Sky and Virgin Media have announced their addressable TV advertising partnership AdSmart will launch on 1st July.
According to the two companies, AdSmart will allow advertisers to target a potential audience over time of more than 30 million viewers, putting it on par with leading social networks.
AdSmart enables different ads to be shown to households watching the same programme, giving advertisers and brands the ability to tailor their campaigns to specific audiences and locations in an intelligent and trusted way.
The partnership covers both targeted linear and video on demand (VoD) TV advertising. Sky Media will act as exclusive advertising sales agent across the entire AdSmart network in the UK. Virgin Media will make use of technology developed by parent company Liberty Global as well as Sky’s AdSmart capabilities.
Virgin Media also confirmed that it expects to launch AdSmart on its own free-to-air television service (Virgin Media One) in the Republic of Ireland with trials starting from Q4 2019.
Pat Kiely, managing director of Virgin Media Television said: “This is a very exciting time as we count down to the launch of the next generation of television advertising across our network. Our partnership with Sky will ensure that television advertisers, new and old, will have access to an extended reach of 30 million targetable TV viewers in the UK. AdSmart is truly a game changer for our industry and we’re delighted to play our part by adding scale and building on its current momentum.”
