Although national broadcast networks have led the charge on audience data and automation – at least in the linear TV environment – local station groups aren’t far behind. NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations is laying the foundation for greater addressability at the local and regional level. The division houses 39 NBC and Telemundo local TV stations […]
NBCUniversal is deepening its bench of data-driven executives, revealing on Wednesday that it had hired its first SVP of advertising technology, Ed Kozek. Kozek was previously SVP of ad product and engineering for The Weather Co., where he worked on the audience and data platform WeatherFX. Now he will manage NBCU’s proprietary ad products. NBCU […]
TBS and TNT’s new CMO, Michael Engleman, is on a mission to make the networks’ brand marketing engine much more agile. Engleman, who helped rebrand the Sci Fi Channel as SyFy during his time at NBCUniversal, thinks broadcasters will be forced to adapt as new content producers and channels compete for consumer attention. For years, […]
Netflix will inevitably need ads, predicted Jo Ann Ross, CBS’ president and chief advertising revenue officer, during a fireside chat at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview on Thursday. “Maybe they’ll offer a lower-cost version of their service [or a different model],” she said, “but if they’re spending that much money [on content], they will look for ways […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
NBCUniversal’s chairman of advertising sales, Linda Yaccarino, went straight for Google’s jugular at the network’s Monday upfront presentation. “At NBCUniversal, you never have to worry about showing up next to something objectionable,” Yaccarino said at the New York City event, alluding to the online giant’s brand safety struggles. “But, let’s be honest: Brand safety is […]
Welcome to AdExchanger Talks, a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here. NBCUniversal’s upfront event at Radio City Music Hall next Monday will kick off a month of negotiations between media buyers and networks. And NBCU is the biggest seller in the upfront. Basically, if ad deals were family meals, this would be Thanksgiving dinner. But […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Maureen Bosetti, the chief investment officer for IPG Mediabrands’ Initiative, will discuss dynamics for this year’s upfronts alongside other TV power players at Industry Preview on Jan. 18 in New York City. The 2016 TV upfronts ended with networks posting double-digit CPM increases, but will that momentum carry into 2017? Two key factors could help buyers wield […]
NBCUniversal finished its upfront negotiations on a high note, citing CPM increases of 12.5% for prime-time slots and even higher percentages for some networks – 13% on USA, for example. Comparatively speaking, NBC aimed for 7% to 8% CPM increases in 2015, but settled in at about 5%, which speaks to the strength of this […]
At face value, AwesomenessTV looks like your average YouTube multichannel network (MCN). Except it’s not, according to Paul Kelly, AwesomenessTV’s chief partnerships officer. AwesomenessTV has amassed 160 million total subscribers and now boasts nearly a billion monthly video views across platforms. A network of creators helps support its shows, but the company is also a […]
How about this for a premiere? Beginning this fall, all NBCUniversal inventory will be available for sale programmatically via the network’s private exchange NBCUx. Ahead of the upfronts, NBCUniversal has rolled out an offering called NBCUx for Linear TV, which will put additional data and automation in the hands of media planners to apply to […]
Comcast is losing fewer cable TV customers than it has in the past eight years. That’s no small feat, considering signs of rampant cord cutting inundating the broadcast industry. Comcast added 89,000 customers for video service Xfinity in the fourth quarter, the most of any quarter since 2006, according to its earnings release. Video revenue […]
Shoppable video is still a novel concept, despite the industry’s efforts to move it into the mainstream (with Google launching shoppable video on YouTube being the most recent example). But NBCUniversal’s Bravo TV still sees the value of shoppable video. The network wanted to expand its digital business and encourage fans to return to its properties on […]
NBCUniversal transacted 10-15% of its digital business programmatically during the 2015-2016 season, the company has revealed to AdExchanger. Prior to the upfronts, the company expected to secure 50% of commitments on a “converged” basis, with elements of both TV and digital in a single deal. In this most recent upfront, NBCUniversal’s digital business grew 50% and, of […]
Toyota Motors is a big TV spender. It bought, according to Kantar Media, three minutes of commercial airtime during Super Bowl XLIX –trailing only Anheuser-Busch and Fiat Chrysler. Although Toyota will continue to invest in big TV tent poles, it’s test-driving more digital video activation, and is sponsoring premium NBCUniversal video running on AOL’s network. […]
Nielsen’s having a tough week. On Tuesday, comScore and Rentrak, two of Nielsen’s top competitors, announced their intention to merge into a single measurement monolith. And on Thursday, business channel CNBC, a division of NBCUniversal, will officially kick Nielsen to the curb, turning instead to research firm Cogent Reports for its audience measurement. Comcast-owned NBCUniversal […]
Sarah Sluis and Ryan Joe contributed. NBCUniversal’s $200 million investment in Vox Media and its expected (though unconfirmed) $200 million investment in BuzzFeed isn’t the big broadcaster’s first date with a digital publisher. It had a disastrous marriage with top women’s lifestyle publisher iVillage, which it acquired for $600 million in 2006 and eventually merged into […]
Fifty-four stories above New York’s World Trade Center site, 800 media planners gathered Tuesday evening for AOL’s annual advertiser NewFront. The big “reveal” was a new video content and distribution agreement with broadcaster NBCUniversal. Starting this summer, select NBCUniversal videos from network partners Bravo, CNBC, E!, MSNBC, NBC, Oxygen, Syfy, Telemundo and USA will be […]
Advertisers are no longer interested in hitting demo targets alone and, leading into upfronts, media companies are baking behavioral and audience-based guarantees into their sales pitches. Buy- and sell-side parties want to link TV programs with purchase propensity to determine whether a media exposure helped loosen purse strings. “We’re seeing more demand to bring together business […]
It’s a tough road for a stand-alone second-screen app. Beamly, the social TV network formerly known as Zeebox, would appear well positioned to help publishers engage millennial audiences across all platforms. Its install base grew from 2 million monthly active users in 2011 to 10.5 million today, and Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Viacom have a joint […]
Advanced audience targeting is taking a seat at this year’s TV upfronts. Sellers are lining their arsenals with new products promising cross-platform reach, partially out of necessity. Viewer attention is fragmenting and advertisers want assurance that if they commit an upfront buy, there will be multiple points of execution. It’s unclear the extent to which buyers […]
Catering to cord-cutters, cable networks and broadcasters are unbundling their content. CBS, HBO and Viacom will all roll out paid subscription services. Ex-Hulu CEO Jason Kilar is launching both a subscription-based and ad-supported web video service, Vessel. And paid TV service Dish is rolling out Sling TV, a $20-per-month streaming service that gives subscribers AMC, […]
Jeff Lucas, head of ad sales for Viacom Music and Entertainment, likes photo-messaging app Snapchat. Because its user base is dominated by females under 25, the platform that popularized the “fleeting” SMS aligns closely with Viacom property MTV’s young millennial audience. It’s one of the reasons why MTV is test driving Snapchat’s new Discover feature, part of […]
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 […]
