NewsON Unlocks New Revenue Through the Power of Programmatic

By using SpringServe and Total Connect+, NewsON grew its monthly revenue by more than 50%

Goal

Over-the-top (OTT) service continues to outpace previous growth predictions as households across the US spend more time streaming TV content. NewsON, an industry-leading OTT destination for local news owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, experienced this firsthand. Its viewership grew quickly throughout 2020 as a result of an active news cycle following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

NewsON realized it was time for a new monetization solution that would help meet growing advertiser demand while better managing the complexities of the OTT and programmatic ecosystems. Legacy solutions are not built to serve the unique demands of an OTT environment, particularly when it comes to optimizing ad breaks and unifying direct and programmatic demand.

NewsON turned to a solution purpose-built for digital video and OTT, choosing SpringServe as its ad server and SpotX as its supply-side platform (SSP). Together, SpringServe and SpotX helped NewsON transform its video monetization.

About NewsON

Free NewsON app provides instant access to live and on-demand newscasts
275+ Trusted local TV stations
165 US markets
NewsON competes highly among national news brands for engagement in the Roku Channel Store, consistently ranking as the No. 2 news and weather channel. NewsON offers advertisers unique access to local audiences, making it an attractive option for those looking for local footprints at national scale.

Solution

By using Total Connect+, the advanced integration between SpringServe and SpotX, NewsON can intelligently unite traditional direct-sold with programmatic inventory. The solution is SSP-agnostic and eliminates tedious, manual deal setup and testing. The NewsON team can work more efficiently and simplify the buyer’s path to inventory, which boosts fill rates.

NewsON is better able to manage its OTT inventory by taking advantage of several features, including:

Pod fill optimization

NewsON can more efficiently fill ad pods and mitigate any wasted impressions. Using a single ad request, the advanced podding feature allows SpotX to provide SpringServe the depth of ads necessary for NewsON to fill a deduplicated and competitively separated ad pod. Delivering the optimal ad break boosts revenue and improves the viewer experience.

Holistic demand management

By holistically competing traditional-direct and programmatic demand through Total Connect+, NewsON can better control decisioning, priority, and other business rules to maximize yield and ensure campaign success across execution types. The added efficiency means timeouts and user drop-offs are avoided, campaigns are delivered in full, and NewsON is able to unlock more programmatic revenue.

Smart inventory routing

Through SpringServe, NewsON can precisely manage how inventory is split between partners, set up A/B testing between demand stacks, and optimize based on real-time reporting.

Results

NewsON grew its average monthly revenue by more than 50% immediately after launching Total Connect+. In addition to the revenue growth, NewsON was able to increase programmatic demand and improve fill rates.

“The Total Connect+ solution from SpotX and SpringServe is designed perfectly for our OTT business. We were able to quickly scale programmatic demand, while still maintaining our direct-sold business, and immediately saw a boost in fill rates and significant revenue growth. We look forward to replicating this success across other business units as digital continues to shape the future of TV.” — Kevin Connelly, Director of Programmatic Monetization, NewsON & Sinclair Broadcast Group

Ready to see results like this for your CTV/OTT business?