Although using first and third-party to target linear television audiences is in the testing phase, it stands to increase the attribution TV gets for prompting consumer behavior. \u201cAt ESPN, we certainly think the audience buying future is upon us,\u201d says Vikram Somaya, SVP, Global Data Officer & Ad Platforms at ESPN.<\/p>\n
In this interview with Beet.TV, Somaya talks about linear optimization across the Walt Disney Co. portfolio and why advertisers are becoming more comfortable providing their first-party data for targeting linear audiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now seeing it rapidly approaching us in the form of syndicated data notions within linear television and I think we\u2019re seeing the beginnings of being actually able to use first and third-party data in a linear television framework,\u201d Somaya says. \u201cSo true, addressable television if you will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disney is taking those notions \u201cand broadening them out beyond ESPN\u201d through its other media groups.\u201d So it\u2019s not just about the power of ESPN\u2019s first-party knowledge of sports fans \u201cbut more broadly, how do our guests at the Walt Disney Company become part of that audience selling notion,\u201d Somaya<\/a> adds.<\/p>\n