Disney is evolving how it sells live sports to programmatic advertisers on its streaming platform by creating a new certification program with select demand-side platforms—Google’s Display and Video 360, The Trade Desk and Yahoo—allowing brands to buy digital inventory through those partners in real time.

Disney updated its programmatic pipes so that it can handle the real-time auctions through its ad server during livestreaming events, which could introduce more brands to “biddable” deals during sports and other entertainment. Biddable deals are for advertisers that participate in real-time auctions at the spur of the moment rather than having to reserve the ad inventory ahead of time.

Disney announced the update to its ad platform and the first demand-side partners today. Disney’s supply-side partner Magnite, which works with major publishers to fill programmatic ad slots, will also participate. Disney chose the ad tech partners to manage the quality of ads coming from the real-time auctions and additional demand-side platforms could eventually attain certification too, according to Jamie Power, senior VP of addressable sales at Disney Advertising.

Disney already has a robust programmatic ad business on its streaming apps, which include Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu, but much of the content on its services is video-on-demand. Disney has been slowly building its own ad server, which manages the programmatic ad operations across its apps, and ESPN+ is currently being migrated into that ad server, Power said. That will open more ad inventory from the livestreaming sports market. 

“Advertisers have to think differently about how they trade, because say something happens, like all of a sudden you’re watching a college football game, and it goes into overtime,” Power said, “based on traditional buying strategies you would have missed that opportunity, even though that’s such a high-profile, water-cooler moment that you want the brand to be in.”

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“This is just us recognizing that more and more viewership is going there,” Power said, “and we need to allow our buyers, agencies and brands, to be able to connect in those real-time moments.”

Disney’s advertising team announced the programmatic advances ahead of its Global Tech and Data Showcase on Wednesday in Las Vegas, which coincides with CES.

Disney is not the only streamer turning up automation in sports advertising. During last year’s Paris Olympics, NBCUniversal opened its Peacock app to programmatic ads in livestreams of the Games. There also are major sports streaming on Amazon, YouTube and Netflix, which just hosted its first live NFL games on Christmas Day.

Disney has set a goal of automating 75% of its ad business by 2027, and it is currently 50% automated, Power said. Automation comes in many forms, including with programmatic guaranteed deals, which are different from real-time bidding. In guaranteed deals, a brand orders its ad positions ahead of time; in biddable deals, the advertisers compete in an instant auction to win the space. The new buying dynamics are affecting upfront dealmaking, as brands want the flexibility of playing in ad markets without being locked into guaranteed positions, Power said.

The upfronts are typically held in the spring when brands strike extensive deals for the coming year. The commitments from brands are increasingly traded programmatically.

“We’re definitely seeing a decline in programmatic guaranteed in favor of biddable,” Power said.

“We used to be 30% biddable and 70% programmatic guaranteed,” Power said, “you’re seeing that flip, and way more advertisers are starting to execute in real time.”