Advanced Television

Collective buys WebTV ad network

March 29, 2011

Display ad specialist Collective has bought video ad network WebTV Enterprise. The deal will give Collective, which partnered with Adobe and Omniture earlier this month to bolster its web analytics offering, access to WebTV’s 25 million-strong premium network, with revenues coming primarily from broadcast.

Joe Apprendi, CEO of Collective, said, “Unlike most video networks, WebTV’s revenues come largely from broadcast media budgets versus smaller digital plans. Our acquisition of WebTV will allow us to tap video’s incredible potential and further strengthen our rapidly expanding capabilities.”

Collective had been looking to ramp up its video offering through data, targeting and analytics, looking at combining in-banner and in-stream video ad formats to entice brands to shift broadcast spend to online video.

The WebTV acquisition comes six months after Collective’s UK launch and weeks after it acquired video ad platform Oggifinogi.

WebTV Enterprise’s latest research indicated that online video advertising is expected to increase by 25 per cent over the next six months, with digital buyers responding to improvements in audience measurement techniques.

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