In light of the recent acquisitions of both Ooyala and Videoplaza, ExchangeWire caught up with Andy Solterbeck, Telstra Software Group, SVP, to understand Telstra’s ad tech roadmap.

Telstra, Australia’s largest telecoms operator, reaches more than 60% of Australia’s online population and is also one of the country's largest advertisers. The Telstra Software Group was formed in early 2013 with the aim of identifying areas where operator can generate new revenue streams by building new software businesses.

At the time it was formed, the group was supposedly given a mandate to build, partner and buy applications and embryonic start-ups.

This group operates separately to Telstra’s programmatic client trading desk, managed by OMD and DDB in Sydney. Purchased in August 2014, Ooyala was the first investment by the Telstra Software Group. Subsequently, Ooyala acquired Videoplaza in October 2014.

Combined the acquisitions jointly bring full end-end capabilities including content delivery capabilities (ingest, transcode, deliver), analytics (driving personalisation and leading to recommendations and content delivery) plus the ad tech to support monetisation.

According to Solterbeck, the Telstra team outlook is very much centred around premium video and where that sits in the value chain. The intention is to work with three sectors of the market - the operator marketplace (cable companies, IPTV services), broadcasters and online publishers.

Solterbeck believes programmatic will become hugely important for premium video. He expects there to be activity across private marketplaces and the open marketplace utilising all programmatic trading conditions.

Complementing the premium video inventory opportunity is data. Solterbeck explained that Ooyala draws anonymous data from their customer base with the aim of producing insight and action around three key things – what content to produce, where to distribute the content and judging the performance of distribution partners and how to best monetise and drive value for that content.

Users of the platform draw on both first party and third party data in order to optimise how they maximise their use of the platform.

Currently only available to Ooyala customers, a stand-alone product called IQ will be launched in the New Year. This product connects into data marketplaces and many customer data management platforms.

Although the board is governed by Telstra, both Ooyala and Videoplaza will continue to operate independently as they work through the integration of their businesses.

These acquisitions signify serious global ambitions from Telstra to establish a leading global personalized Cloud TV and video business. Solterbeck’s view is the space is very fragmented right now and expects consolidation to happen. Telstra will continue to invest and  partner with other companies in the future.

This article was penned by ExchangeWire's Wendy Hogan