Bell Media will be the first Canadian broadcaster to bring addressable TV to the market when it becomes available this summer.

The launch comes after more than a year of beta testing. Initially, it will be available through 30 Bell Media-owned channels, and only when viewed through Fibe TV, but the company plans to make it accessible through more platforms as the year goes as, as well as adding more specialty channels, such as TSN and RDS. Outside of TV, it will also launch addressable streaming audio later this year for its digital radio and podcast content.

Buyers can choose English and French audience segments – both pre-built and custom – and those based on province or city. Frequency capping is also available. Along with addressability, new data sources have been added to Bell’s audience manager to create a whole fulsome offering that integrates with a broader campaign, including TV viewing retargeting, improved scaling and lookalike modelling. Addressable ads will be available programmatically exclusively through the Bell DSP.

Combining the targeting and personalization of digital with the impact and reach of television is something the industry has been striving for, and with good reason.

“There have been studies that show if the ad is more relevant to you, the engagement in that ad is much higher versus an ad that’s not relevant to you,” Perry MacDonald, VP of advertising sales and partnerships for Bell Media, tells MiC. “It improves the content viewing experience if the ad is more relevant and increases the likelihood of engaging with the ad and ultimately making a purchase.”

For addressable TV to be a viable option, the technology has needed to catch up to the idea. But even with connected TV platforms maturing in terms of both capabilities and household penetration, the data piece of the equation is vital to make it effective.

That’s one thing MacDonald says will makes Bell’s foray into addressable such a major opportunity. Bell’s first party data is based on 22 million customer connections gathered from across all its properties and platforms, be they internet, mobility or Fibe TV. Combining that with Environics Analytics’ geographic and psychographic datasets is what takes the granularity of the targeting beyond age and gender down to the specific household level with insights such as lifestyle, income and shopping habits.

“All of this data really provides a huge opportunity for advertisers to target beyond broad demographics, based on just age and gender, like adults 25 to 54 or women 18 to 49,” MacDonald says. “You can build an audience through all of our data capabilities and target households based on the target group that you want to reach. It’s really expanding the traditional linear ad experience from a mass reach, from a one-to-many to a tool for one-to-one targeting.”