Sky’s AdSmart service will go live on the Virgin Media platform in the UK on July 1, it has been confirmed.
Later this year, the targeted advertising service will be extended to Ireland, giving a base of 30 million viewers in Sky and Virgin Media households.
AdSmart enables different ads to be shown to households watching the same programme.
Targeted advertising will be included on both on demand and linear TV. 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 ownAdSmart capabilities.
Speaking at the Connected TV World Summit in the Royal College of Physicians in London, Pat Kiely, managing director, 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 30m 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.
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.
Jamie West, Sky’s Group Director of Advanced Advertising commented: “This partnership with Virgin Media brings advertisers even more scale and opportunity to reach TV audiences in a trusted, brand-safe and measurable way. With the recent announcement that AdSmart will be going global with NBC Universal in the US, AdSmart is quickly becoming the one-stop shop for reaching consumers around the world within a premium video environment.”
Sky reaches 11 million households in the UK with Virgin Media adding another 4 million.
