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comcast The company plans to launch a new advertising platform that will make it easier for small businesses to buy ad time, and hopes to lure some advertisers away from social and digital media and into its traditional TV streaming business. are.
On Monday, Comcast announced the creation of Universal Ads, a new platform for advertisers to buy spots in premium video content on traditional media companies’ streaming businesses. The announcement was made ahead of CES, the annual technology conference in Las Vegas.
Comcast partners with other media companies to allow advertisers to buy spots in a variety of media. So far, Comcast-owned NBCUniversal and ad-supported streamer Xumo have joined the platform, as well as A+E, AMC NetworksDirecTV, fox company., Paramount, RokuTV Univision, warner bros discovery. Others are expected to join in the coming months.
“Universal Ads is designed to generate new demand from advertisers who have not traditionally partnered with us,” said Mark Marshall, chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, CNBC’s parent company. said. “While I started streaming, [small- and medium-sized businesses]in future states this may apply to linear and agency as well. ”
Launching in Q1, Universal Advertising aims to provide an easier experience for advertisers of all shapes and sizes to buy ad time. Buying ad time can be a notoriously complicated process compared to buying ads for platforms such as: meta, YouTube “TikTok,” said James Luke, president of Comcast Advertising. It is designed to mimic the process of buying advertising on social media content and technology platforms.
“What’s sobering is that there are a lot of advertisers who have built or are starting to build their business around social video,” Luke said. “But as we talk to these advertisers, there is an increasing desire to diversify away from a very limited number of large technology companies.”
Luke said the challenge is that these big tech companies are “making it very easy to transact on their platforms,” while traditional media, so-called premium content, is not. .
Marshall said he and Luke have been discussing ways to “create new demand opportunities” for non-traditional advertisers over the past few months.
Comcast used its ad tech company FreeWheel to build a free self-service platform. Many of the partners who have already signed on are FreeWheel clients.
There are also plans to offer free automated artificial intelligence tools to help create ads, which could cause additional headaches for small and medium-sized businesses.
“Universal Ad has a huge opportunity to take market share from competitors in a very unique and collaborative way that will fundamentally change the advertising industry,” Marshall said.
go on the offensive
Jack Silva | Null Photo | Getty Images
The media industry is in a period of upheaval as consumers gravitate toward streaming services and away from traditional television.
But even more than this content is the time spent on social media and technology platforms. According to Nielsen, YouTube continues to account for a large share of TV viewing time. Younger generations are increasingly leaning towards social media such as TikTok.
streaming service, from Netflix NBCUniversal’s Peacock is increasingly focusing on advertising to achieve profitability. While streamers have captured a larger share of ad spend in recent quarters, that pales in comparison to the ad revenue generated by the tech giants.
Marshall noted that social media has “created tremendous scale” in terms of the number of advertisers attracted to technology platforms.
“Let’s take Meta as an example. Meta has over 10 million advertisers spending on search and social, and NBCUniversal is only a few thousand,” Marshall said.
GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, named television the “most effective form of advertising” in a recent report, with total global advertising revenue for the sector growing by less than 2% in 2025 to ¥1,691. It is expected to be worth $1 billion.
GroupM estimates that “pure-play digital” advertising revenue, which excludes the streaming sector of traditional media and includes platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, will increase by 10% globally to $813.3 billion in 2025. expected to reach.
According to eMarketer, social media ad spending in the U.S. is estimated to reach $90.35 billion in 2024, up about 19% year-over-year, and is expected to increase by another 13.6% to $102.66 billion in 2025. are.
Industry executives expect the advertising market for traditional media companies to stabilize in 2025, but trends from the previous year are also expected to continue. This means that digital media advertising budgets will continue to outpace traditional media.
“You can continue to compete in a shrinking market, or you can continue to attack and look for growth,” Luke said. “We have to fish in the growing pond.”
Large advertisers and brands still spend a lot of money on traditional media when it comes to live sports and events. Fox executives say the company has already sold out its February Super Bowl ads, which reportedly cost about $7 million each. The expanded college football season, especially the College Football Playoff format, also attracted significant advertising dollars.
Luke said the key to a universal advertising platform is contracting with other media companies to present a united front to try to attract more ad spend from digital platforms.
“In recent years, separate advertising platforms and walled gardens have become an obstacle for small and medium-sized businesses that lack the resources needed to effectively manage multiple platforms,” said DirecTV Chief Advertising Sales Officer. , says Amy Leifer.
Leifer and executives from NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, He emphasized the importance of approaching small and medium-sized businesses as advertisers.
“The idea of empowering small businesses to connect with their audiences through premium content, especially connected TV, aligns perfectly with the growing demand for flexibility and efficiency in ad buying,” said Warner Bros. said Ryan Gould, Executive Vice President of Discovery. President of Streaming, Digital and Advanced Advertising Sales.
Media executives recently told CNBC that traditional linear TV remains an important vehicle for advertisers because it reaches a larger demographic than social media. They also pointed out that linear and streaming are no longer considered in different contexts, but are grouped together in conversations.
Advertisers looking for platforms other than social media are “looking for new products because they’re feeling diminishing returns from existing channels,” Luke said.
“We’re running out of new audiences,” he said.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.
