For decades, advertisers have relied on an index-based approach to determine audience concentration. This way, they can size up who’s consuming what content and figure out if it makes sense to advertise there. No one uses this method more than TV advertising planners.

An index worked pretty effectively when we had fewer choices of what to watch. But in just the last 30 years, the number of networks we get in our homes has gone from about 27 on average to over 200. (Here’s an infographic that visualizes the explosion in choices we have.) And that’s just traditional TV. If you add in over-the-top/streaming options, and the number of choices goes up even more.

In this article, I interview my colleague, Simulmedia’s Chief Technology Officer, Kyle Hubert, about a relatively new approach to TV advertising planning. It’s called audience-based, and while it’s harder to compute, it’s also demonstrably better at finding more of a marketer’s target more efficiently.

If you’re curious about how TV advertising is planned or just want to know what’s coming next, give it a read. Note that a membership with the ANA is required.