NEW YORK—In a notable development for TV and connected TV advertising, Comcast has unveiled Universal Ads, a new TV advertising platform designed to simplify the process of buying ads in premium video content. The effort is particularly targeted to attract money from advertisers who had previously focused on social media and had limited ability to develop TV ad campaigns.
The new Universal Ads platform is backed by a host of major TV players and media companies, including A+E, AMC Networks, DirecTV, Fox Corp., NBCUniversal, Paramount, Roku, TelevisaUnivision, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Xumo who have committed to be launch partners. More companies are expected to be announced in the coming months, Comcast said.
Launching in Q1, Universal Ads is built on top of FreeWheel’s ad technology and will seamlessly allow ad buyers and sellers to directly transact all in one place.
“Universal Ads has been purpose-built in response to what advertisers have been asking from Comcast,“ Comcast Advertising President James Rooke said. “That is, make TV simpler to buy, scale and measure in a way that is compatible with the needs of performance marketers, and really, all marketers. Comcast has tremendous assets across tech, media and data. Universal Ads brings those assets together in a way that has never been done before. And, just as importantly, we are thrilled that our partners, many of whom are already FreeWheel clients, have signed on to join us in this initiative, as we seek to transform the TV ad marketplace of the future.”
The effort is notable on several levels, including the fact that it is Comcast’s first-ever cross-industry collaboration at this scale. By strategically partnering with premium industry partners, Universal Ads will provide simplified access to audiences of premium content and will provide "full-funnel performance" for advertisers while opening new demand channels for publishers, Comcast noted.
“Universal Ads offers the solution to the fragmented premium video advertising category,“ Jeff Collins, Fox president of advertising sales, marketing and brand partnerships, added. “Coming together as publishers allows us to present a singular platform for brands of any size in any category to advertise in premium video — all with the ease and familiarity of buying on social. This is a terrific opportunity for advertisers and publishers alike.”
The effort also hopes to take advantage with growing disillusionment with social-media platforms. According to a 2024 study of 250 performance-based advertisers conducted by Comcast Advertising, 50% of advertisers who have never advertised on TV or only done so minimally felt that their ROI from social media buying had peaked or is diminishing, and 89% are willing to try TV advertising.
Comcast said Universal Ads is designed to attract advertisers who were limited in their ability to purchase premium, brand-safe inventory from some of the top TV publishers. Those clients can now access premium video at scale directly, with a simple, consistent buying experience regardless of the publisher, the cable operator said.
“The north star of advertising has always been combining the premium reach of linear with the precision of data-informed targeting for marketers,” said Mark Marshall, chairman, NBCUniversal Global Advertising & Partnerships. “Now with Universal Ads, we are delivering that vision to businesses of all sizes. TV has always been a performance vehicle for brands, and Universal Ads puts the scaled reach and premium content that TV is known for into the hands of marketers everywhere.”
More specifically, Universal Ads will offer:
- Universal Ads Manager, a free self-service, easy to use TV ads buying tool.
- Direct access to premium, brand-safe video that reaches over 90% of U.S. households.
- Plans to offer free, automated AI creative production of TV commercials.
- A marketing API, which will enable developers to build reporting, measurement, creative generation and other applications.
Comcast executive James Grant has been tapped to lead the Universal Ads initiative. On the product front, former Snap executive James Borow, who helped platforms such as Snap, Reddit and Discord launch their ad businesses, has been hired to lead the Universal Ads product and engineering teams, in collaboration with the FreeWheel product and technology team.
For more information visit www.UniversalAds.com.
