Sky Media has opened its streaming inventory, live sport included, to advertisers buying through Amazon Ads. It is a new door into Sky, but for now it is a fixed-price door, and that matters if your budget depends on buying late.
What’s happened
On 6 October Sky Media and Amazon Ads announced that Sky’s streaming inventory and audiences can now be bought in the UK and Ireland through Amazon Ads Agent, Amazon’s ad-buying platform, as Advanced Television reports. That covers Sky streaming ads across Sky Go, NOW, Sky Glass, Sky Q and Sky Stream, in entertainment, drama, news and live sport, plus Sky Media’s partner services HBO Max, Discovery+ and TNT Sports. Programmatic guaranteed deals, where the price and the volume are agreed before the campaign runs, are available now, and private marketplace deals, where invited buyers bid above a floor price, are due to follow, with no date given. The reports we have read say nothing about prices, minimum spends or how these campaigns will be measured.
Why it matters to late-space TV buyers and fight promoters
Start with what this is not. It is not new airtime, and it is not a new seller. It is the same Sky streaming audience, reached through a different piece of software, with Sky still deciding what it costs. The announcement points to Barb figures showing that 70% of UK households have access to a subscription streaming service, and its pitch is that buying video across all of that has become too complicated. That is fair. But simpler to buy is not the same as cheaper to buy.
The type of deal matters more than the name on the platform. A programmatic guaranteed deal means committing to a fixed price and a fixed volume up front, which is the opposite of how late space works. Our clients save money because we wait: a break that is still unsold close to transmission is worth less to the seller every day, and we negotiate on that. A guaranteed deal takes the waiting out. If you are an auction house with a sale date or a promoter with a fight night, the waiting is usually where the saving is.
The private marketplace is the part to watch. If Sky lets unsold streaming impressions go to invited buyers above a floor price, that starts to look like late space by another name. It could suit a fight-week campaign aimed at people watching live sport on NOW or TNT Sports. We do not know the floor prices yet, or when it starts, so nobody should plan around it today.
There is a wider point too. Sky is in the middle of buying ITV’s broadcast business, which we covered in our piece on the Sky-ITV merger. A seller that adds routes to market is not adding competition. More doors into the same building do not give you more people to negotiate with.
This is where we come in. We talk to Sky Media’s sales team for clients week in, week out, so when a new route opens we ask the plain question: what does the same audience, on the same dates, cost each way, with every platform and data fee included? Then we tell you which is cheaper for your dates, and we buy it.
What we’d do
Don’t move money yet. If you already buy Sky direct, stay put until someone shows you a like-for-like price. Ask for the cost per thousand viewers for the same audience through both routes, and ask what the platform adds on top.
Ask how it will be measured. Your TV airtime is judged against Barb’s audience figures. Before anything goes through Amazon, ask whether the delivery will be reported in a way you can set beside the rest of your TV plan.
Test small when the private marketplace opens. That is the point at which late buyers may find value. We would run a capped test around one event, a fight week or a sale week, against the same audience bought direct, and let the cost per response decide.
How VCM can help
We find out what Sky’s audience costs through every route and buy it the cheapest way for your dates, usually late and under rate card. Have a look at how we approach TV advertising, then get in touch on 0333 577 1848 or at James@vcmweb.co.uk. Send us your dates and your audience and we will tell you what it should cost right now, no obligation.
