AUTHOR ARCHIVE FOR:

Tony Rifilato

Tony Rifilato

Associate Editor

Tony Rifilato is an associate editor at AdExchanger.com covering the linear and streaming TV space, ad tech and other topics. Previously, he was the Ops & Tech editor at Fund Intelligence, a leading daily news and data platform for the US mutual fund industry, where he covered D&I initiatives, the impact of Covid-19, the growing use of front-to-back automation, cloud technology, ETFs, large servicing/M&A deals and more. Tony is an award-winning journalist and was a senior editor at the Herald Community Newspapers on Long Island, where he wrote countless stories about politics, crime, local government, public corruption, business, education, the environment – and surfing in Long Beach, N.Y. He holds a B.A. in journalism from Hofstra University.

Articles By Tony

  • TV

    The Rise Of The Walled Gardens Around ACR Tech In Smart TVs

    BY //

    In the wake of Nielsen losing its National and Local TV accreditation from the Media Rating Council, networks are eyeing alternative measurement companies. Sitting within many of these data sets is automated content recognition (ACR) tech. ACR tech captures and interprets audio and video snippets on a TV, helping data companies understand the totality of […]

  • OPINION: On TV & Video

    Outside Inc. “Reinventing” The Subscription Model With Outside TV

    BY //

    “On TV & Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Outside Inc. CEO Robin Thurston is very aware of subscription fatigue. At a time when streaming platforms are working to boost their subscriber numbers with bundled ad-free and ad-supported channel packages, Outside TV is being used in part as a vehicle to entice […]

  • TV

    ViacomCBS Taps VideoAmp As Alternative Currency Provider

    BY //

    VideoAmp is getting its shot to take on Nielsen. ViacomCBS tapped the measurement company to guarantee media buys. VideoAmp will measure TV campaigns based on traditional age and gender demographics for linear TV. It will also guarantee advanced audiences. The move marks yet another shift away from the industry’s reliance on Nielsen as the dominant […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    NBCU Highlights Three Measurement Providers As Alternatives To Nielsen

    BY //

    NBCUniversal highlighted three streaming-oriented companies it is considering – Conviva, Dumbstruck and Truthset – to create a framework for alternative currencies as it prepares to move away from legacy TV ratings giant Nielsen as the industry’s single currency provider. Kelly Abcarian, NBCU’s EVP of ad measurement and impact, again called for “measurement independence” and for […]

  • Agencies

    Alma Ad Agency Co-President Wants Marketers To Invest In Multicultural Campaigns

    BY //

    While diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts to work with minority-owned media companies and hire a diverse workforce are important, brands also need to address a rapidly changing cultural landscape in the United States, according to Isaac Mizrahi, co-president and COO of Miami-based multicultural ad agency Alma Ad Agency (no relation to the fashion designer). […]

  • OPINION: On TV & Video

    IAB Tech Lab Rolling Out Two New Measurement Tools For CTV

    BY //

    “On TV & Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. The words we use matter. Last month, for example, the Media Rating Council recategorized the term “over-the-top” as “connected TV,” which is what most people in the industry mean when they refer to streaming. The distinction is important, because it helps buyers […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    Samsung Makes Audience Buying On AVOD Easier With Predictive Planning Tool

    BY //

    To help advertisers reach specific audiences in ad-supported video, Samsung Ads built a predictive campaign planning tool for connected TV. Audience Advisor is an analytics tool that uses Samsung’s own first-party data, combined with third-party data, to give brands and agencies a view into how much time specific audiences are spending viewing AVOD, as well […]

  • Platforms

    Creative Testing Platform Marpipe Snags $8M From Big-Name Investors

    BY //

    New York-based startup Marpipe clinched $8 million in Series A funding with the backing of some big-name investors that it will use to fuel the growth of its creative testing platform as it looks to become an ad tech unicorn. The company, founded by 26-year-old CEO Dan Pantelo last year, uses automation to generate thousands […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    You Down With OTT? The MRC Says It’s Now CTV

    BY //

    The Media Rating Council (MRC) may have stripped Nielsen of its National and Local TV accreditation last week, but it also made another significant announcement: It is now defining over-the-top as connected TV. The MRC issued final measurement guidelines on August 30 for CTV. The guidelines, first established with the IAB in 2018 in order […]

  • TV

    MRC Strips Nielsen Of Its National, Local TV Accreditation

    BY //

    The Media Rating Council stripped Nielsen of its National TV ratings accreditation Wednesday and formally denied its request for a hiatus after the measurement giant underreported viewers during the pandemic. Nielsen asked the MRC last month to put its accreditation on hold in order to address issues with its panels and focus on the development […]

  • Platforms

    DoubleVerify Acquires An EU Competitor, Its First Deal Since Going Public

    BY //

    Ad verification and measurement provider DoubleVerify is set to acquire Berlin-based ad tech company Meetrics, a deal that will help fuel the newly minted public company’s global expansion. The all-cash purchase is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. DoubleVerify CEO Mark Zagorski declined to disclose the sale price. Meetrics was founded in […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    MMI Says It Uncovered CTV Fraud Costing Advertisers $20 Million Per Month

    BY //

    Ad measurement and verification company Method Media Intelligence uncovered a connected TV fraud scheme that it says rakes in $10 million a month in ad revenue. The scheme, dubbed “RapidFire,” feeds counterfeit bid requests into ad exchanges running open auctions for CTV inventory. Like many multimillion video fraud scams, RapidFire targets server-side ad insertion (SSAI) […]

  • Creative

    Hawke Media Is Challenging Brands to “Dump” Their Agencies

    BY //

    Erik Huberman, CEO and founder of marketing consultancy Hawke Media, has some pretty strong – if not outright harsh – words for most media agencies out there: “They’re full of [expletive].” Before founding the Los Angeles-based company in 2014, Huberman launched and sold two commerce companies – Swag of the Month and Ellie – and […]

  • Featured

    Nielsen’s Shaky MRC Accreditation Could Accelerate Use Of Alt Currencies

    BY //

    Nielsen’s potential loss of its accreditation by the Media Rating Council as early as this week could fuel greater adoption of alternative measurement currencies that use advanced data and analytics rather than the traditional panel-based surveys the measurement giant is known for. Nielsen has long been accused of undercounting TV viewership. Recently, networks have expressed […]

  • Platforms

    Programmatic Fuels Integral Ad Science’s Q2 Growth

    BY //

    Ad verification and measurement provider Integral Ad Science held its first earnings call after going public just over a month ago. Revenue increased 55% to $75.1 million year-over-year. That growth was largely fueled by programmatic revenue, which jumped 94% to $31.8 million compared to the same period last year. Programmatic accounts for 42% of total Q2 revenue, as […]

  • Ad Exchange News

    DoubleVerify Uncovers A New Type Of Scam In CTV

    BY //

    Ad verification company DoubleVerify recently shut down a new type of scheme in connected TV that uses screensavers to hijack streaming devices in order to generate fake ad impressions – even when the screen is off. DoubleVerify estimates that the scam, dubbed “SmokeScreen,” is bilking advertisers out of more than $6 million a month and […]

  • Platforms

    VideoAmp Hires First CTO, Former Googler Tony Fagan

    BY //

    TV measurement company VideoAmp is bringing on Tony Fagan, a former Google VP of ads data science and engineering, as its first chief technology officer. Fagan joins a number of other C-level hires over the past year, as VideoAmp plots an expansion after a $75 million funding round in May. Since 2020, former Comscore COO […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    ViacomCBS Plots Streaming Expansion With Sky Deal In Europe

    BY //

    The arms race to acquire subscribers for streaming services is well underway. ViacomCBS’s total streaming subscribers jumped 6.5 million, for a total of 42 million subscribers across Pluto TV, Showtime OTT, BET Plus and Paramount Plus, which launched an ad-supported version in June. ViacomCBS has a goal of reaching 65 million to 75 million global […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    Roku’s Viewership Declines From Pandemic Peak

    BY //

    Roku saw viewership decline in Q2 as pandemic restrictions eased. Streaming hours dropped a billion hours from Q1 to 17.4 billion hours in Q2, and the company’s stock was down 9% on Thursday. While Roku’s streaming hours declined sequentially, they still increased 19% from the previous year, during the early days of lockdown. It added […]

  • Ad Exchange News

    Alaska Airlines Grew Programmatic And AI To Woo Travelers

    BY //

    The travel industry came to a screeching halt last year as consumers stayed indoors during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel, however, is bouncing back, and while the delta variant could potentially derail that recovery, it hasn’t stopped airlines from encouraging folks to fly. “We definitely saw through COVID that younger audiences were traveling […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    DoubleVerify’s Growth Buoyed By Programmatic

    BY //

    Fresh off its IPO in April, ad verification provider DoubleVerify saw its revenue increase 44% to $76.5 million year-over-year in Q2, fueled by the growth of programmatic. DoubleVerify took in $37.9 million in programmatic revenue in Q2 – a 57% increase from the same period last year – largely driven by its Authentic Brand Safety […]

  • Ad Exchange News

    Peacock Hits 54 Million Subscribers With Help From The Olympics

    BY //

    Comcast-owned NBCUniversal’s ad-supported streaming service Peacock hit 54 million subscribers and more than 20 million monthly active users in the second quarter of 2021. During the company’s Q2 earnings call Thursday, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said the number of subscribers grew 50% over 90 days, driven in large part by the Olympics, the release of […]

  • Platforms

    Facebook Warns Of Q3 Slowdown Due To Apple Tracking Restrictions

    BY //

    Facebook’s Q2 advertising revenue soared 56% to $28.5 billion year-over-year, though the company warned investors it expects a revenue slowdown beginning in Q3 – the same time it will feel the full impact of Apple’s recent AppTrackingTransparency changes. The total number of ad impressions served across Facebook increased 6%, while the average price per ad […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    Big Upfront Deals Could Squeeze Programmatic Inventory

    BY //

    After an upfront season where buyers snapped up CTV inventory, programmatic buyers are concerned that there won’t be much left. This spike in digital video deals, along with a post-pandemic decrease in viewership, could make it difficult for advertisers to access programmatic inventory in the fourth quarter of 2021 and beyond, according to agency and […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    NBCUniversal Dusts Off Ad-ID Creative Identifier To Reduce Ad Repetition

    BY //

    NBCUniversal is partnering with Ad-ID – a standard identifier for creative assets built for the advertising industry – to improve campaign measurement capabilities and reduce ad repetition across the network’s automated One Platform. Ad-ID was founded by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) back in 2002 as […]

  • OPINION: The Sell Sider

    Sensical Takes An Algorithm-Free Approach To Kids’ Streaming

    BY //

    “The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Common Sense Networks, the for-profit arm of news media watchdog group Common Sense Media, launched its free ad-supported streaming service Sensical for children less than a month ago, touting higher standards around child safety and learning compared to algorithm-driven platforms, […]

  • Digital Marketing

    How The Secret Service Tapped An Ad Tech Startup To Drive Recruitment

    BY //

    In October, the United States Secret Service launched a recruitment drive to more than double the number of its special agents and uniformed officers between the ages of 24 and 37. The organization tapped its media agency, Atlanta-based JacobsEye, to run the campaign, which included pre-roll and mid-roll video ads on YouTube as well as […]

  • OPINION: On TV & Video

    Tackling The Challenge Of Healthcare Marketing In CTV

    BY //

    “On TV & Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. The connected TV streaming boom is drawing a traditionally conservative group of marketers in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, who are attracted to CTV’s targeting and customization capabilities. Healthcare and pharma marketers’ digital advertising spend grew over 14% in 2020 and is expected to […]

  • Platforms

    Q&A: Inside The Mediaocean-Flashtalking Deal, With CEOs Bill Wise And John Nardone

    BY //

    Mediaocean’s acquisition of ad server Flashtalking for $500 million in cash and stock shows the company is running hard after CTV, CEO Bill Wise tells AdExchanger. “CTV is the fastest growing part of both the Flashtalking and Mediaocean businesses so the solutions for personalized creative, verification, and analytics will bring tremendous synergy,” Wise said, speaking […]

  • Ad Exchange News

    Mediaocean Buys Flashtalking For A Reported $500 Million

    BY //

    Mediaocean will acquire independent global ad server Flashtalking to create what it described as a neutral tech platform with a combined $200 billion in annual media spend. It will pay $500 million to snap up the New York-based company, which brings in annual revenue of between $100 and $150 million, according to The Wall Street […]

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