Linear programming. Nonlinear TV. Appointment-based programming. Time-shifted programming. A lot of these terms are thrown around to describe all the various ways consumers have of watching a TV show. Simple enough to say, but it can get confusing depending on who is using a term and what point they’re trying to make. Then toss in the technological advancements surrounding the advertising running with the show, and it can all get darn mystifying.

But boiling down to basics, nonlinear programming is usually used to describe the way of watching a show where the place and time is not set in stone. Linear TV is often defined as the more traditional, old school process where viewers watch a scheduled show at a particular time and on a particular channel.

To reach advertisers looking for new opportunities in linear TV,  AT&T launched its Video Inventory Platform (VIP) today, which it rolled out at the Videology “Full Frontal” Upfront event. The programmatic platform, developed with Videology, “provides advertisers with an automated way to target and plan campaigns using AT&T AdWorks data-informed national TV ad inventory on every cable network/daypart and across 26 million households in all 210 DMAs,” according to AT&T. Targeting is determined using proprietary aggregated and anonymized data and third-party sources, the company adds.

In an article about VIP, the Wall Street Journal pointed out that the concept of making TV advertising work more like digital advertising, or “programmatic TV,” has moved relatively slowly over the past few years. Companies that buy the ads enabled by the AT&T/Videology partnership will reportedly get to use their own data and third-party data, and log onto a self-serve Web interface.

Using that interface, they will be able to purchase ads on networks that are more probable to reach specific target audiences, such as people who are likely to be in the market for a new car in the next few months, Jason Brown, vice president of national advertising sales at AT&T AdWorks, tells the WSJ.

A selling point for AT&T will be transparency, Brown continues. “What we’ve heard in the marketplace [regarding other “programmatic TV” offerings] is that you don’t know where your ads are going to run and there is limited access to quality ad inventory,” he says. “This solves for both of these things.”

AT&T is reportedly planning a beta test with an advertiser over the next few months.