ITV’s Move on AI-Generated TV Advertising

ITV’s Bold Move: Opening TV Advertising to SMEs with AI

In a move that may reshape the UK advertising landscape, ITV has announced its new GenAI Ads Manager, powered by Magnite’s Streamr.ai.

Streamr.ai is a self-serve tool designed to let small and medium businesses (SMEs) generate broadcast-quality adverts in seconds. 

What ITV Is Doing Differently

What stands out is how ITV has integrated broadcast rules into the process. The UK’s broadcast advertising code (BCAP) is embedded in the system, so creatives generated via the tool are pre-checked for compliance, speeding up or smoothing clearance.  And because every ad must still pass Clearcast before airing, there’s a human safety net. 

SMEs will feed it the AI with their digital assets, website content, social media materials, logos, text, images etc. etc. and the platform will generate a video script, visual layout and voiceover automatically.  In many cases, a usable ad can be built in under 30 seconds.  ITV Creative Production will still oversee the process, manage edits and serve as the bridge to broadcast. 

Why This Matters

There are two major hurdles when brands want to advertise on TV. One is the complexity of TV planning and buying, but that's what agency's are for and CTV is breaking down the barriers. The next hurdle for SMEs wanting to run TV campaigns has been the high cost and complexity of ad production.

ITV’s tool dramatically lowers that barrier. Suddenly, a small local business with limited creative resources could reach a national TV audience. 

From ITV’s perspective, this is an opportunity to tap into the long tail of SME budgets that have traditionally flowed into Google, Meta or other digital platforms. By making the creative side easier and cheaper, ITV is priming more brands to allocate a slice of their marketing spend to broadcast or streaming TV. 

Moreover, Magnite’s acquisition of Streamr.ai gives this effort scale and enablement across the ad tech ecosystem. With Streamr.ai integrated into Magnite’s platform, this creative automation capability could be offered to DSPs, publishers, and agencies.  That increases the chance the concept spreads beyond ITV’s walls. 

The Risks Lurking Behind the Promise

ITV’s innovation is bold, but it’s not without challenges:

• Creative convergence: If many brands feed in similar assets and rely on the same AI templates, there’s a real risk that outputs will start to look alike. The creative differentiation might flatten to average.
• Quality ceiling: For high-end branding work, AI may struggle to match bespoke human insight in tone, nuance or storytelling.
• Approval friction: Even with embedded compliance checks, edge cases or regulated categories could slow down the Clearcast or BCAP process.
• Adoption challenge: SMEs might initially resist, sceptical of “AI ads” versus working with a trusted creative partner.
• Margins & economics: The low-cost entry must still leave room for ITV (and Magnite) to make a return after production, creative oversight, media delivery, etc.

Altair's View of What This Signals for Marketers

For marketers, ITV’s move is a bellwether. It signals that broadcasters no longer just sell time, they’re becoming creative enablers. It’s a shift from “we host your ads” to “we help you build the ads.” That’s a structural change in media models, one that's been led by Meta and their drive for AI.

If this platform works, it could pressure other media owners (or even digital platforms) to accelerate their own AI creative offerings. Meta is already pushing in this direction. The winners will be those who blend automation and creativity.