How ATSC 3.0 and HbbTV 2.0 Will Enable Better TV Advertising

Broadcast television technologies are finally on the cusp of a major transformation because of emerging technologies including ATSC 3.0 and HbbTV 2.0. What’s old is set to become very new and very leading-edge.

It was definitely time for a change – current broadcast standards cap picture quality at 1080p and lack the ability to support interactive TV and personalization. The ATSC 1.0 standard is more than two decades old and struggled to keep up with rapidly changing technologies.

From a targeting perspective, these new broadcast formats will transform traditional linear broadcast advertising from regional spray-and-pray distribution to one-to-one household advertising. Instead of having to rely on panel-based measurements inferred from ratings, advertisers will use accurate census-based measurements.

These new technologies combine an interactive functionality of streaming with advanced audio and video quality of cable or satellite TV. When they are widely adopted, these technologies will change the TV advertising game overnight.

Both new technologies will allow video-on-demand, 4K video, Dolby Vision high dynamic range (HDR), wide color gamut (WCG), high frame rate (HFR), high-definition audio and multichannel surround sound.

They will also enable interactivity with TV in a way that hasn’t been done before. Consumers will no longer need to use a second screen such as a tablet or a phone to access interactive content since they will be able to use their TV interactively. The same tool that gives consumers this flexibility will allow 30-second spot replacement.

Broadcasters and programmers will be able to make an ad request to acquire and display the substituted ad, then issue measurement. Cadent is ready with technology solutions to help our partners aggregate their TV content with other platforms they are distributing in order to present unified holistic inventory.

These new technologies will also offer an unprecedented capacity to understand who is viewing programming and where the viewer is located. With ATSC 3.0, you can receive information on what each household watches, how long they were watching and whether they completed viewing.

Wide adoption of these technologies won’t be here for a while. While several television stations have been conducting tests with ATSC 3.0 since 2014, the standard was only recently finished and isn’t expected to begin rolling out in the U.S. until 2019. Even then, stations must continue offering ATSC 1.0 signals until 2023. HbbTV 2.0 is already emerging in the EU however, and ATSC 3.0 has been available in South Korea since May 2017.

Cadent is developing solutions to help our partners extract the best value from their existing inventory with the emergence of new technologies. Dynamic, addressable household advertising is in our DNA, and we are preparing marketers for an advanced TV future across every format, protocol or style of consumption.

For more on how Cadent is navigating the rapidly changing television advertising ecosystem, see a post from our Chief Product Officer Eoin Townsend.