WideOrbit, Viacom Partner on Ad Backbone

SAN FRANCISCO—WideOrbit was tapped by Viacom’s Media Networks to install WO Network, WideOrbit’s platform for managing network ad sales and commercial rights. Viacom’s combined networks represent the largest portfolio of ad-supported cable networks in the United States, in terms of audience share, WO said.

WideOrbit has already successfully launched WO Network at 16 Viacom properties. Viacom plans to have its entire portfolio operating on its software by the third quarter.

WO Network enables Viacom’s advertising inventory to be managed, sold, scheduled and invoiced from a single platform. Viacom sales teams can build and present deals from a single document; managers will have oversight of deals, rate cards, and inventory; and ad operations will have a single source of truth for approvals, constraints, schedules, materials, logs, workflow and stewardship.

WO Network allowed Viacom to replace and consolidate several ancillary legacy systems on a single platform. Many of the reports previously provided by external tools now run directly from WO Network, including constraint management and reporting, audience delivery optimization and liability reduction.