By Andy Fry

At the end of a breakthrough year for the FAST channel business, senior execs at channel solutions provider Wurl have put together some thoughts for the sector going into 2023. Sean Doherty, Sr, CEO & Co-Founder, Wurl kicks off by predicting that next year will see increased activity by smart TV manufacturers. “Samsung and Roku were the first device-makers to embrace FAST. Now, many of the top 30 smart TV manufacturers have introduced FAST offerings. I predict that all manufacturers will go all in with FAST, and we will see nearly 100 per cent device adoption by the end of 2023.”

Doherty, Sr also believes the industry will continue to defy expectations around advertising: “During the 2008 financial crisis, the advertising industry experienced a steep downturn with one exception: mobile. The smartphone had just hit the market, leading to a steady growth in mobile advertising. Now, as we find ourselves in another economic slump, I predict CTV will persevere in 2023 as mobile did in 2008, with growth in connected TV devices more than making up for a decline in ad fill rates.”

That said, he stresses that the sector won’t see its full potential unless it embraces tech-driven innovations in advertising: “If advertising products on CTV don’t become more measurable, more programmatic, and more performance-based, scale can’t be fully realised. If these products don’t drive conversion, they’ll never warrant the buyer’s ad spend in a down advertising market. So, the industry needs to work towards this.”

SVP, technology, Wurl, Yuval Fisher said: “2023 will be the year of data. In 2021, we saw everyone dabbling in CTV. In 2022, people committed budgets to CTV and realised they could make money with it. Now, as we head into the new year, the focus will be on optimisation through starting to utilise the data that CTV makes available. From scheduling and UA data to performance and behavioral data, CTV players will seek out more granular and specific metrics to boost performance and revenues.”

SVP, advertising, Wurl Kris Johns believes: “CTV is going global in 2023. We saw greater CTV inventory coming from places like Germany, the UK, and France in 2022, offering a big growth opportunity. Next year, we can expect to see continued growth across Europe, with Latin America becoming the next major market to pick up steam.”