Magnite, a sell-side ad tech business, has today announced the acquisition of streamr.ai, an AI startup whose tech enables small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to create AI-generated video ads and launch them on streaming TV. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition comes as sell-side CTV companies look to attract SMB advertisers to their streaming services, in efforts to unlock new budgets from a long tail of advertisers who predominantly spend on search and social channels. And while those SMBs have traditionally been priced out of the TV market, generative AI tools are helping lower the cost of entry, including by allowing advertisers to deploy video ads without requiring agency resources. Announcing the acquisition, Magnite called the SMB market “a large and growing revenue opportunity for CTV publishers.”
Streamr.AI launched last year, with a business model that involved white labelling its tech to CTV publishers, broadcasters, ad tech firms and agencies. Customers using the platform across those entry points can generate video ads by entering their business name or website URL. Using the startup’s AI tools, they can edit the imagery, calls to action, script, music or template, translate the ad into over 32 different languages, and pull in assets from their social media channels. The platform’s AI agent then makes recommendations around budget and targeting, and the advertiser can enter their credit card details and launch the campaign.
Under the terms of the acquisition, Magnite will offer streamr.ai’s tech to its ecosystem partners working with SMBs, including agencies, retail media networks (RMN), publishers operating buyer marketplaces, and demand-side platforms (DSP). The startup’s co-founders, CEO Jonathan Moffie and CTO Frank Turano, will also join Magnite.
“The CTV advertising opportunity for small businesses is enormous, but it’s been bottlenecked by complexity and high costs,” said Magnite CEO Michael Barrett. “Streamr.ai’s technology uses AI to accelerate this transition for SMBs, making tasks like CTV creative generation and campaign setup much easier. By offering these tools to our ecosystem partners with SMB clients, we aim to unlock a significant revenue opportunity for our CTV publishers. We’re thrilled to have the streamr.ai team join us, and we’ll continue to grow our AI expertise and capabilities across all Magnite products.”
Scaling a startup
While agencies working with Magnite’s sell-side platform (SSP) will have access to the streamr.ai platform, the move allows CTV publishers to offer the tools directly to brands, which could see advertisers circumvent intermediaries on the buy-side. The SSP has been working to facilitate more direct relationships between their publisher partners and advertisers, and in 2023 launched ClearLine, a solution designed to give buyers direct access to Magnite’s video inventory.
Earlier this year streamr.ai’s Jonathan Moffie told VideoWeek that the company ultimately aims to build a platform that “doesn’t just assist with creating ads but completely owns the process from start to finish”, pre-empting Meta’s ambitions to entirely automate the advertising process; a vision that has raised questions over the role of agencies in an AI-driven ad market. Moffie said the startup was working alongside agencies, using AI to help reduce friction on the buy-side, but acknowledged that the future for agencies is “going to be bumpy.”
At the same time, advancements in streamr.ai’s GenAI capabilities, including integrating Google’s Veo 3 AI video generator back in June, are helping to produce video output that can run on premium streaming services. In July, UK broadcaster Channel 4 announced it was using the platform to enable SMB advertisers to run GenAI ads on its streaming service. Magnite meanwhile has direct relationships with publishers such as Netflix, Disney, Roku and Warner Bros. Discovery, unlocking further scale for the AI platform.
“Magnite is the perfect home for our technology and talent,” said Jonathan Moffie. “Magnite shares our vision for helping small businesses grow revenue through CTV advertising, and their relationships and resources will enable us to accelerate that process.”
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