Key Takeaways from 21st Century Fox's Fiscal 2015 Results
Hulu opting for programmatic ad buying
AdWeek reported on August 25, 2015, that Hulu is offering programmatic advertising buying in partnership with Oracle’s Data Management Platform (ORCL) and video ad platform LiveRail, which is owned by Facebook (FB). Programmatic ad buying is a technological framework for conducting automatic real-time auctions of digital display ads through an ad exchange.
Hulu is an ad-supported, over-the-top, or online video streaming, service that is jointly owned by 21st Century Fox (FOXA), The Walt Disney Company (DIS), and NBCUniversal (CMCSA). Hulu offers content from all three stakeholders and around 400 other third-party content licensors. 21st Century Fox stated in its earnings call that Hulu Plus has more than 10 million paid customers.
According to a report from eMarketer, and as the chart above shows, programmatic ad spending in the US will more than double in two years. It will go from $10.06 billion in 2014 to $20.41 billion in 2016. At this rate, the market will expand to account for 45% of the total US digital ad spending in 2014 and 63% of the total in 2016.
Why Hulu is opting for programmatic ad buying
21st Century Fox stated in its earnings call for fiscal 2015 that it has observed improvement in its digital advertising business through its apps, but mainly through Hulu. The company intends to further monetize Hulu’s ad-supported video platform in the coming years.
Programmatic ad buying is a step in that direction. It would allow advertisers who are advertising on Hulu to change ad campaigns in real time and offer ads targeting an audience in a particular age group.
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