Dive Brief:
- Facebook will begin delivering video ads to set-top boxes through services like Roku and Apple TV, according to Recode. Facebook is only testing TV ads with two publishers at the moment, A+E and Tubi TV, so the development is still in its early stages.
- The main value Facebook brings to set-top advertisers is its targeting capabilities, using IP addresses to match Apple TV or similar apps with Facebook's own account information.
- Recode reports that the Facebook Audience Network will be serving the ads.
Dive Insight:
Following a strong Q3 earnings report, with mobile offerings alone breaking 1 billion daily active users, Facebook remains hungry to extend potential revenue streams to more connected devices. The company has put a fresh emphasis on television of late, connecting its Live video platform to TV screens last month, and other digital players are similarly eyeing set-top boxes.
TV ads could help Facebook extend and strengthen its lucrative advertising business.
Traditional media, including linear TV, has been under digital pressure recently with the rise of live streaming. Given this reality, advertisers want to reach viewers and Facebook’s move makes sense on many levels as it’s tapping a fertile marketplace and bringing an enormous amount of data on user behavior, with app interaction along with it.
Platforms across a number of sectors like telecommunications, media, social media and technology are looking to shore up their role as the market for entertainment content and advertising continues to evolve quickly.
Hulu partnered with Strata last week in a bid to establish something resembling a local linear TV ad model, and the interest might give a much-needed kick to the TV space, particularly through the wealth of targeting data companies like Facebook and Hulu provide.
