Digital Content NewFronts

Amid the growing complexity of advanced television, FreeWheel’s clients have two elemental desires. One is for FreeWheel to explain to buyers in the U.S. and Europe what’s available and what’s possible, the other is accessing more demand from advertisers. “You sit across all of it and see it all and are close to the technology […]

Having to innovate and “re-innovate” is nothing new at FreeWheel, which Diane Yu helped to create in 2007 after leaving Google/DoubleClick. But even the CTO herself is rather amazed at the company’s evolution to a platform serving both buyers and sellers. “Thinking back 12 years ago, I wouldn’t imagine that we’re doing the FreeWheel NOWFRONT,” […]

Amid the push for more performance-based advertising campaign outcomes from deterministic consumer identities, Horizon Media is building its own identity solution. “With the help of our partners, we can now attach that ID to build the deterministic ID. That’s going to allow us to advertise more one to one and get more toward people based […]

One of the main purposes of FreeWheel’s recent NOWFRONT event was to formally announce FreeWheel Media, its new media sales division. The “now” is a reference to educating the market on “what you can do today” in the advanced-television space,” says FreeWheel Markets GM Neil Smith. While FreeWheel has long built and maintained a technology […]

Omnicom Media Group’s Jonathan Steuer is encouraged by the emergence of solutions that “co-mingle” set-top box and automatic content recognition viewing data, the most recent example of which is FreeWheel Media working with Inscape. At the recent FreeWheel NOWFRONT event in Manhattan, Steuer, who is Chief Research Officer, welcomed the “consistent effort across almost all […]

FreeWheel is bringing in-flight advertising campaign attribution optimization across traditional television, OTT and digital video via a partnership with Data Plus Math. “When we work with FreeWheel, we’re really measuring FreeWheel’s inventory,” says John Hoctor, Co-Founder & CEO of Data Plus Math. What Data Plus Math brings to Comcast’s FreeWheel is “a fast, automated and […]

A continuing theme on the demand side is the desire to know how digital media and television can best work together. It boils down to “a need for more consistency and better fluency between the different measured media,” says Nielsen’s Jessica Hogue. It’s commonly expressed as how does digital media complement or overlap reach, Hogue, […]

Comcast’s FreeWheel has new partnerships with Data Plus Math, Vizio’s Inscape data unit and Adobe to augment its attribution, consumer insights and programmatic offerings. In this interview with Beet.TV, FreeWheel Media’s Brian Wallach explains the three deals announced at the FreeWheel NOWFRONT event in Manhattan this week. FreeWheel is teaming with Data Plus Math and […]

Is it a brand’s job to tap in to challenging and sometimes dark political times, or to help consumer escape the darkness? Both, says one agency executive who was intrigued to see both opportunities presented to her at the recent NewFronts content shop. In this video interview with Beet.TV, MediaCom digital investment associate director Heidi Capnerhurst […]

It announced 20 million paying subscribers in May but nevertheless plans to offer advertising in its live TV offering this quarter. Hulu is on a growth curve. But is the joint venture building its subscriber base, and what role does advertising play in a subscription-driven company? In this video interview with Beet.TV, Hulu subscriber growth […]

In the weeks leading up to this year’s Digital Content NewFronts, we interviewed a number of industry leaders about what matters most: They cited quality storytelling, data and insights, authentic integration, accountability and brand safety. This video is a highlight compilation our several of our conversations. The first three are a related trio of concerns. Quality […]

YouTube certainly has reach, but its content doesn’t always lend itself to precise brand alignment. That’s where smaller digital players like Studio71 can differentiate themselves, according to MediaCom’s Renee Badigian. In this interview with Beet.TV at the Digital Content NewFronts 2018, Badigian, who is Account Lead at the GroupM media agency, talks about why consumers […]

Sometimes with digital video, shorter is the best way to engage with viewers. With its just-completed Digital Content NewFronts 2018, the IAB “went back to its roots for a week” and had one of its best years yet, says Anna Bager, EVP, Industry Initiatives. “Great presentations, the right amount of great content, sales, customer engagement. […]

How can brands opt out of advertising in the next PewDiePie before a controversy kicks up? After the scandal in which one of the world’s biggest video stars unwisely broadcast Nazi content, YouTube is hiring 10,000 moderators, as the brand safety concern rumbles on. But human moderation at this scale is a losing battle. YouTube and […]

Female-focused Refinery29 sees its audience responsibility as “to service them, not to sell them” and it’s further expanding its video reach with a streaming service later this year. Called Channel29, the over-the-top offering will be available on smart televisions and on Refinery29’s digital channels to reach young and progressive women. “I truly believe the audience […]

Walt Disney Co. has a new suite of advanced advertising offerings called Luminate, which spans the entire portfolio of linear networks, digital experiences and social executions across ABC, ESPN, Freeform and the Disney Channels. Luminate will use ESPN’s LiveConnect as a launch pad of sorts for other live events across the Disney portfolio and better […]

Premium content, a multitude of new partnerships and how brands can create authentic resonance with consumers are the “common threads and themes” that Initiative’s Adam Gilbert takes away from the Digital Content NewFronts 2018. He also traces the arc of a digital content ecosystem that is in a sort of “retrograde” phase as live content […]

UK license fee-payers may be already be familiar with Live Lounge, the BBC Radio 1 strand which sees artists visit the Radio 1 studio to record intimate performances. But now the BBC is going global and multi-media with its music offering. At NewFronts in New York, the event at which premium publishers tout their upcoming […]

At a Digital Content NewFronts where there was a plethora of new content distribution partnerships, ESPN was the rare standout. “One of the big things that we did announce was the fact that we had a big announcement, that we have no new distribution deals,” says Travis Howe, SVP, Platform Ad Sales Strategy, Solutions & […]

Brands aligning themselves with social causes and movements should be a “no brainer” as long as they don’t embrace controversy just for the sake of controversy. “We heard that brands need to stand for something but that doesn’t necessarily mean always that they have to be controversial,” is the way Scott Donaton sums up one […]