CTV Should Be Automated - But It Doesn't Need To Be Programmatic | AdExchanger

"On Thursday, Upstream, a supply-side company that until today was called TheViewPoint, introduced a platform that automates direct TV and streaming ad sales. The platform launch and company rebrand strive to highlight the role of TV and streaming as an upper-funnel awareness channel. Upstream was acquired by video measurement firm Tatari in 2022, and both companies sit under the parent company Infra alongside Vault, a CTV privacy tech company that Tatari spun off in 2023."

"Programmatic is very helpful in managing countless supply and demand sources in open web display advertising, but TV advertising is a different beast. As an industry, "we went down this rabbit hole of programmatic for CTV when it was completely unnecessary and ill-suited for the structure of the market," said Philip Inghelbrecht, CEO of Infra. And, to be fair, marketers do complain about the data and inventory fragmentation that comes from programmatic workflows."

"Although programmatic works differently in TV and streaming environments, there's a reason why the volume of programmatic CTV ad sales keeps climbing. Programmatic workflows promise efficiency with digital-style targeting, frequency capping and automation - and, in turn, ad performance. Besides, who has the time for manual insertion orders? Tatari's own data has found that 90% of all streaming impressions come from just 10 publishers."

Upstream, formerly TheViewPoint, launched an automated platform for direct TV and streaming ad sales and rebranded to emphasize TV and streaming as upper-funnel awareness channels. The company, acquired by Tatari in 2022, operates under parent Infra alongside Vault. The platform functions as a publisher-facing interface that automates direct-sold CTV campaigns at the ad server level, providing automation without programmatic intermediaries. Early adopters include NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Paramount and Tubi. Programmatic offers digital-style targeting and efficiency but can fragment data and inventory and may be ill-suited to CTV market structure. Concentrated supply reduces the need for programmatic intermediaries.

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