NBC is putting its money where its mouth is. The broadcaster on Thursday revealed it would commit to sell $1 billion in targeted media based on audience guarantees in time for the 2017-2018 upfront. Although that figure only represents about 17% of the estimated $6 billion NBC transacted through advance commitments last year, it’s […]
Complementing Comcast’s massive cable footprint is a 750-person technology solutions group, comprised mostly of engineers who build video products for publishers and advertisers. “We’re mostly focusing on video technology solutions that help customers improve how their video operations run,” said Barry Tishgart, VP of Comcast Technology Solutions, a division of Comcast Cable. Projects include powering video-on-demand […]
TV viewership is fragmenting faster than the advertising industry’s ability to adapt to it all. And advertisers bracing for the 2017 upfront season aren’t entirely satisfied with the big measurement companies. Consider Nielsen’s delayed Total Content Ratings product and comScore’s accounting snafu and anticipated delisting. “People are in dispute about what the measurement process should be,” […]
Simulmedia has sweetened its targeting capabilities for TV buyers. Through a strategic deal with consumer market research and retail analytics firm IRI, revealed Wednesday, marketers can now target their linear TV ads based on predictive purchase segments called IRI ProScores. These segments determine consumers’ likelihood to purchase based on different propensities. This is the first […]
Veteran Tremor Video CEO Bill Day has resigned, effective immediately, and will serve as a special adviser to the company through June. Paul Caine, the non-executive board chairman for Tremor since 2014 and former Bloomberg Media CRO, will step in as interim CEO and lead the search for a permanent replacement, the company said Thursday. […]
After Tegna spun off its broadcast and digital media business from Gannett in 2015, it built a managed services unit called Premion, focused on over-the-top advertising in regional and local markets. Premion initially used Tegna’s 700-person sales force but is now bulking up with dedicated sales staff. “We just brought on a regional sales director […]
More telecom-media merger mania! Verizon is considering a merger with cable company Charter Communications, according to The Wall Street Journal, just months after AT&T revealed its intent to acquire Time Warner for $85.4 billion. If Verizon and Charter combine, the magnitude would be massive in terms of infrastructure and audience scale, as well as in […]
IPG Mediabrands’ investment arm, Magna, revealed on Wednesday it is doubling its investment in over-the-top (OTT) TV provider Roku. It declined to name specifics but noted the deal has multiple implications for inventory rates and pricing, third-party research and data. Magna is forming a private deal with Roku to allow more precise targeting between the agency’s […]
Tubi TV knows that not everyone wants to pay for premium content. “We see a strong desire among viewers who want free content, whether they’re viewers in search of value or subscription viewers who can’t find the content they want on their SVOD [subscription video on demand] service,” said Thomas Ahn Hicks, co-founder and head […]
What are broadcast advertising leaders thinking about now, with addressable TV on the horizon but squalls demanding attention? Linda Yaccarino, NBCU chairman of ad sales and client partnerships, addressed her pressing concerns and goals with Jennifer Breithaupt, Citi’s managing director of media, advertising and global entertainment, at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview on Wednesday. Below are Yaccarino’s […]
Extreme Reach, whose video software helps brands (Coca-Cola, GM, Ford) and agencies manage creative rights as well as TV and video ad delivery, has hired former Oracle sales VP Bill Bagshaw as CRO. Extreme Reach’s former head of client services and sales, Patrick Hanavan, will become chief client officer. Bagshaw’s responsibility will be to get […]
Pulpix, a video platform that aims to increase the time consumers spend on publishers’ properties, has raised $850,000 in “pre-seed” financing. The two-year-old, Paris-based Pulpix is a Y Combinator startup whose backers include Studio VC, Ace Capital and angel investors such as Chon Tang, who invested early on in the video DSP TubeMogul. The startup […]
Despite the perception that over-the-top TV (OTT) supports digital ad-buying tactics – like dynamic insertion and targeting at scale – buying connected TV is still a largely manual process. “Everything we do right now is I/O-direct with publishers,” said Seth Walters, senior partner for interactive and connected TV (CTV) for WPP’s advanced TV agency, Modi […]
Like its competitors, IBM is acquiring and building a video stack. Instead of focusing on media execution, however, IBM is using Watson and data analytics to improve the relevancy of video content, ads and delivery models. “In ad-supported video, how do you make ultra-targeted ads tailored down to the individual for customer acquisition?” said David Mowrey, […]
CES has always been about TV, and 2017 was no exception. Displays got a whole lot sharper and devices got a whole lot thinner. But the TV advancements most relevant to marketers and advertisers revolve not around the hardware but the software, which enables addressable ads and better measurement. To be fair, CES isn’t exactly […]
TV buyers are used to transacting on GRPs and Nielsen ratings, while digital buyers purchase targeted impressions. That has complicated the way advertisers plan, buy and measure their emerging cross-screen campaigns. Several companies have built tools to address the problem, but many have sold brand-direct or by way of the trading desk. RTL Group–backed VideoAmp […]
Addressable TV significantly expanded in 2016, both in terms of ad spend and the total size of the addressable market. In 2015, addressable TV ad spend reached $400 million in the US and grew to $890 million in 2016, according to eMarketer. That’s quadruple the spend flowing into the marketplace in 2014. Last year, more […]
Nielsen intends to acquire Gracenote, a Tribune-owned company specializing in audio and video content recognition technology, for $560 million, the company confirmed on Tuesday. Gracenote will operate under Nielsen’s “Watch” business – the side of the house that measures audiences – and the acquisition is expected to close Q1 2017. If it goes through, Nielsen will […]
Over-the-top (OTT) television is at an inflection point. While it’s a promising way for media owners to capitalize on changing consumer consumption habits – the number of connected TV users totaled 181.8 million viewers in 2016, a 20% year-over-year increase, according to eMarketer – with reward comes risk. OTT’s lucrative CPMs could also attract bad […]
Programmatic TV doesn’t exist? Don’t tell that to Dentsu’s media agency, Carat, which just reserved inventory programmatically across five local broadcasters. The upfront commitment, finalized this week, was executed with Videa, a private exchange/supply-side platform owned by Cox Media Group. The commercials will appear on Cox local affiliate stations, including CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC, […]
Adobe made a big upgrade to its multidevice ad-delivery system Adobe Primetime on Wednesday. The platform, TV Media Management, improves the way Primetime users package and price TV audiences and content. “TV Media Management allows you to see where there may be contention for impressions if certain TV deals close and the best place to […]
Everyone needs bleach. That’s why brands like Clorox have a lot of repeat buyers. The question is: How do you build support for a social cause when you’re selling bleach? Clorox already does a lot of TV and pre-roll advertising, but this week it tested its first 360-degree educational video focusing on 18-34-year-olds. The socially […]
The Federal Trade Commission is watching smart TVs. An FTC workshop on Wednesday in Washington, DC, laid out consumer privacy concerns around smart-TV tracking and sought to clarify how the ad industry is using the data that’s being collected. “Consumers expect some level of data collection when they use their computer,” said Jessica Rich, director […]
Video ad platform Innovid will integrate with marketing clouds from IBM, Adobe and Oracle, the companies said Tuesday, allowing video and TV planners to use CRM data to inform video ads served by Innovid. Conversely, those marketing cloud customers can apply intent data from their mobile, desktop and OTT video campaigns to their broader marketing […]
While private marketplaces (PMPs) and preferred deals are predicted to outpace open exchange buys by 2018, their rate of adoption has been inconsistent – especially when it comes to video advertising. Some ad buyers have avoided PMPs out of concerns over reach, leaving some publishers twisting in the wind to accurately forecast their fill rate. […]
Data management platform (DMP) Lotame has developed a campaign planning and measurement tool designed for linear TV broadcasters. Local broadcast consortium Pearl TV, which represents more than 200 local broadcast TV stations and network groups including Hearst, Cox Media and E.W. Scripps, is the first to test-drive it. While many advertisers want to buy across […]
AT&T now has controlling interest in addressable TV platform Invidi, following an investment the telco giant revealed Monday. The exact amount was undisclosed. Prior investor WPP and Dish Network also participated. Although Invidi will remain independent, AT&T, Dish and WPP have collective ownership. An AT&T spokesperson said the telco sees “opportunity for continued expansion in […]
Publishers are under pressure to scale and monetize, but those business realities can dampen audience experience. When Slate’s president, Keith Hernandez, called out janky links from content recommendation engines earlier this week, he noted that while they drive revenue, it’s often at the expense of quality. Hernandez, who started at Slate a year ago after […]
WideOrbit considers itself the DoubleClick of local broadcast TV. “It’s the closest description to what we do,” said Eric Mathewson, WideOrbit’s CEO. “We’re the publisher ad server for TV stations.” WideOrbit supplies tools to local TV stations and broadcasters like Telemundo, Scripps, Sinclair, Meredith and Cox Media Group to help monetize and manage their yield. […]
As it turns out, a smaller screen size may be more effective at driving purchase intent than larger devices in the living room. Hulu and Magna have released new data assessing the impact of video ad exposures in different channels on overall effectiveness. They found ads on over-the-top (OTT) devices aided the most in brand […]
