Comcast’s adtech moves continue in 2025.
The company’s SSP, FreeWheel, will remain the preferred partner for A+E Global Media’s ad inventory across its linear and multiplatform properties, including A&E, HISTORY, and Lifetime. In total, A+E says it reaches 414 million households globally.
According to the announcement, a key component of the renewed partnership is A+E’s use of FreeWheel’s Audience Manager, which brings together audiences across devices and ad types for targeted, scalable campaigns. The tool enables “real-time audience sizing,” hopefully making it easier for A+E to connect advertisers with the audiences they want.
Why This Matters:
As the TV ad landscape becomes more fragmented, both advertisers and publishers face challenges matching audiences and scaling campaigns across premium inventory. By helping publishers build, manage, and activate first-, second-, and third-party audience segments, Audience Manager is meant to deliver faster, scalable audience activation across screens and supply.
Launched in late 2023, Audience Manager simplifies audience creation and targeting across screens. FreeWheel says publishers like A+E can activate audiences 66% faster than before—often in under 24 hours—by making it possible to build and forecast in one platform. Real-time audience sizing, which shows how many households or individuals an audience includes, helps publishers respond to RFPs faster and better manage advertiser reach.
Experts React:
“At A+E, we are continually working to make sure we provide our viewers with quality content supported by a premium ad experience,” said Lee Barstow, VP of Revenue Ops at A+E, in the announcement release. “Through our partnership with FreeWheel, we’re enabling advertisers to deliver smarter, targeted placements across our network of content, which enhances both monetization and, most importantly, the audience experience.”
Meanwhile, Soo Jin Oh, Chief Commercial Officer at FreeWheel, added, “As the TV landscape has changed at lightning speed,” says Oh, “A+E has always been a forward-thinking and innovative partner. They offer advertisers the unique opportunity to connect with diverse audiences through data-driven strategies, and we’re thrilled to expand our partnership to power this experience.”
Our Take:
It’s been a busy six months for Comcast. A programmatic push with Roku, new contextual ad-targeting capabilities, a partnership with Adlook, Universal Ads, and more. Kudos to the telco and telecom companies eager to do more in this space. Welcome back… now go buy something!
