Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising company, said it launched Monetize TV, an audience-based selling platform.
With its self-service system, Monetize TV lets buyers access audience-based campaigns with some of the largest TV networks.
Programmers using Monetize TV include A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Crown Media Family Networks, Discovery, Disney Ad Sales and WarnerMedia.
Xandr is looking to have the platform handle converged TV and streaming campaigns in the future.
“As TV viewership moves to digital channels, buyers want the granular targeting and measurement benefits of digital on TV. As such, sellers need to be able to offer optimized proposals for advanced audience targets for their linear inventory,” said Mark Mitchell, VP, business development, TV platform, Xandr. “Monetize TV's effort to standardize audience-based transactions is essential to scaling the TV marketplace.”
AT&T is reportedly in talks to sell Xandr. The phone company has been moving to get out of the media business, having divested DirecTV and announcing plans to spin off WarnerMedia and sell it to Discovery.
Media owners can use Monetize TV to build audiences using Nielsen and first-party data, forecast viewership and generate optimized proposals across networks and dayparts.
“Discovery remains committed to providing our advertising partners with transactional flexibility across our premium content portfolio and massive audience reach," said Steve Silvestri, senior VP, audience solutions at Discovery. “The launch of Xandr's Monetize TV comes at a critical time, bringing advanced insights to the marketplace that expand the value of our inventory as we continue to move forward in audience-based TV advertising."
Transactions can be complete directly or through Xandr’s Invest TV platform.
“Xandr’s unified platform has been critical as we adopt buying strategies that go beyond the basic demographic data of linear TV,” said Larry Hunt, executive director, video investment at media agency Hearts and Science. “Through Monetize TV’s integration with Invest TV, we’re able to seamlessly scale audience-based buys across some of the largest media owners like Discovery, with standardized transactions and optimized proposals that best deliver the custom audience segments our clients want to reach.”
