Future of TV Briefing: CTV advertising has a genre-label problem

This week’s Future of TV Briefing focuses on the problematic state of genre labeling in Connected TV (CTV) advertising. Streaming ad sellers have been hesitant to share show-level information with advertisers, though passable genre labels could help. However, the accuracy of these genre labels is inconsistent. Only 11% of CTV ad requests contained a usable show name in a Wurl analysis, while 93% contained a genre label, albeit with varying accuracy.

Wurl found that roughly a third of evaluated requests had a genre label that didn't align with their own classification system. This lack of standardization around content labeling is the root cause of the issue. Dave Bernath, CEO of Wurl, notes that historically, the metadata around content libraries has been inconsistent, especially for streaming platforms.

The labels appended to shows can be broad, with 22% of genre labels being vague, such as "entertainment" or "general variety." Moreover, there can be an overwhelming number of different genre labels, as Wurl's analysis revealed over 3,600 different labels during a two-hour window.

This content classification confusion could impede the CTV ad industry's efforts to pass content signals. Comcast-owned FreeWheel added show-level reporting for advertisers, but they weren't actively ensuring that ad buyers and sellers used the same show naming conventions, which could undermine accurate program matching and reporting.

An IAB Tech Lab Content Taxonomy update in 2022 included categories suited for CTV and added more genre categories, but it still falls short at just 704 categories, one-fifth the number of unique labels observed by Wurl.

Wurl uses the IAB Tech Lab's Content Taxonomy to underpin its classification system. The reason for the industry's lack of standardization remains unclear, but Bernath attributes it to historical metadata "hangover." Content owners possess large libraries of shows and movies, many of which were categorized decades ago and have not been reviewed for accuracy or updates.