Speaking at this morning’s nma Live event, Sky head of sales and online marketing Matthew Turner said the broadcaster is currently putting 18% of its multi-million-pound display budget through real-time bidding, but that he expects this will grow to as much as 50% as the market becomes more established.

Display accounts for about 40% of Sky’s total digital spend, Turner said.

Sky – which works with MediaCom and trading desks Infectious Media and ExchangeLab, among others, on its display activity – reported that the cost of acquiring a customer on an ad exchange compared to network CPMs was down from 89% last August to 1% in December.

“We’re testing out demand-side platforms and a range of partners so we can get the scale and breadth of inventory,” said Turner. “The amount of digital advertising we do requires that access. We prefer to maintain independence and have control. We don’t want to be locked into one technology.”

Sky has implemented more rigorous communication between and management of its display suppliers to help avoid duplication of impression bids by multiple display suppliers vying for the same user, he added.

Dynamic creative optimisation, or being able to tailor visual messages to users depending on their relationship with Sky, is also something the broadcaster is aiming for.

“We rationalised our creative agencies to make sure they had the right technical credentials to fit with this long-term strategic vision,” Turner added. “Dynamic creative is about looking at who’s behind the impression and what we can do to put the right call to action in with new creative on the fly.”