CTV

AppNexus wants in on connected TV ad budgets. The ad tech company has doubled down on the infrastructure to support connected TV buying and selling by integrating the forecasting from its Yieldex acquisition with its video ad server. It also has added support for newer connected TV ad formats and long-form content. These developments should […]

Maker Studios, the YouTube multichannel network (MCN) it acquired for more than $500 million in 2014, has been absorbed into Disney’s larger digital portfolio. After months of layoffs at the struggling MCN, Disney revealed at its NewFronts presentation on Tuesday that it would roll Maker’s remaining creators and influencers into the Disney Digital Network, a […]

Hulu is moving into phase two of its advanced TV strategy almost two years after launching its private exchange. But the market has changed since then, and Hulu has evolved its own ad technology stack in lockstep. For starters, Facebook shuttered the LiveRail supply-side platform (SSP) and ad server last year, so Hulu migrated to Tremor’s video SSP. Rather than entering a drawn-out RFP […]

Google is adding advanced TV buying capabilities to its demand-side platform, DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM). For the first time, Google will connect its ad tech to addressable TV inventory through its broadband and TV service, Google Fiber. Google will also support local market TV buys in DBM through a partnership with WideOrbit, as well as […]

Facebook may be sidling away from ad tech, but it’s cozying up to marketing automation through a smorgasbord of APIs. At its F8 developer’s conference in San Jose this week, Facebook rolled out the next version of its marketing API suite, which includes new tools to automate creative production and targeting parameters. Those APIs make […]

British broadcasting and telecom giant Sky is building for a future where digital and programmatic TV play on the same court. To do so, Sky, amid a $14.1 billion takeover by Twenty-First Century Fox, is investing in new media opportunities and ramping up on ad tech. To boost its presence on Facebook and YouTube, Sky just acquired […]

MDC Partners’ media agency, Assembly, has forged a strategic deal with Fox’s true[X], whose products give consumers options in their video ad breaks. The deal also gives true[X] more access to Assembly’s brand roster, like Hotels.com. Assembly and true[X] extended their partnership after collaborating on engagement-based ads for clients like the anti-tobacco nonprofit Truth. While […]

There’s a “simultaneous frustration” on the buy and sell sides to move beyond legacy TV currency standards like C3 ratings, said Linda Yaccarino, chairwoman of advertising sales and client partnerships at NBCU, at the 4As Transformation show in Los Angeles on Tuesday. This upfront season, NBCU is asking buyers to rethink the way they approach […]

Michael Bologna and Jamie Power – both leaders from GroupM’s advanced television-buying unit Modi Media – have left the media agency and founded an addressable TV media-buying startup called one2one Media. One2one is owned by Cross MediaWorks, a consortium of media and advertising companies. One2one matches advertiser first- and third-party data to multichannel video programming […]

Roku will offer audience guarantees this upfront season, joining big networks like NBC with similar programs. Several agencies, including Horizon Media and Hill Holliday’s media spinoff, Trilia, are beta testing Roku’s audience guarantees. Roku’s offering is based on the set-top box maker’s existing integration to Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings, which helped buyers determine their waste […]

Apple’s big iOS update last year created large amounts of new media inventory, which the company is monetizing through a big ad deal with NBCUniversal and direct relationships with publishers. Now the mobile platform giant is opening the gates to outside measurement of its ad impressions, AdExchanger has learned. Through its sales agreement with NBCUniversal, Apple […]

Dish’s streaming TV service, Sling TV, which reportedly topped 1 million subscribers last fall, is now focused on monetizing its audience cross-platform. Connecting the pipes for programmatic monetization across Sling TV, Dish and Dish Anywhere didn’t happen overnight, but Adam Lowy, GM of advanced TV, said years of work are paying off. Dish has been “quietly […]

by Allison Schiff, Alison Weissbrot, Sarah Sluis, James Hercher, Kelly Liyakasa and Ryan Joe Programmatic advertising comes in many flavors. A handful of brands load up to take their buying fully in-house. Many give their agency partners carte blanche. Other brands take ownership of the tech contracts and segmentation, while letting their agencies pull the […]

Unlike in digital, where marketers can buy across multiple publishers, TV planning is largely limited to a single broadcaster’s inventory. Fox, Turner and Viacom have jointly formed an advanced audience platform called OpenAP, which will roll out to media agencies and advertisers in early April, to try to solve that challenge. While each network has […]

Forward-thinking marketing organizations want to integrate digital and OTT media plans with upfront sponsorships and commitments. But doing so isn’t always black and white. Citi, for instance, integrates addressable TV planners with those who focus on traditional upfront commitments or digital video. “Instead of looking just at TV, we’re going to ask more of our […]

If publishers and platforms often hold contentious relationships with each other, NBCUniversal shows signs of wanting to change that frenemy dynamic. Leading up to last week’s Snapchat IPO, NBCUniversal invested $500 million in the video messaging and content app, CNBC reported Friday. That investment would give the media company an approximately a 2% stake, according to […]

  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 […]

Roku generated nearly $400 million in 2016 revenue, mostly from standard hardware sales around its devices. But $100 million of its revenue was attributed to Roku’s media licensing and advertising businesses, which are expected to be its biggest growth drivers. The real MVP of Roku’s media and licensing segment may be the set-top box manufacturer’s […]

The Dentsu Aegis Network is testing a cross-screen measurement system developed by video platform YuMe, released Wednesday, which maps connected TV (CTV) IDs to Nielsen panels. The system gives TV planners access to audience measurement based on demographic breakouts across multiple app publishers through a partnership with Nielsen. Dentsu’s digital video investment team wants a […]

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 […]

Erica Schmidt, managing director of North America for Cadreon, will speak about the state of programmatic and advanced TV at Programmatic IO on April 5 in San Francisco. The times, they are a-changing for traditional TV planners. Advertisers and agencies increasingly expect to buy TV, over-the-top (OTT) and mobile on a converged basis. And many want to […]

Product placements aren’t new, but with the rise of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services – and a reduction in cable networks’ commercial loads – branded TV content is primed to take off. That said, it’s hard to credit a sale of a bucket of KFC chicken to Jimmy Kimmel peddling it on his late-night show, so one company […]

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. […]

In the 16 years since it launched in 2001, Propel, Gatorade’s fitness-focused water brand, has slipped from top-of-mind presence for its audience to out of mind. “Consumers would say, ‘I love Propel. I kind of forgot about it,’” said Gina Hardy, senior marketing director of Gatorade at PepsiCo. To get its brand back in action […]

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 […]

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 […]

  TV buying is becoming more data-driven, even on the linear side. But buyers and sellers are questioning whether audience targeting works on the medium. “’Should TV be bought on an audience basis?’ is still an outstanding question,” Donna Speciale, president of ad sales at Turner, said Wednesday at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview conference in New […]

Intuit’s TurboTax is one of the rare companies that blends its more traditional brand marketing investments in TV with digital and performance. This strategy, which happens at both the organizational and budget level, is intentional. “You’re consuming brand messages on television while surfing the internet on your phone or scrolling through Facebook,” said Cathleen Ryan, […]