Equips entertainment companies with advanced forecasting features and audience management capabilities to better manage cross-platform campaigns
SAN MATEO, California – FreeWheel, the video technology company serving enterprise-class entertainment companies, today unveiled three new extension products for their flagship ad management system, Monetization Rights Management® (MRM), that will support entertainment companies in delivering on their integrated television and digital upfront commitments.
Developed with input from programmer and distributor customers participating in the upfronts, the new products will allow MRM customers to offer a better experience for their viewers across connected devices, optimize ad revenue generation on their content, and give advertisers additional options to target specific audiences at scale.
Several existing FreeWheel customers have already deployed or have signed on to use the MRM extensions, which are:
· Audience management, which publishers can use to bolster their proprietary data with third-party data sources and enhance ad targeting to known audience attributes at scale and across connected devices. MRM customers already target against specific content and content locations, but now they can provide more relevant ads for specific demographics of viewers
· Scenario forecasting, a powerful management tool that predicts how inventory availability, ad delivery, and ad sell-through rates are affected by “what-if” changes to inventory settings, such as increasing commercial breaks or driving additional traffic to particular Web pages. This functionality protects a user’s experience while watching video content and balances supply with demand across inventory types
· Extended forecasting, which gives MRM customers up to two full years of visibility on inventory availability during and after the upfronts season and how it adjusts due to seasonal programming events
The products have been designed with flexibility around the business of FreeWheel’s customers in mind. For example, one customer is leveraging audience management to not only enhance their targeting, but also execute demographic-targeted campaigns as make goods for under-delivery in linear TV, an especially useful feature to fulfill commitments emanating from upfront agreements.
“The television upfronts are rapidly changing to account for consumers watching video content on a variety of devices, as well as via many distribution methods, such as VOD and game consoles,” said Frans Vermeulen, SVP of Revenue and Strategy. “It’s vital that our customers are able to quickly expand their revenue strategies across devices and environments, and these solutions were developed with this in mind.”
The television upfronts generated $9 billion in ad sales, or 15 percent of full-year ad sales, for television networks last year, according to market research firm eMarketer. With an increased focus on multichannel advertising campaigns, as well as exposure from the Digital Content New Fronts, expectations are that larger, multiplatform campaigns will be utilized to take advantage of consumers viewing content on the nearest available screens.
FreeWheel makes video revenue decisions for 70 percent of the brands in thestandard cable TV channel line-up, the majority of which will hold presentations during the television upfronts.
Additional technical information about the new product extensions can be found on FreeWheel’s FreeThink blog.
About FreeWheel
FreeWheel manages the economics of content for the enterprise-class world of entertainment, offering technical infrastructure for revenue rights management and business operations, wrapped in advisory services. Founded and led by a team of executives from the world’s leading technology companies, FreeWheel’s solutions have already armed companies like AOL, ESPN, FOX, NBCUniversal, Sky, Turner, and VEVO with the technology andservices they need to profitably scale their professional content across devices and revenue models. For more information, visit www.freewheel.tv. Follow the company @FreeWheel.
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