OpenX Technologies and Oracle have made a deal to bring Oracle Audiences to connected TV through OpenX’s supply-side platform.

With spending on connected-TV advertising increasing rapidly, the integration is designed to make buying targeted inventory easier and provide greater scale and reach, the companies said.

The deal marks the first time Oracle audience data has been integrated into a supply-side platform for CTV.

OpenX’s platform is unique because its Open Audience offering has a built-in identity spine, enabling it to match its inventory to audiences defined by Oracle data and make it available to programmatic buyers.

The OpenX device graph has 67 million CTV households.

“We package the segments into deal IDs on our side and make them available to the buyer,” Mike Chowla, senior VP, product at OpenX, told Broadcasting+Cable.

OpenX enabled buyers to access inventory from content partners, including Warner Bros. Discovery, Hallmark Media, Crackle, AMC Networks, Paramount and Fox.

Often when buyers request inventory through a demand-side platform, the DSP only takes a fraction of the inventory available from an SSP. With Oracle Audiences integrated on its platform OpenX can filter the request and send the DSP what we think they’re most likely to buy,” Chowla said. “There is a big advantage in the kind of reach you can get doing your targeting on the supply side.”

Initially, OpenX will have 500 of Oracle’s audiences available to advertisers “off the shelf,” Tim Carr, head of product marketing for Oracle, said. Additional audiences from Oracle’s library can be sent over to an advertiser as a custom audience to use in campaigns.

Chowla said he’s seeing an increase in supply-side targeting across the industry. OpenX and Oracle are making it easier and more economical.

“The growth of CTV and retail media has driven a new spotlight to SSPs and their ability to facilitate the type of deals buyers need and we were really excited to step in with OpenX and get something started,” Brent Gaskamp, VP of platform partnerships at Oracle, said.

The integration with OpenX will also help buyers make transactions in private marketplaces, where programmatic TV deals tend to get done.

The integration with OpenX will also provide buyers with a closer link to the data creating a higher quality connection.

Gaskamp said integrating with OpenX was accomplished pretty quickly. “OpenX really had great tools on their side to connect to,” Gaskamp said.

Oracle’s data spine was originally built to connect offline retail purchase data to the online world. Gaskamp said. The integration with OpenX brings Oracle into the world of CTV and television more broadly.

Oracle clients will now be able to use data they’ve been using to target and measure their digital display and digital video advertising for CTV, Gaskamp said.

“Being able to have a consistent data signal that they can use across those media investment becomes really important for a lot of buyers,” he said. “Having similar targets and similar data sets can truly show them where performance is happening in many cases, so a lot of our advertiser partners are excited about these capabilities.”

While Oracle has made this initial SSP CTV deal with OpenX, other integrations may be on the horizon.

“We’re agnostic and we’re reaching our customers wherever they want us to be,” Gaskamp said. “Whether it’s agencies or brands asking us to show up with Oracle data in different platforms and different areas, we’ll continue to expand for sure.”

Oracle Advertising said it is collaborating with Dish Media to target addressable advertising campaigns reaching Dish TV and Sling TV subscribers.

Oracle also said it has created 110 new connected TV-specific audience segments to help marketers reach consumers based on over-the-top streaming viewership and CTV device ownership.

The new CTV segments, targeting views based on online behavior, demographics and other criteria, are available via demand-side platforms, Oracle Advertising said.

Oracle said its work with Dish Media enables marketers to send different ads to specific households. An automaker could advertise a minivan to a household with young children and a couple to a household with a single adult.

Also Read: Cable Giants Enlist Dish, Vizio To Fix Addressable Logjam

Oracle said its Orcle ID Graph can do this while protecting a brand’s first-party data as well as consumer privacy.

“Oracle Audiences, part of Oracle Advertising and Customer Experience, enables marketers to reach relevant audiences, maximize ad spend, and deliver more effective campaigns,” said Marc Grabowski, group VP, Oracle Advertising in a blog post. “With more than 50,000 audience segments, Oracle’s curated data assets span all verticals and data types, including purchase-based, online behavioral, demographic, and more. Marketers are then able to reach anonymized audiences most relevant to their business, wherever they’re engaged.”

Dish’s work with Oracle comes on top of its addressable advertising campaigns with other networks and data providers.

"Dish Media’s collaboration with Oracle Advertising allows marketers to buy from hundreds of audience segments available, with the flexibility to incorporate their own data set for precise activation on Dish TV and Sling TV,” said Kemal Bokhari, general manager, data and analytics at Dish Media. “Dish Media has strong match rates with the industry leading Oracle ID Graph and we are pleased to offer expanded targeting solutions for our clients.”

In a big victory for Google and fair use fans, the Supreme Court has ruled that Google's copying of Oracle's Java computer code (11,500 lines to be exact) for its API, part of its creation of a new Android software platform for mobile devices, was fair use.

It is the latest, and apparently final, twist in a years-long legal battle.

The Supreme Court back in November agreed to hear the appeal of two decisions that Google's copying of a portion of the Java application API to Android, so programmers could more easily write apps for Android phones, was a violation of copyright.  The decisions means others can now create interoperable systems without fear of violating copyright.

"The outcome, which has sweeping implications for the tech industry, means the reuse of certain program elements necessary for interoperability is fair use and not an infringement of copyright law," said the Computer & Communications Association (CCIA), whose members include Google, Amazon Facebook and Mozilla.

The decision was 6-2 with Justices Alito and Thomas dissenting and Justice Barrett recused.

Oracle had charged copyright violation. A jury had ruled it was fair use, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which handles copyright cases, had reversed the decision, saying that the lines of code were copyrightable and remaining the case back to the court for a trial on damages 

Google appealed to the High Court.

The Supreme Court concluded, in a ruling handed down Monday (April 5) and delivered by Justice Breyer, that "The fact that computer programs are primarily functional makes it difficult to apply traditional copyright concepts in that
technological world. Applying the principles of the Court’s precedents and Congress’ codification of the fair use doctrine to the distinct copyrighted work here, the Court concludes that Google’s copying of the API to reimplement a user interface, taking only what was needed to allow users to put their accrued talents to work in a new and transformative program, constituted a fair use of that material as a matter of law."

"In a sense, the declaring code was the key that it needed to unlock the programmers’ creative energies. And it needed those energies to create and to improve its own innovative Android systems," Breyer wrote, abnd said the court did not believe Google could have achieved a Java compatible product by only copying the 170 lines that Oracle allows programmers to copy to werte in the Java language.  

Breyer said the court decision does not "overturn or modify" other faiir use cases involving "knockoff' products, journalistic writings, and parodies.

The majority said even those 11,500 lines of the declaring code in Java's API was only a small portion of the entire code, but the dissenters, with Justice Thomas writing the opinion and Justice Alito joining, said the relevant code was the subset of declaring code, so Google's copying was more than just a little bit.

"Even if Google’s use were transformative, the majority is wrong to conclude that Google copied only a small portion of the original work," Thomas wrote.  "The majority points out that the 11,500 lines of declaring code—enough to fill about 600 pages in an appendix, ere just a fraction of the code in the Java platform. But the proper denominator is declaring code, not all code. A copied work is quantitatively substantial if it could “serve as a market substitute for the original” work or “potentially licensed derivatives” of that work. The declaring code is what attracted programmers. And it is what made Android a 'market substitute' for 'potentially licensed derivatives' of Oracle’s Java platform," Thomas write. "Google’s copying was both qualitatively and quantitatively substantial."

“After more than a decade of litigation this ruling is a win for interoperability, copyright principles and the future of innovation," said CCIA, which backed Google in the court fight with Oracle. "The high court’s decision that fair use extends to the functional principles of computer code means companies can offer competing, interoperable products....Nearly every computer program, once copied, can be used to create new products. Surely the majority would not say that an author can pirate the next version of Microsoft Word simply because he can use it to create new manuscripts."

“The Supreme Court came to the right decision here," said John Bergmayer, legal director for fair use advocate Public Knowledge. "The jury at the trial court concluded that Google’s use of the Java API was a fair use, and the Court’s own fair use analysis came to the same conclusion."

“Today’s Supreme Court decision is a win for fair use, computer programmers and American consumers," said Re:Create Executive Director Joshua Lamel (https://www.recreatecoalition.org/recreate-statement-on-u-s-supreme-court-decision-in-favor-of-fair-use-in-google-v-oracle/. "The court makes it clear that programmers can use declaring code without permission as a fair use in order to write their own new, creative implementing code. Copyright’s purpose is to promote, not hinder creativity, and the Supreme Court reaffirmed the importance of fair use in finding that balance. It made clear that Oracle’s attempt here would have had a negative impact on the creativity of programmers."

Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen told analysts Monday that its much awaited wireless service is expected to launch in its first major market in Q3, adding that the satellite giant doesn’t necessarily need a strategic partner to help it build what he said is going to be a state-of-the-art 5G network.

Dish has been accumulating spectrum and finalizing plans to build out its wireless system -- it forged a deal with T-Mobile in 2019 where it will pay $3.6 billion over three years for 800MHz spectrum -- and Ergen said its first major market should go live in the third quarter. He didn’t name the city, only to say it will be an NFL market. 

Also Read: Ergen: We Stumbled with Sling TV 

Ergen also put the kibosh on speculation as to who Dish’s strategic partner in the wireless venture will be. Early on, the Dish chairman speculated that he would need a deep-pocketed partner -- some had speculated it would be Amazon -- to help him build out the service. Now, fresh off a convertible notes offering in December that raised $2 billion, and with about $4 billion in cash on its balance sheet, Ergen said Dish has the funding he needs. He likened the company’s current situation to the early days of the satellite TV business. 

“I think we always thought we might need a strategic partner when we didn’t have any capital,” Ergen said, referring to the early days of Dish’s satellite business. But just like that time, he said once the company’s vision became clear, and it began to hit execution milestones, that partner was no longer needed.

Also Read: Dish Loses 133,000 Subs But 4Q Earnings Increase 

“Ultimately, we got confident enough and good enough in what we were doing, that it just made sense to keep the equity,” Ergen continued. “And it didn’t make sense to give up the equity. I think we’re probably in a similar situation today, in the sense that we do have enough capital on our balance sheet today to build our network.”

In the past, Ergen had estimated that its wireless network would cost about $10 billion to build, although some analysts have said that figure may be dangerously low. 

Although Dish may not need a partner to get its wireless service off the ground, it will likely need one after its launches have passed the test phase. Ergen said that already Dish has enlisted tower companies as partners and has other companies in the pipeline. The company has said earlier that one of its next steps would be in seeking out an agreement with a cloud provider like Oracle, Microsoft or Amazon.  While that decision hasn’t been made yet, Ergen said the network’s cloud provider has to be “best in class technically” and there are several vendors that can live up to that criteria. Later, EVP of corporate development Tom Cullen, said “We clearly expect our cloud partner will have to bring a go-to-market component to the relationship.” 

Dish’s wireless network will utilize Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) architecture, which Ergen said allows for more flexibility, lower costs and the network slicing capabilities of its cloud-native technology should be attractive to enterprise business customers.

“So they can have what looks like their own network, and they get access to the data in the cloud where they can actually use that data to make a better product,  a less expensive product and a safer product,” Ergen said. 

Ergen said he isn’t expecting the first market launch for the wireless product to go without a hitch. Like most new rollouts, he expects some glitches, but added Dish will work quickly to iron out any bugs by the time the next market goes live. Dish is up against federal deadlines to have about 20% of the country covered by June 2022, and 70% by June of 2023. 

“We’re not going to be running on our first city, we’ll be crawling,” Ergen said. “And hopefully we’ll be walking by the end of the year.”

At the same time, Dish will be facing a big shakeup in its Boost prepaid wireless business. In its 10-K annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Dish noted that it has been informed by T-Mobile that it will discontinue its CDMA network on Jan. 1, 2022. Dish said the majority of Boost customers ride on the T-Mobile CDMA network, meaning that once the network is shutdown, Dish will have to provide a huge number of customers with new devices. On the call, Ergen doubted that could be done.

Ergen said that most Boost customers are “economically challenged” and having to upgrade from one phone that works on the CDMA network to another phone that works on a different network, could be a burden. In addition, that new phone wouldn’t work on Dish’s new network, because it is 5G. 

“If you run the numbers on that, and there would be significant fallout in my opinion,” Ergen said. “The second thing is, I don't even think we could get the supply of the phones we would need. You can’t order phones and not know that you could move the phones, and the supply is somewhat limited of the phones we would need for that.”

On the positive side, he said the Boost team  has shown that they can turn around things in a short period of time. Later, he hinted that there may be a regulatory solution. 

Asked later if he had contacted the Federal Communications Commission about T-Mobile’s CDMA shutdown, Ergen said he hadn’t spoken to the agency personally, but it is possible one of his staff may have. He added he believed T-Mobile’s decision to discontinue the CDMA service is anti-competitive.

“I can’t speak to the motivations,” Ergen said. “But what we can say is that one of the beneficiaries of a premature turn off of the CDMA network would be T-Mobile.” 

TVision, which measures TV commercial engagement, said it has begun projecting audiences at the personal level for advanced advertising players including Oracle Data Cloud, Xandr, VideoAmp and iSpot.

TVision said the companies it works with can combine its Advanced Audience Projections with their own census data to project individual behaviors across similar homes, allowing them to more precisely target campaigns.

“Incorporating TVision data into our data-driven advertising platform maximizes the value we can drive to media owners and media buyers,” said Jason Burke, VP, strategy at AT&T’s Xandr unit. “This powerful big data set allows for planning, optimizing and measuring person-level association of premium video viewership, which is a critical element of TV advertising.” 

Also Read: TVision Launches CTV Ad Measurement Platform

The AAP data set can be used for TV attribution at the person level, reach and frequency analysis, co-viewing valuation and cross-platform measurement.

"Person-level data is a key component to measuring ad performance as we work to help advertisers understand true reach, and attention for their TV ads. With TVision AAP we are able to add a deeper layer of insights to our already robust measurement offering," said Robert Bareuther, senior VP, business development at iSpot.tv.

“With TVision AAP we can deliver the granular and actionable insights on audience attention and viewing patterns to complete the cross-platform picture our customers are asking for. By meeting this critical market need, we can now provide a more comprehensive and individual level view of consumers and how they engage and respond to ads across all of the touch-points in their day,” added Kevin Whitcher, VP of new product development at Moat by Oracle Data Cloud. 

Also Read: As Viewing Rose, Attention Fell, TVision Report Finds

TVision provides TV buyers and sellers with detailed, granular data TV viewing behaviors, including attention and engagement via its software as a service platform.

“Households do not view ads. People view ads. But previously our industry has only been able to measure TV ad reach at the household level. AAP solves this problem,” said Yan Liu, CEO of TVision. “The industry is now able to support various data applications such as TV attribution, reach and frequency optimization at the individual level, in a manner similar to digital.”

President Donald Trump has given his sign-off on a deal for Oracle and Walmart to take over TikTok, the Chinese-backed social media video app.

It was not a done deal at press time Saturday night (Sept. 19), but given that development, the Commerce Department is delaying its move to boot TikTok from app stores from Sept. 20 to Sept 27.

Related: Hawley Says U.S. Should Reject Oracle/TikTok Deal

"In light of recent positive developments, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, at the direction of President Trump, will delay the prohibition of identified transactions pursuant to Executive Order 13942, related to the TikTok mobile application."

Trump said Saturday that he thought it would be a fantastic deal with technology "superior to anything in the world." 

Related: TikTok Reportedly Close to Sale

He said it would mean a lot of jobs--at last 25,000 hired he said--and a lot of money for the country, including billions of dollars in taxes and a $5 billion contribution for a fund to educate America's youth Trump said he had asked for. "Everybody will be happy," he said.

The new company will most likely be incorporated in Texas and "have nothing to do with China," he said, but will continue to be called TikTok.

TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, is reportedly close to selling the short-form video company’s Western operations to a U.S. company, with Oracle bidding against a joint effort from Walmart and Microsoft to pay a sales price said to range from $20 billion to $30 billion. 

The news comes as TikTok’s recently appointed CEO, former Disney DTC chief Kevin Mayer, abruptly stepped down late Wednesday.

TikTok: Everything You Need to Know About the Hottest Video App in America

“The way TikTok has integrated e-commerce and advertising capabilities in other markets is a clear benefit to creators and users in those markets,” Walmart said in a statement sent to CNBC. “We believe a potential relationship with TikTok U.S. in partnership with Microsoft could add this key functionality and provide Walmart with an important way for us to reach and serve omnichannel customers as well as grow our third-party marketplace and advertising businesses. We are confident that a Walmart and Microsoft partnership would meet both the expectations of U.S. TikTok users while satisfying the concerns of U.S. government regulators.”

Oracle, meanwhile, is reportedly also in the running to acquire TikTok’s U.S., Canadian, Australian and New Zealand operations from Chinese parent company ByteDance. The Trump Administration is said to be favoring Oracle’s bid. Notably, Oracle founder Larry Ellison is a Trump supporter, even conducting a fundraiser for him at his home.

According to the Wall Street Journal, ByteDance’s U.S. investors, which include Sequoia Capital and General Atlantic, also favor Oracle, as they see the Silicon Valley company as their best bet to get a “piece of the action” from TikTok’s ongoing operations. 

All of this activity has occurred after Trump declared TikTok, which has more than 100 million monthly active users, a domestic security threat. His executive order earlier this month mandates that the platform be sold to a U.S. company by Sept. 15 or be shut down. 

This week, for example, ByteDance filed suit against the Trump Administration, pushing back on one of the executive orders banning transactions by U.S. companies with ByteDance by U.S. companies.

As companies wishing to buy TikTok face a deadline to submit bids, it’s still unclear if ByteDance actually plans to sell the company.

For his part, however, Mayer is out, just over two months after departing Disney to lead TikTok. Vanessa Pappas, the head of TikTok’s U.S. business, will run TikTok, the company said in an internal memo to employees.

Also read: Ex-Disney Exec Mayer Leaving TikTok

“Since joining, I have been incredibly impressed with the team and the company. In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up for,” Mayer said in a memo to staff Thursday. 

“Against this backdrop, and as we expect to reach a resolution very soon, it is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company,” Mayer said. “I want to be clear that this decision has nothing to do with the company, what I see in our future, or the believe I have in what we are building,” Mayer added. 

Oracle's Data Cloud will be using iSpot.tv’s ad measurement for the TV portion of its Moat Reach product, according to an iSpot blog post.

Oracle will use iSpot’s real-time impression verification and attention scoring for the TV portion of Moat Reach.

Related: Fox Using iSpot Data to Benchmark Ad Impacts

"True cross-platform measurement — understanding which real people actually receive which ads across platforms — is one of the most foundational questions of advertising,” said Kevin Whitcher, VP of product management at Oracle Data Cloud.

Related: iSpot.tv adds TiVo Data to Ad Measurement System

“We’re thrilled to work with iSpot to bring TV and digital ad viewership data together in a way that meaningfully moves the industry forward. When you really break it down to first principles, our collaboration with iSpot allows advertisers and publishers to finally know which real people received an ad that means something to them. To me, this is the fundamental job of a marketer,” Whitcher said.

The iSpot.tv platform verifies every time a video ad hits the screen of a TV and tells how long the impression lasted. Big brands use the iSpot.tv data to optimize TV investments and networks use it to sell in new and different ways.

iSpot.TV last month teamed up with Neustar to offer marketers multi-touch attribution across TV and digital campaigns.

TechNet has named Peter Chandler director of federal policy and government relations, tapping a veteran House Democratic staffer as that body prepares to shift from Republican to Democratic control in January.

He will head up the group's advocacy with Democratic policymakers beginning Dec. 5.

Chandler has been chief of staff to Rep. Debbie Dingell, who succeeded her iconic husband, Rep. John Dingell, as a Democratic rep from Michigan and joined the House Energy & Commerce Committee in her second term.

TechNet members are an eclectic group that includes Oracle, Comcast-NBCU, AT&T, Google, Paypal, Microsoft, GM and WGBH TV Boston. The group promotes pro-tech innovation policies in Washington.

Related: Groups Petition Trump for Infrastructure Boost

The group has pushed back on President Trump's tech-related tariffs on Chinese goods, for example, and a return to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but backed the corporate tax cut and R&D tax credit and other parts of the President's tax reform bill.

It also supports using vacant broadcast spectrum between TV channels for unlicensed use, a big priority for member Microsoft.

"With over two decades of experience in public policy and campaigns, Peter Chandler has cemented himself as a strong leader who knows how to build coalitions and advance policies that improve peoples' lives," said TechNet president Linda Moore. "Peter will be a great asset to TechNet as we work to preserve the tech industry's indispensable role as an engine for job creation, economic growth, and innovative solutions to the world's biggest challenges."

Google continues to place ads on websites that promote false information, despite saying it wouldn't, according to the Campaign for Accountability (CFA).

Google suggested CFA is the one putting out false information.

CFA said that based on a study it conducted and has just released, Google "continues to partner with hyper-partisan sites that often post inaccurate information, and permits publishers to conceal their identities from advertisers so the company can continue to place ads on these anonymous websites."

The group said that the anonymous publishers contributed eight times as much revenue per publisher than non-anonymized publishers. The Oracle-backed CFA said that Google earned $48.8 million from the right-wing sites in the study, which it said were often responsible for publishing "highly misleading" content, or 68% of the revenue from the sites in the sample, compared with getting only 4% of revenue from the left-wing sites in the sample.

That was based on analyzing 1,255 "partisan" news sites, among which CFA said 184 hid their names.

"This 'report' is completely inaccurate," said Google spokesperson Suzanne Blackburn. "A large number of the sites included in the 'research' are major publishers, such as the Washington Post, Fox News, Politico and the L.A. Times, while hundreds of others don’t even run ads by Google. We have extensive policies that restrict publishers in our ad network from misleading, misrepresenting and deceiving users and advertisers — we enforce these policies vigorously. This is just another example of Oracle’s discredited 'Campaign for Accountability' throwing mud at us because of their lawsuit against Android."

As to the sites being anonymous, a Google source said on background that sometimes publishers will be anonymous in ad exchanges to avoid channel conflict, but that "anonymous" does not mean they are anonymous to Google or enforcement. Advertisers can also choose to prevent their ads from appearing on anonymous sites if they choose.

Silicon Valley powerhouse Oracle has given FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's Restoring Internet Freedom proposal a thumbs up, saying it is an "important and positive" step forward in "modernizing regulations in the complex and converging broadband world."

That includes reclassifying ISPs as information services and returning the FTC to the broadband enforcement beat.

That endorsement came in a letter to Pai dated Friday (May 5) from Oracle SVP Kenneth Glueck and obtained by Multichannel News/B&C. Oracle is one of the Silicon Valley companies Pai met with recently to seek input on next steps for net neutrality, including "securing online consumer protections."

Pai is proposing to un-classify ISPs as Title II (common carrier) telecommunications services, get the FCC out of the interconnection regulation business under Title II, eliminate the "general conduct standard" for reviewing ISP business and network management practices and review the Open Internet rules against blocking, throttling or paid prioritization of content.

That is in the form of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking teed up for a May 18 vote and which will ask a lot of questions about how to preserve net neutrality going forward.

Oracle is no fan of the FCC's Open Internet order reclassifying ISPs under Title II. "[T]he stifling open internet regulations and broadband classification that the FCC put in place in 2015 – for just one aspect of the internet ecosystem – threw out both the technological consensus and the certainty needed for jobs and investment," Glueck said, clearly preaching to the choir when it comes to the new chairman, who voted against the order citing similar concerns.

Glueck also said that, from the company's perspective, what should have been a tech discussion about traffic management had morphed into a hyperbolic political battle "substantially" removed from reality.

That reality, it suggests, is that power resides not just in ISPs but in the other 'net actors.

"As an architect and provider of technologies throughout the communications stack and public internet, Oracle powers the routing and transformation of data by the many actors in the internet," Oracle says. "ecosystem – bringing content and services to customers. The concept that traditional internet access providers are exclusively transmitting unchanged data point-to-point is foreign to our own experiences and observations.4 And, focusing only on traditional internet access providers ignores the largest and most dominant internet players from a consumer perspective."

The company applauded the move to reclassify Internet access as an information service, as  well restoring authority to the Federal Trade Commission, saying it will "eliminate unnecessary burdens on, and competitive imbalances for, ISPs while enhancing the consumer experience and driving investment."

It calls the FTC "an impartial cop on the broadband beat with authority to reach all of the participants in the internet economy."

Reversing the Title II classification would immediately return broadband privacy oversight to the FTC, which could also potentially police net neutrality pledges made by ISPs under voluntary commitment, something Pai is said to have been considering as one possible approach.

“While not totally surprising, the strength and clarity of Oracle’s statement in support of Pai’s proposed rollback is certainly welcome," said Randolph May, president of Free State Foundation, a free market think tank backing the rollback. " Oracle is a major supplier of key components of the Internet’s infrastructure, and it has to be concerned about the current regime’s adverse impact on investment by Internet service providers. Oracle’s recognition that it is wrong-headed to regulate ISPs so much more harshly than the content providers is welcome, too. Without naming names, Oracle reminded those who will listen that power resides not just in ISPs, but with the edge providers. Maybe at some point, many more tech companies will realize its a dangerous game they are playing. Remember the old saying: ’Those who ride on the back of a tiger are likely to end up inside.’ In this case, that means that the Internet giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and so forth, may end up inside the harmful regulatory regime that want to maintain for the ISPs.”

FCC chair Ajit Pai said Thursday (April 20) that he met with Facebook, Cisco, Oracle, Intel in Silicon Valley this week to talk about an open internet and consumer protections.

Pai was responding to questions in a post-FCC meeting press conference Thursday (April 20).

He said the conversation was not about any pending proceeding, but outside of that context he was soliciting input on how to "Secure online consumer protections."

He said that he has been consistent in saying that he favors a free and open Internet and opposes Title II.

According to sources he has talked with telecom trade groups about what to do next on network neutrality, including possibly have the Federal Trade Commission enforce voluntary commitments not to block or degrade, but he signaled at the press conference that that was part of the same input-collection process generally and not about any pending proceeding.

A reporter had noted that there had been no ex parte filing on that meeting, which would be required if it had dealt with a proceeding currently before the commission.

Pai said he did not outline a regulatory plan for rolling back Title II in that trade group meeting. "We did not discuss the merits of any pending proceeding," he said, but, again, generally how to "secure some of those principles of a free and open Internet that I think most people agree on."

Pai said he was "reaching out and trying to solicit a diversity of views among a diversity of stakeholders" and that he thought for their part they recognized, as he did, that "there is a lot of common ground here with respect to the need for a free and open Internet."

Oracle has been signed on to help Charter Communications deliver addressable ads to its base of about 16.5 million TV subs, AdWeek reported from this week’s Oracle Data Summit in New York.

The deal marks the entry into the targeted TV ad sector for Oracle Data Cloud, the unit that supplies data and analytics to marketers and publishers.

Spectrum Reach is the Charter unit focused on advanced advertising for digital, set-top VOD and addressable/data products.

“We are trying to get to a place where we take standardized segmentation that we’ve pre-created and build it into [Charter’s] system,” Joe Kyriakoza, head of autos and TV solutions for Oracle Data Cloud, told AdWeek.  “We can help them understand segments of frequent buyers of toothpaste, frequent buyers of certain kinds of vehicles, frequent buyers of kinds of clothing lines.”

Oracle this week inked a deal to acquire Moat, a digital measurement company that counts clients such as ESPN, Facebook, NBCUniversal, Snapchat and YouTube.

RELATED: Oracle Buys Digital Measurement Specialist Moat

Oracle has struck a deal to acquire Moat, a digital measurement company that counts clients such as ESPN, Facebook, NBCUniversal, Snapchat and YouTube.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but Oracle said Moat will join its Oracle Data Cloud unit which supplies data and analytics to marketers and publishers, but that Moat will also remain an “independent platform.”

Oracle hopes Moat will complement its platform, already used by brands such as Nestle, Proctor & Gamble and Unilever.

Oracle noted in its Q&A about the deal that it is reviewing Moat’s product roadmap.

Silicon Valley giant Oracle has asked new FCC chairman Ajit Pai to rethink the FCC's broadband privacy framework, saying former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler's characterization of ISPs as gatekeepers was off the mark and to "repudiate" what called the Wheeler FCC's policies "favoring one technology sub-sector over all others."

That came in a letter to Pai this week asking the FCC not only to rethink the broadband privacy rules but to reclassify Internet access as an information service to "eliminate unnecessary burdens on, and competitive imbalances for, ISPs while still preserving the free and open Internet."

The commission is currently collecting comments on a petition by ISPs, advertisers and others to rethink the broadband privacy rules, passed by a politically divided FCC last October with Pai and fellow Republican Michael O’Rielly dissenting.

The company praised Pai for the FCC's vote to stay implementation of the data privacy portion of the broadband privacy rules as well.

Reversing the Title II telecom classification would essentially moot the broadband privacy rules, which stemmed from Title II. That is unless the privacy rules are invalidated by congressional Republicans.

Oracle said ISPs are now subject to dozens of rules to which "others in the online ecosystem," which would be the online content providers like Google and Facebook, are not.

Oracle said it was looking for some "regulatory neutrality."

The company also asked the FCC to close the set-top box proceeding, which Wheeler failed to push through after Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel had some issues with the FCC's oversight role over contracts. The company attributed that effort to the Wheeler FCC's "ill-advised interventionist instinct."

"The Wheeler FCC pushed an item that would have fundamentally altered MVPD market dynamics and seemingly handed one company the keys to the MVPD kingdom [it did not say "Google," but that was the reference], including incredibly valuable data regarding MVPD customers."

The docket remains open, though odds for approving the revamp in a Republican-led FCC are slim to none. " Adopting a technology mandate to force 'competitive'  set-top boxes in 2017 feels a lot like mandating automakers to install 8-track cassette players in 2017," the company told Pai.

Oracle encouraged Pai to work with the Federal Trade Commission to level the competitive playing field, an instance of preaching to the choir since Pai has already teamed up with acting FTC Chair Maureen Ohlhausen to promise to do just that.

TiVo Research said it will integrate its data into the Oracle Data Cloud, making it easier for advertisers to measure television audiences on their digital devices.

The deal will also help TV networks and programmers measure the impact of digital campaigns on viewership.

“This integration will give advertisers the ability to extend their TV media campaigns to reach viewers on their computers, cell phones, and other digital devices,” said Tara Maitra, TiVo’s senior VP, General Manager Content & Media Sales, in a statement. “It will also help TV networks and programmers connect the dots between TV and digital audiences to help marketers make better decisions.”

Read more at B&C.