Following The Trade Desk’s recent announcement that it has developed Ventura, a new streaming TV operating system (OS), Campaign Middle East reached out to Terry Kane, Managing Director, Middle East and Africa, The Trade Desk to evaluate how Venture will address key issues within the market.
The Trade Desk confirmed that it will partner with smart TV original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and other streaming TV aggregators to deploy Ventura with the aim to solve prevailing problems, including frustrating user experiences, inefficient advertising supply chains, and content conflicts-of-interest.
“With 65 percent of UAE residents watching streaming content daily and spending more time on premium video streaming per week than on social media, it’s clear that advertising’s most powerful channel has been redefined. Connected TV is here and it’s here to stay. However, we face a tipping point where we must ensure a fair marketplace and provide viewers with a better TV ad experience,” Kane said.
Although a global rollout of Ventura will only come “in due course, with a series of announcement to be made throughout 2025,” Kane alluded to critical benefits that are incoming.
In conversation with Campaign Middle East, Kane said, “Ventura is a new TV operating system built for the next era in connected television. With better cross-platform content discovery, subscription management and increased personalisation, it’s a more intuitive and engaging viewer experience, and will ultimately result in fewer, and more relevant advertisements.”
Kane added, “Ventura will provide a much cleaner supply chain for streaming TV advertising, minimising supply chain hops and costs – ensuring maximum ROI for every advertising dollar and optimised yield for publishers.”
Incorporating tech advances such as OpenPath and Unified ID 2.0 (UID2), Ventura will enable advertisers to value and price ad impressions across all streaming platforms more accurately, while finding relevant audiences with greater precision.
Ventura arrives in the market at a time when more consumers use streaming platforms than traditional cable TV; as almost every major media company has launched an ad-supported streaming option for viewers; and as an increasing number of companies enter the streaming content aggregation business.
“Everyone from OEMs to airlines and hotel chains are now in the streaming TV aggregation business, and they’re all trying to figure out the advertising business model while improving the viewer experience,” said Matthew Henick, SVP Ventura, The Trade Desk. “With our content objectivity and our scaled streaming TV advertising demand, The Trade Desk is uniquely positioned to drive innovation at this key moment.”
Ventura is already generating widespread industry support:
Jamie Power, SVP Addressable Advertising Sales at Disney Advertising said, “As the streaming TV landscape rapidly evolves, we are entering a new paradigm for TV advertising. These trends are driven not only by consumer adoption but also by the innovation in the marketplace. We look forward to seeing The Trade Desk continue to drive innovation that will create more efficiency and a more enjoyable TV experience.”
John Halley, President, Paramount Advertising, concluded, “The Trade Desk has been a great partner and real innovator in the programmatic space, and we are excited to see them bring their approach to the OS marketplace. Both broadcasters and consumers will undoubtedly benefit.”
