Streaming TV and video adverts didn’t totally ship for Magnite this quarter, however the bloom isn’t off the CTV rose for the starry-eyed SSP.
CTV contributed $52.5 million to Magnite’s Q3 earnings, really declining 6% from $56 million on the identical time final yr. CTV comprised 39% of total income this quarter, in comparison with 41% for cellular adverts and 20% for desktop adverts.
Regardless of lower-than-anticipated revenues and “a mushy begin to This autumn” because of anemic advert spend, CEO Michael Barrett advised traders on Wednesday that he expects CTV income to develop quicker in 2024.
Whole Q3 income elevated 3% YOY to $150.1 million.
Magnite inventory was down by shut to three% Thursday morning.
Journey was Magnite’s strongest class, whereas weaker performers included retail, monetary providers and media and leisure, because of the actors’ and writers’ strikes.
The CTV slowdown
The Hollywood strikes led to a “paucity of content material,” Barrett mentioned. For consumers interested by programmatic CTV campaigns, “there’s not any residence to place them in to execute programmatically.” Media and leisure advert spend was additionally down due to the strikes, as a result of studios weren’t selling reveals and movies.
Final yr’s political advert spend additionally created troublesome comps for CTV in each Q3 and This autumn, in accordance with CFO David Day. By the identical token, although, the presidential election in 2024 may give CTV a lift.
Barrett’s CTV objectives for 2024 embody “a tighter stitching” of the SpringServe video advert server with Magnite’s programmatic platform and new options for ClearLine, a direct shopping for product for advertisers and businesses, that switch linear TV {dollars} to CTV.
Programmatic CTV continues to be younger, with comparatively little ad-supported, on-demand video stock. Many streamers and programmers additionally nonetheless promote programmatic offers by their direct gross sales groups, in accordance with Barrett. However as Amazon Prime Video provides an ad-supported tier in 2024 and extra main sports activities occasions go the livestreaming route, he mentioned, premium CTV programmers could develop an urge for food for programmatic.
