Kelly Williams in Cannes 2025

Speaker 0 · 0:00

It's been it's been really positive news on the growth of the overall sort of premium TV marketplace in in The UK. And I I use that term because that that involves all the mainstreamers now, all the commercial forecasters. What's the priorities for you and your business to continue that growth? What are the changes that'll come in the market Yeah. To ensure that we continue on that path? Okay. We've got four strong propositions,

Speaker 1 · 0:22

mass reach, addressability at scale now with really significant data, creative solutions, we can get brands in and around our content, and we can now measure outcomes brilliantly. And the fifth pillar for us now is revenue diversification, and that's YouTube, that's interactive and gaming, and that's affiliate marketing. So that's our proposition, but ultimately the growth engine of our business at the moment is streaming. You know, we are managing that transition from linear viewing to streaming, and I think we're managing it well, and it's the thing that's really driving our business. As you said, The UK TV market was back in growth last year, and that's driven by digital, certainly. Big events, yes. The streamers coming into the market, yes. But the traditional, you know, I'd say established players were all in growth last year. So I think we've got a strong position. I think you wrote you wrote, I thought, a brilliant article about the differences between The US market and The UK market, and I think that's something we've got to shout louder about because everyone looks at The US and thinks it's gonna happen in The UK, but we are subtly, I think, very, very different. You know, our free TV market has been around for a long time, is well established, is well funded Yeah. And I think is really, really, really doing well at the moment versus our our colleagues over in The States. Well, if you look look at here, right, it it's surrounded by top CMOs, global marketers, and it's dominated by The US media landscape.

Speaker 0 · 1:42

And and that really takes over the narrative. And that was the important point of that. People think it's the same everywhere else, and it just it's a totally different landscape in different markets. In in The UK, one of the growth bits that you're looking at, which is an interesting announcement yesterday, the positivity from that announcement actually is is taken me by surprise. Mhmm. But you guys are combining a buying platform for the SME marketplace, via FreeWheel or Comcast. Yeah.

Speaker 1 · 2:06

Is that market really important for TV's growth going after the the sort of it's not just the small ones, but the midsize brands looking to grow? Yeah. I think that's our big opportunity over the next few years. You know, the one thing the big digital platforms have done well is grow the number of grow the market, grow the number of advertisers. I think the advertising association said that there's 3,000,000 advertisers in The UK last year. We deal with about 8,000. So that's the size of the opportunity. But the big barrier for for those brands getting onto TV is just this it's it's hard hard to buy. So what for me, Universal Ads is a really, really good platform. We're really impressed with it. Yeah. But it's built for somebody with a credit card. It's not built for the media agency world, and it's very much trying to tap into that,

Speaker 0 · 2:52

what we call it, the fat end of the long tail, felt felt brands as we call them. I like that stuff. And we think that's a really, really big opportunity over the next few years. But it's interesting that you've done that together. So does that mean now you've got one common buying platform? Does that is that the springboard into selling all your inventory together? Because what universal ads also does is that it's a kind of a direct path. Buyer Yeah. Straight to ad server. You're taking out a lot of the middlemen too. Is that is that now do you think that's gonna be replicated for all your inventory? I I I think I think

Speaker 1 · 3:22

I don't think that will be the case certainly in the short to medium term. You know, we're still we still compete with each other. We're trying to collaborate more and more and more, and that felt like a really obvious place to start. Yeah. Maybe over time. Who knows? Do you have to, do you think, in order to to grow the pie? I don't know whether we have to, but my gut feeling is over the next five to ten years, we're gonna have to collaborate more and more. And it does feel there'll be a consolidation over time. So, you know, let's see. But at the moment, I think very much competing with each other for agency business and for for big advertisers, and certainly collaborating

Speaker 0 · 4:01

to get to build the market, grow the market, grow the overall cake, in the SME market. And then finally, when you when you look at that, when you look at the implementation of the SME market stuff, you're working together, you talk together a lot. Mhmm. It was it's about 5,000,000,000 was the size of the market. In twelve months' time, when we do our analysis, where do you think the market will be? Do you mean that for UA? Yeah. Well, look. Not just for UA, no. For the overall TV market, can you see that continuing to grow?

Speaker 1 · 4:26

I think What will the figure be in your in your eyes? I I think I think 2026 will be a really strong year. So if we're the we're here neck this time next year because in The UK, we've got certainly ITV, we've got two massive events. We've got the six nations, which we we are taking over. Yeah. We're gonna be the lead broadcaster for the first time in the first quarter, and we've got the biggest World Cup ever, but you know, because it's expanding to 48 teams from 32 teams next summer. So Yeah. Look. I think we're really optimistic about next year,

Speaker 0 · 4:54

from a content perspective and therefore an advertising perspective. Put a figure on it where the overall growth of the market will be?

Speaker 1 · 5:00

Plus five. I it's it's I I think predicting the future is a is a mug's game. I know. It's a horrible question. So I'm I'm going to avoid that question like the play. Okay. Fair enough. Alright. Thanks for your time, mate. Alright. Thank you.