Comcast, Charter, ViacomCBS to collaborate on targeted advertising with new joint venture

Comcast, Charter and ViacomCBS have announced a Blockgraph partnership and new joint venture, aimed at promoting advanced, and especially targeted, advertising for TV and video. The software platform provides audience insights for both media planning and measurement and de-identified targeted advertising. The partners said the technology will help media companies provide marketers with insights across their collective platforms, without relying only third parties. 

Blockgraph was originally launched in 2017 within Comcast Advertising’s tech unit, FreeWheel. The vision has now shifted to becoming a collaborative industry system, with Charter and ViacomCBS as early supporters. 

The joint venture will be led by Jason Manningham, the GM of Blockgraph under FreeWheel. Early adopters of the Blockgraph technology include Comcast’s NBCUniversal, which has started integrating Blockgraph into its AdSmart platform.