Three of the United Kingdom’s largest broadcasters have formed a unique partnership that aims to make it easier for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to launch and run ad campaigns across linear and streaming TV.
The new partnership involves ITV, Channel 4 and Comcast’s Sky Group, and will utilize Comcast Advertising for a new self-serve marketplace that will let SMBs launch campaigns that run across all of their channels and platforms.
“This landmark move, designed to supercharge the breadth of brands advertising on TV, will bring together addressable inventory from all three sales houses into a single marketplace,” the companies said in a statement on Tuesday. “This will enable new-to-TV advertisers a direct, simple way to access premium video content.”
In addition to SMBs, all three broadcasters are discussing — individually and with each other — ways that the group can help media agency simplify the experience of buying ad campaigns against ITV, Sky and Channel 4’s streaming and linear TV platforms. That could take the shape of a joint venture based on ITV’s Planet V technology, the companies said.
“In today’s fast-evolving media landscape, we strongly believe success will require collaboration, simplification, and innovation,” Pirya Dogra, the Chief Advertising, Group Data and New Revenue Officer at Sky Group, said in a statement. “In partnership with ITV and Channel 4, and following the successful US launch of Comcast’s Universal Ads platform, we are excited to bring this to the UK and with it, the opportunity to open up TV advertising to new brands. Building on this innovation, we also want to simplify TV trading for established brands and agencies and look forward to exploring potential opportunities with ITV and Channel 4 to use Planet V.”
The collaboration will allow SMBs and, eventually, agencies to use a robust, but easy, platform to launch campaigns across linear and connected TV experiences backed by the three broadcasters. It will also allow brands and businesses to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns from a dedicated portal, with a specific focus on outcomes.
“As a TV industry, it is important that we collaborate to make television easy to plan, buy and measure for our established customers as well as the huge potential of new to TV brands,” Kelly Williams, the Managing Director of Commercial at ITV, said on Tuesday. “Both of these initiatives, this new marketplace for SME’s and Planet V for agencies, represent a very exciting future.”
“This marketplace underlines what sets TV apart from all other media: its ability to collaborate at scale,” Rak Patel, the Chief Commercial Officer at Channel 4, said in a statement. “By uniting the power of Channel 4, ITV and Sky through a single marketplace, we’re creating a new home for premium video while accelerating our Fast Forward strategy to become the first public service streamer.”
“We are excited to work with the UK’s premier broadcasters to offer advertisers a simplified way to access premium video, powered by Comcast’s Universal Ads platform,” Thomas Bremond, the Managing Director of Comcast Advertising, said on Tuesday. “The collaborations across ITV, Channel 4 and Sky showcases the industry’s commitment to bringing together tech, media and data to offer greater efficiency and effectiveness to TV advertising.”
Channel 4 and ITV are three of the country’s four main public service broadcasters, offering TV programming, news, movies and sports on over-the-air signals and streaming platforms, including their joint effort Freely. (The other two public service broadcasters, BBC and Paramount’s Channel 5, are not participating in the venture. The BBC is not permitted by law to run advertising on any of its domestic channels.)
Sky Group is the largest privately-held pay TV company in the United Kingdom, offering linear television over satellite and broadband. The company was acquired by Comcast in 2018.
