NEW YORK, Jan. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- OpenAP and
Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) today announced that
Discovery, Inc. will become a minority owner of OpenAP, the
advanced advertising company bringing simplicity and scale to
audience-based campaigns in television. Discovery joins FOX,
NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS in the joint venture.
The investment signals an expansion of Discovery's existing
relationship with OpenAP, having integrated with the central TV
identity spine, OpenID, in April 2021
and more recently partnering with OpenAP on the launch of XPm, the
TV publisher backed cross-platform measurement framework. The
commitment to OpenAP furthers Discovery's strategy of building a
technical framework that enables cross-platform audience-based
buying and creating collaborative support for alternative currency
standards. For OpenAP, it will help further its ability to grow the
overall market for audience-based advertising and expand the
breadth and scale of its services across cross-platform identity,
measurement and planning.
Discovery will join OpenAP's Board of Directors with
Jon Steinlauf, Chief U.S.
Advertising Sales Officer, and Jim
Keller, Executive Vice President, Digital Ad Sales and
Advanced Advertising, both representing the company. Discovery will
be able to contribute to OpenAP's corporate strategy and product
roadmap, while gaining further operational and technical
efficiencies by activating audiences centrally through OpenAP.
"Discovery is excited to take an active role shaping
the future of advanced audience buying," said
Jim Keller, Executive Vice
President, Digital Ad Sales and Advanced Advertising at Discovery
Inc. "Given our current momentum, influence and growth of
audience-based sales, we believe Discovery can help further the
work OpenAP has been doing to initiate meaningful change in the
market."
Discovery's investment follows a year of significant platform
growth for OpenAP with half a billion in publisher-driven
advertising sales expected to run through OpenAP in Fiscal Year
2022, marking 140% year-over-year growth. Today OpenAP works with
more than 100 advertisers following the 2019 launch of the OpenAP
Market with centralized advanced audiences able to be distributed
to all national TV publishers regardless of platform.
"Discovery has long been a pioneer of TV entertainment with
its iconic portfolio of content and direct-to-consumer experiences
people love. The last two years have demonstrated the force of
change that can happen when we take an audience-first
approach to reimagining TV advertising for media owners,
advertisers and consumers alike," said David Levy, CEO of OpenAP. "We are grateful
for the increased commitment Discovery is making to work alongside
us on this journey of propelling further growth of the
marketplace."
In a joint statement, Dan
Callahan, Senior Vice President, Data Strategy and Sales
Innovation at FOX; Krishan Bhatia,
President & Chief Business Officer at NBCUniversal; and
John Halley, Chief Operating
Officer, Advertising Revenue at ViacomCBS, said: "Discovery's
commitment further validates OpenAP's mission and builds on the
success and scale of our collective
organizations work to build a more advanced model for TV
advertising that focuses on audiences. OpenAP has been a catalyst
for bringing programmers and marketers together to change the
model, and we're proud to now have Discovery join us to accelerate
these efforts."
About OpenAP
OpenAP is the advanced advertising company bringing simplicity and
scale to audience-based campaigns in television. Powered by a
standards-based approach to data activation, we enable advertisers
to onboard audiences centrally for use in planning, campaign
execution and measurement across the largest footprint of premium
video advertising. OpenAP makes it possible for unified ID-based
audiences to be used for targeting and measurement across any TV
publisher in both linear and digital viewing environments,
unlocking transformative insights when using the same audience
consistently across all screens. Our technology is open and
interoperable, delivering workflow automation and efficiencies on
advanced audience campaigns for agencies, brands and publishers.
For more information, visit www.openap.tv and follow
@OpenAPTV on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Discovery
Discovery, Inc. (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) is a global leader in
real life entertainment, serving a passionate audience of superfans
around the world with content that inspires, informs and
entertains. Discovery delivers over 8,000 hours of original
programming each year and has category leadership across deeply
loved content genres around the world. Available in over 220
countries and territories and nearly 50 languages, Discovery is a
platform innovator, reaching viewers on all screens, including TV
Everywhere products such as the GO portfolio of apps;
direct-to-consumer streaming services such as discovery+, Food
Network Kitchen and MotorTrend OnDemand; digital-first and social
content from Group Nine Media; a landmark natural history and
factual content partnership with the BBC; and a strategic alliance
with PGA TOUR to create the international home of golf. Discovery's
portfolio of premium brands includes Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food
Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Travel Channel, MotorTrend,
Animal Planet, Science Channel, and the forthcoming multi-platform
JV with Chip and Joanna Gaines,
Magnolia Network, as well as OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network in the
U.S., Discovery Kids in Latin
America, and Eurosport, the leading provider of 3 locally
relevant, premium sports and Home of the Olympic Games across
Europe. For more information,
please visit corporate.discovery.com and follow
@DiscoveryIncTV across social platforms.
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SOURCE OpenAP