Warner Bros. Discovery said it named David Porter head of ad sales research, data and insights.

Porter most recently had been CEO of Canoe Ventures. In his new job, Porter will oversee the ad sales research and data functions and the execution of alternative currency, cross platform measurement and streaming engagement strategies,

Porter reports to Jon Steinlauf, WBD Chief of US Advertising Sales, and replaces Andrea Zapata, who left the company last year,

"As we head into Upfront season, I could not be more thrilled to welcome David to the team. We take a data-driven approach to develop impactful partnership opportunities across the portfolio, and David’s work is essential to that offering,” said Steinlauf. “David has invaluable experience that will play a key role in continuing to deliver best-in-class client services and consumer experiences," 

Prior to Canoe, Porter was VP, Ad Innovation and Programmatic Solutions at Turner. Additionally, Porter led teams at AOL, as Global Video Monetization Lead, and Microsoft as Global Sales Strategy Lead for Video. Porter has also held Digital Sales leadership roles at Cox Communications and AT&T.  

"I am excited to be starting this new role at Warner Bros. Discovery, working with colleagues and familiar faces who have been there with me through the growth of advanced advertising in the media industry,” said Porter. “The timing could not be better as ​the Upfront approaches, and I can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and get to work with the team.”

AMC Networks said advertisers will be able to buy commercials programmatically on three of its linear cable networks.

L’Oreal, working with its media agency Omnicom Media Group, was the first national advertiser to buy ads on AMC’s networks programmatically as part of a pilot program in September. AMC also tested its programmatic capabilities by running promo campaigns for shows including The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and its FearFest holiday programming stunt.

Beginning this month, programmatic buying is live and fully operational across all programming on AMC, WE tv and BBC America, AMC said.

Working with technology partners FreeWheel, The Trade Desk and Canoe Ventures, advertisers can purchase advertising in the kind of real-time biddable environment familiar to buyers of digital advertising, including over-the-top and connected TV advertising.

The innovation enables advertisers to purchase linear and digital ad inventory as a single campaign using their programmatic buying platforms, which might mean some digital advertisers will now be able to buy and reach linear audiences, AMC said.

It also allows advertisers to better manage reach and frequency across video channels.

“Programmatic buying offers enhanced targeting, greater efficiency and has been the preferred way to transact on digital platforms for years, but until now has never been possible for national linear television commercials,” Evan Adlman, executive VP of commercial sales and revenue operations for AMC Networks, said. “During this pilot, we were able to deliver seven distinct creative executions to viewers simultaneously as part of the same national linear commercial slot, through a real-time biddable process. This is a huge advance for us and for the industry and, like our pioneering efforts in addressable advertising, makes our inventory even more valuable.”

AMC sells commercial inventory on its streaming networks via programmatic technology and has been a leader in addressable advertising, selling addressable spots in every hour of its live linear and VOD inventory on AMC, WE tv and BBC America. 

Two years ago, AMC made some linear ad inventory available for programmatic sale by The Trade Desk and another big supply-side platform, Magnite. The inventory was limited to impressions delivered to Vizio sets as part of a test, the company said.

“We were excited to be the first brand to pilot this important advancement in how TV advertising is purchased, which aligns well with our interest in automation and efficiency and being able to buy all forms of inventory together as part of the same process. AMC Networks, The Trade Desk and FreeWheel were great partners and we look forward to being part of the continuing future of programmatic ad buying on linear television,” Shenan Reed, senior VP and head of media at L’Oréal USA, said.

As viewers cut the cord and turn to streaming, traditional programmers are looking for new ways to compete with digital advertising.

“This innovation brings together two extremely timely advertising technologies to help advertisers reach and engage with current and prospective audiences: programmatic ad buying and addressable TV advertising,”  Mark McKee, general manager of FreeWheel, said. “The first gives advertisers greater control, automation and efficiency in the overall TV ad-buying process, and when layering this with addressable TV advertising, the result is advertising that reaches the right target consumer within an enhanced and enriching viewer experience.”

“The business of buying TV ads is being rewritten, and right now is the moment the industry needs to fully embrace programmatic advertising,” Tim Sims, chief revenue officer at The Trade Desk, added. “This integration brings the power of data-driven decisioning to linear ad buys, while giving brands and agencies the insight to build even more sophisticated, omnichannel campaigns. It’s a major win for both publishers and buyers.”

Canoe Ventures said that CEO Joel Hassell will retire at the end of January.

The tech company, owned by Charter Communications, Comcast and Cox, said David Porter, currently senior VP and general manager of addressable advertising at Canoe, will become interim general manager running the company effective December 12.

Hassell has been with Canoe since 2010, serving as CEO for 10 years.

"Joel was instrumental in guiding Canoe's growth and significant transformation during his tenure as CEO," said David Kline, executive VP at Charter and president of Spectrum Reach on behalf of Canoe's ownership group. "His industry knowledge and focused leadership over the past decade has helped define Canoe as a leader in the industry. We are grateful for his leadership and many contributions, and wish Joel the best of luck in his retirement."

Porter has been with the company since 2020. Before that he was with Warner Media, Microsoft and Cox.

"David is a seasoned executive with a proven track record of leadership, strategy and innovation and he has earned the respect of his colleagues, industry partners and Canoe's ownership group," said Gina Mingioni, senior VP of strategy and operations at Comcast Advertising. "We have confidence in his ability to lead Canoe through this transitionary period to ensure the company's uninterrupted growth and success."

Canoe enables addressable TV advertising across linear, VOD and streaming video platforms, providing dynamic ad insertion into video services. It has more than 100 TV networks as clients.

"It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve as CEO of Canoe Ventures for the past 10 years, and to have been part of this company for more than 12 years," said Hassell. "I am proud of what we have accomplished over the years, helping to grow and scale addressable TV advertising. I have been in this industry for more than 30 years; I believe now is the right time to pass the torch to a new leader to take Canoe into the next phase of innovation. David is an experienced and valued leader, and I look forward to working closely with him over the next few months to ensure the business is positioned for long-term success." ■

Beachfront and Canoe Ventures said a group of TV networks have adopted Beachfront’s unified ad serving technology and Canoe’s Service Assurance, which inserts commercials across connected TV and traditional set-top-box TV.

The programmers employing the technology include Afro TV, It’s Real Good TV, Kabillion, ToonAVision and TV One, with Epix using it for in-house promos.  

“Unified ad serving across CTV and set-top box VOD supply is critical functionality that programmers are demanding as the lines between platforms continue to blur,” Beachfront CEO Chris Maccaro said. “Enabling interoperability of TV ad inventory for our clients and their ad operations teams is a feat that many platforms have been unable to accomplish. We’re thrilled to bolster our existing partnership with Canoe in a way that unlocks new revenue streams and more cost-efficient monetization options for programmers, and affords brands easier access to premium, cross-screen TV inventory.”

In addition to servicing direct-sold ads, programmers can use the technology from Beachfront and Canoe to create programmatic private marketplace deals.

“As the television landscape continues to fragment across traditional and streaming environments, programmers and media buyers alike are seeking more uniform ways to execute, service, and optimize their advertising campaigns,” Canoe senior VP and general manager Mark Shepard said. “Being able to offer campaign management through our existing Service Assurance offering and Beachfront’s ad server solves a major headache for our partners, streamlining the process of monetizing CTV and traditional TV ad inventory for programmers.”

Beachfront and Canoe said their technology gives programmers more efficiency, increased revenue and a clean ad experience for viewers. Advertisers and agencies can buy CTV and set-top box TV ad inventory through a single marketplace, reaching both traditional TV viewers and cord-cutters.

“Being able to scale our ad business across our traditional cable VOD and IPTV platforms are crucial to TV One’s growth,” TV One senior VP, network operations John Fant said. “And having great software and service like this optimizes our ad revenue possibilities.”

“Canoe has been at the forefront of advertising on TV, and now with the addition of Beachfront and the ability to combine CTV and [set-top box] VOD, we see the future growth to be exponential,” Kabillion president of programming and operations Stevan Levy said. ■

Former Hallmark Channel head Bill Abbott’s GAC Media said it has reached a new deal with Canoe Ventures to enable new multi-platform advanced advertising initiatives to support its tradition-minded programming.

Canoe will help GAC enable addressable TV and monetize new free-ad supported streaming TV channels.

GAC and Canoe had already been working together to optimize the revenue from GAC’s linear channels.

Abbott, a former ad sales exec, led a group that bought Great American Country and Ride TV and turned them into the family-friendly channels GAC Family and GAC Living. He has been working from the Hallmark playbook, stocking the new networks with holiday-themed programming, including a sackful of Christmas movies starring many of Hallmark viewer favorite actors and actresses.

“As GAC Media heads into its first upfront season, we’re pleased to be collaborating closely with Canoe,” said Paul Brennan, senior VP, advertising and digital sales at GAC Media. “Implementing national addressability within our trusted, family-friendly programming will help further differentiate Great American Channels and ultimately drive ROI and positive outcomes for our partners.”

Canoe enables addressable advertising across linear, VOD and streaming video platform and integrates dynamic ad insertion over a footprint of 38 million households. Canoe is owned by Comcast Charter Communications and Cox. 

“We are thrilled that GAC has put their trust in Canoe to help them grow their advertising business,” said Mark Shepard, senior VP, GM Core Business at Canoe. “Canoe core capabilities now reach far beyond our traditional VOD DAI business, and we are excited to bring these products to bear for GAC Media.” ■

Addressable advertising is coming to linear TV slowly because it’s hard to do, especially within the cable environment.

Putting relevant commercials in front of the right viewers requires getting legacy insertion equipment and set-top boxes to communicate with newfangled ad-management platforms. And if you want to do it programmatically — the way an increasing amount of ad dollars are coming into the market — a lot has to happen fast. That’s not easy to do, either.

That’s where Beachfront Media is staking its claim. The industry is clamoring for more inventory to be addressable and for that inventory to be available however buyers and clients want to transact.

While lots of companies jump into connected TV because it is growing fast and the digital architecture lends itself to addressability, Beachfront sees opportunity in the still-large number of cable subscribers and the fact that linear continues to draw the majority of ad spending.

Even if cord-cutting continues, “there’s going to be 20 to 30 million set-top boxes in homes for the foreseeable future,” Beachfront CEO Chris Maccaro said. “Building that interactivity is going to be important for at least the next decade.”

Spotted Need for Enablement

Beachfront started out in the supply-side platform business but has been pivoting from competing against larger ad networks into providing enablement technology. 

“We’re a technology company, not a sales company,” Maccaro said, noting that Beachfront employs engineers rather than salespeople. 

“Getting those systems to speak the same language is hard, and getting those systems to transact in anything close to real time is super-difficult, because it’s not how those systems were made to transact,” he said.

Beachfront works with multichannel video programming distributors in the U.S., including Frontier Communications, and abroad.

For its enablement work, Beachfront gets paid every time its system delivers an ad. To get to scale quickly, Beachfront also found opportunities to work with outfits with technology used by large portions of the industry, Canoe Ventures and SeaChange International.

SeaChange servers are used by cable operators around the world to insert addressable ads down to the ZIP code level. When Beachfront figured out how to get those SeaChange servers to respond to requests from programmatic buyers, MVPDs saw increased demand and revenue for their local ads.

Similarly, Beachfront developed a programmatic module to connect buyers to Canoe’s video-on-demand inventory from networks using Google Ad Manager or Canoe’s own ad management platform.

“We like them because they are real and they actually do real work,” Canoe Ventures senior VP of global sales and marketing Chris Pizzurro said of working with Beachfront. “And their stuff works.”

What makes Beachfront unique is its familiarity with cable plants. Canoe saw what Beachfront had done for Frontier and felt reasonably sure that something similar would work for Canoe. “They had already built something for this purpose,” Pizzurro said. “It was really about how they make their peanut butter talk to our jelly.”

Canoe is working with Beachfront to integrate systems as it moves into international markets including Latin America and India, Pizzurro said.

Pizzurro said the communication that goes on to collect programmatic bids and insert the right ad into the right program must happen in milliseconds. If it’s just a bit slow, the program will run without the ad and revenue is lost. 

But when it works, “the national guys are happy and the local guys are happy because everyone has more ad impressions to sell,” Pizzuro said.

Amobee, which starts its cross-platform campaigns for clients with linear, likes working with Beachfront. 

“What was appealing to us is they are in the linear space through video-on-demand and addressable set-top box inventory,” Amobee chief commercial officer Jack Bamberger said. “This was a perfect marriage between what they do and what we do as a technology provider, meeting our clients’ unmet needs.” 

Competition Is Gearing Up

Beachfront certainly has competitors. First of all, there’s Comcast owned FreeWheel, which so far has largely focused on inserting ads based on direct sales, as opposed to programmatically. 

Roku last month agreed to buy dynamic ad-insertion technology and the patents it is based on from Nielsen, which had been in testing mode.

And the large media companies — NBCUniversal, The Walt Disney Co, WarnerMedia — might all at some point decide to either build technology or bring it in-house as they build their advanced advertising and direct-to-consumer functions.

Despite the challenges, Maccaro said he thinks the Beachfront strategy is sound because building this technology is hard. “If you try to do it in a siloed approach, you miss the scale opportunity,” he said.

Maccaro said Beachfront is working on ways to address measurement and attribution. One key to its approach will be speed. 

Traditionally, the turnaround on letting buyers know when ads ran and what impact they had was measured in months. Beachfront already has it down to a week and is aiming to do it within an hour. 

“What we’re trying to do on linear is get our ducks in a row to make sure we give the demand side everything that they get today in a time that’s exponentially faster than they get it through a manual process,” Maccaro said. “The goal is to get them the data in real time so they can make optimization decisions in real time.”

Canoe Ventures was awarded a Technology and Engineering Emmy for cross-MVPD dynamic ad insertion for cable network video-on-demand content.

“We’re extremely honored to be recognized by the NATAS with a Technical and Engineering Emmy,” said Sid Gregory, Canoe’s CTO. “I will proudly accept this prestigious award on behalf of the Canoe team, our owner MVPDs, and our technology and programming partners, all of whom have worked tirelessly over the years to grow the availability of VOD content to over 35,000 titles.

Canoe was founded in 2008 by cable companies Comcast, Time Warner, Cox and Brighthouse to provide VOD and ad insertion technology. Working with multiple hardware and software partners, Canoe built a dynamic ad insertion (DAI) platform and integrated it with the unique VOD infrastructures of the four founding MVPDs.  

Today, VOD represents 15-20% of all television viewing while Canoe serves 85% of the 45 million U.S. households with VOD, resulting in an estimated $1.5 billion market.

Canoe will be honored at the 72nd Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards Ceremony, which is tentatively scheduled to be done virtually on Oct. 10.

Advertising technology company Beachfront, working with Canoe Ventures, is enabling automated, real-time audience-based buying of video-on-demand inventory delivered by Canoe’s owners, Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Media.

Like streaming, traditional cable VOD usage has grown during the pandemic. Cable VOD also offers advertisers familiar brand-safe premium programming. 

Related: Canoe, AMC Go Addressable Across Comcast, Charter Homes

“Sophisticated, digital-oriented ad buyers understand impressions are way up across the convergent TV ecosystem in 2020, but they’ve historically lacked easy pathways to accessing TV Network’s ad inventory on MVPD’s VOD platforms,” said Beachfront CEO Chris Maccaro. “We’ve spent the last several years tackling the technological hurdles to make it easy for any ad buyer to access these premium video impressions, while also laying the groundwork for future addressable-enabled solutions.”

Opening the door to programmatic buyers will help cable networks’ VOD inventory compete for ad dollars against streaming video and connected TV, whose technology was developed to provide targeted and addressable ad campaigns.

“We’re constantly seeking innovative ways to help complement our TV networks’ customers’ ad sales teams with new solutions to monetize the long-tail of their premium VOD inventory,” said Canoe CRO Ed Knudson. “Unlocking VOD inventory to a new class of ad buyers helps ensure networks get the most value out of their programming, which is particularly helpful at a time when on-demand viewing is on the rise.” 

Agencies, brands and demand-side platforms that utilize Beachfront can purchase VOD inventory from networks that can reach as many as 38 million VOD households. 

“Traditional TV inventory is still a big piece of the pie that many modern digital-oriented ad buyers don’t have access to,” said Adam Helfgott, CEO at MadHive, an enterprise software platform building tools to help buyers purchase digital TV inventory. “We’re excited to leverage our relationship with Beachfront to offer this unique set-top box VOD inventory to our ad buying partners.” 

CTAM, the cable network and operator-focused marketing trade association, has hired Vicki Lins as its new president and CEO, succeeding John Lansing, who is now CEO at the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Lins, like Lansing before her, has long experience in cable circles, though Lins's experience is more in marketing for the advertising side of the business. Most recently she was executive vice president and chief marketing officer for United Way Worldwide and Clear Channel Outdoor. Before Clear Channel, she spent 15 years at Comcast and Canoe Ventures. Before Comcast, she headed marketing and communications for Adlink.

After Lansing -- who succeeded longtime CEO Char Beales two years ago -- left in August, the group hired Howard Fischer Associates to search for a replacement. Mark Greatrex, the Cox Communications chief marketing and sales officer who chairs CTAM's board of directors, said in a release: "Vicki is first and foremost a seasoned senior marketer with deep experience in media and technology businesses. In turn, she has worked closely with distributors, programmers, suppliers and agencies, and has a strong network of connections that puts her in an optimum position to build bridges and align CTAM members as we move forward together. The selection committee uniformly agreed that she will bring new energy and perspective to help CTAM positively position the collective brand, strengthen the pay-TV business model, and market best-in-class consumer experiences.”

Lins, in the release, said: “I’m excited by the prospect of returning to the industry in this dynamic and fast-paced business environment, and to build on CTAM’s highly-regarded successes. In addition to the programs and products CTAM develops, I believe the organization is well-positioned to elevate and amplify the innovative consumer experiences that CTAM members provide today and are developing for the future."

CTAM's mission lately has been to trumpet the value of TV everywhere, or online viewing tied in with pay-TV subscriptions.