Channel 5 has become the first public broadcaster to take advantage of the Sky AdSmart targeted advertising platform.
Fellow Viacom channels Comedy Central and MTV already use the service, which is now seen on close to 100 channels.
Graeme Hutcheson, Director of Sky AdSmart & Digital said “Sky AdSmart changes the way that people look at TV advertising. The platform is continually evolving and we are really excited to announce one of the UK’s largest channels going live this month.”
For Channel 5 it means the restoration of regionalised advertising on satellite that had been absent since August 2015. The broadcaster had switched off its regional advertising feeds in order to accommodate its HD channel. With Sky AdSmart, Channel 5 will be able to further regionalise its commercials.
Since its launch in 2014 Sky AdSmart has delivered on its aim to make TV more relevant for more brands. Starting with around 400, Sky AdSmart now has over 1400 targeting attributes and has delivered 7,500 campaigns in the UK, with 75% of customers being either new to TV or new to Sky Media.
Mark Swift, SVP, UK Ad Sales for Viacom UK, added: “We chose Sky Media as a single point of sale for all Viacom’s UK channels in large part because of their track record of innovation to improve the targeting and effectiveness of TV advertising. We’ve already experienced encouraging results for MTV and Comedy Central with Sky AdSmart and we look forward to creating more value for both our commercial partners and Viacom with the addition of Channel 5.”
In 2015 an expanded partnership arrangement reached by Sky and Viacom secured carriage for Viacom’s networks on Sky’s TV platform and extended an existing advertising sales partnership to include Channel 5 and its associated channels.