By Ken Kelley
WHAT DOES THE future of television advertising look like in Canada? It was this rather weighty topic, along with several others, that were explored in depth during a virtual Mediatel event held on Wednesday.
It should go without saying that without the right content, companies like Corus, Bell and Rogers would be singing a very different song. However, the future of television advertising is complex and companies need more than great content.
Corus executive vice-president and chief revenue officer Greg McLelland believes it is critical for companies to meet customers on the platforms of their choice. With more options available to consumers than ever before, he noted his company’s Stack TV offering has made steady gains in subscribers.
“What we found over the last few years is people are looking for different ways to consume content, but they are consuming as much if not more content than they ever have in the past,” he said.
“Stack is a re-aggregation of 12 of our most popular stations, and when you take the look at that service, and combine it with linear television, we’re actually seeing the audience is actually either flat or up slightly over the last few years. We’re actually quite bullish on the fact the content we’re making is being consumed more than ever before, and we’re monetizing it more than ever before.”
But while McLelland contemplated that there might come a day when the content offerings in Stack TV are broadened to potentially take more lunch from bigger players like Rogers and Bell, Alan Dark, Rogers Sports and Media’s senior vice-president of revenue, pushed back, noting not every Canadian household has the same requirements or needs when it comes to service providers and their offerings.
“The reality is, it’s about choice,” Dark countered. “We’re realizing that by putting together different types of packaging, whether it’s a traditional cable package, digital services or a direct to consumer offering like Sportsnet Now, we are seeing growth in all of those areas,” he said.
“There’s been a lot of fake news around the death of cable in Canada, and while there has been some slight erosion in our traditional cable service, we are picking that up in new digital services.”
Bell Media’s vice-president of advertising sales and partnerships, Perry MacDonald, agreed with Dark, noting it is his experience that the television landscape remains as vibrant and essential for advertisers as ever.
“We looked at the 18 to 34 demo and found there’s been an increase in subscribers in both OTT and traditional television,” MacDonald said. “And if we look at the 35-plus demographic, there’s a minimal decline in TV-only subs.”
Although neither McLelland nor Dark feel it is an outright stumbling block, they agree a revision to general advertiser demographics is long overdue.
“In the digital world, they target to certain groups, as opposed to demos, which we can do now with our respective linear optimization platforms,” McLelland said.
“But one thing I’m struggling with is that many advertisers don’t want to go after 54-plus, or they don’t want to pay for them. That’s a demo that had these rules set up in the 1960’s, when people were dying younger than they are today,” he said.
“A retired person was much younger back then, but the concept of not trying to target a 57-year-old female, to me, it’s just absolutely crazy for almost any advertiser. They have more money, they’re spending more money and they’re still trying brands, so that, to me, is one easy way of finding more audiences.”
In agreeing with McLelland, Dark said following the audiences is critical but that many advertisers, in addition to some agencies, only want to purchase traditional cable audiences, potentially boxing out a segment of the population their product or service might appeal to.
“You’re starting to package more of those audiences, because of the fragmentation of distribution,” Dark stated. “What I love about the fragmentation of distribution is that where we are gaining audiences are through many of these digital products and platforms.”
He believes as the industry opens back up and becomes more aggressive in acquiring such audiences, everyone will “have more than enough impressions in this market” for the next several years.
“From a commercialization perspective, I will say we have a number of segments that are opening up in Canada, like sports betting, AI, casino, all of those things are going to put added pressure on impressions. Because those businesses are coming quickly,” added Dark. “And they’re coming with a lot of television dollars to build those brands.”
