ITV finally launches Planet V addressable TV platform

ITV is at last rolling out its addressable TV ad-buying platform, Planet V, nearly a year after hailing its launch, and 18 months since it signed a tech deal to deliver “end-to-end programmatic buying and selling of ads” on the ITV Hub.

The launch, which was originally planned for “early 2020”, is designed to give advertisers and agencies control over the planning, purchasing and reporting of their campaigns across ITV’s video on demand service, allowing them to optimise and monitor campaigns in real time.

Prior to launch, Planet V has operated as an in-house “concierge” solution, operated by ITV’s ad operations teams and claims to have provided almost 500 million ITV Hub advertising impressions.

Initially, the platform will only be available to media agencies from Omnicom and Publicis Group, with brand owners being given access in the not too distant future.

The broadcaster behind programmes including Vera, Midsomer Murders (pictured), Endeavor and The Chase says updated versions of the platform will be brought in over the next 12 months, with the addition of inventory from other broadcasters and premium video publishers, and enhanced features and capabilities.

ITV director of advanced advertising Rhys McLachlan said: “Over the course of the next few years, the rate of change in the way content is produced, distributed and consumed to enable addressable advertising is only going to continue to accelerate.

“[Planet V] is designed to provide clients and advertisers with an unrivalled combination of access to premium video content, and programmatically enabled targeted advertising, whilst continuously operating at ITV’s gold standard level.”

Planet V was developed by global technology company Amobee over nearly 50,000 hours, following an exclusive UK and Ireland licensing agreement signed in 2019.

Amobee chief development officer Ryan Jamboretz said: “ITV has a progressive vision and, with the launch of Planet V, is making a bold statement to the market about how major content owners with unique data should operate.

“Planet V represents the cutting edge in advertising solutions — one where brands and agencies can easily discover and reach their audiences by unifying their TV and digital strategies to better drive more meaningful business results.”

In August, ITV signed a deal with “privacy-by-design” specialist InfoSum, which the broadcaster insists will allow advertisers to unite ITV’s data with brands’ first-party data in a secure environment.