The Invisible Crisis in Connected TV
We are currently witnessing a massive philosophical and technical shift in the television advertising industry. For decades, the "currency" of TV—the data upon which billions of dollars changed hands—was monolithic. You bought the GRP, you trusted the panel, and you went home. Today, that monolith has shattered. We have entered the era of the "Currency Wars," with Nielsen, iSpot, VideoAmp, Comscore, and others vying to become the new standard of truth. However, from my vantage point at Red Volcano, analyzing the torrent of bid requests and supply-path data that flows through the ecosystem daily, I would argue that the industry is fixated on the wrong problem. We are obsessing over the scale by which we weigh the goods, while completely ignoring the fact that we often cannot identify the goods themselves. The prerequisite for a multi-currency market is not better counting algorithms; it is standardized identification of the asset being consumed. In the fragmented world of Connected TV (CTV), that asset is the content itself. Without a standardized, persistent, and universal way to identify what is being watched (down to the episode level), "currency independence" is a pipe dream. This article explores the concept of the Metadata Backbone: the idea that Universal Content IDs (such as EIDR) are not just "nice-to-have" metadata fields in a bid request, but the fundamental architecture required to support a decentralized, privacy-safe, and high-yield CTV ecosystem.
The Flaw in the "Currency Independence" Argument
To understand why content IDs are critical, we must first look at the friction in the current buying model. Advertisers want "Currency Independence"—the ability to transact on their preferred metric, regardless of the publisher. However, different currencies rely on different methodologies. Some use Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) data from glass-level manufacturers (Samsung, VIZIO, LG). Others use set-top box data. Others use panel-based calibration. The friction arises when a buyer tries to execute a cross-publisher campaign using a specific currency (e.g., iSpot) across an inventory landscape that is operationally opaque. If Publisher A sends a bid request describing a show as "Law & Order: SVU - Season 12," and Publisher B sends a request for "L&O SVU S12 Ep 4," and Publisher C simply sends "nbc_drama_bundle," the measurement partner has to perform massive, error-prone probabilistic matching to unify that reach. In this scenario, the measurement provider becomes the bottleneck. They have to map the chaos of the supply chain to their own internal content graph. This creates two massive inefficiencies:
- Loss of Fidelity: When metadata is messy, impressions are often categorized as "General Entertainment" rather than specific high-value programs. This is revenue leakage for the SSP and the publisher.
- Vendor Lock-in: If only one measurement currency has successfully mapped a specific publisher's messy metadata, the buyer is forced to use that currency to buy that publisher. That is the opposite of independence.
True currency independence means the data regarding what was shown is immutable and standardized, allowing any currency provider to ingest the log files and calculate their specific metrics (reach, frequency, attention) without having to guess at the content.
Universal Content IDs: The supply Chain's UPC Code
The solution to this chaos is already standardized, yet woefully underutilized in the programmatic bid stream: the Universal Content ID. The most prominent example is the EIDR (Entertainment ID Registry), though ISAN (International Standard Audiovisual Number) plays a similar role in certain markets. Think of EIDR as the UPC code or the ISBN for video assets. It is a unique, persistent identifier that resolves to a specific piece of content, regardless of platform, distribution channel, or file format.
The Structure of a Universal ID
An EIDR ID is opaque, meaning it doesn't contain the title in the string itself, but it points to a registry entry that does. It looks something like this:
10.5240/1489-49A2-3956-4B2D-FE16-5
When an SSP passes this ID in the bid stream, they are no longer saying "We think this is The Office." They are mathematically asserting, "This is Asset 10.5240/XXXX."
Why does this matter for the supply side?
- Programmatic Context: In the absence of cookies and device IDs (which are facing regulatory headwinds), contextual data is king. A Universal Content ID unlocks the full metadata payload (Genre, Rating, Director, Actors, Mood) from the registry without bloating the bid request.
- Brand Safety verification: Buyers use pre-bid verification vendors (like IAS or DoubleVerify). These vendors rely on metadata to flag unsuitable content. If the metadata is ambiguous, the default action is often to block the bid. A Universal ID is a "whitelist" token.
- Frequency Management: To manage frequency at the show level across different apps (e.g., avoiding showing the same ad 5 times during one episode of a show that is syndicated across three different FAST channels), the buy-side needs a common identifier for that episode.
The Technical Reality: OpenRTB and the Content Object
At Red Volcano, we spend a significant amount of time analyzing the structure of OpenRTB requests to help SSPs optimize their integration with demand sources. The adoption of OpenRTB 2.6 has provided the plumbing necessary to make the Metadata Backbone a reality, but the industry is slow to turn the tap on.
In OpenRTB, the content object is where this magic happens. Specifically, the content.id, content.series, and the critical content.data array.
Here is a simplified example of what a mediocre bid request looks like versus a "Currency Ready" bid request.
The Status Quo (Mediocre Metadata)
{
"site": {
"content": {
"title": "Local News at 6",
"cat": ["IAB1-1"],
"keywords": "news, local, video"
}
}
}
This request tells the DSP almost nothing. It is generic. It will likely clear at a floor price or be ignored by sophisticated algorithms looking for premium inventory.
The Metadata Backbone (Currency Ready)
{
"site": {
"content": {
"id": "10.5240/1489-49A2-3956-4B2D-FE16-5",
"title": "Top Gun: Maverick",
"series": "Top Gun Franchise",
"genre": "Action",
"livestream": 0,
"len": 7860,
"data": [
{
"name": "EIDR",
"ext": {
"segtax": 600 // hypothetical taxonomy ID for EIDR
},
"segment": [
{
"id": "10.5240/1489-49A2-3956-4B2D-FE16-5",
"name": "Top Gun: Maverick (2022)"
}
]
}
]
}
}
}
In the second example, the inclusion of the specific ID allows the DSP to instantly query an external database or the EIDR API. They immediately know the actors, the exact duration, the brand safety rating, and the production year. More importantly, if the buyer is using VideoAmp to measure the campaign, VideoAmp's system ingests that ID and instantly credits the impression to the correct program bucket. No fuzzy matching required.
Why SSPs Must Lead the Charge
Historically, metadata enrichment was viewed as a "publisher problem." The publisher manages the CMS; the publisher should send the data. However, in the complex world of FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) and programmatic resale, the chain of custody is messy. SSPs are uniquely positioned to enforce the Metadata Backbone. They sit at the aggregation point.
- Normalization as a Service: SSPs that can ingest messy publisher data, map it to a Universal Content ID, and emit a clean OpenRTB request will win the "Quality War." This is a tangible value-add over being a dumb pipe.
- The "Premium" Tier: We are likely moving toward a tiered inventory world. Tier 1 inventory has fully resolved Content IDs and typically authenticated user IDs. Tier 2 has one or the other. Tier 3 has neither. The CPM delta between Tier 1 and Tier 3 will continue to widen.
- Competitive Exclusion: One of the biggest complaints from CTV buyers is "ad collision" (seeing the same ad twice in a row). This happens because DSPs can't see that two different bid requests are actually for the same ad pod in the same episode of the same show. Universal Content IDs allow for global frequency capping and collision prevention, making the inventory more attractive to P&G and Unilever types.
The "Golden Record" and Operational Efficiency
At Red Volcano, we talk a lot about the "Golden Record." In data management, this refers to the single source of truth.
For a publisher or an SSP, maintaining a Golden Record of content assets that maps internal CMS IDs to Universal Content IDs is an operational necessity. It reduces the friction of onboarding new demand partners.
Consider the onboarding process for a new measurement partner.
Scenario A (No Backbone): The partner asks for a catalogue dump. The publisher sends a CSV with 10,000 rows of titles. The partner spends 4 weeks manually matching these titles to their system. They achieve a 60% match rate. 40% of inventory is now unmeasurable by that currency.
Scenario B (With Backbone): The publisher sends a list of EIDR codes. The partner ingests it in 30 minutes with a 100% match rate.
The operational savings alone justify the investment in ID mapping.
The Privacy Angle: Context is the New Identity
We cannot discuss the future of ad tech without discussing privacy. As privacy sandboxes tighten and IP addresses become obfuscated (see: Apple's Private Relay and proposed GPC standards), the ability to target based on who is watching is diminishing. Consequently, the ability to target based on what they are watching is increasing in value. However, "Contextual 2.0" requires more than just keywords. It requires semantic understanding of the video. Universal Content IDs bridge the gap between the video file and the semantic database. If I bid on a specific EIDR, I can link that to a scene-by-scene analysis of the content. I can bid on "The car chase scene in Mission Impossible" without knowing anything about the user, other than the fact that they are watching that specific moment. This is the ultimate privacy-safe targeting method, and it relies entirely on the Metadata Backbone.
Recommendations for the Supply Side
If you are a Publisher or an SSP operating in the CTV space, the "Currency Wars" are not just a spectator sport; they are a signal to get your house in order. Here is the strategic guidance I would offer:
- Audit Your Signal Fidelity: Run an analysis of your outbound bid requests. What percentage of them contain a valid `content.id`? What percentage rely on free-text titles? If your "Unknown" rate is higher than 10%, you are leaving money on the table.
- Demand Upstream Compliance: If you are an SSP, you must pressure your publisher partners to pass standardized IDs. If you are a Publisher, you must pressure your content licensors (studios) to provide EIDR codes with the asset delivery.
- Invest in Resolution Tech: There are vendors and APIs dedicated to resolving fuzzy titles to Universal IDs. Integrating this into the pre-bid logic is a high-ROI activity.
- Join the Governance Conversation: Participate in IAB Tech Lab working groups. The standards for how these IDs are passed in OpenRTB 2.6 and beyond are being written now.
Conclusion: The Path to Independence
The promise of CTV is the marriage of TV's emotional impact with Digital's precision. For years, we have failed to live up to that promise because our data infrastructure was built on the shaky foundations of cookies and panel extrapolations. As we move toward a multi-currency world, we need a translation layer that everyone agrees upon. We need to stop arguing about the definitions of "reach" and start agreeing on the definition of "content." Universal Content IDs are that definition. They are the metadata backbone that supports the weight of modern programmatic advertising. For the supply side, adopting them is not just a technical specification; it is a declaration of independence. It allows your inventory to be measured, valued, and transacted upon by anyone, anywhere, without friction. In a fragmented market, that interoperability is the ultimate competitive advantage.