NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Demonstrating its commitment to unifying the fragmented television advertising market across all screens and devices, FreeWheel announced today its launch of a VOD Pilot that enables programmers to seamlessly manage VOD ads alongside IP/Digital ads and set top box (STB) TV ads within the same platform and take advantage of unified inventory within the FourFronts Premium Marketplace. The initiative is in collaboration with Canoe; several programmers including ABC and A+E Networks; and Comcast, with additional MVPDs to follow.
"Since we launched ABC Unified three years ago, our goal has been to make it easy for advertisers to engage with ABC audiences across screens," said Geri Wang, President of ABC Sales. "VOD viewers are a highly valuable audience and core part of that initiative, and our ability to include VOD inventory as part of ABC Unified via Freewheel’s solution is a great next step."
The pilot is a critical step towards true unification of digital, VOD, and Linear. In addition to managing their own direct sold unified campaigns on digital and Cable VOD ad impressions, pilot participants will have the ability to grant sales rights on unified digital and Cable VOD ad impressions through the FourFronts Premium Marketplace.
“As television viewing fragments, it is increasingly important for publishers to be able to deliver ads across multiple screens and devices using a single strategy and platform,” said Jon Heller, co-founder and co-CEO, FreeWheel. “The VOD pilot fully unifies VOD ad inventory with digital, including OTT, avails into a single fully dynamic audience while also bringing inventory unification within the FourFronts Premium Marketplace.”
The FourFronts Premium Marketplace provides publishers with opportunities to generate more revenue by balancing unified video inventory supply with demand in a safe environment. Programmers participating in the VOD Pilot have the option of utilizing the FourFronts Private Marketplace to monetize VOD inventory that is made available by the VOD Pilot.
“This partnership is a great step forward for our Programmers and MSOs as VOD becomes an increasingly significant component of a marketer’s media mix,” added Joel Hassell, CEO, Canoe. “Canoe is committed to making it easier to include VOD in media plans looking to get premium video content at scale.”
Heller maintains that piloting this on both FreeWheel’s platform and its FourFronts Premium Marketplace brings unified ad operations to life by enabling the management of digital ads and VOD ads on a single platform, and within a single marketplace. Unifying to rebuild scale enables holistic monetization operations at the ad impression level across all screens.
About FreeWheel
FreeWheel, an independent subsidiary of Comcast, helps the largest players in the television industry generate revenue from their ad-supported content through a robust technology platform for ad management and monetization, a private marketplace for premium television inventory, and advisory services. FreeWheel's solutions are used by companies like AOL, Inc., BSkyB, DIRECTV, Discovery, ESPN, NBCUniversal, Turner Broadcasting System, and Viacom, Inc. to profitably monetize their professional content on desktop, mobile, OTT, and traditional STB devices.
