activity and browsing habits.

Product updates

There were many updates in this space:

• Connect ID, their cookieless ID solution, will be integrated across large scale Australian publishers such as News Corp, The New Daily and Seven West Media, alongside Yahoo DSP’s major SSP partners.

• Partnership with Samba TV to create Yahoo’s Unified TV solution, to help advertisers integrate their media buying, planning and measurement across linear and digital.

• Yahoo DSP advertisers will also soon be able to access publishers such as Fetch TV and Are Media in late 2024, with more publisher partnerships on the horizon.

• Yahoo Blueprint, an AI powered, always-on solution, has been introduced to the Yahoo DSP to help its users optimise performance across channels.

• They will revisit the launch of Yahoo Backstage, a tool dedicated to empowering advertisers to improve supply quality and efficiency, via curated access to inventory, claimed to be premium and free from MFA sites.

Next steps

That’s it folks, the end of another season. For more information on any of the listed updates or assistance in contacting publishers, reach out to Louder.

If you’d like to stay up to date with similar updates through out the coming year, sign up to Louder’s newsletter. Louder’s blog also contains interesting research pieces and how-to articles across a wide range of topics.