European telco Liberty Global has announced today that it is expanding its partnership with addressable TV advertising specialist Cadent, to enable addressable ads on linear broadcasts and on-demand content across Liberty Global’s European footprint.
The two already work together in the UK, where Cadent powers addressable TV ads on Virgin Media set top boxes. These are sold in partnership with Sky’s AdSmart product. From now, Cadent will also deliver addressable ads to Virgin Media Ireland households, with Cadent’s tech set to be deployed on Liberty Global set-top boxes in other European markets later this year.
“This integration delivers another big part of Liberty Global’s continued commitment to linear and on demand addressable advertising to support our content partners and provide a better viewing experience for our customers,” said Pieter Vervoort, VP of product and entertainment at Liberty Global. “Cadent is providing a sophisticated solution that shows a clear way forward for TV platforms and broadcasters.”
Cadent’s technology handles server-side ad insertion through set-top boxes, and enables campaign execution for content providers across household addressable, IP live, and set-top box and IP video-on-demand (VOD).
The tech company also facilitates use of data for targeted ads, using anonymized data in a GDPR-compliant manner. Cadent’s data capabilities were bolstered early last year with its acquisition of cross-device identity company 4INFO. And the company believes that with third-party cookies on the decline on web browsers, addressable TV advertising back with telco data will become more appealing to the buy-side.
Cadent says its open API means it can integrate with other broadcasters and telcos and their existing workflows, as was necessary for Virgin Media in the UK and its partnership with AdSmart. This means that Liberty Global subsidiaries across Europe with existing addressable advertising capabilities or partnerships should still be able to adopt Cadent’s tools.
But it might still be a slow process adapting Cadent’s tools to each individual European market. The spread of addressable TV advertising on linear broadcasts in Europe has been slowed by the complexity of adapting addressable tools to each market’s own rules and workflows.
