“Programmatic, on our terms”: ITV launches Planet V
Almost a year after it was first announced, ITV’s premium advanced advertising platform, Planet V, has today been formally launched to the market.
The self service solution will give advertisers and agencies control over the planning, purchasing and reporting of their campaigns across ITV’s VOD service, the ITV Hub, allowing them to optimise and monitor campaigns in real time.
Prior to external launch, Planet V has operated as an in-house ‘concierge’ solution, operated by ITV’s ad operations teams and fulfilling on almost 500 million ITV Hub impressions, according to the commercial broadcaster.
Updated versions of the platform will be continuously brought to clients over the next year, with the addition of inventory from other broadcasters and premium video publishers, and enhanced features and capabilities.
“Over the course of the next few years, the rate of change in the way content is produced, distributed and consumed to enable addressable advertising is only going to continue to accelerate,” said Rhys McLachlan, director of advanced advertising at ITV.
“[Planet V] is designed to provide clients and advertisers with an unrivalled combination of access to premium video content, and programmatically enabled targeted advertising, whilst continuously operating at ITV’s gold standard level.”
Speaking with Videonet, Mediatel News’ sister publication, McLachlan added that he believes Planet V is significant for the entire broadcast industry, not just ITV, and confirmed that a number of partners will also start using the platform next year.
“What is significant about Planet V for the industry is that it is programmatic, done on our terms,” he said.
“We think this will demonstrate to other premium publishers and broadcasters that you can embrace the programmatic world without relinquishing sovereignty over your proposition. You can respond to appetites in the market [among buyers for more data-driven automation] without capitulating to the constructs defined by other businesses, avoiding the jeopardies visited upon so many other media channels and companies.”
To be precise, the Planet V inventory and data management platform, which is designed to create a single and consistent sales platform for ITV Hub, ensures ITV maintains control of its data, inventory, pricing and all other sensitive commercial terms. It supports broadcaster ‘merchandising’: the ability to package, price and present inventory, data and targeting options to buyers as commercial products.
Planet V was developed by global technology company Amobee over nearly 50,000 hours, following an exclusive UK and Ireland licensing agreement signed in 2019.
Commenting on the launch, Ryan Jamboretz, chief development officer at Amobee, said: “ITV has a progressive vision and, with the launch of Planet V, is making a bold statement to the market about how major content owners with unique data should operate.
“Planet V represents the cutting edge in advertising solutions — one where brands and agencies can easily discover and reach their audiences by unifying their TV and digital strategies to better drive more meaningful business results.”
According to ITV, the Hub saw a year-on-year increase in consumption hours of 75% earlier this year, while monthly reach on the platform has risen by 40%. Original commissioning has included Britain’s Got Talent Unseen and The TOWIE Years. The ITV Hub also debuts ITVBe programming first on the service.
Read Videonet’s full interview with Rhys McLachlan about Planet V here.