‘It could really change TV’: Amazon wants to partner with the biggest networks on a pilot program to sell ads for top Fire TV apps

Big move: Amazon is working on an ad network that combines their data with various video app ad inventory.

Amazon is asking participating networks to include ≈ 30% of their ad inventory in the program.

2 key items that Amazon can offer TV networks:
1) Targeting data — Use Amazon data to target specific customers based on what they buy.
2) Conversion tracking — Amazon can show whether the customer purchased a product based on the ads.

Amazon has moved into the #3 spot in terms of digital ad sales behind Google and Facebook.

Share of U.S. digital ad market:
1) Google — 37%
2) Facebook — 21%
3) Amazon — 4%
4) Microsoft — 4%
5) Oath — 3%
6) Other — 31%

Amazon digital ad revenue by year (% growth):
1) 2016 — $1.2B (↑ 61%)
2) 2017 — $1.9B (↑ 62%)
3) 2018P — $4.6B (↑ 145%)
4) 2019P — $7.2B (↑ 57%)
5) 2020P — $10.9B (↑ 51%)

Quote from Anthony Wood — CEO @ Roku:
“We’re much more focused…All we do is we come to work every day and we think about how to make TV better. Those companies, yes they’re great companies, but they come to work thinking about how can I sell a bunch of shoes, how can I be better at search, how can I sell more phones? TV is on their list but it’s at the bottom of their list.”

You can listen to the full interview with Peter Kafka here.

Another great podcast:eMarketer breaks down the trends driving video ad growth.

More #1: Connected TV is ad tech’s new darling

More #2: As Netflix Rebuffs Commercials, Hulu Offers a Tighter Embrace