Marketecture: Get Smart. Fast.
Marketecture: Get Smart. Fast.
Ari Paparo
The Parallel Infrastructure: Why Premium CTV Publishers Are Building Outside the Programmatic Stack
25 minutes Posted Mar 30, 2026 at 10:00 am.
Introduction to the Marketecture Live discussion
Breaking down the $90B TV and CTV market
Overlap between direct and programmatic inventory
Publisher perspective on inventory strategy
Advertiser value targeting vs premium placement
Why direct and programmatic are complementary
Benefits of direct buying for brands
Brand safety, fraud, and cost efficiencies
The importance of publisher relationships
Live events and operational challenges
Peacock strategy and nowness content
Dynamic ad insertion vs linear pass-through
Audience behavior and shared viewing moments
Managing unpredictable live inventory
Introducing Tatari’s Upstream platform
Automation of direct deals
Concentration of CTV supply among top publishers
Lowering barriers for new advertisers
How Upstream benefits publishers and buyers
Future roadmap and machine learning optimization
Performance vs brand programmatic vs direct debate
Growth of CTV and advertiser adoption
The future coexistence of direct and programmatic
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Show notes
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 inventory more accessible to smaller advertisers
Tatari’s Upstream aims to automate direct deals and bypass traditional programmatic layers
The future of CTV will likely be hybrid, combining automation, data, and direct relationships
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