“Walmart could face pushback if it is favoring its O&O Vizio TVs at the expense of all other TV makers,” Benes said. “Pushing Vizio TVs would grow the ad business but doing so is anticompetitive.”
Additionally, Ashwin Navin, Samba TV co-founder and CEO, noted that there could be some unexpected consequences for marketers relying on Vizio data.
“This is a positive move for Walmart and Vizio, but will undoubtedly shake up the space for advertisers currently relying on Vizio’s raw viewership data as part of their advertising or measurement stack,” Navin said.
Still, industry experts, such as Oz Etzioni, CEO of ad-tech company Clinch, are calling the announcement a “smart and logical move.”
“Their already massive global footprint and treasure trove of first-party data, combined with CTV/OTT channel ownership, will offer advertisers a quite compelling package, and more seamless opportunities to activate audiences at scale in a true omnichannel fashion,” Etzioni said. “Establishing such a vast and holistic ecosystem will lend itself to seamless opportunities for advertisers to reach their audience in an increasingly relevant and personalized way.”
Ultimately, retail media and CTV are becoming more closely linked, which can be seen with Amazon’s recent expansion of streaming ads. And Walmart’s move is just the latest step.
However, regardless of promises of innovation in the shoppable TV advertising space and more retailers having full-funnel capabilities, Benes cautions that big changes won’t come anytime soon.
“Despite the promises of shoppability revolutionizing TV, most of the ads are gonna look like traditional TV ads for the foreseeable future,” Benes said.
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