Brief:

• Comcast's NBCUniversal started a streaming advertising business for its local and regional connected TV (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) advertisers called NBC Spot On, per an announcement.
• NBC Spot On's local advertising inventory covers every region of the U.S. The inventory includes streamed commercials on NBCUniversal's apps and in video programming on other streaming apps, channels and services. The local TV stations are available in 38% of U.S. homes and Puerto Rico, per the announcement.
• NBCUniversal also detailed in a separate announcement the ways advertisers can make ad buys with its One Platform technology solution, targeting Broad Reach Audiences, Demo Target Audiences, Advanced Target Audiences and Sponsorship and Live Events. One Platform was first announced in January at CES and was designed by mar-tech company 4C Insights.

Insight:

NBCUniversal's new video advertising business comes as marketers shift their media budgets from local spot TV advertising toward streaming platforms amid a consumer trend of canceling pay-TV service and connecting their TVs directly to the internet. Media buyers have set aside as much as 10% of their budgets for local broadcasters to local streaming TV, not including advertising by local businesses that buy ads directly, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The announcement of NBC Spot On comes as NBCUniversal prepares for the upfront sales season, touting its ability to help marketers reach target audiences and measure the results. As part of its One Platform announcement, NBCUniversal said it expanded its AdSmart suite of advertising products. Its linear optimization solution includes Nielsen demographic target audiences and data science from 4C Insights to help advertisers optimize their campaigns on linear TV and digital platforms. NBCUniversal said it can reach 211 million U.S. adults, while also targeting audiences based on demographic data.

NBCUniversal is among the traditional broadcasters expanding into video streaming and boosting their efforts to sell commercial time to local advertisers. The company this year will launch Peacock to compete more directly with other streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, although its local TV stations group isn't selling any of that ad inventory during the first year, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. ViacomCBS sells local ads on its CBSN streaming news channel, while Disney has local inventory on Hulu.

Media spending on local OTT advertising will hit $1.06 billion this year and double to $2.13 billion by 2024, researcher BIA Advisory Services estimated in September. This year's spending on streaming platforms will be a small slice of the total $161.3 billion going toward linear and digital local advertising, the firm forecast.