The House of Mouse offers cool programmatic technology, damnit. And Disney is making sure you know that, according to a new blog post outlining several “biddable ad tech advancements” to support buying of Disney’s live sports and entertainment content.
These include expanding live inventory–content from Hulu and Disney+, now featuring ESPN and ABC News for eligible subscribers–into biddable marketplaces through its proprietary ad server.
Disney is also supporting Instant Deals within Google’s DSP, DV360, in the U.S. The feature—powered by Disney’s Real-Time Ad Exchange (DRAX)—lets advertisers quickly find and activate inventory that matches their target content or audience using custom targeting criteria. DV360 was already integrated with Disney’s marketplace through DRAX Direct, making this a natural extension of their partnership.
Why This Matters:
You’ve heard of “land and expand”—well, 2025 is clearly the year of “expand.” We’re seeing it across the board, from Comcast to Roku, as streaming platforms race to make programmatic buying easier for advertisers. Disney is no exception.
The blog post makes it clear: their focus is “to make it as easy and flexible for our clients to buy Disney, across all platforms and marketplaces.” It continues, “By expanding our support for a range of deal types, and expanding biddable capabilities across live sports, streaming and entertainment, we’re laying the foundation for powering biddable automation and outcomes at scale.”
Experts React:
Disney’s Amy Lehman, SVP of Ad Platforms, talked up the value of the new capabilities, highlighting Disney’s inventory but also the opportunity to streamline.
“This is a significant advancement in our ad technology. Disney is not only making valuable live ad inventory available to advertisers, but also enabling automated workflows to simplify access for buyers.”
Our Take:
The blog post makes Disney’s ambitions clear—especially in a section titled “Disney’s Ad Technology Leadership,” which states, “these are just the latest steps we’ve taken in streaming and ad tech leadership.” By emphasizing that its proprietary ad tech stack has long supported addressable advertising in live programming, Disney is positioning itself as a programmatic leader in live sports and entertainment.
That message isn’t new. Back in January, timed to CES, Disney introduced its Live Sports & Entertainment certification, naming Google’s DV360, The Trade Desk, Yahoo DSP, and Magnite as certified platforms—further reinforcing its push here.
