Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Communications have teamed up with ad sales company NCC Media to form a new division within NCC to design, deploy and sell unified advertising solutions across the country to participating NCC partners.
The group will use non-personally identifying data and targeting capabilities to create advanced advertising products and will launch later this year. NCC is jointly owned by Comcast, Charter and Cox and provides national, regional and local marketers with advertising solutions that allow them reach consumers via TV programming and targeted online content on every screen.
"Today's announcement is a natural extension of the great work we are already doing with Charter, Cox and NCC Media in cable advertising. Together with our partners, we have new opportunities to build advanced advertising solutions that deliver scale, consistency and reliability," said Comcast Cable CEO David Watson in a statement.
Comcast Media 360, Comcast Spotlight's former national advertising sales team, will form the foundation of the group together with resources from NCC Media, Charter and Cox. The group will build products that deliver targeted audiences across linear and video on demand (VOD) platforms. It will drive research, data and analytic capabilities to provide consistency in how the advertising industry measures the effectiveness of an advertisement and simplify how agencies manage campaigns.
"This new group within NCC Media has the ability to make a major impact for all players within the advertising landscape," said Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge in a statement. "It has the power to transform the way we measure advertising effectiveness across linear and VOD through best-in-class data and technology."
Andrew Ward, who currently serves as vice president of CM360, will head the new group as general manager. Ward, a 15-year veteran of NCC Media, has more than 30 years experience in the ad business. At Comcast Spotlight he launched the company's addressable advertising platform as well as new data and analytic capabilities.
"In today's rapidly changing media marketplace, advertisers are looking for scale, reliability and proven results to reach audiences across devices and time," Ward said in a statement. "Charter, Comcast, Cox and NCC Media are uniquely positioned to lead this industry evolution with integrated advertising solutions driven by non-personal data, precise audience delivery and robust performance measurement."
NCC Media's board is spearheading the initiative, led by David Kline, executive vice president and president of media sales at Charter Communications; Billy Farina, senior vice president at Cox Media; and Marcien Jenckes, president of advertising at Comcast Cable.
"Together with Charter, Comcast and NCC Media, we have the scale needed to provide even better value to our customers, and we are committed to defining clear standards around measurement that will help marketers better plan, buy and execute campaigns," said Cox president Pat Esser in a statement.
