• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, April 1, 2015

Clypd, a supply-side platform (SSP) for programmatic TV advertising, on Wednesday announced a partnership with Discovery Communications, the large pay-TV programmer that's home to channels such as Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and more.

As a result of the partnership, Discovery Communications will make some of its TV inventory available for “programmatic buying” via clypd.

Per a release, Discovery Communications will allow select marketers to use audience data -- together with standard demographic benchmarks -- to buy across Discovery Communication’s network via clypd’s platform. 

Clypd has been rapidly growing its programmatic TV offering. In the past several months, the company has introduced “yield optimization” technology for TV broadcasters to manage their inventory, has signed clients such as Discovery Communications on the sell-side and Varick Media Management on the buy-side, and has integrated TiVo data to beef up its research and analytics.

But while moves such as ESPN's decision to launch a data management platform (DMP) to focus more on audience-targeting rather than ratings-based targeting represents a maturing data-driven TV market, some, such as Janice Finkel-Greene, EVP of buying analytics at Magna Global, have warned the industry not to overpromise what it truly possible today.

Programmatic TV advertising does exist, as evidenced by news such as the clypd-Disocvery partnership, but for the time being it remains small in scale. For example, TubeMogul, which has doubled down on programmatic TV technologies and even facilitated programmatically-purchased local Super Bowl spots this year, readily acknowledges that programmatic TV won't be a “material revenue generator" for the company in 2015.

Most of the opportunity remains on the horizon, but with each deal similar to clypd-Discovery, the industry gets closer.