Following on SpotXchange's recent French expansion, ExchangeWire caught up with Andrew Moore, Managing Director for EMEA with SpotXchange to get some insight into burgeoning French video opportunities in the market.

SpotXchange EMEA has launched a presence in France and appointed Sophie Davidas as Directeur of Business Development. Why have you chosen France as your first European expansion outside of the UK what will Sophie bring to the role?

We have appointed Sophie Davidas to lead our business development efforts in France as she is well-established in the marketplace. Sophie’s role is to develop SpotXchange’s business in France and work with our partners to help them capitalise on the shift to programmatic video. Sophie sits on the IAB France Innovation Committee and has a strong track record of bringing innovative new technology into France. She will be able to leverage her local relationships to help us grow.

According to IDC Research, 11% of online display will be traded programmatically in France in 2013 and this will double by 2016. The opportunity for programmatic video comes as the French marketplace embraces other digital channels outside of display. The French online video advertising market is one of the most developed in Europe and there has been a rapid adoption of programmatic buying. Publishers are making premium video inventory available in France to RTB buyers.

SpotXchange has been operating within the French market for some time and the time is right for us to have a local presence to build on this opportunity.

What are your predictions for the next 12 months in the French marketplace?

France will continue to rapidly adopt programmatic buying. French trading desks are already established and will significantly increase the volume of video bought programmatically.

This will result in an increased demand of French video inventory which will reach a tipping point, and accelerate the adoption of programmatic access by French publishers.

Private marketplaces and publisher collectives will be the key mechanism that publishers use and we expect to see more of these launch in 2013. In particular, there is a lot of interest in vertical marketplace collectives around content categories (such as Sport or Automotive).

How receptive are French publishers to programmatic video monetisation?

French publishers already understand the opportunity that trading programmatically provides to drive yields and with French trading desks committed to buying video programmatically, this will accelerate as we move through 2013.

French publishers have demonstrated the ability to embrace technology and truly innovate as seen through the development of Private Marketplace Collectives such as Audience Square and La Place Media where a number of premium publishers have collaborated to provide a single, premium private marketplace.

This innovation is set to continue as both publishers and buyers look to embrace programmatic for other channels such as video and mobile.

How important is it to get the the major broadcasters onboard? This group of content owners seem to be most resistant?

The success of programmatic video is not reliant on whether broadcasters are involved or not. The biggest opportunity will be premium publishers and they are already starting to capitalise on the growing demand from programmatic buyers.

Even so, French broadcasters have already integrated their media selling approach across digital and TV. When brands take a position on traditional TV, they generally also invest in catch up and other digital platforms sold by the broadcaster as part of a single media-buying plan. This level of cross-platform integration is very advanced compared to the rest of Europe and leads to a more joined up approach.

France also leads the world in IPTV adoption and this gives French broadcasters a significant advantage to leveraging multiple digital assets.

As with many other European markets, French broadcasters rely on a strong direct sales strategy and ad networks have struggled, as broadcasters typically do not want to work via intermediaries.

However, as demonstrated with the publisher collectives in France, broadcasters are open to a solution where they retain full control over their inventory there could be a creation of broadcaster led private video marketplaces in France.