Collaboration Offers Disney Increased Flexibility for Its ‘Addressable First’ Approach

New York, NY – June 5, 2020 – Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) today announced that Disney Media Networks is the latest U.S. programmer to join in the company’s Addressable TV beta program. By participating in the program, Disney will be able to test, evaluate and experience Nielsen’s addressable TV advertising capabilities and technology first-hand and prepare for its commercial launch. This collaboration is part of Disney’s approach to being ‘Addressable First’ and offering advertisers innovative ad solutions at the audience level. With the addition of Disney, the nine participating programmers in the beta program represent 75% of linear TV impressions in the U.S.

Disney is a leader in the advanced advertising space with Luminate, its unified suite of advanced advertising capabilities, which includes attribution, data-driven linear and expansive data targeting. By leaning into Nielsen’s Addressable TV beta program, Disney is reinforcing its commitment to advertising innovation and its focus on increasing value and flexibility for advertisers.

“At Disney, we are focused on delivering innovative ad solutions that bring our loyal audiences closer to the brands they love,” said Laura Nelson, Senior Vice President, Cross Portfolio Solutions, Disney Advertising Sales. “Over the past several years, we have taken steps to enable our commercial inventory in an addressable first way and this is just the latest example. We are excited to be part of Nielsen’s Addressable TV beta program and we are optimistic that their technology and advanced addressable capabilities will serve our unique needs and that of our advertisers.” 

Insights from the beta program will help Disney understand how the Nielsen technology integrates into their existing advertising ecosystem and how it can be leveraged across  Disney’s unique set of programming options. In addition, Disney will experience the technology in action as it seamlessly inserts and replaces ads on linear TV channels within milliseconds, maintaining a crisp user experience that does not impact video quality, channel change behavior or audio volume.

“We are thrilled to have Disney join our beta program as they double-down on new technology that adds flexibility to their ‘Addressable First’ strategy,” said Kelly Abcarian, General Manager, Advanced Video Advertising, Nielsen. “As the media industry evolves, it’s crucial that TV programmers have control and flexibility over how to best monetize their inventory. We look forward to working with Disney to scale the value of addressability as they blend the magic and creativity of their content with advanced audience delivery capabilities to deliver on the flexibility and value their advertisers are expecting.”

With Nielsen’s Addressable TV Advertising solution programmers will be able to offer flexible addressable campaigns across their premium video inventory. The Nielsen solution provides advanced inventory and yield management capabilities to provide programmers with full control over how, when and where they leverage addressable TV advertising across their linear TV networks. The solution does this by enabling users to toggle the linear campaign ad spot on or off for addressable ads based upon how the linear campaign is pacing against its KPIs. This helps to automate yield optimization across linear and addressable and ensures the ability to maximize yield. This is another example of Nielsen’s commitment to helping evolve the TV industry and drive adoption of addressable TV at scale.