ITN unifies online ad sales with Rightster

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Posted 19 January 2012 13:19pm by Vikki Chowney with 0 comments

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As part of a major shift in digital strategy, British news producer ITN Productions is unifying its online ad sales as it hands control of its publisher network to video specialists Rightser.

The partnership means that for the first time, brands will be able to buy ads within ITN's news and entertainment content - which features on AOL, Dailymotion, Metro.co.uk, Express.co.uk and more - from one place. 

The companies have already worked together to livestream the Royal Wedding to 20 countries via Facebook and are currently streaming the Leveson Inquiry in the UK. Based on the success of these projects, Rightster will now also syndicate all of ITN's content online.

This includes seeding to Facebook, ITN.co.uk and ITN's successful YouTube channel – which ITN says is the largest news-focused channel in the UK.

ITN's video content spans multiple news genres, entertainment and sport, currently delivering a global audience in excess of 50m views per month across mobile and online. 

MD at ITN Productions Mark Browning said that the company was connecting its content and related advertising with audience eyeballs regardless of where it's viewed or on what platform.

We are now able to automate and simplify the distribution and sales process so that there is a single buying point for agencies and brands who want access to a premium news audience."

CEO and founder of Rightster Charlie Muirhead added that this brings a supply-chain management way of thinking to digital media.

Yesterday, Reuters announced that it would be creating a YouTube channel as part of a $100m push from YouTube to attract unique programming.

For Reuters, this provides an opportunity to reach a different audience in a new way – but it also allows the organisation to grow its digital ad sales in the process.

Similarly, AOL announced earlier this month that it would be partnering with publisher Bonnier to bundle ad inventory for Bonnier-owned Parenting.com with AOL's own parenting content channels.

Unifying ad sales, and providing better analytics in the process, is proving to be a popular move for publishers.  ITN's partnership ticks both these boxes, and looks to be a smart way of maximising the value of each piece of content.

Vikki is News Editor for Econsultancy. You can follow her on Twitter.