Paramount Australia has reached a key milestone in its business and technology transformation with the commencement of a market-first partnership with FreeWheel, a Comcast Company and global technology platform for the premium video advertising industry.
The transition to FreeWheel is designed to unlock a single-entry point for advertisers to engage total TV planning, trading and measurement via Paramount Connect.
The Paramount+ ad tier has already migrated to the FreeWheel technology platform, with 10 Play set to integrate in January 2025, commencing the first phase of Paramount Connect and access to a unified digital ecosystem.
Building on the success of a global Paramount FreeWheel partnership, tried and tested proprietary technology solutions will be rolled out locally to meet key advertiser priorities with a best-in-class, end-to-end management platform encompassing FreeWheel’s premium video ad server and SSP.
Lee Sears, President International Markets Ad Sales, Paramount, said this partnership extends Paramount’s proven global technology strategy, utilises international expertise and will meet local Australian market requirements.
“Our strategic partnership with FreeWheel aligns with our global vision to deliver unified advertising experiences for advertisers with cutting edge, powerful and fit-for-purpose technology that harnesses the unique attributes of both digital and linear TV.
“Its successful implementation in the UK, US and Canada has delivered significant media efficiencies and effectiveness for our advertisers that we know will also benefit the Australian market.”
FreeWheel’s innovative advertising platform streamlines and connects how ads are managed and delivered, giving greater control and transparency to maximise the impact of advertiser investment.
“We’re really excited to broaden our global partnership with Paramount and offer our extensive expertise to give Australian viewers a superior and tailored ad experience,” said Tess O’Brien, managing director, Australia & New Zealand on behalf of FreeWheel.
“At FreeWheel, we are focused on helping brands and agencies tap into the incredible potential of total TV advertising and reduce the complexity in today’s TV ecosystem, while also giving publishers the tools and control to effectively monetise their content. Our integrated ad management platform allows publishers to do just that – holistically consider the full pool of demand and effectively drive advertising outcomes for advertisers”.
“FreeWheel enables the Paramount Connect gateway providing advertisers with access to high quality, scalable and addressable audiences, viewing our vast library of unrivalled global and local premium content, across our unified streaming platforms,” said Rod Prosser, chief sales officer, Paramount Australia.
“Starting with our digital ecosystem initially, with linear to follow soon, advertisers will also have greater inventory control and flexibility plus capacity for advanced contextual, premium and dynamic ad experiences”.
The combination of Paramount’s proven proprietary modules and FreeWheel’s technology, offers extensive benefits to advertising campaigns.
- Unified Platform: FreeWheel centralises inventory management across all screens and deal types providing a single-entry point for advertisers to deliver seamless, multi-platform campaigns underpinned by truly unified ad decisions.
- Greater advertiser control: The platform offers market-leading inventory controls, including live TV and video on demand, enabling advertisers to maximise their investment and impact across Paramount’s ecosystem.
- Addressable audiences at scale: Proprietary modules support connection of audiences based on declared identifiers providing sophisticated, addressable targeting using data-driven insights to reach the right audience in the right context on the right platform, wherever they are watching Paramount content.
- Contextual capability: FreeWheel unlocks contextual premium advertising solutions fuelling Paramount’s data-led contextual advertising suite at the ad pod level. FreeWheel also supports diverse ad formats leveraging dynamic ad insertion (DAI) to enhance user experience while optimising ad delivery.
- Flexible and first-to-market premium ad experiences: Market-leading proprietary ad products have been developed to unify Paramount’s video offering and provide seamless advertiser access to our extensive global and local content portfolio via a simple, scalable solution that delivers relevance at scale.
Paramount Australia will host a series of agency engagement sessions offering an in-depth exploration of the technology and its unique opportunities and discuss advertisers’ needs ensuring a collaborative, informed and smooth transition to the new technology.
“Our primary focus is on educating stakeholders and collaborating with our partners to ideate effectively so they can fully grasp the scale of the opportunity with Paramount Connect and obtain maximum benefit,” said Prosser.
