Participants: Charlie Goodman, Head of Supply Side Ad Platform, Roku; Richard Brant, Senior Director, Advanced TV, Vevo; Chris Kleinschmidt, VP, EMEA Advertising Sales, TiVo; Ross Appleton, General Manager, Tubi; William Jones, Head of Advanced TV and Omnichannel Activation, Adform; David Goddard, Senior Vice President of Business Development, DoubleVerify; Lindsey Clay, Chief Executive, Thinkbox; Fatima Dowlet, Head of Streaming, Channel 4; Ed Wale, VP, International, LG Ad Solutions; Pippa Scaife, Director of Digital Advertising, Sky. Chaired by Justin Pearse, Editor, New Digital Age.
In part two of the writeup of our CTV Advertising roundtable in Cannes, (read part one here) the discussion honed in on questions of content quality, audience engagement, and the shifting responsibilities of platforms and planners in the CTV space.
Charlie Goodman of Roku offered a simple definition of CTV as “digitally delivered, digitally addressable, digitally measured in-stream video on the biggest screen in the house.”
But the group quickly agreed that within this bucket lies a broad spectrum of content, quality, and viewer engagement.
“Absolutely not all content on the big screen is created equal,” said Ed Wale of LG Ad Solutions. “That’s what I have to deal with every day.”
Attention, engagement and quality signals
Lindsey Clay emphasised that when viewers hear “TV,” they assume high-quality, professionally produced programming. “It’s a helpful differentiator,” she said, drawing a line between curated, regulated programming and user-generated content.
Chris Kleinschmidt echoed the need to focus on the content’s impact. “The different types of content deliver different need states,” he said. “Snackable content elicits a different response to long-form, emotionally engaging shows.”
To that end, Goodman noted that Roku incorporates signals such as production quality and content length into its bid rates. “We actually get a lot better bid rates for professionally produced content,” he explained. “It’s more well trusted.”
Viewers choose content, not platforms
As Ross Appleton pointed out, platforms matter less than content choices. “The odds are not differentiated by platform,” he said. “They’re choosing content.”
Pippa Scaife supported this: “The fact is, you choose to watch something on Channel 4, you choose to watch something on Now. Most of the time you don’t choose what comes next on YouTube – the algorithm does.”
She further explained that YouTube “doesn’t differentiate between Channel 4’s long-form shows, Vevo music videos, and Mr Beast clips – it just cares how long you stay on the platform.”
FAST versus VOD: who’s paying attention?
The roundtable revealed mixed feelings about FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV). While Ed Wale insisted that “FAST is just an evolution of free TV” and a necessary alternative to expensive subscriptions, others flagged concerns about engagement.
Ross Appleton noted, “VOD could have a higher value to an advertiser because you’re intentionally choosing that piece of content.”
Dowlet agreed, saying, “With VOD, you’re there, engaged. With FAST, you might just be letting back-to-back Friends roll.”
That said, Goodman emphasized efforts to improve quality across FAST. “We’ve dropped our CTV ad load in live to eight minutes an hour,” he said. “It’s about quality over quantity.”
Who decides what counts as TV?
The roundtable ended on a provocative note. As David Goddard put it, “Are we doing enough to measure the difference?” There was no clear consensus.
For Dowlet, the bottom line was clear: “We’re selling advertising. We have to be honest about what environment we’re offering and how it aligns with campaign goals.”
And as Kleinschmidt concluded, “It’s in the eye of the brand. They’ll decide what’s valuable. We can help guide, but we can’t dictate.”
In this complex, multi-layered environment, the industry may still be figuring out definitions – but the shared goal remains clear: to create trusted, effective and measurable advertising experiences on the biggest screen in the house.
