The ad industry needs to check itself before it wrecks itself. That was the rallying cry Tuesday at NBCUniversal’s swanky State of the Industry Forum, where 150 digital and broadcast advertising luminaries gathered in midtown Manhattan for fancy eggs and frank discussion. “I’ll cut right to the chase: We have a problem,” said Linda Yaccarino, […]
Amazon wants to own a greater chunk of the video supply chain. Its cloud division, Amazon Web Services, released a suite of video tools called AWS Elemental Media Services on Monday, designed to help live and on-demand video content providers manage workflow. It is available only as a managed service for now. “We’re trying to […]
For video service Crunchyroll, finding the right mix of ads and subscriptions is critical for ensuring long-term success in the OTT space. That strategy also includes a range of alternative revenue streams, such as offline events and ecommerce. But before it could effectively monetize, Crunchyroll built a scaled audience by catering exclusively to Japanese anime […]
The US Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against AT&T has thrown a wrench into the $108 billion planned merger between the telco and Time Warner. The complaint, filed late Monday, alleged the merger could “hinder [AT&T’s] rivals by forcing them to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more per year for Time Warner’s networks.” The filing […]
“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Evelina Grines, vice president of media and entertainment at MPP Global. Video audiences in the US are soaring, growing 46.8% from August 2016 to 2017, per the MPA. And while that’s good news, viewership […]
Welcome to AdExchanger Talks, a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here. As big brands seeking younger audiences move TV budgets online, some have been put off by digital’s triple threat: brand safety, viewability and fraud. Hulu is there for them. Hulu basically offers the benefits of TV in a digital buy, according to Doug Fleming, Hulu’s […]
Although Netflix’s audience is large (and growing), it’s notoriously hard to measure. Nielsen hopes to remove some of the difficulty gauging audience viewership in ad-free environments like Netflix with its launch Wednesday of a syndicated measurement service called Nielsen Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) Content Ratings. Eight networks and studios, including A&E, Disney-ABC, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal […]
Thanks to its smart TVs, LG Electronics controls a channel that can bring the granularity of digital advertising into the world of connected TV. But LG is a consumer electronics manufacturer, not an advertising company, and in recent years it has learned how to accommodate a new business practice. Its first foray into ad monetization […]
The two-year-old TV startup Adcuratio is rolling out a platform in Q1 2018 that lets marketers dynamically swap and insert personalized ads into linear TV streams based on CRM or other first-party data. Early beta testers will include the brands Clorox and Kohl’s, as well as agencies like Omnicom’s OMD and Publicis Groupe’s Zenith. The problem […]
Beginning Monday, Walmart’s streaming video service Vudu will monetize inventory programmatically through an exclusive deal with the video ad server SpotX. Vudu’s ad-supported offering – an on-demand video library called Vudu Movies On Us – launched a year ago. Ad sales, however, were mostly handled on a reserved basis through conventional I/Os by the video […]
Demand-side platform The Trade Desk wants a bigger slice of TV ad budgets. The company on Thursday rolled out a connected TV targeting and attribution tool designed to extend digital buying capabilities like retargeting and audience matching into the over-the-top environment. According to CEO Jeff Green, connected TV inventory available through The Trade Desk increased […]
With addressable TV predicted to grow 65.8% this year to reach $1.26 billion in ad spend, local TV providers will be among the channel’s biggest beneficiaries. For instance, Videa, Cox Media Group’s TV ad platform, expects its 190 local addressable TV station partners to more than double within the next six months. On the flip […]
Although Roku’s device sales make up 59% of its revenue, the growth of the segment is declining as Google, Amazon, Apple and other competitors push for more market share. However, its platform business, which consists of ads and subscription revenue, has expanded rapidly and now represents 41% of Roku’s total revenue. Advertising accounted for 67% […]
In its short, two-year lifespan, FuboTV, a streaming video service specializing in live sports content, has mostly monetized through paid subscriptions. But after raising a $55 million Series C round in June – and pushing to grow subscribers for its new skinny bundle, Fubo Premier – it’s turned its attention to its tech stack. FuboTV […]
Facebook Watch, the social giant’s video hub that went live for select users on Wednesday, already has a roster of digital video launch partners – like Time Inc., Hearst, Brit & Co., Tastemade, Quartz and McClatchy. But Facebook also wants to broker content deals with the likes of big TV companies like Univision, Major League […]
As NBCUniversal’s portfolio has evolved, so has its sales pitch to brand marketers. When NBCU merged its linear and digital sales teams in 2015 and combined all its content groups, its client partnerships team assumed a greater role within its sales organization. That team, led by client partnerships EVP Ali Tarrant, became the broadcaster’s conduit […]
Ad buyers decry the absence of addressability in OTT inventory, which they claim lacks the targeting and measurement capabilities to which digital buyers are accustomed. But an integration between Videology’s cross-screen video platform and Tru Optik’s CTV device graph, revealed Wednesday, aims to bring more addressability to OTT advertisers – at scale. Previously, Videology would target […]
Fox Television Stations, a network broadcast group which owns 28 local TV stations in 17 markets, revealed Wednesday it’s adding more automation to its linear TV inventory through a partnership with WideOrbit. Fox Television Stations first dipped its toes in programmatic in 2014 when it struck a private marketplace deal with Facebook’s LiveRail for cross-platform […]
OTT is a catch-22 for advertisers. While it reaches the cord cutters traditional TV advertisers want to target, that audience is still difficult to track in an OTT environment. Although the channel is capturing more attention (and dollars) from the traditional TV camp, digital buyers say connected TV needs to address the issue of identity […]
While broadcaster ProSieben owns about a 30% share of the German TV market, it’s looking to expand its influence in new channels – using its investment arm, SevenVentures, to scout startups. “We look to invest into promising startups on the B2C side of the business, which is different than the investment we make into our […]
The result of NBCUniversal’s 2017-2018 upfront: Bookings volume increased by 8% to nearly $6.5 billion, according to the company. Although total volume growth was slightly softer than last year’s 10% increase, NBCU clocked positive momentum across its portfolio. NBCU commanded high single-digit CPM increases across all inventory, including late night and sports. (Those figures don’t […]
By Sarah Sluis, Kelly Liyakasa and Alison Weissbrot Some publishers excel in programmatic in ways that make buyers take notice. The best way to stand out in programmatic is by integrating sales teams so it’s easy to buy programmatically and direct with a single conversation. Smart publishers don’t create incentives that make salespeople push direct […]
Although early video investments (and acquisitions) were focused on the desktop, a new influx of funding is pivoting to channels like over-the-top TV. In the span of three months, more than $150 million in VC funding has been injected into startups capitalizing on the demand for new video content – and addressing the challenges of […]
Blockchain, an unmodifiable and unbreachable digital ledger, was conceived 10 years ago to support the cryptocurrency bitcoin. But it has since seeped into new categories, jumping from finance to health care and, more recently, digital advertising. It’s doing so with the backing of big companies like IBM and Comcast, as well as smaller startups like […]
In the past, large linear audiences weren’t always addressable, and TV tune-in marketing was more “spray-and-pray” than precise. But TV tune-in, that mainstay of traditional linear promotion, is getting a data-driven boost. As linear ratings decline and consumers trend toward time-shifted content and new distribution points like mobile and over-the-top, marketers have more data at […]
Addressable TV has earned a rep for being expensive and not all that scalable. But for early adopters like Conagra Brands, the channel does have its perks. Advertisers that invest in addressable TV alongside their larger broadcast buys view the format as a vessel for reducing waste by being able to more effectively zero in […]
The drumbeat of blockchain industry news continues this week with the launch of AdLedger Consortium, a blockchain-enabled online advertising group backed by MadHive, a blockchain ad tech startup, IBM, Integral Ad Science and Tegna’s OTT ad subsidiary Premion. As with other initiatives, like Comcast’s fledgling Blockchain Insights Platform, the AdLedger Consortium is still in the […]
Microsoft is looking to claim itself a spot beside the top dogs competing on the video and cloud front. It says data is the differentiator. “Unlike other providers who use your data to sell groceries or other services that compete [with your business], your data belongs to you,” Martin Wahl, principal program manager for Microsoft, […]
Newsy started life as a desktop play. But now the digital video network, purchased by the E.W. Scripps Company in 2013, derives most of its traffic from over-the-top (OTT) devices as buyers begin to warm up to the channel. Marketers are increasingly willing to invest in OTT not just as a testing ground but as […]
James Hercher contributed to this article. Comcast Advanced Advertising Group said Tuesday in Cannes that it will formally launch a blockchain-powered tool in 2018 to help companies share their data with each other. The Blockchain Insights Platform is meant to ease the often clunky and nerve-wracking process of data sharing. Because of these challenges, companies […]
MMM can tell marketers what worked, but Lifesight’s open-sourced forecasting tool aims to tell them what to do next.
As programmatic buying becomes more common in audio, marketers and platforms fight the temptation to cram in as many placements as possible.
Connected TV advertisers are still pining after show-level control. And PubMatic announced contextual targeting at the episode level is available to media buyers accessing CTV inventory through its platform.
Rather than relying on machine learning, SQREEM uses a mathematical AI model to track how systems change over time and predict audience behavior.
Given how much the market has changed since the Google trial began, and the wiggle room in the ruling itself, publishers aren’t expecting much relief from the court’s behavioral remedies.
Indie agency KWG says sell-side curation can target more high-performing inventory with better match rates and lower data fees than buy-side curation.
