SVOD is showing advertising. More streaming is to the living room TV. FAST expands the linear experience, only in the streaming space. BVOD delivers the top of the programme guide (and more) but in digital. AVOD offers the rest of the programme guide (and more), on-demand. It feels like the future has much in common with the past – but delivered in new ways.

We all know audiences never really went away, but found more ways to watch, fragmented across an expanded (and exciting) TV universe (sometimes immersed in boxsets). Now it’s becoming easier to reunite those audiences – but to do so requires brilliant implementation of the Total TV skillset across planning, execution and measurement.

Another reunion is underway, as we welcome some old friends: a laser-focus on effectiveness, and respect for ‘attention’ as a metric (and appreciation for the value of context, which underpins it), and a desire to properly balance (and closely integrate) brand and performance marketing. After a long period of disruption and experimentation, the latest thinking in media is familiar to the television industry rather than alien.

This feels like a moment rich in opportunity. We have large broadcast linear audiences as the bedrock for planning, combined with streaming innovation (like targeting) across incremental audiences, and a focus on holistic brand/activation marketing and all its potential to boost effectiveness during the rest of this hybrid broadcast/digital decade.

These reunions underpin The Future of TV Advertising Sydney 2023, as we look to lift all boats on a rising tide. This year’s event is focused on:

• Delivering the reunified audience experience that marketers have dreamed of
• Expanding the total market for ad-funded television
• Ensuring media owners take a bigger share of the total digital video advertising marketplace
• Unlocking the full value of connected TV audiences for media buyers, content owners and connected TV platform providers
• Making the digital transition work better, in readiness for its acceleration (including taking the best of the broadcast ad-UX into streaming, and the best of the digital ad-UX into broadcast).