1 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:10,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations with 2 00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:13,760 Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm 3 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:17,720 Speaker 1: Tyler Aquallina with Luminated Intelligence formerly known as Variety Intelligence Platform. 4 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:20,440 Speaker 1: TV buyers will soon have yet another option when weighing 5 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:23,640 Speaker 1: what's smart TV to purchase. Digital advertising giant The Trade 6 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:26,480 Speaker 1: Desk has been developing a new operating system known as Ventura, 7 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:29,840 Speaker 1: set to launch in the near future. It's an intriguing proposition, 8 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:32,479 Speaker 1: but ever since Ventura was officially announced back in November, 9 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:34,720 Speaker 1: a lot of questions have risen about the new OS. 10 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: Why is the Trade Desk entering an already crowded and 11 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:40,640 Speaker 1: hyper competitive business, What are the implications of an advertising 12 00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:43,320 Speaker 1: company entering the smart TV space? And how might this 13 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:46,559 Speaker 1: disrupt the already turbulent connected TV ad market. Here to 14 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:48,840 Speaker 1: answer all those questions and more is The Trade Desk's 15 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:51,720 Speaker 1: SVP of Ventura, Matthew Hennick. He came to the Trade 16 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:53,920 Speaker 1: Desk from a media and tech background and is now 17 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:57,320 Speaker 1: heading up its efforts to reshape the CTV business. Let's 18 00:00:57,360 --> 00:00:59,320 Speaker 1: just get right into it, because there's a lot to 19 00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:03,080 Speaker 1: discuss with Ventura. It's an interesting time to be getting 20 00:01:03,080 --> 00:01:04,600 Speaker 1: into the smart TV business. 21 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 2: For sure. 22 00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 1: It's a very kind of complicated time for the space. 23 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:10,920 Speaker 1: It's undergoing a lot of growing pains, maturation, that kind 24 00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:13,600 Speaker 1: of thing. Why is now the right moment for the 25 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:15,399 Speaker 1: trade desk to be getting into the space. 26 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:19,480 Speaker 3: We think it's an incredibly important moment right now because 27 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 3: we're huge fans and believers in the power of the 28 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:25,600 Speaker 3: open Internet and the power of the media industry the 29 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:31,760 Speaker 3: open Internet. Because the open Internet, because there's a huge 30 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:34,920 Speaker 3: portion of Internet that's not controlled within the walled gardens 31 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:39,199 Speaker 3: of Google and Amazon and Facebook, and luckily, most of 32 00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:43,560 Speaker 3: the best media that humans have ever made in all 33 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 3: of recorded music, movies, television, news, sports, podcasts, sits outside 34 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:52,400 Speaker 3: of those wild gardens in the open Internet. And those 35 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:54,800 Speaker 3: companies that have been making this media have been going 36 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:58,480 Speaker 3: through massive transformation the past ten years of days as 37 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:01,600 Speaker 3: they've moved to be direct to consumer. This usually means 38 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:04,040 Speaker 3: that they're releasing their own streaming apps of one kind 39 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:06,960 Speaker 3: or another. And one of the reasons why they had 40 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:08,920 Speaker 3: to do this was because many of the big tech 41 00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 3: companies were disrupting their core business. They were getting in 42 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:15,280 Speaker 3: between them and their customers and The scary thing right 43 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:18,760 Speaker 3: now is that they've made these massive transformational investments to 44 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:21,960 Speaker 3: become direct consumer, but all these apps still sit on 45 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:25,040 Speaker 3: operating systems owned by these big tech companies, and so 46 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:26,720 Speaker 3: a lot of the same problems that they're trying to 47 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:29,400 Speaker 3: avoid haven't fully gone away yet. So we think we 48 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,639 Speaker 3: have a pretty unique way to enter this space objectively, 49 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:35,640 Speaker 3: to bring objectivity as a core principle, and to improve 50 00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:37,959 Speaker 3: how the money flows between all of these participants. 51 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:41,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, so tell us more about that, like what will 52 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:44,280 Speaker 1: distinguish Ventor from the other OS's on the market, both 53 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:47,880 Speaker 1: in terms of objectivity and what it offers to users. 54 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:50,800 Speaker 3: Sure, we think you know, objectivity has been an important 55 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:54,160 Speaker 3: part of the trade desk since our founding, so we 56 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:56,239 Speaker 3: intend to bring that to the CTV space and we 57 00:02:56,280 --> 00:03:00,240 Speaker 3: think that has benefits for every participant along the waying 58 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:04,520 Speaker 3: massive challenges for the manufacturing and retailing of television that 59 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:09,160 Speaker 3: we think can be solved with objectivity. We're seeing large 60 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:13,440 Speaker 3: scale issues for publishers because they're competing with content apps 61 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:17,440 Speaker 3: owned by the operating systems themselves, and then for advertisers, 62 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:20,840 Speaker 3: they're not able to get accurate signal and most effectively, 63 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:22,920 Speaker 3: enter this space when they really want to. And this 64 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:26,440 Speaker 3: all comes down to a user experience that also is 65 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:29,760 Speaker 3: incredibly confusing and frankly untrustworthy for users where they can't 66 00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:33,919 Speaker 3: necessarily trust the recommendations and the pixels on their screen 67 00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:35,800 Speaker 3: that are coming their way because it is meant to 68 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:38,440 Speaker 3: serve somebody else's use case and not necessarily theirs. 69 00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:42,480 Speaker 1: Okay, and so what will Ventur bring to the table 70 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 1: that kind of you know, helps solve some of those problems? 71 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:52,400 Speaker 3: Sure, so let's start with OEMs and retailers. The manufacturing 72 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:55,840 Speaker 3: televisions is incredibly margin challenged right now, and this was 73 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:58,800 Speaker 3: before tariffs came into play. When when you're making a 74 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:02,800 Speaker 3: television and you're selling it television, you're making a couple 75 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:07,040 Speaker 3: dollars or in some cases negative margin once every five 76 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:09,800 Speaker 3: to six years. When you sell that television, and when 77 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,200 Speaker 3: you sell that television with perhaps Amazon's OS on it, 78 00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:15,840 Speaker 3: then you're handing over the customer relationship to the world's 79 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:19,120 Speaker 3: largest retailer who may not necessarily drive them back into 80 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:22,200 Speaker 3: your store to buy the next television. So by having 81 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:25,520 Speaker 3: an independent and objective OS there, you're able to build 82 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:29,320 Speaker 3: a recurring revenue stream that lasts beyond that point of 83 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:32,840 Speaker 3: sale for retailers. For publishers, that means you're not going 84 00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:36,680 Speaker 3: to be competing directly with the OS, and being the 85 00:04:36,680 --> 00:04:40,080 Speaker 3: OS brings a lot of power. We've seen this in 86 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 3: the mobile phone space. We've seen this in the desktop space, 87 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 3: where you control everything that's happening on that screen. So 88 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:47,919 Speaker 3: if you're a publisher and you're competing with the owner 89 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:50,120 Speaker 3: of the operating system, you're pretty much going to lose 90 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:53,440 Speaker 3: every jump ball possible. So if you're a publisher, you 91 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:57,080 Speaker 3: want to be on an objective platform so you have 92 00:04:57,120 --> 00:04:59,599 Speaker 3: a level playing field to get your media scene just 93 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:03,400 Speaker 3: as eas as anybody else's. And then for users, you're 94 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:07,040 Speaker 3: able again to trust the recommendations. You're able to know 95 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:10,800 Speaker 3: that this thing has my personalization at heart, and it's 96 00:05:10,839 --> 00:05:12,680 Speaker 3: sending me two things that I want to see, not 97 00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:15,800 Speaker 3: necessarily that my corporate overlord wants to see right right. 98 00:05:17,320 --> 00:05:20,320 Speaker 1: And then, you know, you're talking a lot about the 99 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:24,200 Speaker 1: benefits for publishers, what about advertisers? You know, how will 100 00:05:24,920 --> 00:05:28,040 Speaker 1: Venture kind of address the problems in the supply chain 101 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:29,800 Speaker 1: that we hear so much about in that the trade 102 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:31,159 Speaker 1: desk talks a lot about. 103 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:33,360 Speaker 3: Sure, Yeah, I mean advertising is our core business and 104 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:35,640 Speaker 3: the reason why we think we even have the right 105 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:38,960 Speaker 3: to compete against some of the most successful companies in 106 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:41,960 Speaker 3: the history of capitalism in Amazon and Google in particular. 107 00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:46,440 Speaker 3: Advertisers are increasingly telling us and showing us that they 108 00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:49,120 Speaker 3: want to invest more in CTV. It is an amazing 109 00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:53,760 Speaker 3: advertising product. Again, the quality of the media is as 110 00:05:53,839 --> 00:05:58,880 Speaker 3: high as it can be. It's incredibly immersive because you're 111 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:01,719 Speaker 3: usually watching it in a large screen and most of 112 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:03,680 Speaker 3: the time the users are logged in in one way 113 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:06,240 Speaker 3: or another, so it's authenticated so you can track it well. 114 00:06:07,279 --> 00:06:10,120 Speaker 3: So averatis want to spend more, but they're increasingly hitting 115 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:14,280 Speaker 3: these walls of fragmentation of how inventory is being divided up. 116 00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:18,719 Speaker 3: So when you're an OS traditionally you're exerting this leverage 117 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:20,760 Speaker 3: to tell every publisher, Hey, if you want to be 118 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:22,960 Speaker 3: on OS, you have to pay us a tax and 119 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:27,080 Speaker 3: every new subscription that's being originated on our platform. And 120 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:29,040 Speaker 3: then number two, you need to give us a certain 121 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:32,400 Speaker 3: percentage of your advertising inventory for us to sell ourselves, 122 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:35,160 Speaker 3: which means that the OS is again are taking advertising 123 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:38,800 Speaker 3: inventory and selling it in market next to the owners 124 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:41,760 Speaker 3: of that inventory. So you are competing again in the 125 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:44,880 Speaker 3: advertising space with the OS. What we're going to be 126 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:47,560 Speaker 3: able to do number one is clarify that supply chain, 127 00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:49,800 Speaker 3: So we're going to allow the inventory to stay with 128 00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:52,440 Speaker 3: the publisher, and the publisher in the OEM can figure 129 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:54,400 Speaker 3: out how to divide that up, and then we'll bring 130 00:06:54,440 --> 00:06:57,280 Speaker 3: our core products to help it be transacted on as 131 00:06:57,279 --> 00:07:02,520 Speaker 3: transparently as possible. At every dollar that an advertiser wants 132 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:05,360 Speaker 3: to spend will get directly to the publisher and not 133 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:08,440 Speaker 3: be taxed by multiple parties in between that perhaps aren't 134 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:11,000 Speaker 3: contributing as much value as they should be. 135 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:14,520 Speaker 1: And what do you think the effects and possibly the 136 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:16,680 Speaker 1: benefits of that will be for you know, kind of 137 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:18,320 Speaker 1: the ad market as a whole. 138 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:24,800 Speaker 3: Transparency is probably number one, because again, when an advertiser's 139 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:28,520 Speaker 3: buying something, they want to have as much confidence that 140 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:31,520 Speaker 3: they know what it is, where it'll run, and that 141 00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:34,080 Speaker 3: they're advertising to a particular person and they'll pay up 142 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 3: for that. So the benefits will be from a publisher's standpoint, 143 00:07:37,920 --> 00:07:40,400 Speaker 3: you know, they really are looking at what percentage of 144 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,280 Speaker 3: their inventory or is actually getting sold and at what price. 145 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:46,240 Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of room to improve your 146 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:48,840 Speaker 3: cell through rate all these publishers, we want to help 147 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:50,960 Speaker 3: sell one hundred percent of their ad inventory, and we 148 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 3: want to sell it at competitive prices. If we do 149 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:55,840 Speaker 3: both of those things, advertisers will be getting more for 150 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:57,960 Speaker 3: their money and publishers will be capturing more of those 151 00:07:58,000 --> 00:07:58,640 Speaker 3: ad dollars. 152 00:08:01,640 --> 00:08:05,280 Speaker 1: So you also mentioned the strategy of letting manufacturers control 153 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:07,680 Speaker 1: more of the ad inventory. Can you tell us a 154 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:09,720 Speaker 1: little bit more about that and how that is going 155 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:10,119 Speaker 1: to work? 156 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:14,160 Speaker 3: Sure, So, manufacturers of television's OEMs as we call them, 157 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:17,480 Speaker 3: and retailers are looking for ways to turn the selling 158 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:21,480 Speaker 3: of television into a recurring revenue stream, and so that 159 00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:25,160 Speaker 3: traditionally has brought them to advertising and content broadly. And 160 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:28,040 Speaker 3: so when you have that challenge in front of you, you 161 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:31,080 Speaker 3: really have two choices. You can choose to build all 162 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:32,960 Speaker 3: of this in house, so you have to build your 163 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,160 Speaker 3: own operating system, your own content team, your own ads team. 164 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:38,719 Speaker 3: We're seeing folks like Samsung and LG do this with 165 00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 3: some success. Or you can choose to outsource all of 166 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:45,520 Speaker 3: that to a big tech company at Google and Amazon 167 00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:49,319 Speaker 3: exchange for a check. And we think there's a better way, 168 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:52,720 Speaker 3: which is the OEMs don't necessarily want to be selling 169 00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:55,720 Speaker 3: the ad inventory themselves. They want the revenue that comes 170 00:08:55,760 --> 00:08:58,440 Speaker 3: through it. I would argue that the best people to 171 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:01,200 Speaker 3: be selling that inventory are the public themselves. And so 172 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:03,520 Speaker 3: what Ventura allows us to do is to connect those 173 00:09:03,559 --> 00:09:07,199 Speaker 3: OEMs and the publishers directly, so that Disney can still 174 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:10,520 Speaker 3: sell all of their inventory and not feel like they 175 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:12,840 Speaker 3: have to obfuscate it and charge a fair price for 176 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:14,840 Speaker 3: it and share a certain percentage of that back to 177 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:17,760 Speaker 3: the OEMs. So the oms can build an advertising revenue 178 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:21,440 Speaker 3: stream without necessarily having to do all the investment required 179 00:09:21,480 --> 00:09:23,920 Speaker 3: to build the tech stack themselves, to build the advertising 180 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:26,360 Speaker 3: sales team and everything that comes along with it. 181 00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:30,760 Speaker 1: Yeah, and so what I'm hearing is that, like the 182 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:33,240 Speaker 1: OEMs are going to get to kind of read more 183 00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: of the benefits from you know, AD revenues and things 184 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 1: like that, which is kind of more than they would 185 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:41,280 Speaker 1: typically get to participate in with with other OS's. 186 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:46,120 Speaker 3: Absolutely, when you're an OEM that hasn't built their own OS. 187 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:49,560 Speaker 3: So you're going to Google, You're going to Amazon, you're 188 00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:52,880 Speaker 3: not participating at all. In most cases, if you're lucky, 189 00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:56,000 Speaker 3: you maybe are getting a per device bounty where Google 190 00:09:56,040 --> 00:09:58,240 Speaker 3: Amazon is giving you a small check per every device, 191 00:09:58,280 --> 00:10:00,439 Speaker 3: but that's a flat fee, so you get paid once 192 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:03,560 Speaker 3: and Google and Amazon are doing that because they know 193 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:05,679 Speaker 3: that they'll make way more than that over the lifetime 194 00:10:05,679 --> 00:10:07,640 Speaker 3: of that television. So we're making sure that all of 195 00:10:07,640 --> 00:10:09,640 Speaker 3: that revenue is able to go back to the OEM 196 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:11,200 Speaker 3: and not captured by a third party. 197 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:13,599 Speaker 1: And yeah, I kind of do have to ask, what 198 00:10:14,040 --> 00:10:15,920 Speaker 1: is the benefit for you guys of kind of giving 199 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:18,120 Speaker 1: up this this revenue stream in this way. You know 200 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:21,920 Speaker 1: why I kind of approach it in this with the strategy, we. 201 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:25,040 Speaker 3: Have the benefit of having a core business as an 202 00:10:25,040 --> 00:10:27,840 Speaker 3: ad tech firm that perfectly aligns with growing this pie. 203 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:30,680 Speaker 3: And so you know, we're not doing this as a 204 00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:34,199 Speaker 3: loss leader, as a philanthropic exercise. We're doing it because 205 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:38,120 Speaker 3: we believe that more transparency in the CTV ecosystem, a 206 00:10:38,120 --> 00:10:40,640 Speaker 3: fair auction where everybody knows what they're bidding on it 207 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:43,959 Speaker 3: who they're bidding against, will benefit our core business. And 208 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,120 Speaker 3: if it benefits our core business, that allows us to 209 00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:50,880 Speaker 3: make advertisers more effective in their campaigns and frankly, bring 210 00:10:50,920 --> 00:10:53,679 Speaker 3: more dollars back to the media. Companies that are investing 211 00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:55,760 Speaker 3: in this amazing content can. 212 00:10:55,640 --> 00:10:58,559 Speaker 1: You tell us anything about you know, how potential manufacturing 213 00:10:58,559 --> 00:11:00,560 Speaker 1: partners have been responding to the strategy do so far. 214 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:04,120 Speaker 3: They're incredibly excited because they've been looking for this solution 215 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:07,439 Speaker 3: right again pre tariffs, post tariffs, you know, as they 216 00:11:07,559 --> 00:11:10,440 Speaker 3: really try and figure out what this business looks like. 217 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:15,120 Speaker 3: They need something sustainable and recurring to build a business 218 00:11:15,160 --> 00:11:18,200 Speaker 3: model against, and so they're definitely leaning in on the 219 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:21,360 Speaker 3: commercial side. The other thing that they're really excited about 220 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:24,800 Speaker 3: is the flexibility and customization that our platform brings. So again, 221 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:27,800 Speaker 3: if you are a retailer or if you're an OEM, 222 00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:31,280 Speaker 3: you would prefer to still extend your brand and maintain 223 00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:33,880 Speaker 3: that customer connection with people in their living rooms. You're 224 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:36,040 Speaker 3: going through all the trouble to make these amazing pieces 225 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:38,120 Speaker 3: of electronics, and you're going through the trouble of placing 226 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:40,800 Speaker 3: them in people's homes, and so we think they deserve 227 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:43,200 Speaker 3: to be able to customize what the os looks like 228 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:46,240 Speaker 3: as well to extend their brands. It's not as important 229 00:11:46,280 --> 00:11:49,840 Speaker 3: for us that the Ventura logo is huge everywhere. We'd 230 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:52,480 Speaker 3: rather have the OEMs and the logos in there because 231 00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:55,920 Speaker 3: they're bringing the value to installing those televisions, So they're 232 00:11:55,960 --> 00:11:58,440 Speaker 3: excited about the commercial side, but they're also excited about 233 00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:00,000 Speaker 3: the brand flexibility side as well. 234 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:02,840 Speaker 1: Well, Yeah, I want to talk a little bit more 235 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:05,800 Speaker 1: about that customization that you mentioned, because I was just 236 00:12:05,840 --> 00:12:08,400 Speaker 1: reading about that that's the OS is kind of designed 237 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:11,120 Speaker 1: to be sort of modular. How is that going to 238 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:11,760 Speaker 1: work exactly? 239 00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:16,200 Speaker 3: Yeah, So it starts with our ad supply chain stack, 240 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:19,839 Speaker 3: meaning we want the auctions that are happening for all 241 00:12:19,920 --> 00:12:22,839 Speaker 3: the ads that run on Ventura to be as transparent 242 00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:25,720 Speaker 3: and as fair as possible. That allows us to compete 243 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:27,840 Speaker 3: as the core business and trade desk, but that allows 244 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:30,520 Speaker 3: everybody else in the ad tech community to compete as well. 245 00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:34,000 Speaker 3: And anytime we brought more transparency to any part of 246 00:12:34,559 --> 00:12:38,600 Speaker 3: the ad tech space, all boats have risen who are 247 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:41,160 Speaker 3: adding value there. So that's the core module that we 248 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:43,680 Speaker 3: bring on top of that. Then, obviously we have the 249 00:12:43,720 --> 00:12:47,679 Speaker 3: core services around our catalog, our search engine, and recommendation 250 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:51,480 Speaker 3: engine that make it function as an OS and function 251 00:12:51,559 --> 00:12:54,080 Speaker 3: as something that's really valuable to users. And then you 252 00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:56,720 Speaker 3: have the user interface on top, which has to have 253 00:12:56,800 --> 00:13:00,080 Speaker 3: certain common elements around the continue watching feature that we 254 00:13:00,160 --> 00:13:02,800 Speaker 3: have where we're pulling in all of your progress, that 255 00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:06,120 Speaker 3: cost all of your apps into one place, our app 256 00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:09,240 Speaker 3: store that allows all the apps that you would want 257 00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:12,000 Speaker 3: to watch content on to be there. But there's certain 258 00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:15,360 Speaker 3: elements of that user interface that you know, have font 259 00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:18,920 Speaker 3: choices and colors and logo placements, and that's where we're 260 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:23,000 Speaker 3: able to offer a lot more flexibility to OEMs versus 261 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:25,200 Speaker 3: what they're offered from other partners where it's really take 262 00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:27,840 Speaker 3: it or leave it. So we're really excited at being 263 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:29,839 Speaker 3: able to offer them that because they haven't been able 264 00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:32,080 Speaker 3: to take advantage of that for a long time. 265 00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:35,880 Speaker 1: So really, the interface could look different, you know, from 266 00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:39,439 Speaker 1: manufacturer to manufacturer, depending on you know what the features 267 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:41,520 Speaker 1: that they want to prioritize completely. 268 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:43,439 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not just the look and feel. There are 269 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:46,440 Speaker 3: certain features. If you're a retailer has a loyalty program 270 00:13:46,559 --> 00:13:49,760 Speaker 3: or a tech support offering, will integrate that into the 271 00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:52,080 Speaker 3: OS as well, so that again, if you're a user 272 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:55,640 Speaker 3: who subscribes to that program or bought that warranty, everything 273 00:13:55,679 --> 00:13:58,120 Speaker 3: should be in one place. It shouldn't feel as fragmented 274 00:13:58,160 --> 00:13:58,840 Speaker 3: as it is now. 275 00:13:59,080 --> 00:14:02,280 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's really interesting. I do want to talk 276 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:04,199 Speaker 1: a little bit more about you know, the user experience. 277 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:06,560 Speaker 1: I feel like that's something that often kind of gets 278 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:08,960 Speaker 1: left out of the conversation when it comes to talking 279 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:12,839 Speaker 1: about CTV, but it feels so vital to me. I mean, 280 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:16,400 Speaker 1: you know, as a user of these you know technologies myself, 281 00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:19,280 Speaker 1: I often find the experience frustrating. How are you guys 282 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:21,440 Speaker 1: kind of approaching that side of things now? 283 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:24,640 Speaker 3: I appreciate you pointing that out, because you know, all 284 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:27,360 Speaker 3: the data that we have shows that users are not 285 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:32,160 Speaker 3: very particular about what OS they choose, and in most 286 00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:36,080 Speaker 3: cases it's downstream from screen size and price of their 287 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:38,200 Speaker 3: television and the OS. This sort of comes along for 288 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:40,840 Speaker 3: the ride, and I think to your point, that shows 289 00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:44,920 Speaker 3: that we're not doing enough to build amazing user interfaces 290 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:48,160 Speaker 3: for folks. So one of our core principles first is 291 00:14:48,160 --> 00:14:52,200 Speaker 3: that we're going to be content first, meaning we're partnering 292 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:54,640 Speaker 3: with all the publishers, and because we're an objective partner, 293 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:56,760 Speaker 3: they're willing to give us access to their catalogs that 294 00:14:56,760 --> 00:14:59,960 Speaker 3: they don't necessarily give to other OS's where we can 295 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:04,080 Speaker 3: pull out individual shows, individual movies and present those two 296 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:06,960 Speaker 3: on the core home screen versus having you have to 297 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:09,520 Speaker 3: click into every app to try and find something. So 298 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:11,800 Speaker 3: that shows up in something like I mentioned before is 299 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:14,960 Speaker 3: our continue Watching feature, where we're able to pull from 300 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:17,120 Speaker 3: every app that you have see it in one place, 301 00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:20,120 Speaker 3: and we've seen that be at least sixty percent of 302 00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:22,000 Speaker 3: the time that you turn on your television, you're going 303 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:24,840 Speaker 3: right there because you're either picking up the next episode 304 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:27,360 Speaker 3: or you're halfway through a movie or anything like that. 305 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:30,520 Speaker 3: Beyond that, it also means that we can be objective 306 00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:32,760 Speaker 3: in what we recommend to you at any given time. 307 00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:35,840 Speaker 3: So obviously a big problem that everyone's been trying to 308 00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:39,160 Speaker 3: solve is live sports. Right there is incredible urgency to 309 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:41,600 Speaker 3: turn on your television and find the game that you want. 310 00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:44,480 Speaker 3: It's increasingly becoming harder to find it as sports rights 311 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:48,320 Speaker 3: have been divvied up in eighteen thousand different places. But 312 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:51,920 Speaker 3: by building a content first user interface, we'll be able 313 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:54,520 Speaker 3: to give that to you directly in the largest possible square, 314 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:56,880 Speaker 3: right when you turn on your television, and then in 315 00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:59,520 Speaker 3: those minority of situations where you don't know what you 316 00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:01,640 Speaker 3: want to watch, we'll be able to give you the 317 00:16:01,640 --> 00:16:05,920 Speaker 3: best recommendations possible by both learning about you ourselves, but 318 00:16:06,040 --> 00:16:08,920 Speaker 3: also by pulling out the recommendations from each one of 319 00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:14,200 Speaker 3: your apps. Obviously, partners like Netflix have invested a tremendous 320 00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:17,080 Speaker 3: amount in trying to give you the best recommendations possible. 321 00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:20,320 Speaker 3: They've built very advanced algorithms, so it's Disney, HBO max 322 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:23,120 Speaker 3: all them down the line. There's no reason that you 323 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:25,360 Speaker 3: shouldn't be able to benefit those on the home screen 324 00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:27,640 Speaker 3: as well. So it's really a mix of being able 325 00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:30,440 Speaker 3: to do our own recommendations but also marry them with 326 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:33,240 Speaker 3: all the amazing work that the apps do individually. 327 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:37,120 Speaker 1: That's interesting. You know, you mentioned that you know, os 328 00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:39,640 Speaker 1: often kind of doesn't make a difference for consumers. It 329 00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:43,240 Speaker 1: sounds like something that that Sorry, it sounds like that's 330 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:46,480 Speaker 1: something that you guys want to change. You know, how 331 00:16:46,480 --> 00:16:48,120 Speaker 1: do you think we can kind of get to a 332 00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:50,000 Speaker 1: place where consumers are thinking more about that? 333 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:53,920 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the first the first step is to 334 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:56,960 Speaker 3: expose it to them, right, So the first step still 335 00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:01,480 Speaker 3: is solving the commercial and customization wants and desires of 336 00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:03,720 Speaker 3: these own OEMs and retailers so that we get a 337 00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:06,520 Speaker 3: shot at showing them what a differentiated user experience can 338 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:10,560 Speaker 3: look like. But a real sign of success down the line, 339 00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:13,080 Speaker 3: and this will take multiple years. Is that users start 340 00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:15,400 Speaker 3: to have a preference, and then if there's televisions who 341 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:17,879 Speaker 3: have equal specs of size and costs and one of 342 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:19,960 Speaker 3: them is powered by a ventur that they're choosing that 343 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:23,000 Speaker 3: over the other option. So we'll look at that down 344 00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:26,200 Speaker 3: the line. We won't get there right away, because again 345 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:28,040 Speaker 3: we have to build this audience. We have to show 346 00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:30,560 Speaker 3: them both what we think an OS can be today 347 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:31,800 Speaker 3: and what it should be in the future. 348 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:35,040 Speaker 1: I'm curious, are there any particular features that you know 349 00:17:35,119 --> 00:17:38,240 Speaker 1: that consumers are looking for in smart TVs that they're 350 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:39,320 Speaker 1: maybe not getting right now. 351 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:44,040 Speaker 3: We've definitely seen a lot of interest and in our 352 00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:48,760 Speaker 3: research surveys direct interest in our continue watching feature, something 353 00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:53,119 Speaker 3: that truly can bring in every single app. Certainly. Another 354 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:55,920 Speaker 3: one is the live sports feature, where again we're able 355 00:17:55,960 --> 00:17:58,359 Speaker 3: to go across all the apps that you have subscriptions 356 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:01,919 Speaker 3: or access to and pull out the exact match that 357 00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:05,360 Speaker 3: you want at that particular time. Search is another one 358 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:09,040 Speaker 3: for sure, where if you're searching for something that maybe 359 00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:11,320 Speaker 3: a show that may sit the new episodes in one 360 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:13,560 Speaker 3: place the old episodes in another, that we can help 361 00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:16,960 Speaker 3: you sort that through. And then something like a unified 362 00:18:16,960 --> 00:18:19,800 Speaker 3: watch list is really interesting to folks too, where you 363 00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:23,040 Speaker 3: know you're obviously favoriting things or putting things on a 364 00:18:23,080 --> 00:18:25,560 Speaker 3: list in each individual app, but you're not necessarily able 365 00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:27,520 Speaker 3: to pull them all together. And that's something we're also 366 00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:28,080 Speaker 3: able to do. 367 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:30,040 Speaker 1: I don't want to name any names, but I am 368 00:18:30,119 --> 00:18:32,399 Speaker 1: often kind of appalled by how bad the search function 369 00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:35,080 Speaker 1: often still is on some of these interfaces. 370 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:39,359 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's hard technically, and again it takes 371 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:42,400 Speaker 3: an integration in a close partnership with the publishers because 372 00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:45,159 Speaker 3: they need to give you access to what their catalogs 373 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:47,160 Speaker 3: are and a lot of the metadata that comes along 374 00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:50,400 Speaker 3: with it, and the entitlements you subscribe to this tier 375 00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:54,239 Speaker 3: and not that tier to really build a corpus that 376 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:58,080 Speaker 3: you can build a great search experience on. And I 377 00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:02,400 Speaker 3: empathize with the publishers because again they need to existentially 378 00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:05,240 Speaker 3: be onto these platforms, but they also don't want to 379 00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:08,159 Speaker 3: help their direct competitors by giving them access to the 380 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:12,840 Speaker 3: catalog or access to engagement information about which shows are working, 381 00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:15,639 Speaker 3: because that same os as another division that is bidding 382 00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:17,800 Speaker 3: against them for that next big show or that next 383 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:20,240 Speaker 3: big sports right, so that puts us in a position 384 00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:22,560 Speaker 3: again where we can build trust publishers or able to 385 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:25,679 Speaker 3: give us access to that information that they probably wouldn't 386 00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:27,920 Speaker 3: for other partners to build a better user experience. 387 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:31,280 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really interesting. I don't want to leave the 388 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:33,760 Speaker 1: retail side of things out of this conversation. You know, 389 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:35,960 Speaker 1: you have mentioned tariffs a couple of times. You know, 390 00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:38,840 Speaker 1: I'm curious what the kind of the economic climate right 391 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:41,960 Speaker 1: now how that's been impacting some of your conversations with 392 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:43,919 Speaker 1: manufacturers and retailers. 393 00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:48,440 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's it's tough. I sympathize with them 394 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:54,000 Speaker 3: because there's so much uncertainty and each component that goes 395 00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:56,560 Speaker 3: into a television you're looking at down to the penny, 396 00:19:57,680 --> 00:20:01,240 Speaker 3: the system on a CHIPI conductor that you're putting in there, 397 00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:04,960 Speaker 3: the memory, the motherboard. Getting it all packaged up, getting 398 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:10,240 Speaker 3: it chipped over is an incredibly complicated challenge that both 399 00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:13,120 Speaker 3: manufacturers and to your point, retailers have to deal with. 400 00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:18,160 Speaker 3: And so especially post Walmart and Visio, every retailer, whether 401 00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:22,920 Speaker 3: they're national or regional, is looking at their television strategy again. 402 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:26,960 Speaker 1: Yeah, just to clarify, Walmart acquired smart TV manufacturer Visio 403 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:27,920 Speaker 1: late last year. 404 00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:32,919 Speaker 3: Correct, Walmart's a longtime partner of ours, and it's been 405 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:35,240 Speaker 3: really interesting to work with them to help stand that up. 406 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:39,359 Speaker 3: And every other retailer is also thinking about their strategy there. 407 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:42,679 Speaker 3: What's amazing about what we offer that we didn't necessarily 408 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,840 Speaker 3: have in market even when that acquisition went down, was 409 00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:48,760 Speaker 3: we can give retailers pretty much one hundred percent of 410 00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:51,359 Speaker 3: the value that Walmart's getting from Visio without having to 411 00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:54,120 Speaker 3: acquire their own OS because of the customization we bring, 412 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:57,639 Speaker 3: because of the tie ins to whatever ad business they 413 00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:00,879 Speaker 3: already have, and put them in a place where, again 414 00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:03,960 Speaker 3: they could overnight flip a switch and basically have their 415 00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:06,439 Speaker 3: own in house OS and all the benefits that it brings. 416 00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:10,280 Speaker 1: Interesting. So, you know, I'm curious, you know, your thoughts 417 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:13,400 Speaker 1: on Ventro's prospects for adoption. You know, I know that 418 00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:15,640 Speaker 1: some observers have said that you guys kind of face 419 00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:17,919 Speaker 1: an uphill battle just because of how crowded the market is, 420 00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:20,919 Speaker 1: things like that. What's kind of your response to that. 421 00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:23,840 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, they're right, it is a crowded market, 422 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:27,960 Speaker 3: and they're right that these upgrade cycles take a while. Right. 423 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:33,320 Speaker 3: Number one, people usually buy a new television once every 424 00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:36,480 Speaker 3: five to seven years at this point, and a lot 425 00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:39,400 Speaker 3: of the OEMs and retailers have relationships with the existing 426 00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:42,680 Speaker 3: OSS that come up once a year, every three years, 427 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:46,720 Speaker 3: every five years, or whatnot. So fitting into all of 428 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:51,320 Speaker 3: those is a challenge, but one that we're handling really well. 429 00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:54,600 Speaker 3: I think what's really interesting that people are not necessarily 430 00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:58,560 Speaker 3: appreciating is how uncertain the OS space feels. For the 431 00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:01,399 Speaker 3: first time in a while, we're seeing some of the 432 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:04,080 Speaker 3: larger players like Google, just to call one out, who 433 00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:07,080 Speaker 3: is actively reducing the size of the team working on 434 00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:10,679 Speaker 3: Google TV and Android TV. I think most of the 435 00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:15,000 Speaker 3: major OSS are very publicly reevaluating their investment in it. 436 00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:18,280 Speaker 3: And that's often because if you're part of a big 437 00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:20,320 Speaker 3: tech company and you're a project like this, you're the 438 00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:23,320 Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty seventh most important product at that 439 00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:25,760 Speaker 3: company at any given time, and if somebody who is 440 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:28,080 Speaker 3: more important sits down in your product meeting, you're doing 441 00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:30,879 Speaker 3: what they're doing to build your fast service or to 442 00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:33,320 Speaker 3: build your AD product or your AI product or whatever 443 00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:36,359 Speaker 3: it is. And so I think there's going to be 444 00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:39,760 Speaker 3: a lot more space than people appreciate in the future 445 00:22:39,760 --> 00:22:42,080 Speaker 3: that I think we're well positioned to capture. But even 446 00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:44,840 Speaker 3: in the meantime, we're fitting into the normal cycles and 447 00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:48,160 Speaker 3: offering something that's commercially more advantageous and from a brand 448 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:50,919 Speaker 3: perspective more advantageous. So we're in a really nice spot. 449 00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:54,720 Speaker 1: Yeah. Interesting, it'll be. I think it'll be fascinating to follow. 450 00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:58,920 Speaker 1: I hope to continue following it and covering it. Has 451 00:22:58,920 --> 00:22:59,440 Speaker 1: it been doing? 452 00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:02,480 Speaker 3: Best to luck to you guys, appreciate it, Thanks so much, 453 00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:07,080 Speaker 3: Thanks for listening. 454 00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:10,400 Speaker 2: Be sure to leave us a review at Apple Podcasts 455 00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:14,040 Speaker 2: or Amazon Music. We love to hear from listeners. Please 456 00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:16,560 Speaker 2: go to Variety dot com and sign up for the 457 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:21,000 Speaker 2: free weekly Strictly Business newsletter, and don't forget to tune 458 00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:24,560 Speaker 2: in next week for another episode of Strictly Business.