Cord-Bundlers Are the True Disruptors

[Commentary] The cord-cutter is frequently singled out as a culprit behind the rapidly shifting video ad market; the nemesis of TV’s established order. Insights teased in the trades by Nielsen in May, however, suggest the assumption that cord-cutters are siphoning subscribers (and by extension, audience) away from multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) may be overstated. For TV ad sellers though, would confirmation that cord-cutters are having a negligible impact on total audience availability be worthy of celebration?

The cutters and the cord-nevers (linear TV’s lost generation) are not the centers of influence in accelerating audience fragmentation. It’s the cord-bundlers -- the households stitching together a host of subscription video on demand services (like iTunes, Netflix or Hulu), in addition to their cable subscriptions -- that are proving the most disruptive. Indeed, cross-stream inventory management, yield optimization and campaign fulfillment are mission-critical core competencies for media owners seeking to reconstitute the value of cord-bundlers. It’s here that the promise of programmatic TV looms large.

[Randy Cook is vice president of programmatic TV, SpotXchange]