ITV taps SAS for at-scale personalized advertising on ITVX

UK commercial broadcaster ITV is now using an API-driven first-party ad server developed by data and AI provider SAS to deliver personalised advertising to the 40 million registered users of its content hub, ITVX.

SAS’s SAS 360 Match provides targeted, real-time ad decisioning at scale in on-demand and live simulcast delivery, according to the ad tech company.

SAS says its technology can forecast its digital audience and ad inventory across scheduled programming and on-demand content, take control of its ad monetisation strategy with intelligent advertising-supported video on demand (AVOD), deliver contextually relevant ad content based on analytics about viewers’ content preferences, and build an ad tech stack with embedded advertising intelligence to take control of monetisation and the digital advertising ecosystem.

Planet V, ITV’s self-serve programmatic platform that provides advertisers with a range of campaign booking options based on show content and audience data, which is now said to be the UK’s second-largest programmatic platform, has been integrated with the SAS 360 Match solution for ad delivery and campaign management.

ITV can now also look forward to delivering addressable linear advertising via set-top box and smart TV technology, according to SAS.

“When we have a challenge or see an opportunity, we have a conversation with the brilliant minds at SAS. We often come back with something better than what we were thinking. We’ve been able to progress at a great pace and keep ahead of the market because of those conversations,” said Alex Maison, head of digital ad platforms, ITV.

“The flexibility of SAS 360 Match allows us to develop things at our own pace. We define our own development queue – we’re not waiting for a third party. We’re able to build most of the things we need to get to market ourselves.”

Roderick Crawford, SVP for SAS Northern Europe, said: “SAS has been working with ITV for more than 10 years and it’s been great to see the collaboration develop to the point where our customer intelligence software now helps deliver personalised ads to the 40million registered users of its content hub, ITVX. We know ITV has ambitious plans to become a leader in UK streaming and grow digital revenue significantly, and we’re delighted to be supporting them on this journey.”