Online video news giant NDN recently inked a deal with CBS Local to distribute news video from its local stations across NDN’s network of sites. That deal helps bring more original content into the video platform, says Kevin Gentzel, Chief Revenue Officer at digital video and advertising company NDN, during an interview taped at the recent Beet.TV executive retreat with moderator Ashley Swartz.
NDN has steadily grown its reach over the last year and now is the fourth-largest online video property, with nearly 50 million unique viewers in December, according to the most recent figures from comScore. NDN’s content partners include Fox Sports, CBS News, The Weather Channel and local stations, among others. NDN syndicates premium video directly from broadcasters to premium publishers using a software-as-a-service model. Gentzel says that CPMs for the content NDN distributes are priced at a premium, given the demand.
When it comes to the ads, NDN largely sells national ads. The pitch is that many of NDN’s videos reach an affluent audience of early adopters, who are also often “design forward” and “epicurious,” Gentzel says. “These are all very attractive attributes to advertisers that they would pay a premium for,” he says. “Our model helps bring that all together in scale in online video.”
NDN has also made strides to protect brand safety as it grows. NDN will likely tap into some of the technology it’s acquired in the last year to provide additional layers of brand protection, Gentzel says. “Our platform is meant for CMOs to feel comfortable shifting money offline and from broadcast and cable and into online video, and we want them to feel as if brand safety is there in every aspect.”
Daisy Whitney
