It came as no surprise that advertising played the role of wallflower at this year’s Media Production & Technology Show (MPTS). With AI, remote production, and sports stealing the limelight, the advertising crowd was left scrounging for scraps, but in one of the few ad-tech-focused sessions, a well-attended panel provided a glimpse of just how embarrassingly slow progress has been in TV ad innovation. In what felt like Faultline had been sucked into an unintentional time warp, Sky’s Ad Smart platform—launched back in 2014—became a central talking point of this MPTS ad tech panel. The industry’s inability to evolve is laid bare, as panelists repeatedly returned to a set top-based targeted advertising system that dates back to 2014, predating the…