• Newsy and SpotX Pursue Programmatic Video Ads in Apple TV

    Newsy, a popular video-based news service for millennials, has partnered with SpotX for programmatic video ads in Newsy’s Apple TV app. The companies believe they are among the first to monetize Apple’s tvOS which was itself first announced by Apple last September in conjunction with the launch of the new Apple TV.  SpotX released an SDK for Apple TV last November.

    Newsy’s GM Blake Sabatinelli told me that Newsy has been working with SpotX on desktop, mobile and other CTV platforms, including Roku. Newsy’s sales teams works with SpotX to build programmatic demand suited for Newsy’s millennial audience.

    The Newsy Apple TV app offers both on-demand and linear viewing options, the latter being a curated, continuous stream of Newsy videos. Blake said the majority of viewing occurs with the lean-back linear option, which has in turn driven up average session times. Newsy inserts 90 second ad pods every 10 minutes in the linear stream, vs. periodic pre- and mid-rolls in the on-demand format. Apple named Newsy’s app a “Best of 2015” for Apple TV.

    For its part, SpotX is quite bullish on the CTV opportunity, revealing that ad spending on CTV increased 570% from Q3 to Q4 2015.