Doubling Down on Live Linear Programmatic Advertising
The problem of adjusting a live ad buy in linear has jumped over one more hurdle. Earlier this year, DirectTV Advertising announced that their satellite TV content can now be bought programmatically in real time. This means an advertiser can see when viewing is surging and double down to serve ads during key moments. This feature will be available for programming on ESPN, MLB Network, FS1, and the Tennis Channel.
DirecTV is joining a few others in the industry to offer this flavor of programmatic advertising which allows for centralized planning, targeting, and frequency-capping across both streaming and linear content. For DirecTV this means their footprint is doubling, bringing more scale to digital buyers who want to reach viewers on connected devices and DirecTV linear satellite content.
“Looking at DirectTV traffic on the Magnite platform, we’ve seen viewership spike by as much as 10x during live tentpole events, leading about half of media buyers to double their bids," says Ken Ripley, VP, Growth & Marketing, DirectTV Advertising. High-profile events also attract approximately 20% more net-new advertisers.
“Buyers require a new level of flexibility. We’re excited to set TV free,” says Amy Leifer, Chief Advertising Sales Officer, DirectTV Advertising. “By enabling satellite households to be accessed programmatically, we’re creating flexible, seamless solutions for marketers to reach premium TV inventory.”
In the ad world, “solution” doesn’t mean a software application, but rather a buying approach.
Advertising 101
Are these ads based on targeting or contextual data? “Both!” says Ripley. “Buyers can targeted ads using a mix of data depending on their business. Buyers can use DirecTV Advertising’s Digital Audience Targeting, built from our first-party deterministic data, or tap into our Enhanced Contextual Packages, leveraging content metadata and contextual key-value signals to connect with audiences viewing content that aligns with their messaging.”
Programmatic inventory can use universal IDs and content metadata to provide targeted audiences. Advertisers can also specify network, rating, and genre-level buying. “Because the linear inventory also has universal identifiers and content metadata, brands can manage reach and frequency across all the content they’re buying programmatically,” says Ripley.
On the other end, DirectTV provides reporting at the network, genre, rating, and series level to provide advertisers with a clear understanding of where their media is running.
Which advertisers have access to this reporting? I asked Mike Laband, Group SVP, Revenue, US at Magnite, who explains, “All advertisers that buy media through Magnite, via ClearLine or a DSP of their choice, can access live linear programmatically.”
I asked Laband if this was only for pre-approved creative. “It is not always a requirement for Magnite to pre-approve creative,” he says.
Advertisers need to comply with publishers’ brand safety and quality guidelines for both live and on-demand content. “For example, certain live sports programmers and publishers may have stricter guidelines on ads, such as featuring pharmaceutical products with longer-length commercials or have prohibitions against alcohol advertising,” says Ripley.
Flavors of Linear Programmatic
DISH and Charter had both previously announced that their linear inventory is available programmatically. DISH announced this in May 2023, for private auction transactions for Sling and DISH inventory on internet connected set-top boxes. Charter announced availability in June 2024 of programmatic buying for content delivered by their app, for real-time targeting.
So, while DirecTV is doing things differently, they aren’t the only ones to take this approach. However, understanding the nuance of what is available and how to buy is still complicated for anyone not directly buying or selling advertising.
DirectTV Advertising is working with Magnite, Publicis Media Exchange (PMX), and Basis Technologies on this to start. “This allows buyers to access DirectTV’s linear and streaming inventory programmatically with consistent functionality across all endpoints,” says Ripley. “Clients can purchase inventory however they prefer—direct IO, private guaranteed (PG), programmatic marketplace (PMP), or open marketplace.”
They will be testing Magnite’s Live Stream Acceleration (LSA) technology, designed to help streaming publishers optimize their live inventory programmatically, to handle spikes in viewing. Magnite will make this available to publishers with in-house technical solutions for live streaming that can support at least 50,000 ad queries per second.
“Magnite bundles live TV and shoulder content to target consumers across both streaming and online video,” says Laband. “For example, one input we use for targeting is automatic content recognition (ACR). This strategy helps reach a broader, more well-rounded audience. More efficient targeting can also help lower a deal’s eCPM across their entire live inventory footprint, including sports.”
Laband goes on to explain that the “significant spikes in demand” that typically occur “during live sporting events show the untapped potential that media owners should be leaning towards. It’s encouraging to see DirectTV embracing programmatic demand and offering contextual signals to provide advertisers with more transparency.”
Importance of Programmatic
I’ll close with a few thoughts on the linear programmatic trend. The benefit of targeting within linear means brands are more likely to find their audience at key moments within a live linear sports broadcast. According to Comscore’s 2025 State of Programmatic report:
• 72% of marketers plan to increase programmatic investment in 2025.
• 46% of marketers cite planned reductions in Linear TV budgets in favor of increasing programmatic CTV spend.
• 54% of marketers plan to increase their use of contextual data in 2025.
• 80% of marketers emphasized the importance of deduplicated reach and frequency measurement directly in programmatic environments.
Brands generally talk about finding the consumer “where they are,” and where these consumers are at certain times will be watching live sports delivered by a satellite feed.
I still have an issue with this kind of announcement. Is this only for content delivered in an app environment? Is it for FAST? Is it for live content delivered by traditional linear delivery? Things are still murky to me. I was provided with written comments from everyone in this article and while I even consulted two other industry experts, their guidance only goes so far.
Everyone always talks about transparency, and I would like nothing better to have advertising executives speak about things in a way which is also transparent, because without that, not only will no one understand how important this is; no one can cover this industry accurately. For now, based on my understanding, doubling down on selling inventory in live linear games is a winning bet.
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