It’s often said that we are in a new Golden Age of television. But we also think that the industry deserves a new Golden Age of television advertising.  After all, most viewing still happens on the big screen and TV remains an incredibly powerful way to reach a large, engaged audience.

As we head into this year’s Cannes Lions to meet and network with some of the world’s best designers, digital innovators, marketers and agencies, I wanted to also share some updates to our own advertising business that I think will help us play a continued role in how technology and innovation come together to support the value of premium video ecosystem.

As some may know, Comcast Cable recently unified its television distribution, sales and advertising technology products and solutions under one organization. We now have two divisions of Comcast Cable Advertising: Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, and Comcast’s Advanced Advertising Group, that brings together the people, assets and capabilities of Strata, FreeWheel, and Visible World.

For years, Comcast’s Advanced Advertising Group has provided advertising technology solutions to dozens of programmers, distributors and advertising agencies. In fact, many players in the marketplace are already doing business with Comcast’s Advanced Advertising Group for one or more products:

  • FreeWheel today works with nearly every programmer and MVPD to monetize and optimize IP and VOD content across platforms.

  • STRATA is the leading provider in the marketplace to unify buy- and sell-side advertising solutions, serving a wide array of pay-TV providers and local broadcasters, as well as agencies and advertisers. 

  • And at the same time, we’re providing advanced data and addressability solutions to programmers across the industry.

And just as exciting as our advanced advertising organization, is the person who will now lead it.

David Clark, who served as the President of The Weather Channel for the past five years, will join us next month as Executive Vice President and General Manager, Advanced Advertising, reporting to me.  He will oversee the various business units, product engineering and shared services of Comcast’s Advanced Advertising Group like HR and Finance.

David is a dynamic and innovative leader with broad experience in television, advertising and digital media, and he will play a critical role in helping our advertising customers maximize the value of inventory and audiences reach with technology across all screens and sales channels. I very much look forward to having him join our team.

By aligning Comcast Spotlight and Comcast’s Advanced Advertising Group into one organization, our teams will be in an even better position to bring some of the industry’s most advanced technologies to all of our advertising customers. We are all excited about the future and think there is a lot of opportunity in advanced advertising, as the industry and technology is evolving rapidly.

Hope to see you at Cannes!