CMCSA Comcast Corporation

By Sahil Patel 

Comcast Corp.-owned NBCUniversal says it is accelerating efforts to create a single ad technology and sales infrastructure for marketers to run media plans across its TV and digital properties, and across local, national and global markets.

The efforts center on One Platform, which will combine existing and new tools for advertisers to plan, schedule, optimize and measure video ad campaigns. Previously, NBCUniversal had separate tools for traditional linear TV and digital advertising, which forced it and its advertisers to combine orders manually.

For decades, TV networks relied on broad demographics such as age and gender to sell ads. Now they are trying to update how they sell ads to better compete with digital media, which allows marketers to use data to find specific audiences such as people in the market for a new car.

TV powers including AT&T Inc.-owned Xandr and ViacomCBS Inc. are racing to deliver capabilities to sell audience-based video advertising across TV and digital viewing, which also will be an option on One Platform, said NBCUniversal, which already sells some TV and digital ads in an audience-based fashion.

"The idea of demo-based buying started in 1962," said Mark Marshall, president of advertising sales and client partnerships for NBCUniversal. "To say that we are still transacting TV in the same way today seems crazy."

A large part of the TV advertising industry remains locked into buying based on delivered impressions against age and sex demographics, said Catherine Warburton, chief investment officer at MDC Partners Inc.-owned ad agency Assembly. "That is how agencies are compensated for TV buying, " she said.

But advertisers have been clamoring for data-driven ad targeting from TV companies, especially as viewers gravitate toward digital platforms where the advertising technology should make it easier to target precise audiences, Ms. Warburton said.

"It is an advantage of this new world of streaming videos on TVs: Finally our TV ads can be delivered to the right person rather than purchasing a broad age demo," Ms. Warburton said.

NBCUniversal began merging its TV and digital tools two years ago with CFlight, a measurement framework it developed to better analyze video ad performance across TV and other video distribution platforms.

A version of One Platform will be ready by this year's TV upfronts, when TV programmers take orders for the bulk of their ad inventory for the approaching TV season. It will include the ability for advertisers to create a single plan across TV and digital, target ads based on different audiences and optimize campaigns for reach and frequency across different programs and platforms.

As part of One Platform, NBCUniversal will expand the rollout of a cross-platform scheduling product it developed with Comcast's FreeWheel, said Krishan Bhatia, executive vice president of business operations and strategy for NBCUniversal.

A single measurement dashboard will be available for the 2020 broadcast season.

NBCUniversal expects it will take at least three years to fully build One Platform. More than 300 ad sales engineering and platform employees are working on the technology, according to people familiar with the matter.

Ad inventory accessible through One Platform will include NBCUniversal's broadcast and cable networks, its websites and mobile apps, its coming streaming service Peacock and a news streaming service NBC News is developing with European pay-TV giant Sky, which Comcast acquired last year.

Ad inventory for NBCUniversal programming on third-party platforms such as Hulu and YouTube will also be available through One Platform.

Ad deals with Sky around the world, local advertising through Comcast's own ad business and ad space next to syndicated content are also planned.

Over time, every NBCUniversal video ad deal -- from automated buys to purchases hammered out by negotiators on each side of the table -- will flow through One Platform, said Mr. Bhatia.

"It is meant to be all-encompassing. It is just a matter of which components get built first," he said.

NBCUniversal will announce a new global ad sales infrastructure in a few weeks as part of the One Platform rollout, the company said.

Write to Sahil Patel at Sahil.Patel@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 07, 2020 19:14 ET (00:14 GMT)

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