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Leading third-party verification company, Integral Ad Science (IAS), and video ad-serving platform, FreeWheel (part of Comcast), have this week announced a new global partnership to provide publishers with a simple solution for verifying and protecting their premium video ad inventory.
The partnership integrates the measurement capabilities of both companies to empower publishers to better understand and protect the quality of their inventory, enabling them to provide brand safe, in-view, and fraud-free environments. IAS and FreeWheel hope the solution will build confidence and trust between publishers and marketers, by improving transparency between the buy- and sell-side of the industry.
The announcement comes off the back of an exponential increase in video content consumption, making it by far the fastest growing medium worldwide:
- More video content is uploaded in 30 days than the major U.S. television networks have created in 30 years.
- More than 500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube each day.
- One-third of online activity is spent watching video.
- 17,000 hours of video content will cross global IP networks every second by 2021, according to Cisco (via Forbes).
The challenge for publishers, many of who have already doubled down on video content creation, is that viewability, ad fraud, geo-compliance, and brand safety continue to be an ever-present problem. A study by the Guardian last week on its own properties revealed that 72% of video ad spend was going to unauthorized exchanges and SSPs.
The IAS/FreeWheel solution has already been tested and deployed in France – across leading publishers TF1 Publicité and France TV Publicité – and is now available globally across Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) and Video Player Ad Interface Definition (VPAID) inventory on desktop and mobile web.
“Today more than ever, third-party verification is essential so all players across the industry can invest effectively and with confidence. IAS is committed to supporting the buy- and sell-side and advocating for higher media quality standards – our partnership with FreeWheel allows us to continue this initiative,” says Nick Morley, EMEA MD at IAS.
“Creating global solutions and standards for digital video is a critical component for the health of the entire TV ecosystem. The integration of FreeWheel and IAS measurement capabilities will bolster the buy-side’s confidence in the integrity of the inventory they’re purchasing, and allow publishers to pursue more informed monetisation strategies,” adds Thomas Bremond, General Manager at FreeWheel International.
