Comcast Technology Solutions enables intelligent, dynamic ad insertion within national, linear, addressable tv programming

DENVER – May 3, 2022– Comcast Technology Solutions, a division of Comcast Cable that provides media and entertainment technology to content providers, operators and advertisers, today announced the launch of its national linear addressable advertising service for customers and technology partners.

Addressable advertising, which enables households watching the same national TV shows to see different ads that are more relevant and targeted, poses challenges for creative management and control. Called Linear Rights Metadata Management (LRM), this industry offering from Comcast Technology Solutions is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) that helps insert and manage metadata, leveraging SCTE 224 to provide integrated workflows that enable intelligent ad decisioning for targeted household-level TV advertising.

Used effectively, SCTE 224 is a standard notification interface that can present richer linear metadata in a consistent way to trigger linear addressable ads–alleviating the complexity and inconsistency from manual data entry, from multiple sources, in multiple formats. LRM provides the signaling, advanced metadata communication, and assurance technology required for intelligent addressability in ad breaks.

Specifically, LRM ingests and aggregates the metadata of advertising assets, normalizes it into SCTE 224 format, and stores it in the cloud. SCTE 224 data is then distributed to multiple endpoints, ad decision managers, and software adapters. In addition to ad selection, LRM helps implement and enforce advertising rules and restrictions, such as unique ad requirements per MVPD, vMVPD, or content aggregator; showing a specific number of ads or limiting the number of spots over a certain duration for a specific product group; specifying the minimum spacing between ads belonging to a specific product group; and more. For example, a national beverage ad from one brand can be shown via one household, but not a different household. Rules can specify that only four beverage ads can be played over the course of a specific program, or that a beverage ad can only be played in one in every four ad pods.

Through Comcast Advertising, Comcast is the first national TV distributor to implement LRM for this purpose.

“We now have the technical capabilities to make linear addressable execution and management a reality for operators, programmers, and advertisers around the globe,” said Bart Spriester, Vice President and General Manager of the Content and Streaming Providers Suite for Comcast Technology Solutions. “We are removing many of the manual processes and variations around metadata that have historically hampered the progress of implementing linear addressable ads. We’re confident that the combination of LRM and our Advertising Suite can help play a central role in accelerating addressable TV.”’

“At Comcast Advertising, we’re fully committed to accelerating the growth of addressable TV and making it easier for advertisers to incorporate it into their campaigns,” said Larry Allen, Vice President and General Manager, Data and Addressable Enablement, Comcast Advertising, the advertising division of Comcast Cable. “LRM, along with Comcast Technology Solutions’ expertise in implementing SCTE 224, will provide operators, programmers, and advertisers with the backend technology needed to seamlessly drive scale and simplify the advertising workflow.”

“Delivering TV ads that are more relevant for viewers, at higher premiums, is a common goal shared across the industry,” said Marija Masalskis, senior principal analyst for TV, Video and Advertising at Omdia. “For years, wide-scale addressable TV has been more of an elusive idea than a viable reality. However, recent progress in linear metadata management, back-end automation, and industry-wide collaboration should all serve to accelerate the deployment of addressable TV at scale.”

Beyond LRM, Comcast Technology Solutions offers the Advertising Suite, which is being used by programmers to support upcoming addressable advertising deployments. The Advertising Suite provides centralized management of creative ad inventory and streamline workflows automatically. It delivers a comprehensive solution for addressable ad management, personalization, ad intelligence and scalability, giving customers the visibility and control needed to optimize ROI on addressable TV campaigns.

To learn more about Comcast Technology Solutions’ addressable advertising offerings, visit www.comcasttechnologysolutions.com.

About Comcast Technology Solutions

Comcast Technology Solutions offers a portfolio of technology solutions, the CTSuite, that provides the industry with the technology, scale and expertise to expand and navigate the rapidly changing media and entertainment technology landscape. We invent technology that solves industry challenges, reimagines what is possible, and transforms businesses for an ever-changing world. Built on Comcast’s know-how, proven facilities, scalable platforms, and infrastructure, Comcast Technology Solutions offers more than 20 years of reliable, real-world broadcast and digital experience. We partner with customers to redefine expectations and deliver the future to global audiences. For more information, visit www.comcasttechnologysolutions.com.

Media Contact:

Comcast Technology Solutions
Lynn Green
+1-720-413-4108
lynn_green@comcast.com