The Walt Disney Company has found its happily ever after with Google, not Comcast-owned FreeWheel. After months of speculation, Google said in a blog post that Disney would implement its ad platform across its brands, including Disney, ABC, ESPN, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars. The relationship will span all of Disney’s video and display inventory. […]
Nielsen’s hire of IBM Watson honcho David Kenny as CEO, first reported on Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal, is a major bet for the measurement company as it rises to meet new competitive challenges and prepares for a possible sale of the business. Kenny oversaw IBM’s artificial intelligence initiatives, using machine learning to support enterprise […]
Of the $70 billion in national TV ad spend, Roku’s Q3 cut was $100 million. But the over-the-top (OTT) platform and device manufacturer is gunning for more, using its relatively new measurement program to convince advertisers to divert linear spend to OTT. Roku touted that $100 million milestone on Wednesday, noting that its platform business, […]
An actor, AI expert and the former head of digital at CNBC walk into a bar. They create an analytics startup. There’s no punchline here – that really happened. (Maybe not the bar part.) Ed Norton, Daniel Nadler and Kevin Krim’s new company EDO announced Thursday it raised $12 million in Series A funding. The […]
CBS is reaping the benefits of a politically-charged midterm election season. The broadcast titan told investors Thursday it exceeded its Q3 earnings forecasts. Total revenue increased 3% to $3.26 billion and quarterly earnings increased $1.24 per share, up from $1.11 per share in Q3 2017. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter in which CBS has […]
Political advertising has been good to Comcast. Comcast’s cable advertising revenue increased 15.2% to $684 million in Q3, but that bump would have been just 0.6% without political advertising, the company disclosed Thursday. Meanwhile ad revenue at media division NBCUniversal was up (4.2% for its cable networks, 9.2% for broadcast). The increase was attributed to […]
The CEO of TripAdvisor, Steve Kaufer, has a motto: “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth measuring.” Which is why TV had to prove itself before earning a spot on the travel review site’s media plan. Until 2013, TripAdvisor spent most of its budget on digital, mainly because of its measurability. There’s a lack of “direct, […]
Brian Wiener will present on video measurement at AdExchanger’s upcoming Programmatic IO New York conference on Oct. 15-16. ComScore is getting back on its feet. After the Nasdaq delisted the company due to a string of financial foibles and leadership changes, the measurement company brought on former 360i Chairman Bryan Wiener as CEO in April. By May, […]
Why is the industry still talking about linear vs. digital when to consumers, it’s all just content? That’s the question Donna Speciale, president of ad sales at Turner, is asking to galvanize long-awaited changes to how network TV transacts media. “At some point, we’re not going to say linear or digital,” she told AdExchanger. “We’ll […]
Nielsen is reviewing “strategic alternatives” to selling its entire company, the company told investors this month. The TV ratings giant is reportedly under pressure from hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. “All options are being weighed,” a Nielsen spokesperson told AdExchanger. “The company has hired external advisers to conduct a full review and the board is […]
Turner inventory will soon be available through the AppNexus ad platform, AT&T top dog Randall Stephenson said at an event Wednesday. Speaking at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia conference in New York, Stephenson also told attendees how he hopes to expand HBO viewership and said that federal authorities must codify rules around privacy and net neutrality. Advertising is […]
Amobee just crossed the final T on its acquisition of advanced TV and video ad platform Videology. The deal, which closed on Tuesday, marks both the end of a tumultuous few years for Videology and a fresh start for a company that foundered despite solid technology and a shrewd vision. The Videology name will be […]
Roku’s platform business, which encompasses advertising and subscription revenue, grew 96% in Q2 to $90 million. Roku’s ad business now makes up two-thirds of platform revenue, Scott Rosenberg, VP of advertising and audience development, said Wednesday during the company’s Q2 earnings call. Rosenberg didn’t break out a figure for ad revenue but said a majority […]
AMC Networks said Thursday it will allow advertisers to dynamically insert ads to reach specific households, marking its first foray into addressable TV. The offering will be available in the fourth quarter, said Adam Gaynor, AMC’s VP of advertising and data solutions. Sorenson Media’s addressable ad platform will power the capability with Samsung smart TVs […]
Comcast’s strategy has long been to invest in every area where customers get their entertainment or information, so that even if one line of business is affected by changing consumer preferences, another could benefit. Cord cutters, for instance, reduced Comcast’s video business but aided its broadband business. The following are items of interest gleaned from […]
As part of a push to adopt a more digital, data-driven mentality, NCC Media hired Bob Ivins as the TV advertising conglomerate’s inaugural chief data officer. NCC Media, which is owned by Comcast, Charter and Cox Communications, started a division in April that focuses on building data-driven products. With Ivins overseeing data products for the […]
Discovery has reorganized its ad sales teams into three new selling bundles, the company said Thursday. In March, the 35-year-old company acquired longtime competitor Scripps Networks Interactive for $14.6 billion. With HGTV, Food Network, Investigation Discovery and 14 other channels under its umbrella, Discovery Inc. wanted to create larger teams with fewer salespeople, according to […]
The rumors were true. AT&T said Monday it will acquire AppNexus for its advertising and analytics unit, which is headed up by former GroupM chief (and ex-AppNexus board member) Brian Lesser. The acquisition is expected to close in Q3. Read the release. Terms were not disclosed, though The Wall Street Journal pegged the price tag […]
AT&T rode into Cannes this year amid fanfare following its Time Warner acquisition, freshly rebranded as WarnerMedia. But trailing in its wake are a lot of questions around what this mega-merger means for the advertising landscape. Intentionally or not, AT&T added to the ambiguity with its Cannes branding – or complete lack thereof. The telco […]
Ad campaigns unfurl across screens, and that’s the way they should be measured. Nielsen Catalina Solutions (NCS) released a cross-screen measurement tool on Wednesday that links incremental offline sales for an ad campaign to total views across channels, including linear TV, mobile and desktop video, over-the-top (OTT) and connected TV. NCS, which provides purchase-based targeting […]
AT&T, which closed its acquisition of Time Warner on Thursday, will acquire more companies to support its Advertising and Analytics unit, CEO Randall Stephenson said Friday during a CNBC interview. Watch it here. Stephenson spoke of an upcoming ad-supported skinny bundle called AT&T Watch TV, featuring Turner content, that will be formally announced next week. […]
Door hardware maker Schlage was spending seven figures on linear TV advertising. While the brand still wanted to take advantage of TV’s mass reach, it wanted better targeting, measurement and optimization. So Schlage called on its agency of record, The Basement, and demand-side platform Centro to bring programmatic elements to its TV media buys. “They […]
The bid has dropped. Comcast on Wednesday again attempted to outmaneuver Mickey and acquire most of 21st Century Fox’s assets with a $65 billion cash offer, putting Disney’s deal in jeopardy. Disney offered Fox a $52.4 billion all-stock deal in December. Comcast wants to disrupt the deal and follow in AT&T’s footsteps: a content distributor […]
Advertisers know linear TV spots drive store visits. Proving it is another story. On Tuesday, Snap-owned location company Placed released a tool that attempts to tie the two together. To power its offering, Placed is licensing viewership data from Inscape, the data division within smart-TV manufacturer Vizio, which has access to around 8 million opted-in […]
As eyeballs shift away from linear TV, networks are experimenting with new ad formats, targeting and measurement tactics to keep both buyers and viewers interested. TV ad revenue fell 2.7% to $70.1 billion in the US in 2017, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ “US TV Advertising Outlook,” released Tuesday. During the same period, online TV advertising, which […]
Video delivered over the internet to a smart television or connected TV could have a brand safety problem. We’re talking specifically about user-generated digital video streaming to a big screen and the niche OTT channels and streaming services that seem be springing up on a near-weekly basis. That type of video shouldn’t be confused with […]
Nicolle Pangis, a former C-suite exec at WPP GroupM’s Xaxis and [m]Platform, has been appointed CEO and president of NCC Media. She will start May 29. NCC is a national cable sales group owned by Comcast, Charter and Cox Communications. In April, NCC started a division led by Comcast’s advanced ads division that will focus […]
Verizon’s Oath wants advertisers to know that although it shuttered its programmatic TV offering OneTV, its addressable TV business based on Fios households – which launched in late 2016 – is here to stay. Verizon knows that for addressable inventory, it’s later to the game than Dish network as well as AT&T and its DirecTV […]
This isn’t a test: Data-driven TV planning is finally having its moment. About 15-17% of advertisers in the US already regularly include addressable or advanced TV buys in their media plans, according to a joint Forrester/Association of National Advertisers survey of 126 ANA members released Wednesday. An additional 20-30% of advertisers plan to start dipping […]
Altice USA launched an advanced TV business on Thursday called A4 to provide marketers and MVPDs with audience-based, multiscreen advertising solutions. A4 is the culmination of multiple acquisitions by Altice, starting with Cablevision in 2015, said A4 President Paul Haddad, who heads the 500-person team. Altice also has acquired digital platform Audience Partners and programmatic […]
