In this article, Ricarda Jebsen, Managing Director at Virtual Minds, explores what it will take to turn the vision of Total Video into an operational reality. She looks at how the industry can overcome the fragmentation between linear TV, CTV and other video environments, and why an interoperable operating model will be key to connecting these worlds while preserving the strengths of each.
Bridging the gap between audiences and media operations
Audiences move seamlessly between linear TV, CTV, streaming and other video environments. Yet behind the scenes, campaigns are still largely managed through separate systems and workflows. For Total Video to become a reality, the industry needs an interoperable operating model that connects these environments, enables integrated planning and optimisation, and brings media operations closer to the way audiences already experience video: seamlessly, across screens.
Rethinking how video is operated
Audiences no longer think in terms of the channel categories defined by the advertising industry. They move naturally between linear TV, streaming services, media libraries, online video and social platforms, experiencing video as one connected medium. Campaigns, however, are still often planned, booked, delivered and measured across separate systems.
If Total Video is to be more than a strategic vision, the way campaigns are operated needs to evolve as well. Organising media around audience behaviour requires an operating model that reflects that behaviour. As long as each environment is managed in isolation, fragmented experiences and siloed insights will remain the norm.
Linear TV and CTV are the obvious place to start. They are often managed within the same broadcasting group and therefore offer significant potential for integration. Yet despite converging on the screen, they still operate according to different measurement standards, currencies, transaction models and technical infrastructures.
This fragmentation comes at a cost. Separate bookings, manual processes and post-campaign consolidation create additional work and increase the risk of errors. Broadcasters struggle to fully commercialise their audiences, buyers face unnecessary complexity, and linear inventory risks losing out to budgets increasingly shaped by the flexibility and agility of digital.
The need to address these challenges is becoming even more pressing as artificial intelligence takes on a growing role in campaign planning, allocation and optimisation. AI is only as effective as the data and systems it relies on. Rather than fixing fragmented structures, it can amplify their weaknesses. Integration, data quality and transparency are therefore becoming fundamental requirements.
Building the foundations for Total Video does not require one platform that replaces every established system, but an interoperable convergence layer that connects linear and digital technologies.
Building the foundations for Total Video
Building the foundations for Total Video does not mean replacing every existing system with one single platform. What is needed is an interoperable convergence layer that connects linear and digital technologies while preserving their respective strengths and enabling broadcasters to retain control.
Such a layer can orchestrate campaigns across both environments from the outset, rather than requiring separate bookings to be consolidated afterwards. At the same time, it can bring automated planning, data-driven delivery and continuous optimisation to linear TV.
This approach is already being put into practice in Austria. Since 2024, broadcasters and sales houses that are members of AGTT/Teletest have been using the Virtual Minds Media Manager to dynamically optimise linear TV advertising slots and commercialise inventory using digital KPIs.
From Linear TV and CTV to Total Video
Connecting linear TV and CTV is an important first step, but the underlying principle extends far beyond these two environments. Online and mobile video, social platforms and out-of-home screens face the same fundamental challenge: enabling different technologies and market participants to work together without compromising the strengths of each environment.
The answer is not to impose one standardised model across every channel. Instead, the industry needs an operational layer that allows existing systems to work together while preserving the capabilities, data and control that are specific to each environment.
The future of Total Video will ultimately depend on closing the gap between how audiences experience video and how the industry operates it. Linear TV and CTV may be the most immediate opportunity, but the ambition is bigger: to create a model that treats video as a connected set of audience touchpoints across screens, rather than as a collection of siloed channels.
About Ricarda
Ricarda Jebsen is Managing Director of Virtual Minds, the AdTech specialist belonging to ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, as well as Managing Director of d-force, the joint venture between ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL Deutschland. Operating at the forefront of the European AdTech market, the accomplished marketing technology and business development expert has extensive management experience in the media and AdTech market.
Prior to her roles at Virtual Minds and d-force, she served as CEO of data intelligence and marketing technology specialist The Adex. Previously, she held strategic and technology leadership positions within the ProSiebenSat.1 Group, where her responsibilities included M&A partner management and the development and implementation of overarching digitalisation and technology strategies.
With her expertise perfectly combining strategy, technology and business development, she actively champions the evolution of programmatic advertising, Addressable TV, and media technologies in the European market.
