BrightLine Clicks With Disney’s Streaming Portfolio

In the technology business, being early often means failure because you were before your time. And the history of interactive TV goes back decades, without many examples of ringing success.

BrightLine seems to be an exception. The company, which builds interactive and immersive advertising experiences for TV, was founded more than 20 years ago, before YouTube streamed its first video. And BrightLine has stuck around long enough to enjoy a big boost as TV viewing shifts from linear to streaming.

Hulu, one of the earliest streamers, became a BrightLine customer 10 years ago. Now Hulu is part of Disney and Disney is expanding its relationship with BrightLine. 

Disney is making BrightLine interactive ads available on Disney+, live sports on Fubo TV and on programmatic inventory across Disney’s streaming platform. 

Media companies have been building their own proprietary tech stacks as they compete with digital giants like Alphabet, Meta and Amazon. 

“It's never easy for a little company to work with, to work with a big company,” Michael Bologna, chief accelerator at BrightLine, told The Measure.

But because of its longstanding ties, BrightLine’s relationship with Disney is thriving.

BrightLine’s specialty is interactivity that’s triggered with the remote control. To do that a tech provider has to go through the process of integrating a software development kit (SDK) into Disney’s ad tech.

“Today, you'd never be able to do that. We put our SDK into Hulu in 2016 and from then on out, it's just been an upgrade,” he said. “If I were to walk into Disney today and say, Hey, can we put an SDK into your system, they would laugh me out of the building as fast as you could possibly imagine.”

Brightline got into Disney’s tent very early on. It also built similar relationships with other streamers.

“Now that tent is shut. If we weren't already inside the tent with all these companies we would never get in today, not even close,” Bologna said.

BrightLine offers a menu of interactive formats. There are pause ads, which show sponsor messages when the viewer pauses the content, ads that feature quizzes and commercials that give viewers the opportunity to buy items they see on the screen.

Studies have shown that these ads produce results. BrightLine said interactive advertising campaigns drive a 36% lift in brand recall versus standard CTV ads. They also increase purchase intent 7% among engaged viewers.

That’s why so many streamers are rolling out their own interactive formats, especially pause ads.

BrightLine notes that it consistently sees higher engagement when ads align with premium content and strong IP. Disney’s unmatched content library creates new opportunities for immersive, viewer-first brand experiences, according to BrightLine. 

“Disney and BrightLine are pushing interactivity forward – in a way that scales,” said Jamie Power, senior VP of addressable sales, Disney Advertising. “By bringing remote-control interactive formats across our streaming supply and into programmatic, we’re giving advertisers more control in activation, deeper engagement with viewers, and outcomes you can actually measure.”

The expanded relationship pushes BrightLine into streaming live sports with Fubo. BrightLine sees a lot of promise in enabling brands to interact with fans at moments of peak attention during games. 

Disney also gives BrightLine its first large-scale programmatic partnership with premium content. BrightLine has benefited from the growth of CTV and increasingly buyers are purchasing CTV inventory through automated platforms. 

“It took a technical update, if you will, to make it so agencies and advertisers can purchase our interactive formats programmatically on Disney's inventory through Disney, and that's been completed,” Bologna said. “Buyers like our interactive, shoppable, addressable formats. They now have the option to buy it programmatically across the full scale of the Disney portfolio.”

Bologna said BrightLine wants it to be as simple as possible for buyers to include its interactive ads in campaigns. 

“As an ex-agency guy, the second you start putting more work on an agency person, that is the second they turn it down.”

Previously, BrightLine formats are available in FAST environments on platforms including LG Ads, Samsung, Roku and Vizion. BrightLine is also under the tent with streamers including NBC’s Peacock and Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max. 

“We're literally integrated across every major streamer, with the exception of Google, Netflix and Amazon,” Bologna said.

Bologna was optimistic that advertiser demand for easy, standardized solutions would break down the walled gardens.

“Time will tell whether the buy side of the business will demand a consistency across everywhere, or if they'll continue to appreciate a unique offering from you know, the likes of Google and Amazon and Netflix.” he said. 

# # #

When people gather to watch a big event, counting them has been a challenge. With the Super Bowl just days away Nielsen is launching a new approach to measuring co-viewing.

Co-viewing is when more than one person in a household is watching a show on the same TV set. Nielsen plans to get people in its panel homes to wear smart-watch like devices on their wrists. The gadgets capture audio from TV events, shows and movies, allowing for passive measurement that does not require panelists to push a button to log into Nielsen meters.

While the system is being tested, it will not be incorporated into the ratings used as currency for buying and selling commercials. 

If the test is successful, the new data would follow in to Nielsen’s Big Data+Panel ratings, which have already played a part in increasing the numbers for big events like broadcasts of NFL games. The league has pressed Nielsen to make sure all viewers of its games are counted.

Nielsen said its goal is to have the new system incorporated into its currency in time for the 2026/27 season.

Nielsen has also increased the use of portable devices to measure more out-of-home viewing.

“Nielsen’s mission is to constantly push measurement forward and deliver the most accurate data ever. This co-viewing pilot builds on that mission, alongside our recent enhancements with Big Data + Panel, out of home expansion, live streaming measurement and our wearable devices,” said Karthik Rao, CEO of Nielsen. “Our clients produce live TV events that get the world watching. It’s our job to make sure we are accurately counting the audiences they meticulously build.”

# # #

PubMatic launched AI Insights, a new set of AI-powered capabilities designed to help publishers make faster, more informed decisions to optimize their revenue. 

“Publishers today are operating in a market where demand conditions can shift in hours, not weeks, and relying on static reports simply doesn’t work anymore,” said John Martin, associate VP, publisher growth solutions, at PubMatic. “With our AI Insights, we’re applying generative AI to give publishers real-time answers to why performance is changing and where yield opportunities are emerging.”

In early use of AI Insight, PubMatic said a prominent CTV publisher identified an opportunity to command up to 27% higher eCPMs for similar inventory when benchmarked against its closest peer cohort, averaged across Open Exchange, PMP and Auction Package transactions. 

PubMatic AI Insights is available now to eligible publishers on a subscription basis.