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Comcast's Universal Ads is set to reshape premium video buying by centralizing access to top media companies with advanced tech and seamless automation. Here's why it's different--and why it might just work, according to Casey Saran, co-founder and CEO of Spaceback.
Just before CES, Comcast announced Universal Ads, which they say will "allow advertisers of all sizes to buy premium video directly from some of the most prestigious media companies today at scale." For many media buyers, this announcement sounded a lot like past direct sales offerings from companies including Peacock and Paramount, but it's different.
Comcast has comprehensive technology, a broad array of media relationships, and spot-on timing that set the stage for a new era in premium media buying. Rather than create individual media buying hubs that buyers have to go to for each media company, Universal Ads centralizes the process without a downside for media partners or buyers.
Comcast's Impressive Technology Stack Is Finally Realized
Comcast's announcement is the culmination of several M&A deals including FreeWheel and Beeswax, which means they have serious technology supporting this new product. Unlike many of the bigger ad-tech platforms which have their foundation in display, FreeWheel was built from the ground up to solve the TV advertising industry's biggest challenges and unify the TV ecosystem.
Comcast's stack can tie CTV, OTT, and online video together in ways that are more intuitive for premium video sales, allowing media companies to price and package products more effectively and for advertisers to buy audiences across premium content more easily with things like audience level addressable targeting.
Beeswax gives Comcast automated media buying capabilities that allow for customized DSP-like buying. This sets the stage for a comprehensive media buying offering that can be used for both automated ad sales and to support a huge and varied ad sales team.
These technologies are extensible, which sets Comcast up for expansion. Rather than have individual self-service systems or premium PMP/Deal ID processes to deal with, media partners that use Universal Ads can be part of a larger, more streamlined media buying option that will appeal to buyers that want premium inventory that's easy to buy at scale.
Now Is the Time for Premium Buyers and Sellers to Come Together
Comcast is timing their announcement well. Advertisers have been lacking transparent and scalable ways to automate CTV buying. The typical programmatic infrastructure of DSP and SSP creates added costs, complexity and opaqueness that advertisers would rather avoid.
SSP PubMatic has already set a precedent by introducing Activate, their DSP product designed for advertisers who want to buy inventory more directly. Having a publisher offer direct media buying at scale is the logical next step, especially for premium video, which represents the most important and expensive part of most media buys, so being able to buy direct from media companies makes a lot of sense.
Many of the streaming partners participating in Universal Ads also offer their own self-service direct buying platforms. The DanAds era "if-you-build-it-they-will-come" approach to self-service CTV did not usher in the promised land-slide of new CTV buyers. Comcast can act as a center of gravity for a collection of premium video from across the ecosystem.
They're announcing with a big list of partners that are already bought into the centralized sales concept including A+E, AMC Networks, DIRECTV, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversale, Paramount, Roku, TelevisaUnivision, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Xumo. These streaming platforms will be rewarded for prioritizing flexible options for buyers above their own internal channel concerns.
If Universal Ads takes off with buyers, and I'm seeing signs that it will, they'll be able to attract even more media partners looking for an easy way to buy the premium inventory.
