GroupM launches addressable TV service in Australia

Citing research that says 14 million addressable TV devices will be in Australian homes within two years, GroupM has made Australia the second worldwide market to get its addressable TV business, Finecast.

The business, which debuted in the UK a year ago, offers "the power of television with the precision of digital", letting advertisers target viewers across multiple on-demand, set-top-box and live-streaming services, the company said.

GroupM's broadcast partners are Seven, Nine, Ten, SBS and Foxtel via MCN (multi-channel network). The company claims to have built a targeted TV inventory pool reaching Australian households at scale across TV-channel brands, pay-TV platforms and digital media players, BVOD (broadcast video on demand) services, over-the-top providers and games consoles.

With data from ABS Census, GeoEmma, Experian and RDA Research, as well as GroupM’s proprietary audience-segment database, Finecast offers more than 1200 data variables such as socio-economic, life stage, financial and purchase data factors, GroupM said.

The company also touts benefits such as the ability to manage reach and frequency across platforms and dynamic end-frame versioning for different geographies and target audiences.

GroupM has named Brett Poole is as Finecast’s managing director in Australia. He was previously VP of media and activation for [m]Platform and general manager of Plista, GroupM’s native advertising business. 

GroupM Australia CEO, Mark Lollback, said Finecast "paves the way for new, smaller advertisers to cost efficiently use the medium".

The 14 million number mentioned above comes from research Finecast conducted with IHS Markit.