Sky Seeks Vendor Partners To Take Ad-Tech Global, West Says
LONDON — Sky, the UK’s leading pay-TV platform is hoping to add more ad-tech services partnerships to a recent raft of deals, as it looks to expand on the effectiveness of its TV ad targeting and multi-screen ad sequencing technologies against the rise of online rivals. The satellite TV company’s own addressable TV offering, Sky AdSmart, has been live in the market for a couple of years, allowing advertisers to target around seven million households individually using ads stored on customers’ set-top boxes. And it launched Sky AdVance in October to help advertisers create smart cross-channel campaigns, using Sky data sets like its three-million-home viewing panel, an understanding of cross-platform customer journeys and third-party data overlays. Now Jamie West, deputy MD of the company’s Sky Media ad sales division, says he also wants to bolster technology through more deals with outside digital vendors. “Weâve come to the realization at Sky ⦠that we canât build everything ourselves,” he said at this Beet.TV recorded panel interview. “We are constantly looking for new partners that we think can add value to our ad-tech stack. “Weâve announced partnerships with DataXu and Videology, weâve got a long-standing and deep relationship with FreeWheel. We are trying to find products or solutions or technologies that can enhance the product suite.” Over the last few years, Sky has acquired Pace (set-top box maker), The Cloud (WiFi operator), O2 broadband (telco), Sky Deutschland & Italia (siblings). It has invested in Roku (OTT box), Jaunt (VR), 1Mainstream (OTT video), Whistle Sports (sports network), Pluto TV (online video aggregator), Sharethrough (native ads), Fubo (OTT sports), InCrowd Sports (sports marketing) and, most recently, DataXu (ad-tech). For West, the bigger picture is a four-pillar attack on addressable TV, cross-device ad sequencing, programmatic ad-tech and analytics. “Weâre no longer thinking about that as a UK-only proposition,” he says. “The Sky footprint now is across UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria. Jeremy Darroch (CEO) has ⦠said we have ambitions to grow beyond those territories.” He was interviewed by MTM London founding director Jon Watts. This video was produced in London as part of our Addressable & Advanced TV Summit hosted by Sky Media and presented by FreeWheel and Invidi. Please visit this page for additional segments from the event.
