FreeWheel, NBCU In Ad Selling Partnership

Today, Comcast’s FreeWheel announced what it calls “a breakthrough in linear/digital convergence”: FreeWheel will be leading ad decisioning across all NBCUniversal properties using its new AutoScheduler technology.

The new capabilities will begin to change how 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 companies say 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 its 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 says it’s doubling down on its 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.”