LONDON — Smart TV sales revenue in Europe jumped 10.2% last year, according to GFU Connections for those TVs have historically been patchy, but now the market looks like picking up.
“OTT has been a little behind in Europe than it has in the U.S., primarily because the activation of consumers has been a little slower,” according to multi-screen video advertising technology company YuMe‘s European GM Owen Hanks. “(Now), the rise of subscription-based offerings is driving people to those portals.
“The advertising agencies are now seeing that as an opportunity for new ways to access their audience on different devices.”
Smart TVs made up 54.2% of all TV sales in Q1 2015, Ofcom estimates, saying smart TV take-up nearly doubled from 12% to 21% of UK homes last year. It says 56% of homes actually have TVs connected to the internet, but most of those are via standard TV set-top boxes, though the true numbers are likely to be higher when you account for other gadgets like game consoles and Chromecasts.
“Some might say the OTT in Europe is actually a really interesting space right now for advertisers because it’s far less cluttered than maybe the desktop or the laptop screen is in terms of getting their advertising message to the consumer,” Hanks adds.
YuMe now operates across cross 23 European countries, with feet on the ground in five markets. The company built up its capability including ad serving, supply-side tools and its YuMe For Advertisers demand-side platform.
This video is part of our series the Road to CES, which can be found here. The series is presented by YuMe.