FreeWheel and NBCUniversal Announce Landmark Partnership to Automate and Optimize Linear Ad Decisioning Across All NBCU Properties
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, FreeWheel, A Comcast Company (Nasdaq: CMCSA) announced a breakthrough in linear/digital convergence: FreeWheel will be leading ad decisioning across all NBCUniversal (NBCU) properties using their new AutoScheduler technology. The new capabilities will begin to transform the way that NBCU clients buy linear TV advertising from the company, making the end-to-end process simpler and laying the foundation for digital ad insertion (DAI) and full linear/digital unification across the NBCU portfolio for campaign execution and pacing.
The AutoScheduler tool streamlines NBCU’s scheduling process by analyzing ad breaks within linear campaigns, along with various configurable business parameters, and automatically filling the complete schedule. The tool brings market-leading technology to the automatic placement of ads, dynamically placing spots across the full roster of NBCU networks and enabling more efficient delivery against a marketer’s target demographic.
“Our goal is to help marketers reach any audience at scale, on any screen,” said Ryan McConville, EVP, Ad Platforms and Operations, NBCUniversal. “With the same discipline and response time as a digital ad server, the AutoScheduler technology will help clients reach their target demos across linear with accuracy and precision. The technology was built to align optimization capabilities of a linear traffic log with a modern-day ad server.”
In February, NBCU unveiled their new One Platform technology solutions to give marketers the power to reach audiences across the full NBCUniversal ecosystem, with data-informed impressions. By partnering with FreeWheel, NBCU is doubling down on their mission to create a simpler, more accessible ecosystem for all advertisers.
“This partnership optimizes and simplifies the planning and buying process like never before, laying the foundation for full unification of linear and digital video – which has long been the ultimate vision for our industry,” said Dave Clark, General Manager, FreeWheel. “Our goal at FreeWheel is to reduce complexity in the media landscape by more seamlessly connecting buyers and sellers; with NBCU, we are truly transforming – by simplifying – the way TV is bought and sold.”
Today’s news brings to life ongoing work that FreeWheel and NBCU have been doing for many months and follows FreeWheel’s announcement in 2019 that it had completed the first stage of a technology unification initiative with NBCU to extend FreeWheel’s ad decisioning capabilities to traditional TV inventory.
About FreeWheel
FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, empowers all segments of The New TV Ecosystem. We are structured to provide the full breadth of solutions the advertising industry needs to achieve their goals. We provide the technology, data enablement, and convergent marketplaces required to ensure buyers and sellers can transact across all screens, across all data types, and all sales channels, in order to ensure the ultimate goal – results for marketers.
With offices in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Paris, Beijing, and across the globe, FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, stands to advocate for the entire industry through the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. For more information, please visit freewheel.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned theme parks, and a suite of leading Internet-based businesses. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation. To learn more visit: www.nbcuniversal.com.