CTV

Cord-cutting forecasts present a cautionary tale for linear TV’s $70 billion ad market. Interpublic Group’s media research and buying division, MAGNA Global, for instance, found live, DVR and video on-demand viewing decreased 14% year over year among the 18-24 demo set for the 2014-2015 season. Conversely, eMarketer expects the viewership for connected devices like set-top […]

General Electric is about to make its first foray into over-the-top devices and connected TVs, said Alexa Christon, the company’s global head of media innovation. Through a deal with music and entertainment platform Vevo, GE will serve as a paid distributor of an original and curated video bundle to connected devices such as Samsung, Roku, […]

The Trade Desk made headlines this week when it raked in $45 million in debt financing and brought on Microsoft, RGM Group and Delivery Agent alum Gabe Greenberg to manage its Advanced TV division. The company positions itself as both a DSP and a DMP, and its leaders have longstanding roots in automation, according to […]

Programmatic television isn’t yet a reality, but integrations between a number of linear TV inventory providers and the video demand-side platform TubeMogul may help move that needle. On Thursday, TubeMogul rolled out Programmatic TV (PTV), a software-buying system designed to streamline the complex TV-buying process. PTV hooks into linear supply-side platforms AudienceXpress, clypd, FreeWheel, place […]

Consumers prefer digital media players like Roku, Chromecast and AppleTV over live TV, according to the GFK study “Digital Media Players 2014.” Nineteen percent of US households own digital media players. These preferences are changing consumer behavior, not just through cord cutting but because people who use these services find new shows and increase their […]

As more networks like HBO and WWE Network develop a la carte streaming services, competing streaming video or TV providers (and some e-commerce companies, for that matter) are pressed to develop good content that resonates with subscribers. Hulu, which pulled in about $1 billion in revenue in 2013 and has over 6 million Hulu Plus members, airs […]

Although addressable TV advertising commands an estimated $200 million-$300 million in spend compared to linear TV’s $70 billion annual ad market, according to some TV industry execs, it promises a targeted buy down to the household level either through a set-top box or other IP-enabled device. However, the inherent challenges of addressable TV – which include […]

This is how to make a beer commercial. Combine gorgeous women, average-looking men, laughter, extreme close-ups of flowing beer, long shots of snow-capped mountains (optional). Shake it up and toss it onto an NFL game, preferably sometime during the first quarter when people are still watching. This is also the antithesis of how Heineken-owned Newcastle […]

This Old House, the venerable home-improvement brand, possesses a trove of video assets highly valued by users and advertisers alike. Video is the very foundation of This Old House. The brand started off as a local Boston television show in 1979, and it now runs nationally on PBS. Time Inc., which had been running This Old […]

Krishan Bhatia oversees a portfolio that reaches north of 130 million monthly unique visitors across desktop, mobile and over-the-top devices as EVP of digital strategy and operations for NBCUniversal’s digital portfolio. Bhatia, who reports directly to president of advertising sales Linda Yaccarino, is charged with growing NBCUniversal’s digital advertising business, including its maturing programmatic discipline. […]

FreeWheel, a video ad server owned by Comcast and used by broadcasters like ABC and Discovery Communications, has teamed up with digital demand-side platform (DSP) TubeMogul to make premium digital video inventory accessible on a programmatic reserved basis. FreeWheel is arranging several data escrows with TubeMogul and providing access to agencies and marketers like Allstate, […]

Consumers may spend a lot of time watching video on over-the-top devices and mobile, but advertisers still haven’t invested heavily in those areas. While panelists throughout Advertising Week in New York City agreed that the development of measurement techniques will help close that gap, device fragmentation complicates these initiatives. Still, connected TV makers and distributors […]

CPG giant Mondelēz International, which made waves in the ad industry earlier this year by owning its deal with video demand-side platform TubeMogul, has entered another agreement designed to enhance its online video investments: a partnership with Google covering markets in North America, Europe and emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East […]

If AOL hadn’t already made it clear it would double down on digital video and end-to-end marketing tech at its Digital Newfront in May, Monday’s Programmatic Upfront at Advertising Week in New York left no doubt. AOL’s latest development? The company has layered in and built a data-management platform (DMP) out of attribution vendor Convertro, which it purchased […]

Roku, the first streaming player to translate Netflix to TV, has reached the 10 million-device mark. With 1,000-plus channels ranging from free to subscription (Hulu Plus, Netflix) and on-demand services (HBOGo and WatchESPN), Roku is scaling up its ad-supported vertical. Bringing publishers and brand partners onboard in a cookieless, connected TV environment comes with its own unique challenges, […]

Linear TV may not exactly “lean in” to programmatic (yet), but the connected device constituency is proving programmatic TV is more than just futurespeak. In a series of buy and sell-side discussions at LiveRail’s Video Publisher Forum Tuesday in New York, a number of industry execs agreed connected TV apps, publishers, ad servers and measurement […]

When will buying a linear TV ad be as simple as executing a Facebook ad buy? Sky Media, the ad sales arm of one European broadcast and telecom giant, says it’s already happening. British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) dominates the pay-TV market in the UK, counting some 10.7 million paid subscribers a month and banking nearly […]

The state of programmatic TV: A patchwork of parts that need to come together in order to automate the broadcast ad buy. During a panel at Programmatic I/O in New York Wednesday, David Cooperstein, CMO of Simulmedia; Brent Horowitz, VP of business development at BrightRoll; Derek Mattsson, president and CEO of placemedia, Amanda Richman, president, Starcom USA […]

How bad a problem is online ad fraud, and how should the buy and sell sides divvy the responsibility to combat it? This question formed the crux of the panel “New Methods For Defeating Fraud In The Programmatic Era,” moderated by WPP’s Team Detroit chief digital officer, Kurt Unkel, at Wednesday’s Programmatic I/O conference in New […]

Each day, 7 million fans tune in to YouTube to see bubbly video blogger Bethany Mota make breakfast or braid her hair. The breakout video star draws tweens eager for a taste of Mota’s fashion and beauty must-haves, averaging 100 million minutes of video watched per month. She’s equally attractive to brand advertisers, clinching campaigns […]

Meredith Corp., the publisher of popular women’s interest titles like Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies’ Home Journal, is getting into the television game. Over Labor Day weekend, Better Homes and Gardens debuted free, ad-supported programming compatible with connected devices from Samsung, LG, Sharp, Philips, Toshiba and Roku. Meredith worked with Net2TV’s Portico TV Service […]

One of the purposes of Deal ID is to allow buyers and sellers to negotiate deals that combine the personal touch of the direct sale with programmatic efficiency. But the Deal ID also has challenges around sell-side scalability and limitations in audience discovery for advertisers. Nevertheless, some industry experts say the Deal ID might help […]

Eighty-seven percent of brands and agencies plan to spend at least 50% more on programmatic buys of desktop display, mobile and video advertising in the next six months, according to a survey conducted by AOL Platforms of executives at 25 advertisers, 96 agencies and 56 publishers. Display’s growth is driven by access to premium formats and […]

AudienceXpress, a TV audience-buying platform and division of early addressable TV tech company Visible World, has named its first buy-side programmatic video partner: the newly public TubeMogul. As a result of the deal, media buyers using TubeMogul for digital video campaigns can now access select linear spots from AudienceXpress’s cable MSO and multichannel video programming […]

Rentrak sees surging interest in addressable TV advertising, according to Bill Livek, CEO of the audience measurement and data services firm. “We believe this will be a massive advertising category,” Livek remarked during the company’s quarterly earnings call Thursday. “The folks who are doing addressable campaigns, every time a brand runs a campaign they can […]

As mobile traffic grows, the stakes for advertisers also climb. This is especially true for a publisher like Time Inc., where mobile traffic increased 35% in six short months – from 39 million unique views in December to 53 million unique views in June. As more traffic shifts to mobile, “being able to provide more […]

Popular audio-recognition app Shazam, which has amassed 475 million users to date, set its sights on TV Tuesday with the release of a network sales platform called Resonate. Initial launch partners include: A&E, AMC, FUSE and dick clark productions. Kevin McGurn, the company’s chief revenue officer and former SVP of sales for Hulu, said television […]

Inventory is where it’s at for RockYou. The company, which recently pivoted away from game publishing to focus on becoming a programmatic in-game video ad network, has raised $10 million in funding from FastPay, a sort of anti-VC that extends credit lines to digital media companies. It plans to use the money to buy up […]

Updated with additional comment from SpotXchange CEO Mike Shehan and RTL. European entertainment network RTL Group announced Thursday it will acquire a 65% stake worth $144 million in video supply-side platform and programmatic marketplace SpotXchange. Depending on the performance of the company, RTL could acquire additional stake in the company through the terms of an earn-out […]

The root of the network business is drawing a large audience to attract advertisers. As digital video and device fragmentation have disrupted the value proposition of traditional TV, data has become the equalizer. This is one reason why the ABC Television Network is spearheading an initiative with 4C Insights, a Facebook and Twitter ads partner. […]