Cadent Goes Direct to Clean Up CTV Supply Chain

Advertising spending on connected TV is growing at a rapid rate. And that’s despite advertisers and their agencies not always being sure precisely what they’re buying.

In some cases, a lack of transparency makes it difficult to figure out in which shows or which episodes commercials are airing when a network or platform is bought. In other cases, the supply chain is kinked or convoluted, opening the door for fraud and commercial exposures that are not viewed by actual living human beings who buy stuff.

Cadent, which runs a predictive advertising platform, said that all of the inventory that it can connect advertisers to is now coming through a direct connection. No middlemen.

“Cadent is reducing advertising friction with the most direct and transparent connections,” said Doug Rozen, president of Cadent. “Our continued commitment to setting the highest standards ensures advertisers have premium CTV at great value to deliver the best outcomes.”

Not only has Cadent committed to direct connections, it is also restricting CTV providers to an approved list of bundle IDs, to prevent inventory reselling. 

But you don’t have to take Cadent’s word for it. Cadent has enlisted Jounce Media to validate its direct connections.

“When a growth channel like CTV scales, continual vetting of inventory provenance becomes critical to the health of the industry,” said Chris Kane, founder of Jounce Media. “Our data clearly demonstrates Cadent’s commitment to sourcing CTV inventory that allows media buyers to deploy programmatic investments with the utmost confidence.”

With its new setup, clients using the Candent Inventory Manager are promised no duplication of supply, no made-for-advertising channels and no auction manipulation. 

“Cadent enables us to seamlessly plan, buy, and optimize CTV investments across premium suppliers within a single, end-to-end platform,” said Karla Esquivel, Director of Programmatic, Moroch Digital Solutions. “With its comprehensive reporting capabilities, we gain the transparency needed to safeguard inventory quality, make agile campaign adjustments, and significantly reduce media waste and operational inefficiencies.”

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It has been said that content is king, but distribution is the queen, and she wears the pants.

NBCUniversal is about to air one of the highest profile bits of content–the Winter Olympics. But it is backing up its bet with a robust set of distribution partners to ensure itself and its advertising clients as much cross-platform engagement as possible.

There will be dedicated NBC Olympic hubs on platforms including Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Cox, DirecTV, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Samsung, Sling, Spectrum, Verizon, Vizio and YouTube TV.

NBCU is part of Comcast, and Comcast’s Xfinity platform will guide customers to Olympic content on all channels, with personalized recommendations and seamless integrations. 

There will be an NBC Winter Olympics Experience on Roku starting February 6. It will be accessible from the Roku home screen and provide Roku users with fast access to every event. The Roku home screen will also feature video highlights of the USA Men’s hockey team and all figure skating telecasts. 

The NBC Olympic experience on Roku is being presented by sponsors American Honda, Carnival Cruise Line, Comcast’s Xfinity, Delta and Visa. An interactive medal count feature is being sponsored by Delta. 

NBCU has also made deals with social media companies Meta, Overtime, Reddit and YouTube. 

“We once again will engage everywhere in the U.S. media ecosystem through distribution and production partnerships to ensure America can watch, connect with and share in the most iconic and impactful event in sports,” said Gary Zenkel, President, NBC Olympics. “By leveraging the influence of distributors and reach of social platforms, we are enhancing program and content discovery and helping Olympic fans access the games anyway that works best for them.” 

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Charter Communications has created a commercial that will air during the Super Bowl locally in 60 markets served by its Spectrum products. The commercial is called America’s Connectivity Company, and it talks about its broadband products and the people who deliver it. 

“America isn’t powered by technology alone,” said Simon Cassels, senior VP and chief creative officer for Spectrum. “It’s powered by people; by teachers staying late; by paramedics starting early; ranchers keeping America fed; by families holding everything together – and they are all backed by the reliable seamless connectivity Americans need. The Super Bowl is the ideal stage to showcase our U.S.-based employees who deliver our fiber-powered technology that keeps Americans connected every day.”

The commercial was created by VCCP and filmed across the country, the company said. 

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Not content with counting eyeballs, Nielsen has decided to create a prize for the most streamed shows. It calls its prize the ARTEY, which it says stands for Audience Rated Television Entertainment of the Year, but is also a tip of the hat to company founder Arthur C. Nielsen.

The awards are not based on any subjective or qualitative criteria, just total number of minutes viewed. 

With that in mind, the ARTEY for the top overall and top acquired show is Disney+’s Bluey with 45.2 billion minutes. Winners in other categories included the top original show: Netflix’s Stranger Things, with 40 billion minutes viewed, while the most binged series is an oldie: Gunsmoke, with 241 episodes per viewer across Paramount+, Pluto and Peacock.

Nielsen also gave a Streaming Icon of the Year ARTEY to the creator, actor, producer or writer whose work drove significant and sustained viewership across platforms. The winner was Seth MacFarlane, whose TV series and films–including Family Guy, American Dad and Ted–generated more than 60 billion viewing minutes.

“I want to thank Nielsen for this Streaming Icon Award,” said MacFarlane in a statement. “It’s a high honor to receive the first prize in show business that isn’t determined by quality.”

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Vevo said that JP Evangelista, one of its first employees, has been promoted to executive VP of content, programming and marketing. Evangelista had been a senior VP. 

“JP has been a driving force behind Vevo’s success since day one – from helping build the foundation of our business to shaping Vevo into the leading global music video network it is today,” said Alan Price, CEO, Vevo, “His leadership, deep industry knowledge, expansive network of contacts and sharp instincts for where the industry is going have been instrumental to our continued growth and positioning Vevo for what’s next.”