Finecast

Television is trying to keep advertisers happy and out of the clutches of its online competitors. But, with the growth of streaming services such as Netflix, totting up who watches TV, and when and where, is becoming a complicated business.

This is the key data that advertisers want and which ratings body Barb is doing its utmost to provide, according to CEO Justin Sampson. He was part of a panel at an RTS early-evening event that drew a capacity crowd to The Hospital Club in late October.

London’s Red Lion Square is a place often associated with political revolution. But a few steps away from Conway Hall, home of meetings for radicals and disruptors since the 1920s, is the gleaming modernist UK HQ of global advertising giant GroupM. There, a very different kind of revolution is being conceived.

In September, GroupM officially launched Finecast, an addressable TV service that offers British broadcasters and other UK-based content platforms the ability to provide targeted advertising via a single access point and using a common data currency.