Last year, Comcast Technology Solutions, a division of Comcast Cable that offers services around video workflow and monetization, zeroed in on the monetization opportunities around OTT.
The company stepped up its game even more on Wednesday, when it hired programmatic vet Richard Nunn as VP and GM of ad platform, a business within Comcast Technology Solutions. Comcast Technology Solutions assists with ad delivery and video distribution for its clients.
Nunn, previously the chief revenue and operations officer at ad tech company RhythmOne, has the digital and programmatic skill set to connect the linear and non-linear sides of the TV buying equation.
He’s also looking for growth opportunities beyond the US.
AdExchanger caught up with Nunn to talk about Comcast Technology Solutions’ future.
AdExchanger: What does Comcast Technology Solutions do for advertisers, exactly?
RICHARD NUNN: Let’s say you’ve got an agency who’s just created a 30-second ad for a brand. We will execute and send that in real time to all the numerous broadcasters on that media plan.
That can now be done though the linear TV side as well as the nonlinear TV side, which has evolved over time.
What’s on your six-month road map?
We want to come out of the new year with an upgraded, unified platform.
A media planner, someone in an agency, or even an advertiser can have the choice to be account managed or have a self-service solution. They can send their assets to either the linear or nonlinear side, all in one place, rather than having multiple UIs and different systems. A unified platform will help drive efficiency and effectiveness for their side, and save time and speed.
Also, as content globally travels, what does this mean for us from an international perspective? Can we deliver a unified platform internationally as well?
What’s being unified?
I run the advertising platform. There are two sides to it which are unified. One is obviously the linear ads that get distributed across linear broadcasters. We’re the lynchpin between the advertisers, the agency and the broadcasters, and we’re pretty good at that in terms of size and scale. We deliver that not only for our own Comcast properties for obvious reasons, but also out into the wider marketplace.
The other side is digital, so non-linear TV VOD and all those other acronyms out there.
What’s the benefit to advertisers?
The key benefit is speed, efficiency and post-analytics of where that ad’s gone to: if it arrived, has it been delivered, and all [those considerations]. It’s ultimately just driving speed and efficiency for the buy side.
Do you have services around segmentation or targeting?
We’re after that. That’s part of the media planning side. But clearly the value of data, not just the pipes to connect this, is critical. There’s certainly some workflow that we’re looking into around what other data metrics we can feed back into that loop. Any kind of original targeting is part of the media plan, which is before where we get involved.
What’s the history of Comcast Technology Solutions?
The heritage was to service the internally owned and operated properties of Comcast. That’s what’s been rolled out commercially into the marketplace.
How did working in programmatic at RhythmOne prepare you for your new role at Comcast?
There are a lot of similarities. It brings the digital side of [RhythmOne’s] expertise into the core [of this] current businesses, which is ad distribution.
