Sling TV Tripled Advertising Revenues In 2018, Credits Dynamic Ad Insertion

Dish’s Sling TV tripled its advertising revenue in 2018, largely thanks to its dynamic ad insertion (DAI) business, the company says.

The company did not give any specific revenue numbers around its ad sales, so it's unclear how significant that tripling is in terms of overall revenue.

Sling supports DAI on more than 90 of its networks, allowing the company to dynamically insert targeted and addressable ads across its platform. Those ads will typically demand a higher price than less targeted or less dynamic programmatic ads.

Sling says the number of programmatic ad buys quintupled in 2018, compared to 2017.

“DAI has opened new doors, allowing us to expose our inventory to programmatic buyers, attracting digital ad budgets that weren’t traditionally spent on TV,” said Kevin Arrix, Dish Media senior vice president stated. “The lines between digital and TV are blurring.”

Sling tripled its ad business last year, although it only added 205,000 subscribers in 2018, bringing its total subscriber base to 2.4 million, or just under 10% growth. The relatively slow growth of subscribers, compared to the fast growth in the ad business, backs up claims about the company’s DAI business.

This week, the company unveiled promotional pricing that cuts monthly subscription rates by 40% for the first three months. If  able to monetize those users with dynamic and addressable ads, Sling may be able to offset those initial acquisition costs.

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