NEW YORK—Comcast’s FreeWheel has launched Video Content Report, an insight tool available in FreeWheel Buyer Cloud (formerly Beeswax) that provides TV series-level data on where ad campaigns actually appeared.

Fueled by direct connection to FreeWheel Streaming Hub (FreeWheel’s ad server with natively built SSP), the report gives buyers detailed, series-level insight into post-impression delivery from premium publishers, including A+E Global Media, Spectrum Reach, Fuse Media, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Xumo.

By using publisher-sourced delivery data recorded directly through the ad server, Video Content Report gives buyers a clearer, reliable view of where campaigns ran across premium streaming environments, helping increase transparency and confidence in their CTV investments.

“CTV buyers need series-level transparency they can trust and use at scale,” said Jon Mansell, vice president, U.S. demand for FreeWheel. “What makes Video Content Report unique is the direct connection between Buyer Cloud and Streaming Hub, which enables publisher-permissioned, impression-level delivery insights from multiple premium publishers in one workflow. That gives advertisers a clearer view of where their campaigns ran while giving publishers control over how their content data is shared.”

Powered by Buyer Cloud’s connection to FreeWheel Streaming Hub and impression-level delivery data, Video Content Report provides scalable series-level transparency to confirm content alignment and brand safety, at no extra cost, while helping publishers prove the value of their premium content.

In announcing the new tool, FreeWheel stressed that it is designed to address the needs of advertisers.

Over 50% of CTV advertisers say they would shift spend to publishers that provide show- or series-level transparency, according to new research from Advertiser Perceptions. As demand for this level of visibility grows, FreeWheel said it is helping make series-level reporting even easier to access and apply at scale. By bringing publisher-sourced insights into a more consistent workflow, Video Content Report gives buyers a clearer way to understand delivery across partners and use those insights to guide future planning and investment decisions.

Some advertisers and agencies applauded the launch. “As investment in programmatic CTV continues to grow, we as buyers need transparency that is accurate, scalable and easy to access,” said Mike Treon, head of CTV and video strategy for PMG. “FreeWheel’s Video Content Report addresses a real gap in the market by giving us series-level visibility directly within Buyer Cloud, helping us better understand campaign delivery across premium video without relying on one-off reporting requests or adding unnecessary reporting steps.”

The launch builds on FreeWheel’s broader commitment to giving buyers more transparency, control, and customization through Buyer Cloud, in addition to direct publisher connections. As a customizable demand-side platform built for premium video and connected to FreeWheel Streaming Hub, Buyer Cloud gives agencies and advertisers direct access to FreeWheel’s premium supply, robust decisioning tools and exclusive reporting capabilities designed to support more informed, efficient, and accountable media buying.

Video Content Report is now available in Buyer Cloud for all clients at no additional cost.

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.

Comcast’s ad platform and ad tech company FreeWheel has announced the launch of its new AI agent infrastructure, powered by FreeWheel’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) server and a suite of intelligence tools.

The updates embed AI directly into the core of premium video transactions, enabling buyers and sellers to automate workflows, optimize performance in real time, and operate with greater speed and confidence.

FreeWheel also announced that global independent platform company PMG is among the first partners to pilot these capabilities for its clients to use directly in Alli, PMG’s marketing operating system.

FreeWheel’s MCP Server provides a secure foundation that allows AI agents to talk directly to FreeWheel’s platform and take action. Built on this infrastructure, FreeWheel’s Intelligence tools continuously monitor deal performance, analyze spend and inventory quality, track commitments, and automate routine decision-making. Together, these capabilities transform traditionally manual, fragmented processes into intelligent, always-on execution.

“FreeWheel’s mission is to modernize how premium video is transacted, and that means embedding AI directly into the systems our clients rely on every day,” said Mark McKee, General Manager, FreeWheel. “With our MCP Server and Intelligence tools, we are creating a new foundation where AI can help buyers and sellers operate more efficiently, make smarter decisions, and unlock greater value from premium inventory. Partners like PMG are helping lead this transformation by putting these capabilities into action.”

PMG is piloting these new capabilities within Alli, enabling its teams and clients to monitor and analyze deal performance, identify opportunities, and optimize global streaming campaigns faster and more efficiently. Integrating directly with FreeWheel’s AI infrastructure allows Alli to query and act on streaming data with minimal latency.

With this deep technical bridge, PMG is advancing its ability to deliver more intelligent, automated media buying strategies.

“Often AI in our industry today is just a wrapper around generic models. What we have built with FreeWheel is true technical interoperability,” said Mike Treon, Head of CTV & Video Strategy at PMG. “By connecting Alli to FreeWheel in real-time, we have given our customers an agentic AI solution that goes beyond reporting and actually understands the streaming ecosystem. We are moving past manual setup to an era where teams use our industry-leading marketing operating system to optimize complex global deals instantly.”

This launch represents a major milestone in FreeWheel’s broader innovation strategy to embed AI across its platform, making it easier for buyers and sellers to transact, integrate, and optimize across premium video. By providing a secure, open foundation for AI-driven automation, FreeWheel is enabling partners to build differentiated capabilities while advancing the infrastructure that powers the streaming advertising ecosystem.

The announcement builds on FreeWheel’s recent milestone at CES, where the company introduced cross-platform agentic AI media buying for the first time alongside other industry leaders.

FreeWheel also reported that it will continue introducing new AI-powered capabilities throughout 2026.

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.

FreeWheel, a global provider of streaming ad technology, announced that it has expanded its two-year partnership with Roku, “following strong results” from the collaboration launched in late 2024.

Roku’s premium CTV supply can now be activated through the FreeWheel Streaming Hub with better demand signals, more transparency, and more efficient monetization, the companies said. At the same time, this partnership creates greater scale for buyers to transact more efficiently with Roku inventory, with a direct path to the FreeWheel Advertiser Suite.

“At Roku, we want to create better outcomes for all our advertisers and content partners, with more transparency and streamlined workflows,” said Miles Fisher, Senior Director, Strategic Advertising Partnerships, Roku. “This collaboration with FreeWheel is a great opportunity to represent supply to buyers and deliver a more efficient, data-rich environment.”

With this deeper collaboration, Roku can seamlessly manage direct-sold and programmatic campaigns and distribution inventory, as well as tap into demand via the FreeWheel Marketplace. Participating publishers have direct access, and for the first time, they can connect directly to Roku’s supply in the FreeWheel Marketplace, through a standardized, Open Real-Time Bidding-based connection. Additional enhancements include direct access to the FreeWheel Curation Hub and FreeWheel Buyer Cloud.

“The combination of Roku’s scale and market leadership in CTV and FreeWheel’s premium content and direct connections make this collaboration a game changer for the CTV ad marketplace,” said Greg Bel, Vice President, Head of Supply, FreeWheel. “Our expanded partnership is a marked transformation, as Roku shifts from a demand partner to a full platform client, truly impacting our mutual partners by giving them the ease, speed, and precision they asked for.”

“As one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies, NBCUniversal has long been focused on making premium video easier for advertisers to buy and measure,” said Alison Levin, President of Advertising and Partnerships at NBCUniversal. “Roku’s large scale and this expanded partnership with FreeWheel creates more transparency and efficiency across the marketplace, ultimately driving better outcomes for both advertisers and publishers.”

“As audience growth across streaming continues to accelerate, Warner Bros. Discovery is focused on maximizing the value of our premium storytelling across every platform while helping shape a more integrated and efficient premium video ecosystem,” said Jill Steinhauser, Group Senior Vice President of Platform Monetization and Partnerships at Warner Bros. Discovery. “This partnership between Roku and FreeWheel enhances our initiatives by giving advertisers greater access to streaming audiences at scale and drives more effective results for both advertisers and publishers.”

NEW YORK—In a notable development for TV and connected TV advertising, Comcast has unveiled Universal Ads, a new TV advertising platform designed to simplify the process of buying ads in premium video content. The effort is particularly targeted to attract money from advertisers who had previously focused on social media and had limited ability to develop TV ad campaigns.

The new Universal Ads platform is backed by a host of major TV players and media companies, including A+E, AMC Networks, DirecTV, Fox Corp., NBCUniversal, Paramount, Roku, TelevisaUnivision, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Xumo who have committed to be launch partners. More companies are expected to be announced in the coming months, Comcast said.

Launching in Q1, Universal Ads is built on top of FreeWheel’s ad technology and will seamlessly allow ad buyers and sellers to directly transact all in one place.

“Universal Ads has been purpose-built in response to what advertisers have been asking from Comcast,“ Comcast Advertising President James Rooke said. “That is, make TV simpler to buy, scale and measure in a way that is compatible with the needs of performance marketers, and really, all marketers. Comcast has tremendous assets across tech, media and data. Universal Ads brings those assets together in a way that has never been done before. And, just as importantly, we are thrilled that our partners, many of whom are already FreeWheel clients, have signed on to join us in this initiative, as we seek to transform the TV ad marketplace of the future.”

The effort is notable on several levels, including the fact that it is Comcast’s first-ever cross-industry collaboration at this scale. By strategically partnering with premium industry partners, Universal Ads will provide simplified access to audiences of premium content and will provide "full-funnel performance" for advertisers while opening new demand channels for publishers, Comcast noted.

“Universal Ads offers the solution to the fragmented premium video advertising category,“ Jeff Collins, Fox president of advertising sales, marketing and brand partnerships, added. “Coming together as publishers allows us to present a singular platform for brands of any size in any category to advertise in premium video — all with the ease and familiarity of buying on social. This is a terrific opportunity for advertisers and publishers alike.”

The effort also hopes to take advantage with growing disillusionment with social-media platforms. According to a 2024 study of 250 performance-based advertisers conducted by Comcast Advertising, 50% of advertisers who have never advertised on TV or only done so minimally felt that their ROI from social media buying had peaked or is diminishing, and 89% are willing to try TV advertising.

Comcast said Universal Ads is designed to attract advertisers who were limited in their ability to purchase premium, brand-safe inventory from some of the top TV publishers. Those clients can now access premium video at scale directly, with a simple, consistent buying experience regardless of the publisher, the cable operator said.

“The north star of advertising has always been combining the premium reach of linear with the precision of data-informed targeting for marketers,” said Mark Marshall, chairman, NBCUniversal Global Advertising & Partnerships. “Now with Universal Ads, we are delivering that vision to businesses of all sizes. TV has always been a performance vehicle for brands, and Universal Ads puts the scaled reach and premium content that TV is known for into the hands of marketers everywhere.”

More specifically, Universal Ads will offer:

• Universal Ads Manager, a free self-service, easy to use TV ads buying tool.
• Direct access to premium, brand-safe video that reaches over 90% of U.S. households.
• Plans to offer free, automated AI creative production of TV commercials.
• A marketing API, which will enable developers to build reporting, measurement, creative generation and other applications.

Comcast executive James Grant has been tapped to lead the Universal Ads initiative. On the product front, former Snap executive James Borow, who helped platforms such as Snap, Reddit and Discord launch their ad businesses, has been hired to lead the Universal Ads product and engineering teams, in collaboration with the FreeWheel product and technology team.

For more information visit www.UniversalAds.com.

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Roku and Comcast’s FreeWheel ad tech platform have expanded their programmatic ad partnership to make Roku content, including The Roku Channel, available to FreeWheel demand-side advertising partners through the Roku Exchange.

For the first time under the partnership, a new, standard protocol and integration between Roku and FreeWheel will enable real-time bidding among programmatic platforms, providing advertisers with easier access to inventory on Roku’s app ecosystem and The Roku Channel.

This integration expands the existing partnership between Roku and FreeWheel, which has been focused on interoperability, data collaboration and signals. It will help reduce the fragmentation of the CTV marketplace and provide advertisers with better reach and performance.

“If we want to ensure that ad-supported streaming is a premium experience, the need for interoperability across the fragmented TV landscape is imperative,” said Adam Royle, director, ads business development and strategic partnerships at Roku. “This is why we are thrilled to give more advertisers access to our amazing content in a direct and transparent way with FreeWheel.”

“Having Roku inventory available alongside our other premium publishers is a major victory for not just FreeWheel clients but consumers as well,” added Mark McKee, general manager, FreeWheel. “Roku understands that providing viewers with the best experience and brands with a premium destination for their ads is only possible through a transparent TV landscape.”

NEW YORK—Comcast’s FreeWheel ad tech platform has launched Contextual Marketplace, a new offering that enables publishers to access precise, contextual classification insights within streaming inventory and develop targeted media buys.

As part of the launch, FreeWheel also said video analysis, performance and monetization firm KERV.ai has joined the Contextual Marketplace alongside Proximic by Comscore, a provider of audience and content targeting solutions for programmatic activation.

FreeWheel said the impetus for the Contextual Marketplace reflected the latest findings in the FreeWheel Viewer Experience Lab report, “Making the Ad Experience More Relevant.” That report, released Dec. 5., highlights the importance of contextual solutions for advertisers. It found that viewers are 2 times more engaged when ads are relevant.

“In the age of identity challenges, we believe contextual signals can be a new constant that unlocks additional value for publishers and new, premium opportunities for advertisers,” FreeWheel general manager Mark McKee said. “We’ve seen from the FreeWheel Viewer Experience Lab research that viewers are twice as engaged when ads are relevant, illustrating the power contextual has to drive increased engagement and higher ad recall that all advertisers desire.”

Highlights of the data in the “Making the Ad Experience More Relevant” report include:

• Viewers like ads twice as much, and are twice as engaged, when the ads are relevant.
• There is 2 times higher unaided recall for relevant ads.
• Relevant ads result in 5.2 times higher brand purchase intent.

To address those trends, FreeWheel said, the Contextual Marketplace enables publishers to easily automate and scale new monetization opportunities across their premium multiscreen inventory while giving advertisers a sophisticated way to reach the right audiences without identity signals in a more granular way than before. For example, an airline could deliver a commercial within holiday travel content while avoiding any news programming about travel delays.

With KERV’s advanced, scene-level metadata informing pod-level ad adjacency available via FreeWheel, along with Proximic by Comscore’s integration, and the IAB Tech Lab Content Taxonomy and publisher proprietary signaling, buyers and publishers have a direct and transparent connection to bring the benefits of contextual targeting to premium CTV inventory, FreeWheel said.

“Contextually targeted advertising has been around for decades in display and linear, but it is now an increasingly sought-after capability across streaming inventory,” said Bradford Quinn, senior vice president of partnerships, KERV. “Our integration with FreeWheel makes it easier than ever before for brands to deliver more personal and relevant ad experiences to help them drive outcomes such as increased engagement, purchase intent, and brand sentiment.”

Download the full findings from the latest Viewer Experience Lab report, “Making the Ad Experience More Relevant,” here.

NEW YORK—Adlook said it has begun working with Comcast’s FreeWheel ad tech platform to provide marketers access to top-tier connected TV and online video inventory.

Adlook, which bills itself as a brand growth platform and is owned by RTB House Group, said it will combine its Deep Learning automated bidding platform with FreeWheel’s supply of premium ad inventory to allow marketers to streamline campaign efficiency and reduce waste through precise targeting and optimization.

“Our partnership with FreeWheel marks a significant milestone in our mission to provide marketers with the most effective access to premium ad supply for Video and CTV,” Viktor Zawadzki, vice president of platform partnerships at Adlook, said. “This alliance not only enhances our ability to meet current market demands but also positions us to lead the industry with groundbreaking innovations in the context of planning, curation and optimization.”

The new collaboration will facilitate real-time optimization of targeting, creative assets and messaging, ensuring campaigns resonate with audiences and achieve desired outcomes using artificial intelligence, the companies said.

In addition, the expansive inventory to be made available through the partnership will eliminate inefficiencies and unnecessary costs associated with fragmented platforms in ways that optimize budget allocation and enhance overall campaign effectiveness, the companies said.

“We are thrilled to join forces with Adlook and showcase the combined power of our platforms,” Xavier Llerena, executive director, marketplace platform strategy at FreeWheel, said. “Our goal is to help brands and agencies tap into the incredible potential of total video advertising and this partnership expands our ability to deliver incremental reach for publishers, enhancing their capacity to connect with a broader audience in impactful ways.”

NEW YORK—Fox Corporation has announced an expanded deal with the ad tech platform FreeWheel that will expand Fox’s dynamic ad insertion capabilities and roll out new co-developed targeting technology. FreeWheel will also become Fox’s primary ad serving partner across the entire One Fox enterprise.

As part of the agreement FreeWheel’s technology will now power Fox’s ability to offer dynamic ad insertion in college football, allowing advertisers to purchase more premium live sports inventory from Fox while also incorporating a variety of features to provide an optimal viewing experience for audiences. 

Fox’s AdRise and FreeWheel have also partnered to build technology that can enrich an ad opportunity with contextual signals ranging from specific player or team information to the type of play or score happening in the live game. This further allows advertisers to purchase One Fox inventory in high attention moments where audiences are paying closer attention to the onscreen action, the companies reported. 

The move is part of Fox’s ongoing shift towards automated forms of ad transactions. FreeWheel will utilize capabilities across its portfolio, including Beeswax, to create a unified pool of premium video ad inventory across the entire One Fox portfolio that can be more directly available to marketers using FreeWheel’s technology.   

This long-term deal expands on FreeWheel’s previous relationship with Fox. In November 2022, Fox Corporation announced that it had tapped FreeWheel to power its One Fox video inventory across the company’s leading entertainment, sports, streaming and news portfolio.

“The TV ad marketplace is very complex and when we thought about who is doing a great job helping advertisers to cut through that clutter and drive ROI, FreeWheel clearly stood out,” said Darren Sherriff, senior vice president, advertising technology solutions, Fox. “We’re thrilled to be able to offer our advertising partners a powerful way to reach engaged audiences across the entire Fox portfolio, including our premium live sports events, while prioritizing and protecting the viewer experience.” 

“We are excited and proud to strengthen our relationship with Fox,” added Katy Loria, chief revenue officer, FreeWheel. “Our antidote to today’s complicated ad landscape is to provide technology and solutions to help further accelerate the momentum, growth and innovation behind premium video. As Fox’s primary ad serving partner, we are looking forward to working with them – and advertisers – to drive better business results.”

NEW YORK—The ad tech company Direct Digital Holdings announced that it has partnered with Beeswax, a FreeWheel-owned programmatic buying platform, to expand access to and to simplify the path for buying multicultural and  general market connected TV ad inventory. 

Direct Digital Holdings owns Colossus Media, LLC ("Colossus SSP"), Huddled Masses LLC ("Huddled Masses") and Orange142, LLC ("Orange142") and is the ninth largest Black-owned company on the NASDAQ U.S. stock exchange. 

Comcast owns FreeWheel. 

The agreement will see Beeswax integrate with Colossus SSP, a Direct Digital Holdings-owned supply-side platform that works with both multicultural and general market publishers, giving its users access to a more diverse range of CTV ad inventory. That means marketers and agencies who use FreeWheel's Beeswax to buy CTV ads can now reach a wider array of viewers.

More specifically, the partnership includes integrations on both the buy and sell sides of CTV ad buying. On the buy side, Direct Digital Holdings' two digital marketing companies, Orange142 and Huddled Masses, will work with Beeswax to serve CTV ad placements for marketers. On the sell side, as outlined above, Direct Digital Holdings will work with Beeswax on simplifying and expanding access to both multicultural and general market CTV ad inventory via the group's supply-side platform, Colossus SSP, the companies said. 

"The media and marketing landscape today is very nuanced – from fast-changing innovations to constant industry fragmentation to audiences that are becoming increasingly more diverse and harder to reach, across multiple screens," said Mark Walker, CEO, Direct Digital Holdings. "Taking that into account, we sought a partner who brought a real-time, holistic understanding of the ecosystem, as well as a track record of creating simple and much needed, innovative solutions that remove friction and address and resolve the needs of marketers today. FreeWheel, through its work with Beeswax, exemplifies and understands these key traits and we're excited to be working with them."

"We are humbled and thrilled to team up with a partner who not only understands this space, but also is minority owned," said Tess O'Brien, vice president, head of revenue, Beeswax. "We look forward to working with Direct Digital Holdings to drive innovation and growth in CTV, while helping to provide Beeswax's clients with an easier pathway to access multicultural content within the programmatic ecosystem."

NEW YORK—Roku and FreeWheel have announced that they will be working together to offer a suite of ad tech solutions for streaming TV that they said will help publishers and advertisers achieve better results. 

The strategic partnership brings together Roku, the nation’s largest streaming platform, with the Comcast-owned ad platform.   

“Our goal is to create a better TV experience for our partners and consumers,” said Youssef Ben-Youssef, senior director, technology partnerships, Roku. “This new collaboration brings together an industry-leading blend of data, tech and reporting to accelerate the shift from traditional TV to streaming TV.”

“There is a lot of synergy, energy and a shared sense of purpose behind our work with Roku,” added FreeWheel chief strategy officer Soo Jin Oh. “At FreeWheel, we believe that the industry is stronger and better when we collectively help solve today’s problems while creating future innovation. And so, it’s our hope that this new initiative will help pave the way for greater simplicity, optimization, and an even more improved experience for the TV advertising ecosystem.”

Key highlights of this collaboration include:

• Streamlined Integration: Roku has now integrated its demand application programming interface (dAPI) with FreeWheel’s TV platform. Roku’s demand API gives publishers direct, automatic, real-time access to more advertiser demand. This enhanced integration allows for streamlined ad operations workflows and better inventory quality control, both of which will improve publisher yield and revenue.
• Seamless Data Targeting: Publishers can now use Roku platform signals to enable advertisers to target audiences and measure campaign performance without relying on cookies. Additionally, FreeWheel and Roku will rely on data clean room technology to enable the activation of additional data sets providing better measurement and monetization to publishers and agencies.
• Inventory Quality: FreeWheel will leverage Roku’s Watermark solution to prevent sophisticated invalid traffic (IVT)/fraud in TV streaming in partnership with cybersecurity company HUMAN Security, through its robust MediaGuard solution that ensures ad inventory is reaching real humans. Roku’s Advertising Watermark is the industry’s first authentication solution built for TV streaming and gives marketers the confidence that their advertising spend is reaching real streamers. The technology helps marketers and publishers prevent device spoofing and app spoofing by validating ad measurement signals.

FreeWheel has announced that it is working with MediaScience on a new initiative, The Viewer Experience Lab, that will help media companies ensure a quality experience for viewers across the growing array of traditional and emerging advertising channels.

“Over the past few years, the ability for media companies to provide a uniform, quality experience across all of the diverse platforms into which they now serve advertising has grown exponentially harder,” said Mark McKee, general manager, FreeWheel. “Couple this with the reality that protecting their relationship with viewers has become paramount in an increasingly competitive ad marketplace, and you can see why we’re committed to helping our clients solve this complex challenge.”

In launching the Viewer Experience Lab, FreeWheel explained that dynamically serving advertising outside of the traditional linear ad environment, whether on AVOD, FAST or other streaming platforms, can result in such problems as latency, ad repetition and other unwanted consequences that hurt the viewing experience and reduce the effectiveness of ad campaigns. 

The new Viewer Experience Lab intends to address those issues in two ways: 

• Conduct quantifiable research to help advertising buyers and sellers understand the impact of different ad experiences on viewer experience and performance, including viewer response to new and evolving ad formats;
• Develop solutions and interoperable technologies fueled by these new insights that allow video content providers to implement best practices and provide seamless ad viewing experiences in a multi- platform, premium video ecosystem.

In launching the initiative, FreeWheel said that it has chosen MediaScience as an inaugural research partner to provide bespoke research for The Viewer Experience Lab. 

“We have completed extensive research into viewing experience, especially as it relates to the impact on advertising performance, but as the media world changes, our research needs to keep on evolving,” said Dr. Duane Varan, CEO, MediaScience. “We are thrilled that FreeWheel, with the support of its council of leading media companies, has chosen us to spearhead this important initiative.”

The Viewer Experience Lab has also released its first research, a new State of TV Advertising Viewer Experience Report, which is a comprehensive analysis of viewer experience today and an exploration of how our industry should define and approach this important subject.

As part of The Viewer Experience Lab, FreeWheel will use emerging insights and recommendations to enhance and build new products within its VX suite.

In addition, FreeWheel has lined up a number of companies to support the effort. Companies that have joined the FreeWheel Council for Video Excellence include A+E Networks, AMC, FOX, NBCUniversal, Warner Brothers Discovery and Paramount.

“Our viewer relationships are at the center of everything we do as a media company and the unique value we are able to deliver to our advertising clients. These relationships are rooted in a viewer-first strategy across a broad, ad-supported distribution ecosystem that spans linear networks, streaming services and emerging, connected TV/FAST platforms,” said Evan Adlman, executive vice president of commercial sales and revenue operations for AMC Networks. “We are focused on offering the best data targeting capabilities across all of our inventories, so having insights into the consumer experience that allow us to deliver the best products is invaluable in this dynamic and changing environment. We are thrilled to partner with FreeWheel in this new and novel effort.”

In addition to launching the State of TV Advertising Viewer Experience Report, FreeWheel and MediaScience have begun work on a custom analysis into viewing experience that will analyze consumers’ responses to viewer experience stimuli in a lab environment and provide best practices for the industry. Initial findings are expected to be released in January 2024.

For additional VX information and access to all VX research, visit freewheel.com/viewerexperiencelab.

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal has announced a notable expansion of its global One Platform technology and content offering with new partnerships that allow marketers for the first time to manage multi-market campaigns across addressable linear TV, CTV, and premium digital video ad inventory around the world in a single buy.

NBCU reported that partnerships with Comcast’s FreeWheel and international broadcasters will allow marketers access to ad inventory in the best global-to-local content from over 190 countries spanning Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. 

Launch partners for the expanded capabilities include ATRESMEDIA, Bell Media, Seven West Media, Sky Media, Talpa Network, TF1 Group, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) and Omnicom Media Group.

“Today there is huge friction when trying to execute from a single access point, a multi market, multi publisher premium CTV campaign," explained Johan Boserup, Global CEO, Investment, Omnicom Media Group, which is one of the launch partners. "Add the need for mass reach and scale, standardization of measurement and reporting, and that friction is currently a barrier to entry. One Platform marks a significant step forward in solving these challenges, and one that aligns with OMG’s commitment to delivering first-mover solutions that enable competitive advantage for our clients in a changing marketplace.”

The effort, NBCU said, is part of a larger initiative to improve the premium video ecosystem and build the foundation for greater industry advancement and collaboration at an international level, across data and identity, activation and automation, ad innovation, and measurement. 

Using FreeWheel’s technology, the improvements will provide marketers with the flexibility to transact via direct buys as well as programmatic buys across a diverse network of over 100 premium broadcasters, 1,000 digital publishers, and more than 50 demand-side platforms in one singular seamless transaction, NBCU reported.  

One Platform’s expanded global offering will be fully operational and ready to transact starting October 2023.

“Across the world, we see the power of premium content to engage audiences and drive impact for businesses,” explained Krishan Bhatia, president and chief business officer, NBCUniversal “And yet, the complexity of transacting across multiple markets at scale has so far kept marketers from accessing an increasingly global consumer base. By uniting Comcast’s position in premium content, global marketer relationships and technology expertise in NBCUniversal and FreeWheel, we’re scaling our platform and capabilities to deliver monetization at scale. Through cross-industry partnerships with leading programmers, we hope to build a more scalable TV advertising ecosystem for the benefit of all participants.”

“We’re on a journey to connect the premium video industry in a way that brings scale and simplicity to TV ad buying,” added James Rooke, president, Comcast Advertising. “Our partnership with NBCUniversal and the other international broadcasters is a perfect example of this. FreeWheel’s technology provides the key underpinning that enables multi-screen audiences to be transacted across geographies in a more simplified way, giving buyers and sellers the streamlined access to supply and demand they need to thrive in an increasingly global marketplace.”

LOS ANGELES—Estrella Media has announced that it will use the FreeWheel ad tech platform to expand its connected TV (CTV) advertising business. 

As part of the deal, FreeWheel will power Estrella’s revenue strategy for direct and programmatic monetization, including all CTV and OTT inventory, on EstrellaTV, Estrella News, Cine EstrellaTV, Estrella Games and the EstrellaTV App, the companies explained. 

Estrella drove over 1.33 billion streaming minutes of its original content in November with a third of it on CTV. 

The companies also noted the rapid growth of Hispanic audiences on streaming media. According to Nielsen research, Hispanic households over-index on CTV consumption compared to the average U.S. household and, according to Horowitz Research, seven in 10 Hispanic TV content viewers watch Spanish-language programming, up 11% from last year. 

Furthermore, the share of Hispanic TV content viewers who rely only on streaming has continued its upward trajectory: 38% of Hispanic only subscribe to streaming services and not to an MVPD.

"Our passionate audience is watching more CTV than ever before,” said René Santaella, chief digital and streaming officer at Estrella. "We need to make sure they get an excellent free ad-supported experience surrounding the content they love. FreeWheel is helping our ad sales operation achieve better ROI on CTV so everyone wins.”

"As audiences fragment across screens, programmers and advertisers need solutions that can help them find and scale this viewership across CTV," said Katy Loria, chief revenue officer at FreeWheel. "Estrella is seeing significant growth with the important US Hispanic market across its CTV audiences. We're thrilled to be a key partner to help the company drive and monetize this business.”

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—FreeWheel has teamed up with AMC Networks to introduce a new, fully self-service linear addressable solution. 

The launch is notable because it will help programmers monetize previously hard-to-access inventory for monetization purposes and streamline the management for multi-screen campaigns.

It also illustrates the growing importance of addressable advertising. 

According to research from Go Addressable, an industry initiative to advance the adoption and scale of addressable advertising, nearly 90% of advertisers agree that addressable is important to the future of TV advertising, and one in three addressable TV advertisers plan to increase their spending this year.

After successful addressable advertising trial campaigns in late 2020 and 2021, AMC is offering three national addressable slots in every hour of original programming on AMC and WE tv, with Amazon on board as the first advertising partner to take advantage of the opportunity to more effectively reach consumers with relevant advertising through this enhanced level of targeting.

“As we are demonstrating with our own inventory every day, addressable advertising has arrived, and now the next step is making it even more widely available and easier to buy,” said Evan Adlman, senior vice president of advanced advertising and digital partnerships for AMC Networks. “We are thrilled FreeWheel agreed to partner with us to expand access to this superior approach to television advertising, unlocking inventory that allows businesses to deliver more relevant and targeted messages to viewers across the country.”

FreeWheel is currently working with Canoe, an industry joint venture formed by Charter, Comcast and Cox, to introduce this new solution with AMC Networks. Moving forward, it will be available through other programmers later this year.

With this new offering, advertisers can now:

• Make real-time decisioning and optimization decisions across previously siloed supply to improve audience reach and monetization.
• Utilize a self-service solution to give programmers control of their inventory.
• Use an automated schedule ingest to identify addressable supply and capture relevant business rules (e.g., industry categories, SASO), thereby reducing the need to identify spots in multiple systems.

“We’re approaching an inflection point in addressable advertising. Interest and spend in this sector is growing, and until now, programmers have been constrained by a lack of scale,” said Mark McKee, general manager, FreeWheel. “At FreeWheel, our purpose is to better connect buyers and sellers with solutions that make TV advertising more efficient, and we believe this new solution will go a long way in achieving that goal for linear addressable and the industry.”

TYSONS, Va. & NEW YORK—Tegna and FreeWheel have signed a new multi-year partnership designed to enhance Tegna’s business operations, including automating the way Tegna’s buyers and sellers transact through the Premion CTV/OTT advertising platform.

The Premion platform is used by regional and local advertisers. With this new deal, Premion will continue to use FreeWheel’s Strata ad management platform to enable more than 1,100 agencies access to Premion’s video inventory from more than 125 publishers. With FreeWheel technology, Premion can facilitate automation and increase agency access to its OTT inventory.

The Strata platform will also process electronic orders through ePort, an automated platform for purchasing ads from local TV stations. Tegna connects with agencies through ePort, enabling sellers to receive electronic orders from buyers, send makegoods back to the buying platform and receive revisions electronically.

In addition, the companies have committed to continuing their joint initiatives, with a specific focus on working on new marketplace-based technology to enhance programmatic transactions and inventory acquisition.

“Agencies are relying on automation more than ever,” said Kurt Rao, chief technology officer, Tegna. “With FreeWheel, we are able to process orders more quickly and more efficiently for our agency partners across our marketing and advertising solutions, including Premion.”

“Through our partnership, Tegna and Premion are able to offer clients a completely automated and efficient experience from start to finish—including advanced capabilities like data-focused solutions. This is the future of our industry,” added Ian Banks, business development manager, FreeWheel.

For more information, visit www.tegna.com.  

NEW YORK—Local advertising spending was on the rise in September by agencies using FreeWheel’s Strata ePort, to the point that it broke the platform's single month record, according to the Comcast-owned company.

September marked the largest single-month scale of orders for ePort in its 13-year history, which FreeWheel says points to two key points: the importance of automation and the growth of local TV spend.

“Since early spring, proprietary FreeWheel data has shown record increases in viewership, including a 32% growth in ad views. However, advertising budgets were in decline as brands and agencies struggled with the pandemic,” said Michael McHugh, vice president Media eBusiness at FreeWheel. “Out latest data is a clear sign that these trends are reversing—and local advertising is combing back into balance. Consumers are increasingly turning to local programming to find out what’s happening in their communities, and the advertisers are following.”

The Strata ePort system electronically delivers local broadcast TV orders to stations and rep firms. In September, more than 500 different agencies sent orders for local TV advertising through the ePort system. With the upcoming election, political advertisers did make up a portion of the increased spend, but FreeWheel says that more than half of the activity was among non-political advertisers.

FreeWheel also believes that the increased adoption of automation among local agencies and broadcasters helped spur the September growth. The factors of working remotely and need for efficiency in advertising budgets may be contributing to that trend.

McHugh says FreeWheel expects to see similar growth for the rest of 2020.

IRVING, Texas & NEW YORK—Nexstar Digital, a subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group, has announced a multiyear agreement that will have it use FreeWheel’s Strata advertising platform.

FreeWheel, a Comcast company, has integrated access points for Nexstar Digital’s video and OTT inventory into its Strata platform. Agencies can utilize this to discover, customize and access the complete Nexstar Media Group digital advertising inventory. In addition, agencies can send orders electronically directly to Strata.

“Our agreement with FreeWheel is consistent with our priority to help our clients optimize high campaign volumes with precise targeting,” said Wil Danielson, head of revenue, Nexstar Digital. “By accessing Nexstar’s digital inventory and first-party data, marketers can seamlessly move budgets between linear and digital platforms, ensuring they reach the right consumers at the right moments.”

For more information, visit www.nexstardigtial.com. 

NEW YORK—The last three years have seen significant growth in viewership habits for Connected TV (CTV), to the point that it is beginning to be treated more like linear TV, according to a new whitepaper from FreeWheel, a Comcast company.

CTV is Comcast’s term for OTT. But regardless of what you call it, FreeWheel identifies that since 2017, CTV has become a destination for premium video viewing, having viewers invest a significant amount of time to content. In 2017, 36% of CTV visits lasted more than an hour; in the third quarter of 2019 that number rose to 61%.

CTV viewing is also following similar time patterns as linear TV viewing, with ad consumption (and by proxy, viewing) increasing gradually throughout the day and reaching a peak from 8-10 p.m. among all CTV device groups.

PLUS: Legacy Pay-TV Subscriptions Continue to Decline Amid OTT's Rise

“The viewing patterns we’re seeing on CTV are mirroring what we’ve historically seen in linear TV, suggesting viewers are turning to new ways to watch their favorite shows,” said David Dworin, vice president, Advisory Services, FreeWheel. “For advertisers, this represents an opportunity to tell their story to viewers they have not reached on other channels.”

Findings regarding advertising in the whitepaper show that there is a 97% average ad completion rate for CTVs. There is also a high authentication rate, with 68% of ad views generated by those that have logged in; that number is higher (90%) for smart TVs.

The full “Power of CTV: Audiences and Engagement” whitepaper is available online. 

NEW YORK—According to a new report from FreeWheel, advertisers continue to make their way to premium digital video. Premium ad views great at 17 percent year-over-year, with a strong push from full-episode and live stream monetization. Video starts were up 26 percent.

To find out more, read the full story on TVT’s sister publication B&C.