The Parallel Infrastructure: Why Premium CTV Publishers Are Building Outside the Programmatic Stack

About this episode

The episode discusses the dynamics of CTV advertising, focusing on the balance between programmatic and direct deals for premium inventory.

At Marketecture Live, Ari Paparo from Marketecture Media joins Philip Inghelbrecht, Co-Founder & CEO at Tatari, Bill Murray, Head of Growth and Performance at Warner Bros Discovery, and Michael Reidy, Senior Vice President, Ad Sales at NBCUniversal. They unpack how streaming inventory is bought and sold, the balance between programmatic and direct deals, and why premium inventory often sits outside traditional programmatic pipes. The discussion also explores live events, automation, and how new solutions like Tatari’s Upstream aim to reshape access to high-quality CTV inventory. Takeaways The U.S. TV ad market is ~$90B, with $60B still in linear and $30B in streaming Only about half of streaming inventory is programmatic, and much of the premium supply is sold directly Direct buying offers advantages like guaranteed inventory, brand safety, and fewer intermediary fees Programmatic excels in targeting, flexibility, and discovery of new audience opportunities Publishers view direct and programmatic as complementary, not competing channels Live events and moment-driven content create spikes that favor guaranteed direct deals Automation is reshaping direct buying, making premium…

People in this episode

Host: Ari Paparo

Guests: Philip Inghelbrecht, Bill Murray, Michael Reidy

Topics covered

• CTV advertising
• programmatic buying
• direct deals
• premium inventory
• automation in advertising
• streaming market

Keywords

• CTV
• programmatic
• advertising
• premium inventory
• direct buying
• automation
• streaming market
• Tatari
• live events

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Tatari, Warner Bros Discovery, NBCUniversal

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