Sky, Virgin Media tying up top end of TV advertising

Sky issued an update to the market on Thursday morning, announcing that both itself and Liberty Global’s Virgin Media were forming a strategic partnership that would enable businesses of varying sizes to benefit further from “advanced television advertising”, across both the Virgin TV and Sky platforms.

The FTSE 100 company said advertisers would be able to target a potential audience over time of more than 30 million viewers, which it said put it on par with “leading social networks”.

By using “market-leading” targeting technology, underpinned by “in-depth” customer data, Sky said the partnership would “transform” the scale of addressable TV advertising in the UK and Ireland, giving brands the ability to target audiences whilst utilising the “attractive, quality, trusted, and brand safe” environment of TV.

The partnership would cover both targeted linear and video on demand (VOD) TV advertising, with Virgin Media making use of technology developed by its parent company, Liberty Global, as well as Sky's “ground-breaking and award winning” Sky AdSmart.

Sky said the deal also ensured that, as targeted TV expanded onto new platforms, there were consistent capabilities, currencies and targeting, which was “hugely beneficial” to clients.

Virgin Media's Pat Kiely and Sky Media's Jamie West would be leading the development of the strategic partnership.

Both parties said they intended that additional sales houses and channels would benefit from AdSmart technology “over time”.

“Quality programming deserves to be supported with quality advertising,” said Virgin Media chief executive Tom Mockridge.

“In partnering with Sky we're putting the UK and Ireland at the forefront of TV advertising innovation.

“We're giving consumers advertising that is more relevant to them and giving brands a trusted destination to deliver intelligent, tailored TV campaigns to a targeted audience.”

Sky’s group chief operating officer Andrew Griffith said “addressable” TV is a “high quality, brand safe and transparent” medium that a number of brands had already been adopting in their thousands.

“Today's partnership takes that to the next level with the extension of AdSmart to millions more homes meaning more relevant ads for Virgin customers and a larger platform for advertisers.”