What’s happened?

In a response to growing community concerns over gambling addiction, UK Pay TV provider Sky has announced that it will limit placement of gambling ads to be 1 per commercial break on all channels (including the Free To Air Channel 5). This will see what is currently up to 4 x Gambling Ads be placed in a break dramatically reduced by August 2019. But Sky is going even further by announcing that via Adsmart, which allows different ads to be shown to different households, Sky intends to give viewers the option of blocking gambling ads . From June 2020, this will allow those struggling with gambling addictions to opt out of seeing gambling commercials on UK subscription TV.

The TMS Take

Current conversations about Addressable TV are about the advantages for advertisers but the above shows that the tech can be repurposed to allow consumers to curate what they are exposed to. Extending the thinking, data can be utilised to match content with consumer and better adhere to advertising to children policies, automate advertising exposure based on its classification & deliver increased brand safety. Revenue from Adsmart for Sky is up 29% YOY because it brings new advertisers to the platform but thinking differently shows that Addressable TV – on any platform – could also be used to respond to community concerns.

David Lodge