Tremor International said it agreed to acquire Amobee for $239 million, continuing the dealmaking and consolidation in the ad tech business.

Tremor International provides an end-to-end advertising technology that enables advertisers to optimize campaigns and media companies to maximize monetization.

Amobee offers an advertising platform that optimizes outcomes for advertisers and media companies across linear TV, connected TV and digital media.

The acquisition boosts Tremor International's presence in the U.S. and its linear capabilities.

“The acquisition of Amobee is expected to build upon Tremor International’s growth strategy and proven track record of successfully integrating companies that enhance and expand the capabilities and scale of its data-driven end-to-end technology and business platform, focused on CTV and video,” said Tremor International CEO Ofer Druker.

“Amobee would add several capabilities including campaign execution across linear and digital channels within a single platform,” Druker added. “Additionally, the transaction would fulfill our strategy to add significant global scale and self-service growth to our demand side platform, increase our US and international customer reach and data footprint, and drive more advertiser spend to our SSP, Unruly.”

Tremor last month made a $25 million investment in VIDAA, Hisense’s CTV operating system.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to regulatory approval.

Tremor International said it has $360 million in cash on hand and that it expects to obtain a $50 million revolving credit facility before the transaction closes. ■

Netflix’s choice of Microsoft to help it get into the advertising business came as a bit of a surprise, but Wall Street analysts and ad-tech industry insiders had mostly positive reactions to the choice.

Microsoft isn’t in the TV industry in a big way now, and that might be one of the reasons why it was attractive to Netflix: no point in getting in bed with a competitor. And Microsoft’s decision to take advanced advertising company Xandr off AT&T’s hands suddenly looks like a pretty good deal.

Of course the devil is in the details and it remains to be seen just how the Netflix-Microsoft relationship plays out. It could be short term until Netflix buys or builds its own capabilities. Or the two could be in it for the long term. Could there be a marriage in the future? Some observers raised the possibility of Microsoft acquiring Netflix down the line.

Matthew Swanson, analyst at RBC Capital Markets, noted that surprise was the initial feedback he was getting from investors and ad industry insiders.

“While Microsoft has a history in advertising with Bing and LinkedIn, they do not have an established presence within CTV and additionally are missing an established salesforce and ad-server for the market,” Swanson noted.

“The reasons this announcement was a surprise may be the same reasons that Microsoft was selected, notably compared to Google, Amazon or NBCUniversal, Microsoft does not have conflicting inventory that competes directly with Netflix. Additionally, the recent acquisition of Xandr has strengthened the company's SSP positioning with Microsoft emphasizing the privacy focus of the acquisition, which appears to also appeal to Netflix from the press release," Swanson said.

Swanson added that the addition of premium inventory to the market from Netflix “should be a positive for the broader CTV market, increasing competition and accentuating the value added services of these providers as demand shifts from direct sales towards reserved and open auctions as the supply/demand curves find a new equilibrium.”

Daniel Salmon, BMO Capital Markets also expected Xandr to “play a key role” as Microsoft works to sell Netflix AVOD inventory. He said Netflix could initially take advantage of Xandr’s Monetize platform.

Netflix will be reporting its second-quarter earnings next week, following up on the bomb it dropped on Wall Street last quarter when it disclosed a drop in subscribers. Netflix’s stock plunged, taking other media companies in the streaming business with it. The subscription shock also prompted Netflix’s about-face on advertising.

Salmon said he'd like to see Netflix answer some questions about advertising as part of its earning report. Among them: What is your short and long-term strategy for the ad-supported subscription plan? What is the timeline for introducing the ad experience? What does the partnership with Microsoft entail? Where do you plan to launch the ad-support first? Is it important for Netflix to launch in the U.S. before the 2023 Newfronts/Upfronts? 

Some execs in the ad-supported streaming business continue to see plans for Netflix and Disney Plus to air commercials as a boon for the industry. They saw the selection of Microsoft as a way for those benefits to be realized quickly.

"Netflix's entry into the advertising game is a huge win for consumers, advertisers, and its own opportunity for growth. Selecting Microsoft as its partner is a smart strategic decision that provides Netflix with the proven advertising technology and a turnkey advertising solution that already has substantial scale without building a dependency on a platform owned by a streaming competitor,” said Ashwin Navin, CEO and co-founder of Samba TV.

“At its roots Netflix is a technology company -- so it's no surprise that they lead with that experience in solving for the future,” said Scott Schiller, global chief commercial officer at EMX. “For Microsoft, it's the next big move in continuing to unite its gaming, and Xandr technology divisions with cloud-based advertising solutions. And who knows what's next for the two companies?”

Nicole Scaglione, VP, OTT and CTV Business at PubMatic, said the deal highlighted the opportunity in AVOD.

“For Netflix to fully realize their monetization potential, they will need to engage with a lot of technology and buying partners across the ecosystem. Microsoft has relationships and scale across channels and platforms, along with experienced sales teams and great tech infrastructure that can help Netflix grow their ad business quickly. Microsoft and Xandr want what is best for brands, publishers and consumers and this aligns with PubMatic’s vision for ecosystem harmony," Scaglione said.

“Netflix has to focus on entering the ad business on strong footing,” said Matt Spiegel, executive VP, media & entertainment vertical, at TransUnion. “It is really important to show marketers right away that it is easy to work with them. That reality makes their ad-tech and ad sales partner a critical decision. While choosing Microsoft is at first look a surprising choice, it actually makes a lot of sense. By choosing Microsoft and Xandr it won’t have concerns of sharing business strategy with a partner that is also a competitor. Secondly, Netflix has a large global following and Microsoft has done a good job of serving as an advertising partner for media companies with significant inventory outside the U.S.”

James G. Brooks, CEO and founder of GlassView, said Netflix still faces challenges as it aims to incorporate ads into its product.

“Like its contemporaries, Netflix will have to balance keeping viewers tuned in while monetizing the platform,” Brooks said. “The best way to accomplish this is through rigorous attention to frequency management as well as serving contextually and demographically relevant ads. Netflix knows its audience -- after all, they did create one of the most sophisticated recommendation platforms based on audience interest -- so this should be a real opportunity for them rather than a challenge. I would also imagine that advertisers will be lining up to serve ads on Netflix, so there could be a dent in streaming revenues to competitors.” ■

Snap shares plunged 43.1% on Tuesday after the company voiced concern that economic issues could slow the growth of its ad revenues and earnings.

Other companies in the ad tech sector also saw their stocks fall on the news.

Late Monday, Snapchat filed an 8K with the Securities and Exchange Commission announcing that the economic environment has deteriorated faster than expected since the company discussed its expectations for the second quarter and issued guidance to Wall Street that revenues would be up 20% to 25%. 

“Even though our revenue continues to grow year-over-year in the second quarter, it's likely that revenue and EBITDA will come in below the low end of our guidance range," the company said. 

“It’s certainly something that we're working through along with many other businesses that are impacted, of course, by the supply chain issues, inflation, concerns about interest rates, the war in Ukraine,” it said.

Snap shares dropped by $9.69 a share to close at $12.79.

In addition to Snap, other online advertising companies saw their stocks tumble.

“When thinking about the impact of the open-internet, since the announcement, we've had the opportunity to talk with 10 public and private ad-tech vendors and the general consensus was that the announcement came as a surprise. We have not heard any comments that align around deteriorating conditions but would note that Snap was the first name to report in the space on 4/21, which may have led to the differing perspective,” said analyst Matthew Swanson of RBC Capital Markets.

“More broadly, public and private vendors alike agreed that the macro remains challenging, but that they are not seeing a worsening environment. This was consistent for both brand and performance-based advertisers that we talked with as well as companies with varying degrees of geographic, format and vertical exposure,” Swanson said.

In the media sector, Steven Cahall of Wells Fargo identified several companies that could be impacted by an ad slowdown caused by macroeconomic factors. 

Comparing the current situation to the 2020 ad recession, Cahall said, "If this time is similar it likely means that within our coverage CTV (e.g. Roku, Vizio)  and AVOD (e.g. Paramount’s Pluto and Fox’s Tubi) will be hardest hit initially. The length and depth of the recessionary slowdown will determine whether pain makes its way to the longer cycle areas of the ad market.”

Roku was down 13.74% to $79.16, Vizio was down 8.8% to $7.74. Paramount was up 0.11% to $8.78 and Fox was down 5.12% to $30. Warner Bros. Discovery was down 7.82% to $16.86, Disney was down 4.01% to $101.59 and Comcast was up 0.44% to $43.07.

Among ad tech stocks, The Trade Desk was down 18.51% to $42.78, Magnite was down 13.15% to $9.25, and Pubmatic was down 15.85% to $18.37.

Facebook stock was down 7.62% to $181.28. Google was down 4.95% to $110.36 and Twitter was down 5.52% to $35.76.  ■

Netflix’s declaration that after years of remaining steadfastly ad free it will look to create a lower-priced ad supported tier, is an affirmation for the advertising technology sector, according to analyst Matthew Swanson of RBC Capital Markets.

“One of the largest and most successful subscription streaming services seeing the need and benefit of advertising is major vindication for the long-term CTV advertising market,” Swanson said in a note Tuesday. “We view this as a modest positive for the ad-tech companies in our coverage, DoubleVerify, Magnite, PubMatic, Tremr and The Trade Desk.”

Analyst Daniel Salmon of BMO Capital Market similarly saw opportunity in the Netflix announcement. His thoughts one which ad tech companies would benefit are below.

Netflix would be following in the footsteps of Disney, which recently said it will launch and ad-supported version of Disney Plus. HBO Max, Paramount Plus and Discovery Plus all have lower priced ad-supported tiers.

Swanson noted that during the company’s earnings call with analysts, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings indicated that rather than build a big ad tech stack, it would hire other companies to do the heavy lifting. “We can be a straight publisher and have other people do all of the fancy ad matching and integrate all the data about people,” Hastings said.

It remains unclear how big an opportunity Netflix’s entry into the ad market would create for the ad tech sector, Swanson said. “Even Netflix doesn't know how many of its 221.6 million subscribers would make the switch or how many new customers it could add to the platform,” he noted.

But with Netflix looking to outsource its ad tech, the industry can be less concerned about media companies moving those capabilities in-house, he noted.

At the same time, “if one of the largest and most successful subscription streaming services in the world is seeing the need and benefit of advertising, this is major vindication for the long-term health of the CTV advertising market and supports our feeling that as the number of streaming services expands, there is going to be a natural evolution toward AVOD (ad-supported video on demand) or ad-supported models as consumers reach thresholds on subscription spending,” Swanson added.

“Overall, we view this as a modest positive for the ad-tech names in our coverage,  with the potential for clearer beneficiaries to emerge as we get more details,” he said.

Salmon of BMO had his own thoughts on the situation.

“Netflix is unlikely to reinvent the wheel, and investors should expect an initial focus on branding versus direct response, with engagement into established private marketplace programmatic pipes,” Salmon said in a report.

Salmon said that if Netflix has a branding focus, that makes The Trade Desk odds on favorite to be first demand partner. Its; legacy relationship with Roku makes it a likely partner candidate too, he added.

“Magnite is viewed as leading CTV SSP and would have strong pitch for that role,” he added. While “Innovid benefits from more ad serving volume.”

Salmon noted that “while co-CEO Hastings implied wholly outsourcing targeting/measurement to others, over the long term, we'd expect a more typical balance of third party partners, combined with investment in proprietary ad tech (in part to ensure gold standard privacy compliance) and to best leverage Netflix’s own first party customer data and strong engineering culture."■

Integral Ad Science said it acquired CTV advertising platform Publica for $220 million in cash and stock.

The deal will help Integral Ad Science better help publishers monetize video programming across CTV devices, the company said. 

The deal comes at a time when companies are chasing the burgeoning stream of ad dollars headed to CTV. It also comes as the ad tech world is undergoing a consolidation phase, with many players either being acquired or going public. 

Integral Ad Science went public on June 30, joining DoubleVerify, Pubmatic and Viant among the companies that have had initial public offerings recently. 

"CTV viewership and programmatic advertising have skyrocketed, and by acquiring Publica we're accelerating our growth to offer publishers the tools to capitalize on this opportunity," said IAS CEO Lisa Utzschneider. "Advanced data and technology will fuel the future of addressable CTV advertising. Now video publishers can increase their revenue, and in the future we will help advertisers with a trusted way to measure the results of their growing CTV budgets. In fact, Publica reports that publishers using its platform have seen on average a 30% lift in yield for their CTV inventory. I welcome Ben and the Publica team as we innovate together to increase CTV advertising quality and impact." 

Publica delivers over 3 billion ads on CTV every month. By acquiring Publica, IAS adds a team with decades of experience building video and CTV advertising products, while delivering results for some of the world's largest publishers. 

Publica co-founder and CEO, Ben Antier, now will report directly to IAS CEO Lisa Utzschneider. The Publica brand will become part of IAS's product portfolio.

"Audiences have already switched to watching CTV and more ad-supported content than ever; by joining IAS, we're offering a trusted platform for brands and publishers to drive more ad dollars towards CTV," said Ben Antier, co-founder & CEO of Publica. "We have a joint vision to transform CTV advertising with a data-driven approach that benefits the entire industry, while delivering an exceptional user experience."

Magnite, following the $1.14 billion acquisition of SpotX, reorganized its management, putting several SpotX executives into key positions.

SpotX’s CTO, J. Allen Dove will become CTO of Magnite and its chief operating officer Sean Buckley will be chief revenue officer for CTV. The changes are effective July 1.

Magnite was formed with the 2020 merger of Rubicon Project and Telaria.

Dove replaces Magnite CTO Tom Kershaw, who is stepping down to pursue a new opportunity outside of ad tech, Magnite said. 

Joe Prusz, who was CRO for Magnite, becomes chief revenue officer for Magnite’s online video and display business, called DV+.

Adam Soroca, head of Magnite’s global buyer team, was named chief product officer, a new position. 

SpotX’s former CEO Mike Shehan will be a consultant to Magnite through the end of the year.

“Following Magnite’s acquisition of SpotX, we’re working hard to bring our teams together in a way that enhances our ability to serve clients and innovate. This process will start at the executive level, and we’re fortunate to have assembled such a deep bench of talent,” said Magnite CEO Michael Barrett. “I have never felt better about our people, or our prospects as a business across all formats, including CTV, which represents a significant and increasing portion of our revenue.”

Apollo Global Management agreed to buy Verizon’s media business, including its ad-tech assets, for $5 billion.

Verizon Media will be known as Yahoo when the transaction closes and Verizon will retain a 10% stake in the company, which will be run by current CEO Guru Gowrappan.

Apollo Global, which manages billions in assets, is already in the media business having bought Cox Media Group.

Verizon built its  media business by acquiring  AOL for $4.4 billion and Yahoo for $4.5 billion and combining them to form the digital media company Oath. It launched the video service Go90, which failed, and took a $4.6 billion impairment charge in 2018.

Verizon Media used the data from its digital media platforms to power ad tech assets like Adap.TV and Brightroll.

Ad tech companies have been proving their value lately, either through public offerings like Viant and DoubleVerify or by being acquired, like SpotX. Private equity has also been pouring money into the ad tech space.

Last week Verizon Media announced a deal to work to exclusively use Vizio’s data to target ad campaigns in the booming connected TV market. Verizon provides a supply-side platform for media companies looking to monetize their CTV assets.

“We are thrilled to help unlock the tremendous potential of Yahoo and its unparalleled collection of brands,” said Reed Rayman, Private Equity Partner at Apollo. “We have enormous respect and admiration for the great work and progress that the entire organization has made over the last several years, and we look forward to working with Guru, his talented team, and our partners at Verizon to accelerate Yahoo’s growth in its next chapter.”

Also Read: Verizon, Innovid, BrightLine Join for Interactive CTV Ads

Verizon Media reported strong, diversified year-over-year revenue growth the past two quarters, driven by innovative ad offerings, consumer ecommerce, subscriptions, betting and strategic partnerships, Verizon said.

“We are excited to be joining forces with Apollo,” said Gowrappan. “The past two quarters of double-digit growth have demonstrated our ability to transform our media ecosystem. With Apollo’s sector expertise and strategic insight, Yahoo will be well positioned to capitalize on market opportunities, media and transaction experience and continue to grow our full stack digital advertising platform. This transition will help to accelerate our growth for the long- term success of the company.”

Verizon Media will be known as Yahoo when the transaction closes and Verizon will retain a 10% stake in the company, which will be run by current CEO Guru Gowrappan.

Apollo Global, which manages billions in assets, is already in the media business having bought Cox Media Group.

Verizon built its media business by acquiring companies like AOL and Yahoo and using their data to power ad tech assets like Adap.TV and Brightroll.

Ad tech companies have been proving their value lately, either through public offerings like Viant and DoubleVerify or by being acquired, like SpotX. Private equity has also been pouring money into the ad tech space.

Last week Verizon Media announced a deal to work to exclusively use Vizio’s data to target ad campaigns in the booming connected TV market. Verizon provides a supply-side platform for media companies looking to monetize their CTV assets.

“We are thrilled to help unlock the tremendous potential of Yahoo and its unparalleled collection of brands,” said Reed Rayman, Private Equity Partner at Apollo. “We have enormous respect and admiration for the great work and progress that the entire organization has made over the last several years, and we look forward to working with Guru, his talented team, and our partners at Verizon to accelerate Yahoo’s growth in its next chapter.”

Also Read: Verizon, Innovid, BrightLine Join for Interactive CTV Ads

Verizon Media reported strong, diversified year-over-year revenue growth the past two quarters, driven by innovative ad offerings, consumer ecommerce, subscriptions, betting and strategic partnerships, Verizon said.

“We are excited to be joining forces with Apollo,” said Gowrappan. “The past two quarters of double-digit growth have demonstrated our ability to transform our media ecosystem. With Apollo’s sector expertise and strategic insight, Yahoo will be well positioned to capitalize on market opportunities, media and transaction experience and continue to grow our full stack digital advertising platform. This transition will help to accelerate our growth for the long- term success of the company.”

Ad tech company Extreme Reach said it agreed to acquire Adstream, which provides digital asset management, creative logistics and analytics.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

As the digital media business has grown, smaller companies and startups are being rolled up to provide advertisers with greater scale and one-stop shopping.

Upon closing of the deal, 400 Adstream employees will join Extreme Reach.

Three Adstream executives will get executive roles with the combined business, with Daniel Mark, CEO of Adstream becoming chief strategy officer. Adstream’s Katie Nykanen will be chief product officer and Tim Emly, will be senior VP finance

“In joining Extreme Reach, we provide brands worldwide with a competitive edge, enabling them to move quickly and flawlessly, with more insights at their fingertips,” said Mark. “Our companies share a common philosophy and are aligned at a strategic level. In joining Extreme Reach, we answer the call from our global clients with the integration of video ad serving and talent & rights management to all we do today. Together we are excited for this defining moment, not only for our clients around the world but also for our teams as well.”

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021, upon approval from Australia's Foreign Investment Advisory Board.

Advertising technology company GumGum said it received a $75 million investment from Goldman Sachs Growth.

The move is the ad tech world, where companies are either consolidating or getting funds from investors. Last week, Iris.TV raised $18 million in a financing round led by Intel Capital.

GumGum targets over-the-top and connected TV ads using contextual clues. Its most recent product is an In-Video overlay that puts a message from a sponsor in the lower third of the screen that is related to the content.

“GumGum’s DNA is rooted in contextual and the company has been iterating on contextual solutions for over a decade,” said Allison Berardo of Goldman Sachs Growth. “Cookies are being phased out and consumer privacy regulations are becoming more stringent. We believe GumGum is well positioned to benefit from this market dynamic as its contextual technology offers an alternative for brands to deliver relevant and targeted advertising.”

As part of the investment, Holger Staude of Goldman Sachs Growth will join GumGum’s board of directors.

Goldman Sachs Growth joins GumGum’s existing investors Upfront Ventures, NewView Capital, and Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital.

GumGum was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

FreeWheel, cementing its place as the key advanced advertising technology provider to TV networks, emerged as the winner as ViacomCBS consolidated its business,  sources familiar with the situation said.

Before Viacom and CBS merged late last year, Viacom worked with FreeWheel, a division of Comcast, while CBS worked with Google. 

Also Read: FreeWheel, Google Wrestle Over ViacomCBS Ad Tech

While both companies were happy with their respective vendors, media companies are moving toward managing their inventory on a single platform in order to simplify life for their sales reps and provide clients with large-scale cross-platform campaigns.

The Viacom and CBS ad sales teams were combined earlier this year and ViacomCBS has been evaluating its vendors since the merger.

Also Read: AMC Networks Move Ad Tech to FreeWheel

The move is also likely to save ViacomCBS money at a time when it is looking to show Wall Street post-merger cost synergies.

A ViacomCBS spokesman declined to comment. Spokespeople for FreeWheel and Google could not be reached.

Earlier this month. AMC Networks moved its ad tech business to FreeWheel from Google. 

For the majority of networks, FreeWheel provides the technology, data enablement and convergent marketplaces needed to let buyers and sellers transact across screens, across data types and across sales channels.

Also Read: FreeWheel Helps Automate NBCU Linear Ad Scheduling

Google has made many attempts to crack different aspects of the TV ad market. At this point its main TV ad tech company is a big one in The Walt Disney Co. Google also worked with The CW, a joint venture between ViacomCBS and AT&T. It was unclear whether The CW business would be moving to FreeWheel as well.

Viacom was an advanced advertising pioneer with one of the earlier advanced targeting products in Vantage. Viacom was a founding partner in Open AP, which aims to standardize target audience definitions and make buying them across networks easier. After the Viacom-CBS merger, the CBS television network also joined Open AP.

In August, ViacomCBS consolidated its digital video into a single platform it dubbed EyeQ. The new platform was designed to make it easier for advertisers and media buyers to access CBS Interactive, Viacom Video and Pluto TV. ViacomCBS EyeQ lets advertisers buy video in different ways using different technologies.

With The Walt Disney Co. deciding to use Google’s technology platform in November 2018, it was a big deal.

At the time, the companies said the agreement would deliver a premium offering to market that leverages the value of Disney’s brands and content and combines them with Google’s technology, reach, expertise and understanding of digital offices. 

Disney’s digital ad business was previously handled by FreeWheel.

Comcast acquired FreeWheel in 2014 for $320 million. It was already the platform that many TV networks used to serve ads as more of their content went online.

FreeWheel this month agreed to acquire Beeswax, which will give it the ability to offer programmatic advertising capabilities using customizable bidding technology.

Comcast’s FreeWheel ad tech company agreed to acquire Beeswax, which offers programmatic advertising capabilities through a customizable bidding stack.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Also Read: AMC Networks Moves Ad Tech to FreeWheel

By incorporating Beeswax's bidder-as-a-service technology, FreeWheel said it will be better able to serve the growing programmatic market by helping its publisher clients sell in more flexible and customizable ways.

Also Read: Mark McKee Named Chief Revenue Officer at FreeWheel

“Together, FreeWheel and Beeswax can further enhance how television operates. As the ecosystem becomes increasingly complex, sellers and buyers of media want similar capabilities: great automation, simplicity, and the ability to manage data-driven campaigns across hundreds of endpoints,” said FreeWheel general manager Dave Clark. “By incorporating Beeswax’s technology into FreeWheel’s offering, we can deliver even more value to clients of both companies, helping them better navigate and succeed in this new landscape.”

Also Read: FreeWheel Helps Automate NBCU Linear Ad Scheduling

Beeswax’s bidding technology will allow for FreeWheel users to access broader pools of inventory to fulfill complex campaign requirements. At the same time  Beeswax's customers will benefit from the scale and expertise of FreeWheel within the video and CTV advertising sectors, and gaining the support, product investment, and technology Freewheel provides.

“We’re looking forward to integrating our BaaS platform into FreeWheel’s global infrastructure to accelerate our vision of giving our customers greater flexibility, transparency, and control over their media buying,” said Beeswax CEO Ari Paparo.  “Now, together with Freewheel, we can deliver scale across all programmatic channels, including advanced TV advertising.” 

Paparo told Broadcasting & Cable that he was “looking forward to being a member of the senior team” at FreeWheel, but couldn’t provide details of his role until the acquisition cleared regulatory scrutiny.

Clark praised the Beeswax engineering and product teams, indicating they're likely to  join FreeWheel as well.

FreeWheel and Beeswax were able to negotiate the agreement amid a pandemic because the two companies already knew each other and have worked together. Several FreeWheel customers already use Beeswax’s software. Plus, Beeswax’s New York offices are in space FreeWheel moved out of and subletted to Beaswax. 

Pararo said Beeswax allows sophisticated customers to really control exactly how theyre using programmatic tools 

In addition to providing flexibility, the Beeswax technology allows publishers to package their own inventory with inventory from other publishers in order to fulfill the requirements of an advertiser’s campaign,” Paparo said. 

That capability is important as TV transforms into a platform where marketers can execute campaigns across all different sources of content and inventory in a unified way, Clark said.  It’s possible in some forms of digital media, but it is much harder to find in the premium video market.

“We are seeing a lot of the players on the publisher side who have been formidable competitors working together, trading between each other, to solve some of the operational complexity that has long existed in TV,” Clark said.

The capabilities enabled by Beeswax’s technology “fit neatly with FreeWheel’s core philosophy, which has always been to leave control in the hads of our clients,” Cark said.  “No matter what role you play in the ecosystem, I think you’re going to look at this deal as a good thing because it’s going to help advance the ball for everyone.”

In a rare shift in the ad tech world, AMC Networks is moving its back-office commercial serving business to Comcast’s FreeWheel, sources said.

AMC Networks had been working with Google.

A spokesperson for AMC had no comment, nor did a FreeWheel representative.

For the majority of networks, FreeWheel provides the technology, data enablement and convergent marketplaces needed to let buyers and sellers transact across screens, across data types and across sales channels.

Related: AMC Networks to Rebrand SVOD Service UMC as ALLBLK

Google continues to work with The Walt Disney Co. 

Another major Google customer is expected to decide soon whether to consolidate its business at Google or Freewheel. When Viacom and CBS merged last year to form ViacomCBS, Viacom worked with FreeWheel and CBS worked with Google. Google also works with The CW, a joint venture of ViacomCBS and AT&T.

AMC Networks' ad sales business has been going through changes. 

In 2019, AMC Networks brought in Kim Kelleher as president of advertising sales and partnerships, and she brought in Evan Adlman as senior VP, advanced advertising and digital partnerships.

Since then, AMC Networks has embarked on a strategy of putting its content on a variety of digital and streaming platforms, while retaining the ability to sell most of the commercials appearing in its content.

On Wednesday, it set up AMCN Digital to sell its streaming inventory.

AMC Networks has streaming channels on a number of platforms, including Samsung TV Plus, Pluto TV, IMDb TV and Sling.

The company also makes its inventor available on a number of automated supply side platforms including Open AP and Xandr, and is a part of the On Addressability initiative led by large cable operators including Comcast.

In a strong market for ad tech companies, PubMatic priced its initial public offering at $20 a share and said trading will begin on the Nasdaq Global Market on Wednesday.

PubMatic is offering 2.655 million shares, raising $53 million. At the same time, certain stockholders are offering 3.256 million shares, valuing the company at $118 million.

Related: PubMatic Sees ROI Benefit with MediaMath's Source

PubMatic says its platform lets independent app developers and publishers control and maximize their digital advertising business and enables advertisers to engage their targets audiences in premium environments across ad formats.

Jefferies LLC and RBC Capital Markets, LLC are acting as joint book-running managers for the proposed offering. JMP Securities LLC, KeyBank Capital Markets, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., and Raymond James & Associates, Inc. are acting as co-managers for the proposed offering.

Mediaocean agreed to acquire 4C Insights in a deal that combines Mediaocean’s ad platform with 4C’s data and analytics.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed and is expected to close in July 2020.

The move comes at a time when companies in the ad tech business are combining in order to provide capabilities across all screens and across functions, a trend that could be accelerating because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Consumer behavior is changing drastically, and we need to be able to reach people where and how they want,” said Deborah Wahl, Global CMO of General Motors. “I am excited to see how this combination can help marketers understand how to deliver people-based experiences more effectively.”

In a fragmented media landscape, marketers and agencies are trying to handle marketing investment across geographies, media channels, devices, and audiences, the companies noted. Buyers and sellers alike are calling for a more integrated, automated, and data-driven marketplace. Mediaocean said its acquisition of 4C will solve these challenges, adding intelligence and optimization to its system of record for omnichannel advertising.

“The COVID crisis will be remembered as a tipping point in the digital disruption of many industries including advertising,” said Bill Wise, CEO of Mediaocean. “Mediaocean and 4C together will lead the evolution of modern omnichannel advertising by addressing the needs of global marketers and agencies – transparency, neutrality, intelligence and accountability. I couldn’t be more excited to lead this transformation for the company and the industry.”

Mediaocean and 4C began working together in 2017, with 4C data available to Mediaocean clients. 

“Joining Mediaocean is a game-changer for our clients and the industry, fulfilling the promise of true cross-channel advertising,” said Lance Neuhauser, CEO and co-founder of 4C. “Marketers need to market the way consumers consume efficiently across all devices and screens. Mediaocean and 4C’s combined solution will be the independent, self-serve platform to anchor marketers, agencies, publishers, and broadcasters across converged media.”

“When we started the company in 2011, our goal was to harness the power of data science and AI to help brands reach their goals,” said Dr. Alok Coudhar, 4C’s founder and chairman. “As we integrate our intelligence into Mediaocean’s system of record, we will revolutionize the marketing landscape.”

Commercials promising blazing fast wireless internet are here. But while 5G is a game-changer, we should plan for a long, uncertain period of disruption. Here’s how advertisers can prepare.

Why 5G won’t arrive everywhere overnight

Transformative technologies are a slow burn in terms of mass adoption. The telephone, for example, was invented in 1876, but it wasn’t until 1998 that the U.S. reached the milestone of one landline per person. Interestingly, while brands began using telephones as a sales tool in the early 1900s, it wasn’t until the late 1970s that call centers and telemarketing arrived. Smartphone adoption happened much faster, but it still took a decade to go from a handful of early adopters to the mobile-first experience brands and consumers expect today.

So, how long will 5G adoption take? Some optimistic news reports point to the possibility that increased demand for mobile broadband, due to the global health pandemic, may accelerate adoption. However, there are also reports that the challenge of building a new network while maintaining social distancing may actually delay 5G adoption.

Consider the build itself. The current 4G LTE service required the installation of 30,000 cell towers/antennas across the country. For 5G to achieve the same coverage, it will require the installation of 300,000 towers/antennas. That’s a tenfold increase! 5G also raises questions about aesthetics because local communities will have to weigh in on where the towers and antennas are located and what measures should be taken to conceal their appearance. 

One consequence of that process is that the earliest deployments of 5G will focus on areas with a minimal number of stakeholders. We’ll likely see the fastest adoption at indoor B2B environments such as factories, where a 5G network can leverage IoT for automation, preventative maintenance, robotics, etc. As for the consumer tipping point, we should probably think in terms of a 5-10 year timeline.

How should advertisers plan?

To begin, advertisers need to understand that while the 5G tipping point is years away, we currently face a blended environment where user connection speed varies dramatically. To the extent that advertisers encounter slower data transmission speeds, they benefit from added time for ad tech decisioning. As a 5G rollout speeds up data transmission, advertisers will see the amount of time allotted for ad tech decisioning shrink.

What happens in that window doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Due to privacy considerations, we’re already doing away with the cookie and rethinking the use of PII. In theory, that should mean that advertisers have to process fewer inputs within a shorter window. But in practice, consumer expectations, both for speed and overall experience, will force advertisers to deliver greater customization at faster speeds, albeit with fewer inputs. As we build new ad tech infrastructure, advertisers need to develop plans for managing that balancing act.

How 5G impacts ongoing disruptions in advertising?

The further we project into the future, the less siloed we can afford to be in our thinking. We should think about 5G as a complementary trend that will contribute to the disruption of established advertising channels, but not necessarily define the outcomes.

Take television. According to eMarketer data, we’re trending toward a point, probably in 2023, where the number of cord-cutting households will equal the number of households that subscribe to television (cable or satellite). In theory, high speed wireless internet should accelerate cord-cutting as consumers become less dependent on their ISPs. Cord-cutter households are typically serviced by the MVPD as a “utility” broadband provider. Those MVPDs will protect their ability to sell advertising. So while 5G is likely to accelerate cord-cutting, advertisers shouldn’t count on 5G to disrupt the TV advertising business model.

At the other end of the media planning budget, 5G may very well supercharge digital out of home (DOOH). After all, DOOH is a growing channel, but much of what needs to happen in terms of adoption depends on technological questions, rather than business models and evolutions in consumer behavior.

As advertisers think about today’s budgets and capabilities, they should remember that 5G won’t touch all channels equally, nor will its impact follow a straight line. Advertisers should ask themselves how 5G will accelerate current trends, but they should also consider the possibility that today’s dominant channels may see their relevance wane in the future, while nascent channels proliferate. In other words, advertisers should start preparing today for smaller decisioning windows and faster data speeds, even though the question of which channels that data ultimately flows through speaks to a broader planning issue that touches every aspect of an advertiser’s organization.

Guest blog author Michael Zacharski is CEO of EMX, where he leads the overall vision, strategy, culture and development of the company. Under his leadership, EMX solves complex challenges and drives measurable business results for agencies, advertisers and publishers by providing solutions across full-service and programmatic practice areas. EMX is the programmatic marketplace division of global marketing company, ENGINE.

Meredith Corp. has sold the 60% stake it owns in ad tech company Viant to its co-founders.

Meredith acquired the stake when it bought Time Inc.

The companies agreed to extend their long-standing commercial data agreement.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

"Our new independence will allow us to further expand our identity resolution capabilities by creating additional partnerships similar to what we’ve accomplished with Meredith,” said Tim Vanderhook, Viant co-founder and CEO. “Our current momentum speaks volumes for our outstanding team and the incredible opportunity that exists in this industry.”

The deal comes at a time with ad tech companies are being acquired as scale becomes more important to the advanced advertising business.

"We are pleased to find a great outcome for what is a very strong ad tech business," said John Zieser, chief development officer at Meredith."Viant will remain an on-going data partner as we continue to jointly engage in value creating opportunities."

TiVo has partnered with Palo Alto, Calif.-based mobile advertising tech company 4INFO to deploy a tool that makes audiences addressable across locations and devices.

The Custom Connected Identity Map will now be part of TiVo’s Targeted Audience Delivery Data Engine. The solution uses mobile ad IDs (MAIDs) and IP addresses as match keys. Using these keys, the software maps all connected devices to a home address—and location data. This is done, the makers say, without compromising privacy.

“TiVo’s Targeted Audience Delivery customers use our unique data and insights products, including viewership data, attribution and segments to access sought-after verticals, like: CPG, retail, auto, pharma and QSR,” said Walt Horstman, senior VP and general manager of advanced media and advertising for TiVo, in a statement. “Our collaboration with 4INFO leverages their unique identity mapping capabilities to make this audience addressable and extendable to a much large number of households and across multiple devices, while supporting our newly launched Connected TV advertising solutions.”

Added Tim Jenkins, 4INFO CEO: “We continue to see that a combined mobile and IP address-based identity map lies at the heart of an effective data strategy. By leveraging the scale and accuracy of 4INFO’s identity and media activation solutions, TiVo is delivering a platform that solves the industry-wide challenges of addressability and accountability in advanced TV.”

Hulu has tapped industry vet Jeremy Helfand to head up the OTT service’s ad platform and tech initiatives.

As Hulu’s new VP and head of advertising platforms, Helfand will lead the company’s ad strategy, ad product innovation, tech investments and partnerships as well as Hulu’s advertising organization’s engineering operations.

Helfand reports to Hulu CTO Dan Philips and will play a “critical role in scaling and expanding Hulu’s advertising platforms and solutions.” Helfand will also team up with Hulu’s ad sales organization, led by SVP and head of advertising sales Peter Naylor.

Hulu recently implemented a reorg that aligns the company around three areas --technology and products; content and advertising; and “Subscriber Journey,” a component that includes subscriber acquisition, engagement and retention.

RELATED: Hulu Moves on ‘Strategic’ Reorg

Hulu has about 20 million subscribers, a total that includes SVOD-only subscribers and more than 800,000 subs that take Hulu's new Live TV service, which also includes the SVOD component.

RELATED: Hulu: Average Viewer Watching 10 Shows

Prior to joining Hulu, Helfand was VP of Adobe’s Primetime business unit and its Media & Entertainment vertical, playing a major role in the launch of Adobe’s multi-screen, OTT platform. Prior to that, he was CEO of Auditude, a video ad management tech company acquired by Adobe in 2011.

Helfand serves on the IAB Video Board of Directors and is a trustee of the Viewpoint School.

He graduated from Loyola University with a Bachelor of Business Administration.

Canoe, the MSO-backed supplier of dynamic VOD ad tech and services, said ad impression on its platform surpasses 6 billion in Q1 2018, up 25% from the year-ago period.

Canoe, which shared new data in concert with this week’s Pay TV Show in Denver, said those impressions spanned set-top boxes, IP and mobile platforms.

In Q1, the bulk of VOD ad impressions were mid-rolls (5.25 billion), versus pre-roll (806.75 million) and post-roll (90.71 million). The average ad opportunities per mid-role break was 3.85 in Q1, compared to 1.18 for pre-roll ads, and 1.52 for post-roll ads.

Canoe said 99% of ads in mid-roll slots were watched to completion 99% of the time, on average.

With respect to ad frequency, 57% of the time in a given episode, viewers saw the same campaign ad one time, and about 36% of the time they saw the same campaign ad twice.

Some 2,522 campaigns were run on Canoe’s platform in Q1, with 83% coming from external clients, and 17% for network tune-in ads.

Canoe’s footprint currently covers 36 million cable households and the top DMAs in partnership with Charter Communications, Comcast and Cox Communications. More than 100 national TV networks are running campaigns with Canoe, including A&E, ABC, AMC, CBS, CMT, CW, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, Hip Hop, HGTV, Kabillion, Kid Genius, MTV, MGM, Music Choice, NBC, Sony, Starz, TNT, TVOne, and Univision, among others.

“We continue to see consumer video consumption trending toward on-demand in the living room and cable VOD has played a big role in that,” Joel Hassell, CEO of Canoe, said in a statement. “Even with connected devices capturing more market share in 2017, VOD DAI commands a 19% share of overall premium video ad views.”

Las Vegas -- Comcast Technology Solutions, a unit of Comcast that targets multiscreen video distribution and ad-tech services, generally has cut its teeth in the domestic market, but is now looking to take an even bigger bite as it pursues more business around the globe. 

That’s one of the priorities being engaged by Bart Spriester, the industry vet who was gamed GM of video platforms at CTS earlier this year.

RELATED: Comcast Technology Solutions Hires Bart Spriester as GM, Video Platform

“We have a good brand domestically,” Spriester said of CTS, which also handles X1 syndication, during a visit here during this week’s NAB Show. But the opportunity is ripe, he added, to help the content community around the world deliver and monetize their content via OTT and other IP-based distribution systems.

A “critical” part of the mission there is to accelerate CTS’s ability to drive its tech and services to more industries. “I want to bring more of that out,” Spriester said.

Comcast launched Comcast Technology Solutions in the fall of 2016 as a division that combined three of its media and tech businesses – Comcast Wholesale, thePlatform and This Technology.

Another key priority for CTS is live services, including live event broadcasts, alongside with advanced ad insertion capabilities. Spriester said CTS will invest more in this area throughout the year.

RELATED: NAB 2018: Comcast Unit Offers Live-to-IP

CTS will also invest more in the automation of workflows that gets content ingested, prepared, packaged and distributed to multiple screen types. Part of that work, which aims to take the pain out of traditional manual processes, will mean implementing machine learning and artificial intelligence to those processes. CTS doesn’t necessarily own all of those building blocks, but does see itself helping to orchestrate how all of the pieces and components work together.

Another key focus is CTS’s multi-CDN strategy in a way that selects the right CDN based on components such as business rules and performance. In this arena, CTS recently announced a partnership with DLVR, a company that has real-time CDN switching capabilities that are integrated with Quality of Experience analytics systems.

“Customers should have [CDN] options,” Spriester said. Notably, CTS has its own video-optimized CDN.

Comcast also used NAB to trot out a set of new products and components this week.

In addition to the enhanced live-to-IP offering for efforts such as events, CTS introduced PDK 6, a new web-based video player that aims to bring a fresh turn to a segment of the market that the division believes could use some freshening up.

PDK 6, Spriester noted, is the result of work in which the player was developed from the ground up using HTML 5 to deliver faster start times and improved client- and server-side ad insertion capabilities.

Corporate cousin NBCU is among those that will be moving to the new player, which is part of CTS’s broader mpx video management system.

CTS also introduced AdStor, a new cloud-based ad delivery system that handles both storage and distribution as well as orchestration and management. That product is being targeted to programmers and other content providers, and to advertisers.

Among its claims, CTS said AdStor can whittle processes to minutes compared to what would typically take 24 to 72 hours using manual systems. 

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Music streaming giant Pandora announced Wednesday that it has inked a deal to acquire AdsWizz, a digital audio ad tech firm, for $145 million in cash and stock.  

Pandora said the addition will upgrade its own ad tech systems, provide advertisers with greater reach and open up new revenue opportunities.

Following an integration, advertisers will be able to transact through AdsWizz’s marketplace across Pandora and other top audio publishers, Pandora said.  Pandora said it will also support AdsWizz’s core business.

RELATED: Comcast Brings Upgraded Version of Pandora to X1

In addition to Pandora, AdsWizz’s customers include Spotify, Cox Media Group, Rogers Communications, Deezer, Omnicom MediaGroup, and PodcastOne, among others. Its demand-side partners include The Trade Desk, MediaMath, TubeMogul (now part of Adobe), and AppNexus.

Alexis van de Wyer will remain CEO of AdsWizz, which will become a subsidiary of Pandora when the deal is closed.

“Since I joined Pandora six months ago, I have highlighted ad tech as a key area of investment for us,” Roger Lynch, Pandora’s CEO, said in a statement. “Today we took an important step to advance that priority and accelerate our product roadmap. With our scale in audio advertising and AdsWizz’s tech expertise, we will create the largest digital audio advertising ecosystem, better serving global publishers and advertisers — while improving Pandora’s own monetization capabilities.”

RELATED: Sling TV Shakes Up Top Management

Telstra said it will recognize an impairment charge as it writes down its investment in Ooyala, the struggling online video firm that the Australia-based company acquired in 2014.

Telstra, in an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange on February 2, noted that the non-cash impairment and write-down will carry the value of Ooyala, which has been serving as its U.S.-based video tech business, to “zero.” As a result Telstra said it expects to recognize an impairment charge of A$272 million (US$215 million).

Telstra acquired 9% of Ooyala in 2012, and raised it to 98% in 2014 as it tried to take advantage of the surging online video trend.

Telstra said it identified “challenges” in that business 18 months ago and impaired the Ooyala business at the time of its 2016 financial results, but continued to make efforts to turn around Ooyala’s business.

Last April, Ooyala tapped Jonathan Huberman as CEO, a move that came about five months after former CEO Ramesh Srinivasan left the company. Huberman also came on board a couple months after Ooyala had reportedly laid off 14% of its workforce amid a restructuring that, it hoped, would lead to new jobs and product areas.

Ooyala’s business has been focused on three areas: ad tech, online video players and a workflow management system.

Ad tech, “has not performed well and we will therefore seek ways to exit that part of the business,” Stephen Elop, the group executive, technology, innovation and strategy at Telstra, and the chairman of the Ooyala board, said in a statement.

RELATED: Vudu Taps Ooyala for New Ad-VOD Service 

He added that Telstra does “see a future in other core parts of the Ooyala business,” namely the video player and workflow management components, but later stressed that the company “will remain alert for broader strategic options for Ooyala in a market fragmented across multiple providers.”

That market is made up of a mix of different sized tech players that focus on different parts of the multiscreen video ecosystem, including Comcast Technology Solutions, Amazon, Brightcove, IBM, NeuLion, Disney-backed BAMTech, Zype, and Kaltura, among several others.

RELATED: Ooyala Sues Brightcove

Telstra, Elop noted, acquired Ooyala “when the market dynamics were very different…When we announced the initial impairment 18 months ago we indicated that we would be working closely with the team to turn around the performance. We believed Ooyala remained a young and exciting company with leading offerings in intelligent video which were continuing to evolve and scale. While some of these initiatives have been successful, the market has continued to change.”

Comcast confirmed the hiring of industry vet Bart Spriester to the post of GM, video platforms at Comcast Technology Solutions, a unit focused on multiscreen video and ad technologies and services.

Based in Seattle, Spriester reports to Ken Klaer, who recently took the permanent helm of Comcast Technology Solutions. Spriester takes on a role previously held by Rob Banga, who left Comcast last year to pursue other opportunities.

RELATED: Ken Klaer Takes Helm of Comcast Technology Solutions

Comcastlaunched Comcast Technology Solutions in the fall of 2016as a division that combined three of its media and tech businesses – Comcast Wholesale, thePlatform and This Technology.

Spriester most recently was with Harmonic, serving as SVP, video products and solutions, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to joining Harmonic in 2014, he was EVP and GM-North America and CTO of Encompass Digital Media. Prior to that, he held several exec roles at Cisco Systems and Scientific Atlanta (Cisco acquired SA in 2005).

“Bart’s deep experience in building and deploying next-generation video technologies makes him uniquely suited to lead our rapidly evolving video platform,” Klaer said in a statement. “A proven leader, Bart brings innovative thinking, business savvy and a forward-looking management approach to CTS. We’re honored to have him on the team.”

605, an advanced data and analytics firm focused on the media and entertainment sectors, has appointed Daniel Berg to the new post of chief technology officer.

Berg will oversee 605’s internal IT, cybersecurity and other key elements of 605’s products and report to company founder and CEO Kristin Dolan.

He is also late of companies that include Rockit Solutions (a former subsidiary of Rockefeller & Co Inc.) and First Reserve Corporation, where Berg had served as CTO and CIO. He was also a member of the Microsoft CIO Advisory Council from 2014 to 2015.

New York-based 605 launched late last year following the acquisition of Analytics Media Group (AMG) by Dolan Family Ventures, the newly formed investment fund run by former Cablevision Systems execs Kristin and James Dolan that provides census-based TV measurement.

In July, 605 announced a data-driven advanced ad partnership with Charter Communications.

“I am confident Dan’s deep expertise in business strategy, combined with his track record of success in bringing technology services and products from concept to deployment, are exactly what we need to move 605 forward and continue to grow our business,” Kristin Dolan, said in a  statement. “As a business and technology leader, Dan is adept at aligning technology teams and deliverables with business and revenue goals.”

Beachfront Media, a programmatic video ad-tech company, said Growth Catalyst Partners (GCP) and PSP Capital have acquired a majority stake.

Financial terms were not announced, but Beachfront Media says it handles billions of video ad requests a day worldwide across mobile, connected TV and desktop platforms.

Beachfront said GCP and PSP will provide the company will resources to expand its capabilities for its multi-platform advertising business.

In tandem with the deal, Beachfront also announced Bill Jennings as CEO and Rich O’Connor as CFO. They previously served in the same roles at PageScience, an ad targeting company acquired by Accent Health in 2016.

Beachfront Media co-founder Frank Sinton will remain president, and he and co-founder, Lisa Connell, will also retain stakes in the company.

“The future of content consumption is increasingly mobile, social and arrayed across a diverse set of screens of all shapes and sizes,” Penny Pritzker, PSP’s founder and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, said in a statement. “Beachfront’s platform-agnostic business model and world class management team will play a pivotal role in the dynamic and fast-changing media industry landscape for years to come.”

Dickinson Wright LLP served as legal counsel to Growth Catalyst Partners. Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP represented PSP Capital, and Greenberg Traurig LLP acted as legal counsel to Beachfront Media.

Comcast Cable has promoted Marcien Jenckes to president, advertising, where he now heads up all of the company’s advertising assets and businesses, including Comcast Spotlight.

Word of Jenckes’s new role at Comcast has been circulating for weeks, but is now confirmed by his updated bio on Comcast’s corporate web site.

Jenckes most recently was EVP, consumer services at Comcast Cable, where he oversaw the company’s video, Internet, voice, and Xfinity Home businesses. Comcast has not named a permanent replacement for Jenckes’s prior role.

In his new role, Jenckes’s leadership on the advertising side of the house expands broadly.

Last year, as part of an operational reorg, Jenckes took over Comcast’s ad-tech operations, which have been expanding following the company’s buying spree in the sector in recent years that included the acquisitions of companies such as FreeWheel, StickyADS.tv, Visible World, This Technology, and Strata, a company that powers more than 1,200 media buying agencies and in-house advertisers.

RELATED: Visible World Joins Comcast’s Ad Orbit

Jenckes now also runs Comcast Spotlight, the unit focused on local, regional and national spot-advertising.

Charlie Thurston, the former president for Comcast Spotlight, has stepped away from the day-to-day running of that division, but is still serving Comcast in an advisory role, industry sources said.

Prior to joining Comcast, Marcien was with digital ad and media syndication startups such as Grab Networks and Voxant, and is also late of AOL and McKinsey & Company. He holds a MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia, and a BA in economics and political science from New York University.

Ooyala, the Telstra-owned online video company, has laid off about 70 people, or 14% of its total workforce, amid a restructuring that will open up jobs focused on new product areas, Dan Rayburn, EVP of StreamingMedia.com and principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan, reported Tuesday, citing a memo to employees that announced the changes.

Ooyala, acquired by Australia-based telco Telstra in 2014, did not confirm the headcount figures, but did confirm that it had “reduced part of its workforce” as it looks to create headroom, reinvest in the business, and hire in new areas of expertise tied to its media logistics and ad-tech products that are “above and beyond its continued investment in its OVP [Online Video Platform] business.”

RELATED: Telstra To Acquire Ooyala

The restructuring of its global software and services organization also aims to place more sales and support resources in the field “to streamline customer adoption and deployments of its comprehensive suite of video software and services,” a company official told Multichannel News via email.

Ooyala issued this statement from acting CEO Issac Vaughn:

“We are fortunate in that over the last two years we've made significant headway across all of our product lines. The next phase must be about realizing the potential of our R&D investments. The restructure we announced today will put more specialized product, sales and channel resources in the field, and significantly grow our technical support staff to improve customer enablement and long-term customer success."

Rayburn reported that Ooyala plans to rehire about 7% new employees in pursuit of its plan to focus on areas outside of its OVP product line. A major focus, he said, be on selling a suite that includes the Ooyala Flex (workforce automation) and Ooyala Pulse (advanced/programmatic advertising) products.

Citing the memo, Rayburn said Ooyala’s decision comes as the online video market is “becoming more commoditized by the number of competitors and large enterprises entering the business.”  

Ooyala’s online video competition includes companies such as Comcast Technology Solutions, Brightcove, IBM (which recently acquired Clearleap and Ustream), BAMTech, and Kaltura, among others.  Notably, Telstra’s BigPondTV service tapped thePlatform (now part of Comcast Technology Solutions) a few years ago to serve as its central video management system.

Update: Ooyala said BigPond has since migrated back to Ooyala's technology platform.  

RELATED: Michael Paull Named CEO of BAMTech

Video ad-tech company Innovid has appointed John Piccone to chief growth officer, where he’ll head up revenue and strategic business development.

He joins following six years at Simulmedia, where he served in roles such as chief revenue officer and chief strategy officer.

Prior to that, he was SVP of business development and sales strategy at HealthiNation, and was VP of sales at BlackArrow, a dynamic ad insertion company that was acquired by Cross MediaWorks last year. He’s also late of 24/7 Real Media.

“Marketers are shifting toward all things video and data is the key to making video creative resonate with consumers,” Beth-Ann Eason, president at Innovid, in a statement. “John’s deep experience in data-driven TV advertising will enable him to help marketers transition and capitalize on digital video, particularly as OTT adoption accelerates.”

Innovid claims its video marketing platform has grown over 400% year-over-year, and works with brands such as Citi, Kraft, L’Oréal, Microsoft, and Walmart. 

The desktop PC isn’t dead, but it continues to cede online video share to devices such as tablets, over-the-top streaming devices, traditional set-top boxes, and smartphones.

About 63% of video monetization occurs outside desktops, according to the Q1 2016 Video Monetization Report from FreeWheel, the Comcast-owned ad-tech company.

Programmers that offer VOD content with ad insertion on set-tops also saw a 20% boost in volume in Q1, making it the second largest device type in terms of ad delivery, FreeWheel said.

And here’s more fodder for the binge-viewing trend -- the report also found that the audience, by program category, is four times larger when all episodes of a series are available on one location versus a more limited rotational library.

“Full Library programming achieved four times the reach, based on volume of unique viewers over the course of a quarter, and a +52% increase in frequency measured by episodes consumed per viewer, compared to that of a Rotational Library show,” FreeWheel said in the report. “Viewers are dictating that they want an end-to-end solution to watch and binge their favorite programming.”

On the TV Everywhere front, the study found that 72% of all “TV-style” viewing is now occurring via authentication – when viewers enter their MVPD credentials to access long-form and live streaming content.

“After 13 straight quarters of growth, it is impossible to refute that TVE products have not only cemented their popularity with subscribers but also expanded the footprint of the New Living Room to ever new screens,” FreeWheel said.

Notably, authenticated viewers also see an average of 129% more ads per day than non-authenticated viewers, an indication that those viewers are more embedded in the pay TV ecosystem.

Entertainment content now represents 55% of all ad views across genre.

FreeWheel said ad completion rates averaged 85% in Q1. Ad completion rates were highest on OTT devices (85%), compared to tablets (85%), desktops (84%), and smartphones (78%).

Live content saw the biggest rise in ad viewing growth (up 43% year-over-year) compared to long form VOD (20 minutes or more), up 33%, and short-form VOD (10 minutes or less), up 14%.

Canada-based media and broadcast company Corus Entertainment has formed an exclusive deal with Visible  World, the ad-tech company acquired by Comcast last year, that will enable programmatic advertising capabilities for linear TV services.

Corus, they said, is the first Canadian broadcaster to commit to bringing a more automated, data-driven programmatic-style to linear television, claiming it will enable advertisers to get higher returns on their TV ad buys.

For the rollout in Canada, the solution will use traditional Numeris ratings, as well as aggregate, anonymized data, and audience segmentation information.  

They said advertisers and media planners can use existing in-house demand-side platforms or connect into the Visible World system to plan, buy, and report on their campaigns.

Corus’s portfolio includes 45 specialty television services as well as 15 conventional TV stations.

“Through our Next Generation Advertising offering, we are delivering superior results to our advertisers by leveraging advancements in data and technology,” Greg McLelland, EVP and chief revenue officer at Corus, said in a statement “Bringing programmatic capabilities to television will not only streamline the buying process across platforms, it will also enable advertisers to gain new insights into audiences to optimize their media buy.”

³We are looking forward to the partnership with industry-leading broadcaster, Corus,² said Seth Haberman, Founder & CEO, Visible World.

“We believe the collaboration will help enhance ad sales efforts with data-driven insights and automation across the Canadian marketplace and further Comcast Platform Service¹s partnership with Corus,” added Visible World CEO Seth Haberman.

Comcast acquired New York-based Visible World and its programmatic TV subsidiary, AudienceXpress, last year.

In a deal clearly aimed at driving revenue growth for its current crop of service provider partners while also expanding into new markets, Synacor said it is acquiring digital advertising technology company Technorati.

Synacor, a company that makes Web portals, TV Everywhere authentication systems and provides email services, currently represents about 20 million “uniques” through partnerships with MVPDs and ISPs such as Mediacom Communications, CenturyLink, WideOpenWest, and Suddenlink Communications. Technorati adds to that another 100 million uniques via its network of about 1,000 publishers.

“Advertising is an important growth engine for the company,” Synacor CEO Himesh Bhise said, noting that the acquisition of Technorati gives it “tremendous reach across the U.S.” and help its existing operator partners further monetize their ad inventory.

Advertising represented 45% of Synacor’s revenues in Q3 2015, up 17% year-over-year (Synacor is scheduled to announce Q4 results on March 16).

Synacor didn't announce the financial terms of the acquisition, but expects it to be accretive to its 2016 earnings. Privately held Technorati generated about $7 million in revenue in 2015, according to Synacor.

Update: Per an 8K filed today, Synacor will acquire “substantially all of the assets” of Technorati for $3 million in cash.

Bhise said San Francisco-based Technorati has been focused on developing an ad software product focused on header bidding, a new development that allows website publishers to net the highest price for ad inventory using real-time auctions. That technology, called SmartWrapper, pings ad networks, identifies the highest price, while providing the tools required to manage the complexity. SmartWrapper is part of Technorati’s Contango ad-tech platform.

Synacor, which has already been testing the vendor’s header bidding technology, believes Technorati’s products will enable it to build ad scale and provide targeting across desktop and mobile platforms, while also enabling it to expand its overall ad inventory.

Technorati will also give Synacor a programmatic ad platform to add to its software-as-a-service-based portfolio, which includes Zimbra (email), cloud ID authentication and multiscreen video.

About ten Technorati employees will be joining Synacor and remain based in the San Francisco area, where Buffalo, N.Y,-based Synacor already has a presence.

“For Technorati, becoming part of Synacor is a logical next step to grow our ad network and our digital advertising solution, SmartWrapper,” Technorati CEO Shani Higgins said in a statement. “All of us at Technorati are excited to be joining Synacor and bringing our programmatic advertising platforms to a much broader audience of customers and partners.

Technorati is the latest in a string of recent acquisitions by Synacor, which last year bought certain assets of Zimbra and cloud video specialist NimbleTV.

Telenor Group said it has inked a deal to acquire 95% of marketing technology firm Tapad Inc. in a deal valued at $360 million.

Tapad CEO Are Traasdahl and fellow co-founder Dag Liodden have retained a 5% stake in Tapad. The primary sellers are Are Traasdahl and Tapad’s lead investor, FirstMark Capital.

Founded in 2010, New York-based Tapad’s claim to fame is a “unified cross-device marketing technology” platform for publishers and marketers, extending to smartphones, tablets, home computers and smart TVs. The vendor’s “Device Graph” uses data collected from those devices to help its clients measure and monetize their audiences across media platforms.

Tapad said the company was in line to pull in revenues of $57 million in 2015,  up 70% from 2014, alone with an EBITDA loss of $12 million.

“With the acquisition of Tapad, Telenor Group is taking a position within the rapidly growing market for advertising technology, and securing important competence within digital marketing and analytics,” Telenor Group CEO Sigve Brekke said in a statement. “I believe significant value can be created from applying marketing technology to improve the digital capabilities of our core telecom business. This will improve our understanding of customer behaviour, and supports building a platform for other business areas.” 

“We are thrilled to join the Telenor family. With more than 200 million mobile subscribers in 13 markets, Telenor is one of the largest and most successful telecom companies globally. I am excited by what this acquisition means for our employees, our partners and our continued growth. This will accelerate our vision to become the worlds’ leading provider of unified digital marketing solutions,” added Traasdahl.

Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Studios and Lionsgate have made undisclosed equity investments in adRise, the company behind Tubi TV, a free, ad-based on-demand OTT offering that competes with services such as Sony-owned Crackle.

Tied in, MGM and Lionsgate will also license “library content” to Tubi TV, a free VOD service launched in April 2014 that runs on iOS and  Google mobile devices, the Amazon Fire TV, Roku players and Roku TVs, the  Xbox One and Xbox 360, Samsung connected devices  and Apple TV. They said the deal spans “hundreds” of titles, including Midnight Cowboy, Crash, Rain Man, and The Hurt Locker, Fargo, and American Psycho.

Tubi TV, which inked a movie and TV deal with Paramount Pictures earlier this year, said the Lionsgate and MGM titles will add to its current library of about 40,000 movies and TV shows.

Tubi TV said viewership on its platform have increased 400% over the past year.

In addition to the investment and content licensing deal, Sandy Grushow, former chairman of Fox Television Entertainment Group and CEO of Phase 2 Media, has joined the Tubi TV board. Cota Capital has also come on board as an investor.

"Consumers want more streaming premium content without subscribing to yet another app or paying for another channel. Tubi TV's mission is to make premium content accessible to everyone, everywhere, without having to pay more. Tubi TV will always be free,’ said Farhad Massoudi, founder and CEO of Tubi TV, in a statement.

"We're delighted to partner with Farhad and his team at Tubi TV as we continue to ensure that our content is being monetized across every platform, digital and linear, ad-supported and subscriber-based, domestically and internationally," added Jim Packer, Lionsgate’s president of Worldwide Television & Digital Distribution. "This agreement reflects our ongoing commitment to license our content across an expanding array of ad-supported digital platforms and serve next generation audiences around the world."

"MGM's investment and license agreements enable the studio to expand into OTT services, allowing consumers to find MGM films and series on multiple platforms,” said John Bryan, president, domestic television distribution at MGM.

Watchwith recently closed an $8 million “B” round that included help from existing investors Rogers Venture Partners and Samsung, as well as new investor, Arris, the maker of video, ad-tech and broadband gear and software.

The new round takes Watchwith’s total funding beyond $13 million.

Watchwith, founded in 2012, said it landed the new funds as it helps its TV network and programming partners build “new premium video advertising inventory” without beefing up the pre-roll or mid-roll ad load.

The investment comes on the heels of Watchwith’s intro of an in-program, “contextual” ad platform that can be delivered to IP-connected set-tops, TVs and mobile devices. Watchwith developed the platform, which enables programmers to offer interactive ad avails within shows at pre-set trigger points, amid a trend in which viewers have increasingly become “trained” to have access to ad-free content.  

Watchwith, which views this as a new type of ad inventory, has integrated that cloud-based system with technology from Arris that suggests the best spot to place these interactive, in-program ad overlays.

Watchwith’s customers include Fox, NBCUniversal and Viacom.

“Watchwith is trailblazing a significant net-new revenue opportunity for premium TV programmers,” said Mike Lee, general partner, Rogers Venture Partners, in a statement. “And at the same time, the company solves a critical problem for short-form video content owners in need of alternatives to pre-roll advertising. The company is at the forefront of native video monetization”

An addition to the fresh funding, Watchwith also announced that Brendan Moorcroft, a programmatic advertising pioneer and former CEO of Cadreon, has joined its board.