#NBCUniversal’s One Platform Partners With Comcast’s FreeWheel to Simplify Multi-Market Ad Campaigns

Comcast’s NBCUniversal has unveiled a strategic expansion of its global One Platform advertising technology, data, measurement, and content offering, enabling marketers to manage multi-market ad campaigns across linear TV, connected TV, and premium digital video inventory in a single buy.

One Platform is partnering with FreeWheel, Comcast’s advertising management solution that enables clients to manage and monetize premium video ad inventory, to give “globally minded marketers … access to the best global-to-local content from over 190 countries spanning Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas.” Helped by FreeWheel’s technology, the expanded offering gives marketers the ability to execute “advanced advertising solutions at scale across premium networks and geographical boundaries in a more simplified way to maximize return on investment,” the firm touted.

The new offering, unveiled at Cannes Lions 2023, will be fully operational starting in October.

Launch partners include Spanish media giant Atresmedia, Canada’s Bell Media, Australia’s Seven West Media, Sky Media in the U.K., Talpa Network in the Netherlands, France’s TF1 Group, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) in Japan and Omnicom Media Group, the U.S.-based media services unit of ad giant Omnicom Group. 

“Today there is huge friction when trying to execute from a single access point a multi-market, multi-publisher premium connected TV campaign,” Johan Boserup, global CEO, investment at Omnicom Media explained. “Add the need for mass reach and scale, standardization of measurement and reporting, and that friction is currently a barrier to entry.”

Added Krishan Bhatia, president & chief business officer at NBCUniversal: “Across the world, we see the power of premium content to engage audiences and drive impact for businesses. And yet, the complexity of transacting across multiple markets at scale has so far kept marketers from accessing an increasingly global consumer base.”

The new offering is designed to make things easier. “Marketers looking to diversify their global budgets can now reach millions more consumers and have frictionless access to brand-safe ad inventory across a diverse network of over 100 premium broadcasters, 1,000 digital publishers, and more than 50 demand-side platforms in one singular seamless transaction,” NBCUniversal said. Its One Platform’s “centralized framework and operational processes” also touts the ability to “drive incremental revenue growth.”

Said James Rooke, president of Comcast Advertising: “We’re on a journey to connect the premium video industry in a way that brings scale and simplicity to TV ad buying. Our partnership with NBCUniversal and the other international broadcasters is a perfect example of this.”