DSPolitical, a leading digital advertising company that works with Democrats, and FreeWheel have announced that they will be working together on political advertising in the runup to the mid-term elections.

As part of the alliance, the two company are providing tools that give campaigns the ability to activate first-party voter data through FreeWheel Buyer Cloud and Identity Network to reach validated voters more precisely and at scale across connected TV (CTV) ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

The partnership comes at a time when campaigns are increasingly prioritizing CTV for its ability to combine the impact of television with the precision of digital targeting.

During the 2024 cycle, as campaigns faced tighter timelines, shifting priorities, and unprecedented competition for voter attention, DSPolitical leveraged this approach to deliver measurable results across premium CTV environments. As the first political firm to onboard its voter data through the FreeWheel Identity Network, DSPolitical enabled campaigns to activate deterministic, first-party audiences seamlessly across planning, activation and measurement.

DSPolitical reported that its work with Freewheel in 2024 led to:

• 18x higher match performance on incoming premium CTV bid requests, compared with other leading identity providers.
• Over 30% faster audience onboarding through Buyer Cloud, compared with other leading platforms.

The two companies said that those gains demonstrate not only incremental improvement, but DSPolitical’s ability to eliminate common sources of delay and data degradation as its clients prepare for midterms, where speed, accuracy, and adaptability could help decide who wins and who loses.

“The difference between winning and losing in 2026 could come down to a handful of persuadable voters in a few key districts,” said Mark Jablonowski, CEO of DSPolitical. “When the stakes are this high, Democrats can’t risk close calls. Campaigns need every possible advantage, and that means being able to activate high-quality voter data quickly and at scale across CTV to reach and persuade the exact right voters. That is exactly what our first-of-its-kind partnership with FreeWheel enables.”

DSPolitical’s data, speed, and precision are backed by the deterministic identity foundation of the FreeWheel Identity Network and Comcast’s national footprint. By anchoring identity at the household level—even as signals change—DSPolitical can maintain accuracy, manage frequency, and avoid wasted impressions across premium CTV.

“DSPolitical’s success demonstrates what’s possible when political advertisers can activate first-party voter data through a cross-device identity framework built specifically for television,” said Eric Davis, head of independent and political, programmatic demand, FreeWheel. “Unlike probabilistic only approaches, FreeWheel’s identity framework enables higher-fidelity audience matching, consistent reach across streaming environments, and the confidence to activate voter data reliably at scale. Now, political buyers have the performance and control they need as we look ahead to future election cycles.”

As political advertisers prepare for the 2026 midterms, DSPolitical and FreeWheel continue to demonstrate how deterministic identity, access to premium inventory, and streamlined activation can help campaigns move faster, waste less, and reach voters with confidence when it matters most.

After launching the Netflix Ads Suite last year, Netflix has announced that it is continuing to add new ways for brands to buy and measure ads on Netflix. The new capabilities allow advertisers to tap into new targeting capabilities, better manage how often ads appear across streamers, and reach specific audiences at scale on our ad-supported plan.

The improvements include new targeting integrations with Amazon and Yahoo DSPs and the rollout of its own Conversion API (CAPI) to help advertisers validate full-funnel outcomes. In the announcement, Netflix also highlighted its early testing work with Tinuiti, the largest independent full-funnel marketing agency in the U.S.

Starting in Q2 in the U.S.— and rolling out to other ad-supported countries later this year—Netflix reported that clients will have new ways to connect with the right audiences on Netflix through expanded targeting capabilities via Amazon DSP and Yahoo DSP.

More specifically, advertisers will now be able to leverage Amazon Audiences to inform their programmatic buys on Netflix. Built from trillions of Amazon's proprietary shopping, streaming, and browsing signals, the segments are built on real audience behavior. They help advertisers reach relevant Netflix members based on their lifestyles, interests, and products they are actively shopping for. By applying Amazon’s exclusive signals to Netflix’s highly engaged viewers, advertisers can reach the right audiences and drive even stronger performance, Netflix reported.

When buying through Yahoo DSP, advertisers can now also activate deterministic Yahoo DSP audiences on Netflix deals. These audiences are powered by hundreds of millions of global Yahoo interest, behavioral, purchase, and life stage signals. This gives advertisers another way to connect their message to the right Netflix member, making campaigns feel more timely and relevant for our viewers.

To address the growing demand among advertisers for full-funnel solutions, Netflix also reported that it now offers its own Conversion API (CAPI) tools. Netflix’s API is designed to help advertisers prove outcomes and will leverage real-time insights to optimize campaigns.

Earlier this year, the streamer partnered with Tinuiti, the largest independent full-funnel marketing agency in the U.S., on early testing and saw great attribution results. The campaigns outperformed benchmarks by more than 75% across financial services, ed tech, and retail clients.

NEW YORK—The Media Rating Council (MRC) has issued a final document outlining requirements, guidance, and best practices for Digital Advertising Auction Transparency.

As part of its ongoing effort to develop standards for media measurement, the document represents MRC’s effort to set standards for transparency, disclosure and reporting of various aspects and results for digital advertising auctions, including but not limited to display, text, video and audio formats within digital, search, social, retail media, streaming CTV and addressable TV channels.

Despite the growth and diversity of ad auctions in media, there were previously no standards for "Ad Auctioneer conduct regarding disclosure and reporting of auction rules or transparency into auction processes and outcomes,” said Ron Pinelli, senior vice president of digital research and standards for MRC. “It is the objective of these Standards to promote transparency around auction rules and scoring along with reporting and standardization where possible and appropriate, to ensure that auction rules and outcomes are understood for all parties.”

The Standards originated from a project initiated by Omnicom Media and led by the MRC, with sponsorship from the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) as well as Omnicom.

The MRC reported that they were developed with the participation of a large group of media content providers, advertising agencies, advertisers, vendors/consultants, ad auctioneers, measurement organizations and other interested organizations. The final document was subject to a 30-day public comment period in September 2025.

“Digital advertising runs on auctions, but buyers still can’t typically see the rules of the game,” said Ben Hovaness, Global Chief Media Officer for Omnicom Media agency OMD. “The MRC standards create a baseline for disclosure and reporting—how an auction scores, sets prices, uses reserves, and changes over time—so advertisers can validate outcomes, improve their bid strategies, and reduce waste that never reaches working media."

This effort is not aimed at any one platform, ad auctioneer, or auction type; nor is the intention to to replace or alter existing industry protocols such as OpenRTB to communicate auction information, but to supplement them with guidance regarding methods disclosures and outcome reporting, the MRC stressed.

The MRC also said that it does not intend to stipulate or standardize the design of any auction type, as auctioneer companies can and should design auction systems to best suit the particular characteristics of a given media form.

Summarizing the desired outcome, Pinelli said, “The goal is to define the requisites for transparency and to provide guidance to auctioneers in explaining to advertisers how their auctions determine pricing and allocation and providing accountability through reporting.”

The Standards include requirements and guidelines related to disclosures and reporting in the following areas:

• Type(s) of auction system(s) used.
• How winners of auctions are determined.
• After the winners of an auction have been determined, how prices that winners must pay are set.
• Use of reserve prices and methods to update them over time.
• Use of advance information about bids and budgets to adjust the functioning of the auction process and how this is updated over time.
• How often rules of the auction system are updated and disclosed to users?
• What information is disclosed or reported about the auction system and the outcome of auction.

The document is available here.

Questions on this document can be submitted via email to MRC at: rpinelli@mediaratingcouncil.org.

LOS ANGELES—James Shears has joined ThinkAnalytics as senior vice president, advertising, tasked with leading global strategy and commercial expansion of the company’s AI-powered advertising solutions.

A 20-year veteran of TV, streaming and data-driven advertising, Shears most recently was vice president of business development and client partnerships at XR Extreme Reach. Previous senior posts included senior vice president, client solutions at Nielsen; general manager, advanced TV at The Trade Desk; and head of programmatic at Dish Network. Earlier in his career, he also worked at Scripps and TV Guide Network.

“ James brings exactly the right mix of advertising expertise, data strategy, and commercial leadership to drive our next chapter,” ThinkAnalytics chairman and co-founder Eddie Young said. “As the industry moves toward first-party data and outcome-driven advertising, his leadership will help customers turn their own data into a strategic asset.”

Shears will focus on driving adoption of ThinkAnalytics’ privacy-safe audience intelligence and metadata enrichment solutions, the company said, which are meant to help owners increase yield, grow premium inventory, and deliver more relevant, effective advertising.

ThinkAnalytics’ ThinkMediaAI platform unifies audience content and metadata intelligence to help media firms unlock the full value of their first-party data. Benefits include personalized discovery, enriched metadata, and high-performing advertising across linear, CTV, and streaming environments, the company said.

“Media owners are sitting on incredibly valuable first-party data and there’s a real opportunity to get more value from the viewership and content signals they see every day,” Shears said. “ThinkAnalytics is uniquely positioned to use AI to transform data into high-value audience segments, content intelligence, and enriched metadata creating deeper engagement between viewers, content and advertisers while strengthening connections across the ecosystem.”

The ThinkMediaAI platform generates more than 8 billion daily recommendations and supports more than 500 million viewers across 47 languages and multiple countries, the company said.

NEW YORK—DoubleVerify has launched a streaming TV offering designed to give advertisers greater transparency, control and efficiency across their streaming TV investments.

DoubleVerify, an ad-verification company, is leveraging unique, licensed data from IMDb to fuel AI-driven classification of streaming content. Additional capabilities are planned for launch in early 2026, DoubleVerify said.

Advertisers are demanding stronger safeguards to ensure their campaigns are delivered in premium environments and avoid content that doesn’t align with their brand values, according to DoubleVerify. To address this issue, the company will launch several new products, including Verified Streaming TV prebid segments and measurement and “Do Not Air” automation.

“As streaming TV grows, advertisers are contending with new challenges—from opaque, resold inventory and questionable ad placements wasting billions in media spend, to a lack of automation that inhibits contextual alignment,” DoubleVerify general manager of connected TV Todd Randak said. “Our new Streaming TV products directly address these pain points, giving advertisers the ability to verify media quality and maximize their investments across devices and platforms.”

Verified Streaming TV prebid segments and measurement are powered by DV’s AI-driven content classification technology. This capability helps advertisers verify that their campaigns run in premium streaming environments that deliver the quality and engagement of traditional TV, the company said.

With Verified Streaming TV, advertisers can:

• Align impressions with premium streaming TV player environments across leading programmatic platforms, including The Trade Desk, Teads, StackAdapt, Microsoft Invest and Index Exchange.
• Verify that ads appear in branded players alongside high-quality media—not extension networks––and measure the scale and quality of those placements.
• Maximize media investments and prevent overspending on non-streaming TV inventory.

“Do Not Air” automation, integrated into DV’s AI-powered prebid Authentic Brand Suitability, helps advertisers avoid unsuitable content before a bid is placed. “Do Not Air” automation modernizes this process, which previously was manually managed with spreadsheets and emails, with intelligent automation. This capability automates list activation and enforcement across streaming environments.

With “Do Not Air” automation, advertisers can:

• Eliminate manual list management while maintaining precise control over content alignment.
• Curate streaming inventory leveraging DV normalized data across genres and maturity ratings.
• Activate lists at the point of transaction using a single segment ID aligned with their DV Authentic Brand Suitability settings.

Advertisers will have early access to “Do Not Air” automation for programmatic open market and PMP buys through The Trade Desk, with more platforms to follow soon.

Leveraging IMDb data, DV is enriching streaming contextual insights as well as popularity insights. To enhance DV’s AI-powered analysis and classification of streaming TV content, DV is drawing on unique IMDb data, including Parents Guides, Meters and Ratings. This lets DoubleVerify deliver more granular and precise contextual insights to help global brands improve media quality.

DV’s Verified Streaming TV and “Do Not Air” automation offerings are key components of DV’s Media AdVantage Platform.

More information is available on the company’s website.

NEW YORK—IAB Tech Lab, the global digital advertising technical standards-setting body, has announced the release of device attestation support in the industry standard Open Measurement SDK (OM SDK).

This new capability is supported on Apple devices and Amazon Fire TV and is designed to further strengthen efforts to combat widespread device spoofing and to provide buyers, sellers and verification companies with greater confidence in the environments where ads are delivered, the lab said.

“OM SDK gave buyers standardized, consistent measurement metrics across screens and devices,” IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur said. “The Device Attestation capability builds on that and provides a critical next step for CTV growth. Buyers should prioritize the OM SDK because it is the only measurement standard built on device-native signals, not inferred data. And with attestation, they can be confident the inventory they are measuring is real.”

The new capability helps address a fundamental vulnerability in connected TV and mobile advertising: the misrepresentation of device information or device spoofing, where bad actors falsify device information to appear as premium inventory. This leads to wasted ad spend for buyers and lost revenue for sellers, the IAB Tech Lab explained.

Adopting IETF's Privacy Pass Protocol for the digital ads verification use case, the Device Attestation capability in OM SDK enables buyers to independently verify they are buying genuine CTV and mobile inventory from sellers, thanks to privacy-preserving attestations made by device manufacturers for their devices. This adds another valuable signal that can strengthen the industry's ability to detect and prevent device spoofing, the IAB reported.

“Device spoofing is a significant attack vector for bad actors generating invalid traffic across several General and Sophisticated IVT categories required to be detected and filtered as part of MRC Standards,” Ron Pinelli, senior vice president of digital research and standards, Media Rating Council (MRC), said. “MRC appreciates the opportunity to be involved in and support the development of this important enhancement to OM SDK that can be used by the ad-tech ecosystem to enhance IVT detection and measurement capabilities.”

This release builds on the OM SDK’s role as a shared measurement foundation since 2018, enabling third-party verification of impressions and viewability across CTV and mobile environments. Device attestation in OM SDK takes verification even further, helping the industry build trust in individual sellers and supply paths by allowing participants to demonstrate the authenticity of devices in the inventory they are selling, the group said.

For buyers, device attestation means cleaner measurement and reduced waste from fraudulent inventory. For sellers and app developers, it protects monetization by signaling attested supply paths. For verification companies, it creates a new seller and supply chain-level signal representing device authenticity.

"Device-spoofing represents a significant threat in today's advertising landscape," said Neal Richter, director, Amazon DSP, Amazon Ads. "By receiving secure signals of authenticity directly from supported CTV devices like Fire TV, we can be confident that we're getting inventory from real devices. As adoption of this new capability increases across the industry, we'll be able to independently verify that we're buying genuine CTV inventory, ultimately creating more transparency and trust in CTV advertising."

"Device attestation represents a fundamental shift in how we combat device spoofing by creating a positive signal of device authenticity," said Geoff Stupay, senior vice president, global head of product at cybersecurity firm HUMAN. "We're extremely pleased to have collaborated with the OM SDK Commit Group to develop this capability, which will help buyers confidently identify quality CTV and mobile inventory and give sellers a way to differentiate their trusted supply paths."

The IAB Tech Lab said that Device Attestation in OM SDK release reflects collaboration across the Open Measurement Commit Group, which includes a range of technical stakeholders from across the industry. Participating companies include AdsWizz, Amazon Ads, DoubleVerify, Google, HUMAN and Integral Ad Science. This cross-industry participation ensures the framework is both technically rigorous and scalable across environments, IAB Tech Lab said.

To learn more about Device Attestation in OM SDK and how to implement it, visit https://iabtechlab.com/standards/open-measurement-sdk/.

NEW YORK—In a major change for the ad industry, Comcast Advertising will unveil technology that enables agencies and brands to buy targetable, biddable ads on linear TV for the first time.

The change gives buyers access to traditional TV inventory within the Programmatic Private Marketplace (PMP), allowing them to bid on and target linear TV ad campaigns alongside digital inventory. The rollout is powered by FreeWheel, Comcast’s ad technology platform.

The program is currently in the beta phase with Comcast inventory. When completed, FreeWheel publisher clients will have the ability to enable their own inventory, giving advertisers greater campaign flexibility, targeting and reach, it said.

“One of the key pillars the advertising industry needs to deliver is simplicity for the marketer, and introducing biddable ads on traditional TV is a major step toward that goal, bringing ease, efficiency, and scale to programmatic campaign delivery,” Comcast Advertising President James Rooke said. “Buyers no longer need to patch together media plans. Now there’s a seamless way to buy, target, and optimize traditional TV alongside streaming media to hit what’s at the heart of advertising: reaching customers and driving outcomes.”

Key features include:

• Biddable, targetable linear inventory, making linear TV available via traditional PMP for what is believed to be the first time, making it biddable for buyers rather than executed on a spot basis. This inventory is also targetable on the buyer’s end, so buyers can bid based off the same segments they are buying on digital.
• Choice and control that enables buyers to set the mark on how they want to access inventory and audiences, whether through a managed IO (insertion order), PMP or PG (Programmatic Guaranteed) deal. Agencies and advertisers can also optimize their media buys.
• Simplicity and efficiency, allowing brands to purchase linear and digital inventory together in a straightforward way. Research shows that when TV is added to a digital campaign, overall performance dramatically improves.
• Incremental reach, with more than 11 billion impressions a month on premium linear inventory available. This creates a new, vast supply of content for advertisers that typically purchase programmatically.
• FreeWheel Buyer Cloud, the customizable buying stack, is leveraged for optimal campaign execution and management to add access to audiences beyond the traditional programmatic execution.

Comcast Advertising’s programmatic linear advertising solution is currently available to advertisers using FreeWheel’s Buyer Cloud.

More information is available on the company’s website.

NEW YORK—Locality has launched its Advanced Audience Engine, a proprietary identity and activation engine that redefines how advertisers engage local audiences.

Developed in collaboration with Lovelytics, Newton Research and Databricks, the solution integrates generative AI, automation and directly incorporates Locality's historical local media intelligence and viewership data to power smarter, faster and more effective local campaigns, the company said.

“Locality’s Audience Engine isn't a product; it’s a strategic shift in our business and in the broader advertising industry,” said Keith Kazerman, president of streaming at Locality. “We have reengineered the foundation of local advertising to deliver performance, precision and transparency, at scale, for advertisers.”

The Advanced Audience Engine addresses challenges in local advertising, such as disconnected workflows, vendor complexity, cost inefficiencies and limited access to real-time audience insights. The new solution enables advertisers to unify data, automate segmentation and activate campaigns seamlessly across both linear and digital channels within a single, AI-powered environment embedded in Locality's LocalX platform, the company said.

At its core, Locality’s Audience Engine is a proprietary local identity intelligence and activation framework. The engine provides custom audience exploration and activation by organizing and aligning clients’ first-party data, third-party data and Locality’s core performance and viewership data signals in one environment with historical and real-time analytics.

The solution enables custom audience building by leveraging vertical-specific segmentation using advertiser and Locality data; AI-driven optimization using predictive models for smarter planning and budget allocation; measurement offering unified targeting, analytics and attribution; and scalable data integrations supporting real-time activation, optimization and cross-partner collaboration without data transfer bottlenecks, the company said.

With AI-enhanced data control and functionality, advertisers can expect faster campaign execution with real-time insights and improved ROI through smarter targeting and optimization, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

NEW YORK—Spectrum Reach, the advertising unit of Charter Communications, has announced the full market availability of a new AI-powered advertising platform called Spectrum Reach Architect. The launch follows a six-month trial with 2,000 local advertisers.

Spectrum reported that the proprietary, AI-driven platform is designed to simplify media planning for advertisers by delivering TV, digital and streaming recommendations that help campaigns achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness.

"Our direct connections to over 30 million U.S. households give us the ability to provide advertisers, agencies and marketers with actionable insights that they can’t get anywhere else,” Spectrum Reach Executive Vice President Jason Brown said. “With Spectrum Reach Architect, we can optimize and provide recommendations to advertisers that are applicable to their specific campaigns, whether big or small, to drive even greater campaign effectiveness with unparalleled precision.”

Spectrum Reach Architect uses the historical performance of tens of thousands of campaigns and draws from Spectrum Reach’s exclusive, privacy-focused first-party data insights, including from the Spectrum TV App. The service draws on that information to give advertisers customized media-planning recommendations, ensuring budgets are allocated effectively and ads reach their intended audience with the right frequency.

Spectrum also said that the platform's AI-powered insights grow even more refined over time, enabling advertisers to better plan campaigns in a dynamic, fragmented advertising market.

For example, Joseph Delk IV, an attorney who owns the Delk 4 Law firm in Lenoir, N.C., worked with his Spectrum Reach account executive to use Architect to tailor his local ad campaign, which started in June. “The real-time demonstration of Spectrum Reach Architect was a game-changer,” Delk said. “It showed me the breakdown of my marketing plan and delivered a tailored proposal for my business. I could see exactly how my budget would be optimized for maximum reach and frequency. I’m excited about the AI integration and can’t wait to see the added value it brings to my campaign.”

More information about Spectrum Reach’s campaign planning tools is available at spectrumreach.com.

NEW YORK—VideoAmp said it has expanded its longstanding work with Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal that will see WBD leverage the ad-tech firm’s advanced data and measurement solutions across linear, digital, and cross-platform campaigns to support planning, optimization and currency use cases for the 2025 upfront season and beyond.

The agreement also covers transactions for demographic and audience (or DDL) guarantees, with support for premium content across all linear and digital/streaming platforms.

In announcing the deal, VideoAmp said the agreement marks the company’s success in securing multiyear deals with the industry’s largest publishers, including AMC Networks, A+E Networks, Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount and TelevisaUnivision. Together, these deals reflect the industry’s increasing demand for greater transparency, flexibility and actionable insights on multiple currencies, VideoAmp said.

“VideoAmp has been at the forefront of helping the industry evolve beyond legacy measurement models,” Chief Revenue Officer Bryan Goski said. “Our continued collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery reinforces the momentum toward a more modern, more accurate, and advertiser-aligned approach to currency and measurement and signals the arrival of a multicurrency ecosystem where stakeholders have choices.”

Added WBD Head of Ad Sales, Research and Insights David Porter: “At WBD, we are committed to offering our clients more accurate, effective tools to reach their audiences and measure success. VideoAmp helps us measure what actually works—across every screen, every audience and every dollar spent—which will be more important as the industry gears up for the next TV buying season.”

The two companies also said VideoAmp’s patented data clean-room technology has been shown to improve the precision of campaigns on StreamX, WBD’s converged data-driven video project. StreamX unifies media planning, activation, and measurement across linear TV, digital, and streaming platforms.

In a recent white paper published by WBD, the media company demonstrated that onboarding audiences via data clean rooms (DCRs) delivered 3.2 times more unique targetable IDs compared to traditional third-party methods—a 200% increase in match rates, helping bridge the gap between identity resolution and scale, the company reported.

Campaigns measured with VideoAmp’s patented clean room tech also achieved an average 14% incremental digital reach lift for traditionally linear buyers, while maintaining overlap reach below 2.5%, highlighting the precision and efficiency of cross-platform activation, they explained.

To learn more, visit VideoAmp’s website.

IRVINE, Calif.—Viant Technology said it will integrate its demand-side platform (DSP) with LG Ad Solutions in a move that the companies said will accelerate addressable advertising in the connected TV ecosystem.

As a result of the integration, LG’s premium smart-TV inventory—some 45 million connected devices across the U.S.—is now fully addressable via the Viant DSP, the companies reported. This will allow advertisers to engage with streaming audiences with greater precision, scale and transparency.

“Identity is the backbone of effective advertising in a fragmented ecosystem,” said Kelly McMahon, senior vice president of global operations, LG Ad Solutions. “By integrating the Viant Household ID into our platform, we’re empowering buyers to scale Viant-driven audiences across the LG Smart TV environment—unlocking greater precision, reach, and performance while keeping privacy at the core.”

This integration is part of Viant’s Direct Access program, which aims to strengthen connections between advertisers and the world’s leading CTV platforms. Together, LG Ad Solutions and Viant said they are expanding addressable capabilities in CTV while unlocking new benefits for advertisers in these ways:

• Precision Targeting with Data Match: Viant’s identity solutions enable large-scale addressable reach and precise audience targeting, frequency control, and attribution through a powerful data match.
• Direct-to-Glass Access to LG Smart TVs: Advertisers can now programmatically reach LG’s premium global CTV inventory via Viant’s DSP.
• Content-Level Contextual Targeting: With Viant’s acquisition of IRIS.TV, advertisers gain content-level contextual targeting on LG Ads, to access standardized classification via IRIS_ID for greater relevance and transparency.
• Boosted Performance and ROI: This integration unifies premium CTV supply, identity resolution and contextual intelligence to reduce waste, improve efficiency and maximize campaign ROI.

“This integration with LG Ad Solutions demonstrates how OEM data and identity-first technology can transform CTV advertising,” said Tom Wolfe, senior vice president of business development at Viant. “Together, we’re empowering advertisers to reach the right audiences, in the right context, with precision and scale that reflects the streaming era.”

More information is available here.

As CTV continues its ascent, advertisers are becoming increasingly frustrated by opaque practices around content metadata. Agencies and tech providers want to know exactly where their ads appear, but many publishers remain hesitant, citing privacy regulations such as the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) as justification for withholding detailed content information.

This standoff has led advertisers to pursue unconventional—and potentially risky—methods of gaining insight into content environments, raising serious questions about the future of transparency in CTV advertising.

Where's the Money Going?
Transparency is becoming central to performance marketing on CTV. As advertisers shift greater shares of their budgets toward streaming, they demand clarity on where and how their dollars are being spent. Yet, publishers often offer limited metadata—usually restricted to broad genre-level or network-level reporting.

Advertisers are left guessing whether their content is appearing next to premium, brand-safe shows, or lesser-quality inventory relegated to "performance CTV," a euphemism often reserved for remnant inventory with lower engagement and effectiveness.

The lack of transparency is reminiscent of the early days of digital display advertising, where publishers similarly guarded inventory data closely. But digital display evolved, driven by demands for openness from advertisers, ultimately moving toward a more programmatic, transparent ecosystem. CTV is now at a similar crossroads.

CTV publishers frequently argue they're protecting user privacy by withholding detailed content-level metadata, invoking the VPPA, which prohibits disclosure of personally identifiable viewing data. While privacy concerns are valid, advertisers question whether VPPA concerns are being overstated or used as a convenient shield against transparency.

After all, advertisers aren't seeking individual user data—they simply want granular content-level metadata. This metadata doesn't compromise viewer privacy when provided in aggregate; instead, it supports better ad placement, brand alignment, and performance.

Advertiser Desperation
In response to publisher reticence, agencies and technology providers have started experimenting with indirect methods to uncover content metadata. One tactic involves combining users’ location data with electronic program guides from virtual MVPDs to infer which shows viewers might be watching.

This workaround underscores advertiser desperation, but it's a risky, unsustainable practice. If advertisers begin routinely exploiting indirect techniques to unearth data publishers refuse to share, trust will erode on all sides, fueling tension and potentially triggering stricter regulatory scrutiny.

Publishers must recognize that limited transparency actively undermines trust in CTV. Transparency ultimately benefits publishers too, attracting larger ad budgets and deeper investments from brands eager for reliability and consistency. Moreover, refusing to share content metadata won't stop advertisers from pursuing alternatives. Instead, publishers should find balanced ways to disclose greater granularity.

Netflix and Hulu offer instructive examples. Initially wary of transparency, both platforms have incrementally embraced more programmatic ad-buying practices, gradually offering richer metadata and increased advertiser control. Their approach demonstrates that transparency need not conflict with viewer privacy or business interests—it can enhance both.

Looking forward, publishers must decide: hold firm, risking advertiser backlash and fragmented practices, or open up metadata more fully, creating a robust, transparent, and sustainable CTV ecosystem. Agencies, brands, and technology providers have shown they're willing to push boundaries in pursuit of transparency. Rather than forcing their hand, publishers have the opportunity to step up proactively, balancing legitimate privacy concerns with meaningful transparency.

The future of CTV relies heavily on trust, precision targeting, and performance metrics - all impossible without clear, detailed, and accessible metadata. It's time for publishers to give some ground, before advertisers force the issue in ways that benefit no one.

DETROIT—Waymark, a provider of automated AI video for the creation of commercials, has named industry veteran Michael Tuminello as its new director of product.

Tuminello brings more than 15 years of strategic product leadership in video advertising technology and creative tools development to Waymark. Using multiple generative AI models, the tech startup has developed an end-to-end video creation platform that allows anyone to produce ready-to-air commercials suitable for TV, streaming or digital platforms.

“We’re so happy to be adding Michael to the team,“ Waymark CEO Alex Persky-Stern said. “His track record of building really effective ad creative software from Innovid to Flashtalking is truly second to none. He brings both the creative and technical perspectives and knows exactly what it takes to make effective creative tech.”

Tuminello's extensive experience includes senior product roles at such ad tech companies as Sizmek, Innovid, Integral Ad Science (IAS), Flashtalking, and Mediaocean.

At Innovid, he led the creative product line as the company grew tenfold. He directed product strategy for two of Flashtalking’s key growth products—CTV/video and verification—that contributed to the company's $500 million acquisition by Mediaocean.

Tuminello built a pioneering ad creative authoring tool at Unicast that secured deals with leading publishers and broadcasters, led the development of Innovid's interactive video format portfolio and launched IAS’s first Unified Video Tag, enabling efficient video measurement across all devices and video formats.

Tuminello earned a bachelor’s degree in English and East Asian studies from the University of Virginia.

Since launching its video ad platform in 2023, Waymark has signed partnerships with numerous top media companies, including CBS, Spectrum Reach, Fox TV Stations, E.W. Scripps, Sinclair, Cox Media Group, Gray Media, Beasley Media Group, Nine Entertainment (Australia), and U.K. publisher National World plc. Waymark also recently teamed with Paramount+ and Pluto TV to launch the Paramount Ads Manager, a self-service buying platform.

NEW YORK—Comcast Advertising has launched a new AI creative platform that will make it much easier for small businesses and local advertisers to market and promote their products by using AI-powered tools to create TV ads.

The platform relies on technologies from Waymark, a pioneer in using artificial intelligence to create ads. Several local station groups and media companies have also adopted the Waymark platform.

The launch is part of Comcast’s effort to expand its potential advertising base by targeting small businesses that might not have the money or expertise to create TV commercials.

“Making media buying easy and impactful is a core mission across Comcast Advertising’s portfolio,” Dawn Williamson, chief revenue officer, media solutions at Comcast Advertising, said. "Thanks to our Waymark partnership, we are excited to extend this mission directly to our Media Solutions offering. Advertisers now have a fast and affordable way to build TV-ready ads for delivery across news, entertainment, live sports, and other premium video destinations.”

In launching the platform, Comcast noted businesses often cite the cost of commercial production as their biggest obstacle to investing in TV ads. By simply entering the brand’s website, the platform will scan the web and generate a commercial that can be adjusted in a variety of ways, including messaging, graphics, voiceover styles and even language, to create the perfect ad. In addition, brands can create seasonal varieties or tailored ads for new audience segments by modifying existing creative via this platform.

“Our collaboration with Comcast Advertising’s Media Solutions marks a major leap forward in using AI technology to enhance accessibility and drive the evolution of TV advertising,“ Hayden Gilmer, vice president of revenue at Waymark, said. “AI is helping advertisers reach new potential, and the ability to create effective, high-quality video ads in minutes is a powerful shift. Combined with access to premium inventory, it gives businesses of all sizes the creative edge they need to compete on TV.”

Comcast also provided testimonials from businesses that have used the platform. “The process was insanely easy, and the finished product was better than anything I could have done,“ Melissa Cowan, head of marketing and advertising at a metal roofing supply firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, said. “The ad that the AI tool put together was great at drawing your attention without going overboard.”

Similar praise came from owners Jairo and Josselin at MD Contractors, Fences, Decks & Patios: “At MD Contractors, Fences, Decks & Patios, our mission is to build the outdoor oasis of your dreams. Being able to illustrate what we can offer clients is crucial to our business, so being able to easily build TV ads with Comcast has been a game-changer for us.”

Waymark was introduced to Comcast through LIFT Labs, a Comcast NBCUniversal program that connects strategically relevant startups with internal teams to explore partnerships that inform strategy, impact operations, and transform products and experiences.

In addition to Comcast Advertising, Waymark has signed agreements with Spectrum Reach, Sinclair, Cox Media, Fox TV Stations, E.W. Scripps, Gray Media, Beasley Media Group, Nine Entertainment (Australia), and U.K. publisher National World plc. Last year, Waymark teamed with Paramount to launch the new Paramount Ads Manager platform.

NEW YORK—Media measurement company VideoAmp and real-time audience and insight provider Captify have unveiled a new solution that provides scalable, identity-based search-lift measurement, linking household-level ad viewership with real-world search behavior.

The new integration bridges VideoAmp’s VALID identity graph with Captify’s Search Intelligence and proprietary semantic technology to deliver intent-based insights into ad effectiveness, the company said.

The launch marks VideoAmp’s first integration with a search outcomes provider, adding to existing VideoAmp integrations with providers of outcomes data for auto, consumer packaged goods, health care, retail and other vertical markets, VideoAmp said.

This integration delivers a privacy-compliant, 100% deterministic solution by combining VALID, VideoAmp’s proprietary big data and technology engine, with Captify’s search intelligence. Advertisers now have visibility into real-world outcomes in-flight, opening the door for campaign optimization and smarter investment decisions, the companies said.

Captify’s semantic technology brings contextual understanding to user behavior. Captify’s proprietary engine uses machine learning and natural language processing to understand the context behind every search, it said.

For instance, if someone searches for “Malibu,” Captify’s engine can determine whether that person is researching a vacation to California or looking to buy a Chevrolet. Tying these search results directly to VideoAmp’s VALID identity graph delivers a high level of measurement efficacy showing an ad’s effectiveness at driving user interest, it said.

Captify’s search intelligence, applied directly to VideoAmp’s cross-platform linear and digital viewership data, unlocks a level of efficacy and insight previously unavailable in the market. Traditional brand lift studies rely on small, recall-based panels that measure passive recognition. This new solution measures something far more meaningful: active intent, Captify said.

NEW YORK—As part of a major push to advance the role that artificial intelligence (AI) plays in the advertising industry, the Interactive Advertising Bureau has named Caroline Giegerich vice president, AI, and engaged a new IAB member, Alvarez & Marsal’s Media & Entertainment (M&E) group, to provide advice on the future of the industry. That advice will include the impact of AI on media buying, the development of industry standards and strategies for business transformation.

In the new post, Giegerich will lead IAB’s strategic initiatives to integrate AI across the digital advertising ecosystem, including the development of practical tools, resources, and best practices that empower marketers, agencies, publishers, platforms, and ad technology companies. Giegerich will report to Cintia Gabilan, senior vice president of centers of excellence and industry initiatives.

“IAB is entering a pivotal new phase in our AI journey—and Caroline’s deep expertise, creative vision, and collaborative leadership make her the ideal person to drive it forward,” Gabilan said. “From redefining creative workflows to protecting publisher IP, we’re building an AI roadmap that balances innovation with responsibility. Caroline will be at the helm of this transformation.”

Giegerich brings more than 20 years of experience in marketing, innovation, and emerging technologies. Most recently, she served as vice president of global marketing and innovation at Warner Music Group, where she led pioneering generative AI and immersive media campaigns for artists such as Cobrah and A Boogie. Her cross-industry expertise spans roles at MediaLink, HBO, Showtime Networks, and Smashbox Cosmetics and includes work with platforms like YouTube, Netflix, and Section, the executive learning platform where she upskilled marketers in AI strategy.

As VP, AI, Giegerich will spearhead a three-pronged 2025 AI roadmap that the IAB described as follows:

• The IAB AI Ecosystem Map – A dynamic, interactive resource that tracks and categorizes AI use cases across the advertising supply chain, from GenAI creative platforms to targeting, measurement, and brand safety solutions.
• GenAI Personalization Playbook – A comprehensive guide helping brands and agencies operationalize AI-powered creative personalization at scale, with a focus on workflow design, quality assurance, and creative infrastructure.
• AI-Centric Content Integrity & Trust – A cross-industry initiative to ensure AI-generated advertising content is accurate, brand-safe, and transparently disclosed. This includes developing QA protocols, hallucination detection tools, and labeling standards to help publishers, marketers, and platforms deploy GenAI responsibly while preserving consumer trust and platform credibility.

“Joining IAB at this inflection point is an opportunity to help the industry unlock AI’s full potential in a way that’s practical, ethical, and inclusive. Establishing shared standards and scalable solutions across stakeholders is exactly what the industry needs right now. There is no association more well-equipped to take on this task than IAB,” said Giegerich.

As part of IAB’s expanded commitment to harnessing the power of AI across the digital media and marketing ecosystem, the organization has also engaged new IAB member Alvarez & Marsal’s (A&M) Media & Entertainment (M&E) group.

The IAB reported that A&M will offer specialized advisory expertise in areas critical to the future of the industry—including the impact of AI on media buying, the development of industry standards, and strategies for business transformation.

“This position reflects A&M’s commitment to driving transformational change through innovation and the firm’s results-driven approach," Peri Shamsai, A&M managing director and M&E practice leader, stated. "By helping to shape AI-driven initiatives, we’re creating a shared foundation from which media companies, advertising agencies, and brands can harness AI’s power in ways we’ve only just begun to imagine. This collaboration represents a pivotal step in the industry’s journey toward achieving greater efficiencies through shared expertise and collective knowledge.”

“A&M and IAB share a mutual commitment to unlocking value and opportunities through AI," added Sonia V. Gupta, A&M managing director and M&E data and AI lead. "We are excited to collaborate with IAB to address the evolving needs of digital advertisers as they continue to deliver tailored, innovative solutions for their clients.”

At NAB Show, a number of exhibitors are offering technology designed to help broadcasters generate additional revenue in a changing advertising market.

Traditional linear broadcast is becoming more digital, opening new opportunities for more sophisticated advertising that can help monetize content as it is distributed to multiple platforms.

“It’s certainly a pivotal time,” Emily Boucher, staff product manager at Brightcove, said. “Preserving the overall viewer experience is going to be top of mind. The industry is still working to perfect its ad-insertion technology.”

Beyond that, digital technology offers personalization and targeting, especially on connected TV, where standards are still being developed.

DATA’S KEY PART

“Data is starting to play a big role,” she said. Brightcove’s Ad Insights product is designed to bridge the gap between viewer engagement with content and what’s happening in the ad server. For example, by collecting metrics on viewer engagement and tolerance for ads, the length and frequency of commercial breaks can be adjusted.

“I think ad insights are certainly a differentiator and an area that we are really looking to extend into continuous product development,” Boucher said.

“None of this is easy,” she added. “There’s a misconception that you can do this with a click of a button. There’s still a lot under the hood that goes into it.” And even once the technology is in place, she said, it continues to evolve.

LTN is focusing on network-based media enrichment, according to Malik Khan, co-founder and executive chairman. Creating content is expensive, and to monetize it, you must put it on multiple platforms and create customized ad opportunities for each stream.

“It has to be network-based because you have to bring content in on a mass scale, reliably and distribute it in a customized way,” Khan said. “If you’re data processing-centric and you don’t pay attention to the network side, your costs go through the roof.”

Serving ads in those multiple streams is based on signals, which requires inserting metadata and triggers into the content early in the production process, said Brad Wall, LTN’s chief technology officer.

“What we’ve been focused on a lot the last year and a half is creating services inside of our network, things that traditionally needed to be at the broadcast center and at the integrated receiver decoder [set-top box or satellite receiver] at the other end,” Wall said.

Traditional broadcast and digital video are becoming more similar. “The baked-in ad pod and the baked-in spot inside of a linear broadcast, those days are sort of dwindling,” he said. “The idea is that you can monetize your content in a more dynamic way. We’ve been talking about this for over 15 years, but it is really maturing rapidly and that will be the revenue gold standard of the future.”

Automation is a big part of making that happen, replacing human-to-human communications with machine-to-machine interactions, Wall said.

That’s particularly true when televising sports. Automation and artificial intelligence will be able to determine quickly what ads should run when there’s an injury timeout or some other stoppage. “They happen when they happen,” Khan said. “You can’t schedule them.”

ALL ABOUT AUDIENCE

Ad-tech company Showseeker also sees the traditional and digital TV worlds converging.

“While viewership is increasingly fragmented, both broadcast and MVPDs are on a path to convergence as the entire industry works toward a more unified, audience-based approach to selling advertising,” CEO Ed Hardy said.

“We expect this trend of audience-based selling to be a major discussion point, especially as industry leaders look to modernize their tech stack, reduce costs and improve operational efficiencies.”

ShowSeeker is displaying its all-in-one Pilot campaign and order management platform.

“The entire television industry needs improved, faster and more automated technology that can support this new era of buying and selling advertising,” Hardy said.

Measurement company Comscore is an NAB Show exhibitor. Frank Friedman, chief data and analytics officer and head of cross-plartform measurement, expects discussions about the new multicurrency ecosystem beyond just the Nielsen ratings and what that means for the future of television, streaming included.

Comscore is hosting a panel and cocktail reception. It has invited industry leaders and change-makers to unpack the benefits and collateral damage of the local media revolution and to pave the way for next-gen audience measurement.

“With perspectives from both sides of the fence, the discussion will focus on redefining our industry glossary around currency vs. currency accreditation, linear channels vs. programmatic pipes, and the noise in Big Data vs. the role of digital tech in revitalizing the local ecosystem,” Friedman said.

COPYRIGHT NAB 2025.

DENVER—New Zealand’s state-owned, commercially funded broadcaster, TVNZ has implemented Imagine Communications’ SureFire video ad server as part of the ad management workflow that supports its three broadcast channels and digital platform, TVNZ+.

The deployment follows a successful production trial in 2024, which demonstrated the ability of the SureFire linear control feature to help TVNZ extend linear budgets into digital and increase ad break replacement rates, the companies reported.

TVNZ’s primary objective was to simplify and accelerate its path to “total TV” monetization by leveraging SureFire’s linear control capabilities. The solution allows the broadcaster to mirror portions of linear campaigns into digital, enabling a consistent viewer experience and unlocking incremental digital inventory — without needing to overhaul existing systems.

This approach allowed TVNZ to address a key challenge: underfilled ad breaks on TVNZ+ that previously resulted in lost revenue. If an acceptable threshold of demand was not met within a given break, the entire break was not dynamically served, resulting in a loss of revenue. The trial showed that by using SureFire to extend already sold linear spots to digital, TVNZ could offer advertisers a new premium product, resulting in better utilization of ad inventory and improved fill rates, Imagine explained.

TVNZ’s pricing and inventory manager, John Fiddian, said, “Our audiences are watching the same content cross-platform. With viewers on broadcast channels and streaming on TVNZ+, it’s important that the way we serve advertising marries up with this audience fragmentation. Adding SureFire has helped our advertisers to seamlessly reach cross-platform audiences within a single campaign. It’s an efficient solution that fits our move towards a ‘Total TV’.”

SureFire enables direct sales with combined linear ad buys and is fully compatible with existing programmatic supply-side platforms. Offering open APIs that facilitate integration with existing ad tech stacks ― regardless of the sales, order management, and traffic solutions that a TV operator may prefer ― SureFire enables broadcasters to sell ads more effectively across their entire footprint by adding linear control to complement their programmatic capabilities, Imagine said.

Using SureFire linear control capabilities, TVNZ can book elements of their ad-served inventory just like linear; deliver commitments to specific ad break placements across linear and streaming; and combine linear control spots with addressable, targeted ads in broadcast-quality ad breaks.

“I think a common industry misconception is that if you incorporate a new ad server into your workflow, you're taking some of the profits from another ad server — and it doesn't necessarily have to be that way,” said Graham Heap, vice president of product strategy, ad tech, at Imagine Communications. “SureFire enables broadcasters to combine direct sales with programmatic automation to eliminate unfilled breaks and achieve higher CPMs. What the trial at TVNZ showed was that SureFire did not cut into the programmatic pie — it created more pie for everyone.”

This innovative approach allows TVNZ to maximize its ad sales by combining traditional linear monetization with programmatic flexibility, marking a pioneering step forward in the digital advertising space.

Imagine Communications will be discussing "Total TV" monetization strategies at the 2025 NAB Show (April 6-9, Las Vegas Convention Center, Booth W2067). To book a hands-on demo of SureFire or for further details about Imagine’s presence at this year’s event, visit imaginecommunications.com/event/nab-2025.

DENVER—Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has launched Comcast MediaExpress, a centralized video-on-demand (VOD) management and distribution service for premium content providers.

The new service enables content owners to distribute their VOD entertainment titles with ease into OTT, pay-TV and social media platforms with delivery centrally managed by CTS.

Comcast MediaExpress enables content owners to simplify and streamline their VOD distribution and monetization efforts across their subscription VOD (SVOD), Advertising VOD (AVOD), transactional VOD (TVOD) or Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) partners, the company said.

The service offers a single platform to ingest video, metadata and supporting files for centralized management and distribution—backed by the scale and reliability of CTS, it said.

Content providers only need to integrate with Comcast MediaExpress for mass distribution of their premium VOD titles to reach all leading OTT and pay-TV platforms, including the most popular FAST channels and streaming video services, it said.

“Now, more than ever, media and entertainment companies are looking for the most efficient ways to manage and distribute their short form and long form video across a highly fragmented landscape of digital destinations,” said Bart Spriester, senior vice president and general manager of streaming, broadcast and advertising at Comcast Technology Solutions.

"It’s a daunting task even for the most technically sophisticated programmers, broadcasters, and film studios, but it’s what CTS was built for. Comcast MediaExpress provides efficiency, scale, and reliability for their VOD distribution efforts, so even more of their creative energy can stay focused on content creation and monetization.”

Key Comcast MediaExpress features include simplified single ingest, managed white-glove service, extensive reach across top-tier streaming and pay-TV platforms, advanced metadata management and CTS’ VideoAI metadata augmentation and support for comprehensive monetization strategies.

Comcast MediaExpress is part of a comprehensive suite of solutions for content and streaming providers and advertisers.

More information is available on the company’s website.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—DirecTV has acquired the majority ownership in NVIDI Technologies, a provider of addressable television advertising products designed to help brands more accurately target audiences.

INVIDI will continue to operate as an independent company led by its existing managment. It had been jointly owned by DirecTV, Dish and WPP.

DirecTV has been a longtime proponent of addressable advertising and recently added addressable advertising capabilities to its linear satellite inventory.

Terms were not disclosed.

“Our longstanding support of INVIDI has enabled us to connect brands with their audiences effectively,” DirecTV Chief Advertising Sales Officer Amy Leifer said. “The deal underscores our commitment to continue to invest in the future of addressability and leans into INVIDI’s industry-leading solutions to deliver outcomes for brands of all sizes and across all categories.”

INVIDI provides three primary solutions for advertisers: A consolidated campaign management and order distribution platform through INVIDI Conexus; a supply-side solution for distributors and programmers to deliver addressable advertising on linear broadcast, streaming and AVOD through INVIDI Edge; and the ability to manage, serve, and optimize ad delivery across direct and programmatic sales channels for streaming services in a single interface through INVIDI Pulse. 

“INVIDI Technologies has had a longstanding relationship with DirecTV as a client and an investor, and we know this will only strengthen that support,” Bruce Anderson, co-CEO of INVIDI, said. “DirecTV is a strong advocate for addressable advertising, and with their increased involvement, we expect to be able to further grow our business in the U.S. At the same time, we plan to continue to work to build on our successes internationally, expanding our efforts in India, APAC, MENA, Europe and Latin America.”

Connected TVs have revolutionized video consumption and transformed the digital advertising landscape. And as we’ve seen over recent years, an increasing number of streaming providers and broadcasters are turning to advertising to support growth.

However, to maximize this revenue stream personalization of ad content is key. When ads are tailored to align with the viewer’s preferences and behavior, they resonate more deeply, driving higher engagement and conversion rates. This benefits broadcasters by strengthening their appeal to advertisers, who naturally want maximum return on their investments. Yet personalization in advertising remains a huge challenge.

Ad personalization on CTVs relies heavily on the use of tracking cookies, but growing privacy concerns, regulatory shifts and a widespread aversion of third-party cookies are making this model unworkable. And so, the industry needs a new advertising strategy—one that respects user privacy while still delivering effective ads. Many are turning to contextual advertising as a potential solution. While this advertising model is itself not new, what is new, is the use of AI to significantly enhance it, making it much more powerful and effective.

Unlocking Contextual Advertising’s Potential
Rather than relying on personal data, contextual advertising works by tailoring the ad to match the content. As the name suggests, contextual advertising, it’s all about context. By matching ads to the content being viewed, contextual advertising aims to deliver an enjoyable ad experience that feels natural to the viewer.

For instance, if the viewer is watching sports content, then ads showing sports clothing brands might be selected. This alignment enhances the likelihood of viewer engagement, because the ads are relevant to the immediate context of the content they are watching. Importantly, this strategy also aligns with evolving privacy expectations, allowing broadcasters to provide personalized experiences without intrusive data collection.

While contextual advertising can be effective on its own, AI takes it to the next level by analyzing video scenes in incredible detail. AI can be used to identify key elements such as mood, setting and pace, as well as objects in the frame, to create a precise match between ads and content on the screen at any given moment.

For example, if a scene shows a person on a sandy beach heading to the sea to surf, with the power of AI, contextual advertising tools may suggest advertising for surfboards, watersports equipment, beach wear, and outdoor adventure activity vacations. Or if the scene features a person chopping fresh vegetables while preparing to cook a meal, suggested advertising may include kitchen knife sets, fresh vegetable delivery services, or healthy meal subscription service kits. Similarly, if the content shows a person practicing yoga, contextual advertising tools may suggest ads on yoga equipment, fitness apparel, wellness supplements, or healthy living and wellness apps and services.

Engagement = Conversion
The reasoning behind this approach is that if the viewer is already watching content that features the things being advertised, or similar, it’s reasonable to assume that they may appeal to or interest the viewer to some degree. If ads are delivered that the viewer is more likely to be interested in and engage with, this leads to higher rates of conversion.

Additionally, while standard contextual advertising works to identify objects in the scene, AI can analyze the content at a much deeper level. It can help determine what mood the viewer is in so that ads can be placed that they will be most receptive to at that moment. This enables streaming providers to select ads that resonate with a scene’s emotional tone, creating a more immersive and engaging experience for the viewer.

Pairing contextual advertising technology with prediction tools can also help video providers to optimize ad placement for maximum impact. These types of tools can measure conversion rates enabling video providers to track viewer engagement patterns to identify when viewers are most attentive or most likely to convert.

Shaping the Future of CTV Advertising
By incorporating AI into contextual advertising strategies, broadcasters can deliver hyper-personalized ads that have higher relevance to the viewer, at precisely the right moment when the viewer is most likely to take action. This combination of relevance and precision is reshaping the way media companies approach advertising, ensuring an enhanced viewing experience, improved conversion rates for advertisers, and increased ad revenue for service providers.

This approach offers broadcasters a solution to a major challenge: how to deliver impactful, personalized ads without relying on personal tracking data. As such, AI-powered contextual advertising has the potential to transform CTV advertising, and it is only going to get better as AI technology evolves and improves.

As the reliance on advertising to support growth intensifies across the media landscape, the adoption of AI-driven advertising solutions will become a critical differentiator. Broadcasters and video providers who invest in these technologies now will be well-positioned to lead the industry into a new era of smarter, more effective advertising.

LONDON—DPG Media and Brand Metrics have partnered on a connected-TV audience measurement solution that enables users of DPG Media’s VTM GO streaming platform to measure the brand-lift effect of advertising campaigns in real time, without traditional research panels.

“Connected TV combines the impact of television with the precision of digital advertising,” DPG Media Chief Digital Officer Stefan Havik said. “With our new interactive brand lift surveying product, DPG Media allows advertisers and agencies to better understand the impact of this channel, making it more accountable than ever before.”

The solution uses a custom VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) ad tag, integrated into the video player, to deliver brand-lift measurement in real time within the CTV environment, DPG Media said.

The new approach measures the frequency and time of campaign exposure and then delivers a single question directly to users’ CTV device, enabling instant response via remote, DPG said.

Each measurement delivers campaign results across four key brand outcomes: awareness, consideration, preference and action intent, the company said.

"Having measured over 40,000 campaigns, Brand Metrics has always been committed to proving the impact of digital advertising on brands,” Brand Metrics CEO Anders Lithner said. “We are therefore delighted to announce this exciting partnership with DPG Media, proving that broadcasters and media owners can now also measure CTV campaigns directly on the device, thereby helping us move towards a more transparent and addressable ecosystem."

More information is available on the DPG Media website.

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Roku today launched Roku Data Cloud, giving its partners seamless access to its proprietary TV data for analysis and making planning, optimization and measurement more transparent.

Roku Data Cloud connects advertisers, agencies and partners with accurate and reliable information from its TV operating system (TV OS), offering extensive insight into viewership habits, preferences and identity.

The company’s partners can access Roku Data Cloud via Roku’s clean room, driving outcomes via inventory in Roku Exchange. Roku Data Cloud offers brands a greater understanding of viewers and how to reach them more precisely, and provides a means to unearth ad campaign data to inform future strategy across all phases of the marketing cycle, the company said.

“Starting with Roku Exchange, we have been working for greater interoperability in the entire programmatic ecosystem, and Roku Data Cloud is the perfect next step on delivering business outcomes for our advertisers,” said Miles Fisher, senior director of strategic advertising partnerships at Roku.

“As the No. 1 selling TV OS, we believe Roku is in the best position to help advertisers reach consumers and is shepherding digital precision to the largest screen at home,” Fisher said. “We are committed to making Roku more accessible and performant, and Roku Data Cloud is a milestone of progress.”

Roku is partnering with companies across the planning, activation and outcomes and measurement phases of the campaign journey.

Expanding on existing partnerships, Roku will integrate its TV data into marketing intelligence platforms for planning, including:

• Omnicom Media Group, which will leverage the new solution to maximize the effectiveness of clients’ spend on the streaming platform, combining Roku viewer data with customized audience data in Omni, the open operating system that supports all Omnicom agencies, thereby enabling more precise planning and relevant messaging.
• PMG’s Alli, which allows media planners to gain valuable insights into audience behavior and preferences to tailor and optimize client campaigns. With the ability to plan directly addressable audiences, Alli connects strategic insights to media trafficking in an end-to-end solution that ensures marketing campaigns can be effectively targeted.

The company also plans to expand its partnership with Yahoo with three new integrations: enabling Yahoo ConnectID through the Roku Data Cloud, directly connecting the Roku Exchange to Yahoo Backstage and activating Roku audiences on the Yahoo Demand-Side Platform (DSP). Through the partnership, advertisers are expected to have seamless access to Roku inventory and later this year apply Roku audiences in the Yahoo DSP for enhanced targeting and performance across an entire campaign, it said.

To address outcomes and improve CTV measurement, Roku is partnering with:

• Innovid, which intends to collaborate with Roku to share in-flight campaign information. This allows the Roku Exchange additional signals to optimize for multiple KPIs, including reach, unique reach and conversions, to increase campaign effectiveness, relevance and impact.
• iSpot, a previously announced partner, which intends to continue to work with Roku on incorporating Roku signals into its measurement suite and share in-flight campaign insights for optimized campaign performance.

More information about Roku Data Cloud, Roku Clean Room and Roku Exchange is available online.

VENTURA, Calif.—Programmatic ad giant The Trade Desk is pushing into the streaming technology business with a new operating system called Ventura.

“We’re at a point in the evolution of streaming TV where we must ensure the supply chain of streaming TV advertising is competitive and transparent, so advertisers can maximize campaign performance, publishers can fund this new golden age of TV, and consumers have a better streaming TV ad experience,” Trade Desk Founder and CEO Jeff Green said. “This innovation has to come in the OS, and it has to come from a company that brings the objectivity of not owning any streaming TV content. At The Trade Desk, all we want is a fair marketplace, where supply chain costs are minimized, and advertiser trust can thrive.”

The launch, which will face stiff competition from operating systems from Google, Ruku and others that are already in hundreds of millions of smart TVs, highlights the growing importance of operating systems in the connected TV business.

In launching Ventura, The Trade Desk is hoping to leverage its position as the largest independent demand-side programmatic ad platform and a major provider of ad technologies to improve the streaming technologies used by CTVs and streaming media players in ways that would streamline and boost the CTV ad business.

The Trade Desk said it will partner with smart-TV original equipment manufacturers and other aggregators to deploy Ventura. And while Ventura will face significant competition, executives from four major streaming companies—Disney, Paramount, Sonos and Fox’s Tubi—expressed interest and support for the OS.

In announcing the product, The Trade Desk said Ventura represents a major advance in streaming TV operating systems because it solves key complaints about existing systems including frustrating user experiences, inefficient advertising supply chains and content conflicts of interest.

It described the major benefits of Ventura as follows:

• A more intuitive, engaging user experience, including cross-platform content discovery, personalization, subscription management and ultimately fewer (more relevant) ads.
• A much cleaner supply chain for streaming TV advertising, minimizing supply chain hops and costs—ensuring maximum ROI for every advertising dollar and optimized yield for publishers.
• Incorporating advances such as OpenPath and Unified ID 2.0 (UID2), Ventura will enable advertisers to value and price ad impressions across all streaming platforms more accurately, while finding relevant audiences with greater precision.

Ventura comes as more consumers use streaming platforms than traditional cable TV and as almost every major media company has launched an ad-supported streaming option for viewers.

“Everyone from OEMs to airlines and hotel chains are now in the streaming TV aggregation business, and they’re all trying to figure out the advertising business model while improving the viewer experience,” Matthew Henick, senior vice president of Ventura at The Trade Desk, said. “With our content objectivity and our scaled streaming TV advertising demand, The Trade Desk is uniquely positioned to drive innovation at this key moment.”

The Trade Desk reported that it expects that Ventura will be deployed by OEMs and other streaming TV aggregators as early as 2025.

It also noted that Ventura is already generating industry support and provided quotes from executives at four major streaming media players. Tose included:

• Jamie Power, senior vice president of addressable advertising sales, Disney Advertising: “As the streaming TV landscape rapidly evolves, we are entering a new paradigm for TV advertising. These trends are driven not only by consumer adoption but also by the innovation in the marketplace. We look forward to seeing The Trade Desk continue to drive innovation that will create more efficiency and a more enjoyable TV experience.”
• John Halley, president, Paramount Advertising: “The Trade Desk has been a great partner and real innovator in the programmatic space, and we are excited to see them bring their approach to the OS marketplace. Both broadcasters and consumers will undoubtedly benefit.”
• Paul Cheesbrough, CEO, Tubi Media Group: “As viewers shift to streaming, it’s imperative that advertisers can find their audiences with precision and put as much of their campaign spend to work as possible. We look forward to building upon our existing partnership with The Trade Desk to bring this vision of a better CTV supply chain to life across our portfolio alongside other industry leaders.”
• Patrick Spence, CEO, Sonos: “At Sonos, we are committed to providing our customers with the very best home entertainment experience. We are excited to explore the integration of premium audio and video with The Trade Desk and the Ventura OS.”

As content creators, aggregators and distributors continue to finagle their respective paths around the constantly changing video-consumption desires of global audiences, the race to monetize content and engage audiences with relevant advertising might be getting some much-needed help from the ad tech vendors.

Part of the need for advanced technology solutions is driven by the tremendous growth in ad-supported streaming, whether via free ad-supported television (FAST) channels or ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) tiers offered by subscription services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. More and more channels and options for viewers have created an interesting dilemma—there’s way more ad inventory available than there is supply. For companies relying on programmatic ad models to fill this inventory, the user experience must be considered.

“With traditional linear TV, the measurement we’re still looking at is ratings,” said Steve Reynolds, president of Imagine Communications. “But, ‘ratings’ has started to evolve into ‘reach’ and ‘frequency’ and pacing of advertising. Delivering the same message to the same household 30 times may not be any more effective than delivering that message five times.”

Balancing Act
Addressable advertising inventory available on subscription services and other media offer the ability to match ad content with very specific viewer demographics, but a careful balance has to be struck to maintain brand quality and avoid doing more damage than good.

“We’ve always had good tools for managing frequency and pacing in the linear world, but we’re now seeing our customers’ need to bring those capabilities into the connected TV (CTV) world,” Reynolds continues. “The targeting enabled by programmatic systems works great.

“The problem is it’s almost too perfect—to the point where advertising can become ineffective if it creates negative viewer perception,” he adds. “To counteract this, we’ve taken the traditional business rules we’ve applied to linear TV for years, like frequency, category separation and brand safety rules and incorporated them into what we describe as a broadcast-quality digital ad server.”

The system exemplified in this scenario is designed to make life easier for broadcasters and distributors transitioning from traditional selling of ad inventory to converged selling of linear and digital ads. This transition is ongoing, but it’s not new.

In fact, according to a recent report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, “2024 IAB Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report,” three-quarters of CTV advertising is already bought programmatically, much of it transacted through systems offered by suppliers like Imagine, Operative, WideOrbit, Boostr and many others that simplify the sales process and drive revenue growth.

What’s AI Got to Do With It?
Technology is being applied to do more than simply create efficiency. Despite the apparent imbalance between inventory supply and content available to fill it, there are significant efforts to introduce new types of inventory—ones with greater opportunity for branding and viewer engagement—many of which are leveraging AI.

In a recent interview with IBC365, BroadView Software President Michael Atkin said: “[Using AI] you can now do real-time identification of new spots to insert advertising in backdrops that we couldn’t do even this time last year. Every year we get better and better at being able to identify the piece of content. And the better we can identify the user, the better you can target the materials they want to see.”

In fact, recent improvements in AI’s ability to analyze video content has opened up a number of unique opportunities for engagement and new revenues.

In the past several years, major events, especially sports, have begun including new sponsorship opportunities during lulls in game action (think “Playing Through” during NBC’s golf coverage). Capitalizing on this trend, Sportradar, a data and insights company focused on sports analytics and betting, offers an API to broadcasters that pushes real-time game information that triggers on specific game events. Productions can use this data to automatically run branded graphics to celebrate a big home run or touchdown.

AI promises to take this type of “in game” engagement even further.

“We use AI to create a transcript of the commentaries coming from sports broadcasts,” explained Jean Macher, senior director, global SaaS solutions at Harmonic. “We then feed that text into OpenAI to come up with a summary and highlights of the live action.”

This solution, currently still in development, will be able to autonomously create catch-up packages and highlights of big plays during the game, offering further opportunities for audience engagement.

Moving forward, the company hopes to capitalize on GPT 4.0’s next-gen capability to natively analyze video content.

“Now that the AI is able to understand the notion of the passage of time and make inferences based on that content, the hope is that if you combine the video analytics together with the audio analysis, you could achieve decision-accurate inferences,” Macher explained. “This workflow would then feed actionable metadata into the company’s VOS 360 platform to provide contextually accurate ad spot opportunities.”

The Audience Is Still the Thing
With all of these moves toward creating additional, and more relevant opportunities for brands to engage with audiences, regardless of the platform, it would stand to reason that the entire business model has been reimagined. Unfortunately, that’s not really the case.

“The need to be able to make dynamic ad decisions thanks to addressability—and now we’re doing unicast addressability—[has led to] new products coming along like ad servers, like Imagine’s Surefire,” Reynolds said. “But it’s not a fundamental change to the way things are done. The business model still hasn’t changed because advertisers still want to buy audience.”

The battle for improved brand engagement and action associated with this engagement is being fought on the frontlines like never before between agencies/brands and the folks with multiplatform inventory available.

“What we have to do,” Reynolds added, “is flip it 90 degrees and start thinking about the value of the inventory. There’s premium inventory and there’s non-premium inventory. People need to wrap their heads around optimizing the premium inventory on the basis of price and delivery value while optimizing the non-premium inventory on the basis of utilization and getting the highest yield possible out of it.”

Advertisers are seemingly open to the idea of new ways to engage and improve the impact of the impressions they’re getting.

“Dynamic brand insertion is something we do to insert the brand directly inside the video content,” Macher described. “Sometimes called ‘virtual product placement,’ we can create a placement opportunity where you’re going to see a bottle with a specific brand or a billboard with a specific message. We can use AI to analyze the video programming and find those placement opportunities in advance and then dynamically—and frame accurately—stitch that alternate content that now includes the brand placement into the program.”

Fortunately for those trying to balance market pressures like this, a wide range of tools are available to make this process both easier and more efficient. Leading cross-platform digital ad servers such as Google Ad Manager and FreeWheel work closely with other industry suppliers to ensure the products used to manage the sales process are smoothly integrated and ready to help ad sales folks sell more, instead of wasting time on administrative tasks.

This improved communication between the supply side and demand side leverages advanced tech that should lead to a more efficient system that takes everyone’s needs into account.

CARSON CITY, Nevada—ShowSeeker, the ad-tech firm behind the Pilot cloud-based campaign and order management platform, said it promoted Nick Anaclerio to senior vice president of product strategy.

Originally the provider of the ShowSeeker Plus content discovery system, the tech vendor has grown to provide a single-order management platform for both pay TV providers and broadcasters. The company also said it plans to launch a Predictive Programming platform later this year, followed by predictive ratings algorithms in early 2025.

During Anaclerio’s seven years with ShowSeeker, the company expanded from 10 employees in 2017 to more than 75, including more than three dozen software engineers, seven quality assurance professionals and four project managers.

“Nick has been a key member of our leadership team since day one of joining the company in November 2017,” ShowSeeker CEO Dave Hardy said in a statement. “Over the past seven years, under Nick’s guidance, our product offerings have grown exponentially and we are thrilled with the dedication and tireless effort Nick brings to solving the biggest issues facing the ad tech landscape. Nick is truly a brilliant strategist and frequently sees a clear path of resolution to challenges our clients encounter. “

ShowSeeker said its products simplify the ad sales buying and planning process for providers via a cloud-based platform that facilitates each step from proposal generation to campaign performance tracking. It offers tools to optimize and improve monetization by automating tasks, reducing manual workloads and increasing operational efficiencies, the company said. ShowSeeker’s integrated data insights ensure ad buys are targeted, effective and highly customizable, driving better return on investment, it said.

NEW YORK—Audience data and omniscreen measurement provider Samba TV today said it would collaborate with content data platform IRIS.TV to bring artificial intelligence (AI) to contextual advertising and measurement.

The collaboration will leverage Samba AI to analyze extensive video catalogs from major digital media and connected TV (CTV) publishers indexed with the IRIS_ID. The IRIS_ID is a universal content identifier that allopws publishers to securely share granular video-level data with advertisers. The combination provides privacy-forward contextual targeting solutions bolstered by next-generation measurement of reach, frequency and business-based outcomes, Samba said.

“The integration of Samba AI strengthens the rich contextual intelligence on every IRIS_ID, providing advertisers with deeper insights and targeting capabilities while giving our publishing partners new ways to monetize their content,” IRIS.TV co-founder and CEO Field Garthwaite said.

IRIS_IDs are found on more than 55 million videos on thousands of websites and streaming apps across smart TVs and connected TV devices. With access to millions of hours of streaming content, Samba AI will offer advertisers insights into video content, enabling more granular contextual targeting, including topics, genres, logos, actors, sentiment and brand safety, underscored by more accurate measurement across platforms, the company said.

With IRIS.TV, advertisers can target more than 500 billion monthly ad requests through their preferred ad platforms. Video-level contextual targeting drives upper- and lower-funnel marketing performance, especially for linear TV advertisers extending reach into CTV, the company said.

“Our industry has been riddled by a conflict between context and audience,” Samba TV co-founder and CEO Ashwin Navin said. “This partnership with IRIS.TV represents convergence—reconnecting context and audiences to achieve measurable gains for marketers. By applying our AI to any IRIS-enabled publisher, we’re not only expanding contextual advertising attributes, but also providing advertisers with more accurate and comprehensive cross-platform measurement. This collaboration embodies our commitment to delivering new and more scientific approaches to advertising without compromising on privacy principles.”

More information is available on the Samba TV and IRIS.TV websites.

NEW YORK—Proximic by Comscore, a division of Comscore Inc., has announced that Horizon Media, the largest U.S. media agency has selected Proximic by Comscore as its preferred contextual intelligence provider. 

With this agreement, Horizon Media’s clients will be able to seamlessly tap into thousands of Proximic by Comscore’s contextually-powered targeting segments, with a specific focus on Proximic’s ID-free Predictive Audiences, the companies said. 

“In light of signal loss and increased global privacy regulations, sophisticated media buyers like Horizon have already begun to adopt privacy-focused technologies that will insulate them from these ongoing shifts in the identity landscape,” said Kathryn Roganti, senior vice president, brand & agency at Proximic by Comscore. “Our partnership with Horizon will enable them to support clients who are navigating the choppy waters of the targeting ecosystem, using trusted, privacy-resilient data.”

“At Horizon, we are dedicated to finding innovative solutions to persistent industry challenges like signal loss, empowering our clients to achieve superior results,” said Alexander Stone, senior vice president of advanced video and agency partnerships. “We are excited to expand our partnership with Comscore to include Proximic by Comscore’s cutting-edge targeting technology, which has consistently improved outcomes across our client portfolio.”

Proximic by Comscore’s segments are available for Horizon Media’s clients to activate across leading DSPs like The Trade Desk, including across premium connected TV inventory. In recent head-to-head testing, ID-free Predictive Audiences have proven to drive significant scale with an average of 96% incremental reach over ID-based tactics, making it a highly effective solution for brands seeking addressable audience targeting.

NEW YORK—Cadent, one of the largest independent providers for converged TV advertising solutions has announced a definitive agreement to acquire AdTheorent Holding Company, Inc. for $3.21 per share or about $324 million. 

AdTheorent offers ID-independent machine learning and algorithmic audience solutions. 

The combination of Cadent and AdTheorent will create one of the largest independent omnichannel audience activation platforms for buyers and sellers of advertising. 

Once the deal is completed, the newly formed entity will focus on providing performance advertising solutions that cater to both digital and traditional TV markets using advanced machine learning and a unified media and data marketplace, the companies said. 

The combined company will serve nearly 1,000 advertisers and plans to work with all leading holding companies, agency groups, independent agencies, and premium publishers, the companies reported. 

“Together, Cadent and AdTheorent will enable our customers to drive performance across all strategic audiences, no matter where they consume media or where they are in the sales funnel,” said Nick Troiano, CEO of Cadent. “We will connect the worlds of programmatic and TV, providing solutions across our partner ecosystem that will drive next-generation omnichannel reach and performance results.”

The two companies also reported that AdTheorent’s leadership in ID-independent machine learning and algorithmic audience solutions, combined with Cadent’s cookieless household identity graph will uniquely position the combined company in the ad market place for future growth.  

“AdTheorent’s customer-focused culture, award-winning technology and commitment to innovation has helped our team build a strong brand that is a recognized leader in performance-first programmatic advertising,” said James Lawson, CEO of AdTheorent. “In Cadent, we’ve found a partner with a shared commitment to delivering measurable results for customers, and a complementary vision for the future of omnichannel advertising. In an increasingly competitive and evolving adtech sector, we are excited to bring together our teams, technology, and solutions to drive continued value to our customers and our employees.”

Novacap, the Montreal-based private equity firm which acquired Cadent in August 2023, provided strategic services and funding support to Cadent for the transaction.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and completion of regulatory review and AdTheorent shareholder approval. The transaction has been approved by the AdTheorent Board of Directors and is expected to close in approximately 90 days.

Moelis & Company LLC is acting as lead financial advisor to Cadent. RBC Capital Markets also is acting as a financial advisor, and Baker Botts LLP is providing legal counsel. Canaccord Genuity is acting as financial advisor and McDermott Will & Emery LLP is acting as legal counsel to AdTheorent in connection with the proposed transaction.

BALTIMORE & CLEVELAND—Sinclair Broadcast Group has announced that it will deploy Futuri’s advanced AI-driven sales system, TopLine, into Sinclair’s 186 owned and or operated television stations, spanning 85 markets.

Futuri is a provider of AI-driven audience engagement and sales intelligence solutions.

The decision to adopt TopLine AI follows a successful pilot program that began in the the summer 2023, Sinclair said. 

The pilot demonstrated the tool’s effectiveness in improving sales efficiency and revenue growth. TopLine combines AI technology with sales research and data-driven presentations, empowering sales teams to extend into new categories, get more appointments, and reach new types of buyers, the companies reported. 

“We are thrilled about our partnership with Futuri and the integration of TopLine® into our sales operations,” said Ryan Moore, senior vice president and chief revenue officer, Sinclair, Inc. “This technology not only equips our sales team with cutting-edge tools and a competitive edge to engage new advertisers, but it also empowers them to spend more quality time with our clients, enhancing our relationships and driving our sales strategy forward.”

“Sinclair’s adoption of TopLine represents a shared commitment to innovation and a significant leap forward for the media industry,” said Daniel Anstandig, CEO of Futuri. “Sinclair’s forward-thinking ethos perfectly complements our vision at Futuri, setting the stage for exciting developments in media technology and audience engagement.”

More information is available at https://sbgi.net/tv-stations and at  TopLineforTV.com. 

NEW YORK—Tremor International has announced it is rebranding its products and platforms as Nexxen.

The move will rebrand its combined demand-side platforms (“DSP”) Amobee and Tremor Video, the supply-side platform (“SSP”) Unruly and the CTV ad server Spearad under one name. 

Moving forward, these business units will operate as the Nexxen DSP, Nexxen SSP and Nexxen Ad Server, respectively. The Nexxen SSP and the Nexxen Ad Server will go to market collectively as Nexxen CTRL.

“Nexxen embodies our vision for a robust and flexible horizontal platform that can be tailored specifically to meet our partners’ needs by enabling effective video campaigns across all screens, with a specialization in CTV,” said Ofer Druker, CEO, Tremor International. “This new chapter is grounded in delivering meaningful value, capitalizing on the collective strength of our technology, data and services to work in the ways that are most impactful to brands, agencies and publishers. As we look to the future, Nexxen is well-positioned to drive superior outcomes, through advanced audience discovery and planning tools with cross-platform capabilities that ensure incremental reach in converged linear and Connected TV, unique and exclusive data sets including ACR, and powerful, dynamic data-driven creative.”

The rebranding follows the integration of Amobee earlier in 2023. 

The Company also intends to change the listed Tremor International Ltd. parent company name to Nexxen International Ltd., subject to a shareholder vote at the Company’s upcoming Annual General Meeting. 

More information is available at www.nexxen.com and at www.tremorinternational.com. 

TORONTO & SAN FRANCISCO—Yangaroo and WideOrbit have announced a partnership that will streamline and automate the delivery of traffic instructions between advertisers and broadcasters. 

As part of the agreement, Yangaroo’s asset management and delivery platform will be integrated with WideOrbit's Electronic Material Instructions module within WideOrbit’s flagship ad sales and commercial operations platform, WO Traffic. The integration facilitates a seamless end-to-end automated exchange of traffic instructions, effectively eliminating errors and saving valuable time for advertisers and broadcasters.

"The API integration between Yangaroo and WideOrbit delivers instant benefits to all advertisers and broadcasters using our platforms,” explained Grant Schuetrumpf, CEO of Yangaroo. “The smooth and immediate exchange of data between the platforms represents a substantial enhancement for all stakeholders involved in managing real-time responses and confirmations when advertisers submit traffic instructions to broadcasters across the USA."

"Our partnership with Yangaroo underscores WideOrbit's dedication to delivering comprehensive tools that better connect TV broadcasters and advertisers, ultimately simplifying day-to-day tasks,” added Susie Hedrick, president and managing director of Traffic Systems at WideOrbit. "By seamlessly transferring traffic instructions to WO Traffic through Yangaroo, we offer advertisers more advanced and automated workflows. This partnership aligns with WideOrbit's Wider-World approach, which aims to provide media companies with broader capabilities, deeper insights, and stronger connections."

As part of the integrated solution, advertisers can simply key in buy and traffic data using Yangaroo. The advertiser then receives immediate feedback that the instructions have been received and processed correctly by a broadcaster that uses WO Traffic, the companies explained. 

"This integration holds significant importance for Yangaroo as it aligns with our ongoing dedication to metadata integration,” emphasized Richard Klosa, CTO at Yangaroo. “Yangaroo plays a critical role in the asset and metadata ecosystem for advertising spot distribution, and this integration represents a pivotal milestone in our long-standing commitment to effectively managing traffic instructions."

SAN FRANCISCO—WideOrbit has launched its ZingX buy-side platform offering media buyers access to ad inventory from thousands of TV stations using the company’s WO Marketplace sell-side exchange.

The new platform automates transaction and campaign optimization processes, making it easy for media buyers, agencies and demand-side platforms (DSPs) to add local TV to their omni-channel campaigns, thereby expanding reach and improving the performance of campaigns, it said.

The ZingX three-step ad buying process includes:

• Building a campaign and defining a budget, CPM goals, audience, target markets and dayparts.
• Previewing allocated impressions and budgets and adjusting as needed.
• Submitting to stations and tracking delivery. Impressions are automatically reallocated as spots air to optimize CPM and budget goals.

The cloud-based ZingX has a user-friendly interface that makes updating and accessibility easy. Ad buyers can create, manage and measure campaigns from anywhere at any time with the interface. 

“Our two-year partnership with WideOrbit has made broadcast TV extraordinarily simple for our clients to buy, putting large audiences and scalability at their fingertips," said Michelle Ricciuti, director of media strategy at Bliss Point Media, part of Tinuiti.  "The addition of broadcast TV complements our branded performance approach with patented tech to build brand value, acquire customers and boost digital conversions.”

Over 6,000 radio and TV stations and networks, including 90% of local U.S. broadcast TV stations, use WideOrbit. It is the system of record for more than $37 billion in ad spending every year, WideOrbit said.

ZingX delivers direct access to inventory from local TV stations using WideOrbit’s WO Marketplace sell-side exchange, it said.

The new buy-side platform is integrated with Comscore’s Local Market Television Measurement, which provides data for advertisers to reach impression targets based on market and/or daypart rather than relying on specific program buys. 

“With over 20 years’ experience as the leader in premium broadcast technology and the largest sell-side processor of premium advertising, WideOrbit is excited to bring that expertise to the buy side with ZingX,” said WideOrbit founder and CEO Eric Mathewson. “Optimized for the buyer, ZingX leverages WO Marketplace, our sell-side platform broadcasters already use, making it easy for buyers to access the reach, effectiveness and brand safety of premium local TV advertising.”

More information is available on the company’s website. 

NEW YORK—Fox Corporation has announced that it has selected Comcast’s FreeWheel ad technology platform as a partner to manage its OneFox video inventory across Fox's entertainment, sports, streaming and news portfolio.

The deal is part of Fox’s ongoing strategy of providing brands and advertisers with more innovative advertising tools and resources that can improve their advertising campaigns, Fox said. 

As part of the agreement, FreeWheel will work with Fox to holistically manage direct sold advertising campaigns across premium content from the company’s leading brands, which includes Fox News Media, Fox Sports, Fox Entertainment, and Tubi, the company’s free ad-supported streaming service. 

“Across Fox, we continue to work with our advertising partners to create the optimal environment for brand messages to efficiently reach the right audiences across the company’s industry-leading portfolio of brands and platforms,” said Dan Callahan, senior vice president of data strategy and sales innovation at Fox Corporation. “Our partnership with FreeWheel further brings this vision to life and we look forward to collaborating with them to further elevate the overall advertising and viewing experience.”

“We’re thrilled to be working with Fox to an even greater extent,” said FreeWheel general manager Mark McKee. “By teaming up, we can help solve for many of today’s pressing industry issues, including the need to unify supply across different inventory pools in an increasingly fragmented marketplace, reduce waste, optimize efficiency and reach the right audiences. In doing so, we’re helping to pave the way for a better overall ad – and user – experience across the ecosystem.”

NEW YORK—Discovery has announced that EDO will be its preferred behavior measurement partner and that Discovery will use EDO during this year’s upfronts to measure the impact of ad campaigns. 

Discovery is using EDO’s Ad EnGage offering to measure consumer interest and intent with proprietary data measurement tools that focus on search activity following a TV advertisement. The data will be leveraged during the 2022/23 Upfront season across Discovery’s portfolio of trusted brands. 

“Offering clients reliable and predictive behavioral measurement data is the linchpin of Discovery’s advanced advertising solutions, and this partnership with EDO allows us to build upon that and emphasize our influence on consumer habits,” said Jon Steinlauf, chief U.S. ad sales officer, Discovery. “EDO is a trusted and strategic data insights partner offering solutions that will supplement Discovery’s already impressive measurement toolkit that provides clients with an unmatched ability to understand their audience.” 

Within the Discovery Engage advanced advertising platform, EDO’s Search Engagement data will be used as a key input to inform and optimize media plans for Discovery advertisers, as well as a critical performance measure of behavioral advertising impact, the companies said. 

This will provide clients with data that will help them plan and optimize ad campaigns beyond basic demographic targets or audience segments. The companies reported that a major wireless telecom advertiser that executed a data-driven media plan through the Discovery Engage platform in Q3 2021 experienced 22% higher Search Engagement as compared to its cable average.

"The era of single-currency television advertising is over and marketers must now use multiple premium video currencies to determine the effectiveness and value of their ads," said Kevin Krim, president and CEO, EDO. "By leveraging our actionable data and insights during the 2022 upfronts, Discovery is in a great position to create optimized plans and drive impact for their advertisers across the rich and diverse Discovery programming portfolio.”

Discovery consistently delivers the most engaging programs for advertisers, according to EDO data. In 2021, Discovery held seven of the top 10 positions on EDO's ranking of the most engaging entertainment programs in primetime cable. More than half (60) of the top 100 programs aired on Discovery’s networks, the companies reported. 

Discovery will also use EDO data to showcase the value of its Discovery Premiere sales package, which empowers brands to exclusively advertise in a carefully curated mix of premiere episodes. Notable advertisers, including Capital One, Expedia, Kia, Lowe's and Panera Bread, ran Discovery Premiere Primetime schedules in the second half of 2021 and experienced over 25% higher Search Engagement than their individual primetime broadcast and cable averages.

Additionally, EDO’s behavioral data set will provide key performance measures of branded short-form custom content, sponsorships and integrations across Discovery’s networks.

MELBOURNE, Fla. — Qligent, which specializes in cloud-based, enterprise-level content monitoring and analysis, will debut a new As-Run feature for its Qligent Vision platform at IBC2018. Integrated within Vision, the new “as-run” feature uses an imported as-run log to analyze whether secondary program events, such as SCTE-35 ad insertion triggers and ratings watermarks, aired as planned, and improves the compliance verification process of loudness, EPG tables and closed captioning. The application then produces a consolidated as-run report as an overlay to the program schedule in near real time. This new capability provides monitoring by exception to pinpoint where, when and why secondary events failed to execute properly along any of a broadcaster’s downstream distribution channels.

“Until now, there hasn’t been an easy way to determine if SCTE-35 ad insertion triggers occurred at the right moment in relation to the network’s planned commercial break,” said Ted Korte, COO, Qligent. “If the playout of an ad triggers too soon or too late, it could clip the head or tail of a spot, resulting in the need for a ‘make good’ and a potential loss of revenue. And if closed captioning isn’t present, or audio exceeds acceptable loudness levels, a station could incur fines for noncompliance.”

According to Korte, this new feature also saves broadcasters time and effort by enabling them to search for specific clips or segments of primary program events, such as TV shows, commercials and IDs, as well as secondary events. Once located, the search function can link them directly to where that item is in the program schedule, and they can also play or export the selected clip segment.

Qligent will demonstrate its new as-run capabilities and the entire Vision platform at Stand 8.E47.

The IBC2018 show is Sept. 13–18, in Amsterdam. For more information or to register, visit www.ibc.org.

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