AMC Networks today announced that it worked with The Trade Desk and Magnite on several campaigns with major advertisers this summer to enable programmatic and addressable buying on linear television – an industry first. The new capability, which allows the type of automated buying traditionally reserved for digital but now possible on live television, is a significant step forward to build new value into ad inventory already prized for its brand safety, integrity and proximity to high-quality content.

AMC Networks has been focused for more than a year on making it possible for advertisers to buy linear TV through automated and programmatic platforms. The objective was to enable advanced and automated buying tools, with enhanced targeting, around the kind of coveted and high-quality content the company is known for – original series like The Walking Dead, Killing Eve, Better Call Saul and others – as opposed to only being able to leverage these buying tools when advertising alongside Web content or on digital platforms.

“This is a huge development, for us and for the entire industry, unlocking the value of linear inventory by providing advanced programmatic buying, with full addressability, on linear television,” said Evan Adlman, senior vice president of advanced advertising and digital partnerships for AMC Networks. “We have made a commitment to make 100 percent of our linear reach addressable, and we believe in the enhanced efficiency and automation of programmatic buying. To enable this full range of advantages on linear television is a major step and capability that will be at the center of our advertising partnerships today and in the future.”

The Q3 campaigns featured national advertisers like Best Western, Smithfield Foods, Securian Financial and others. These clients have continued to stay live and leverage this powerful capability through the current fourth quarter, and AMC Networks is working to expand these partner relationships and add new ones. A significant advantage of programmatic and addressable buying on linear television lies in the ability of an advertiser to bring their own first party data to these highly targeted and relevant ad buys. As an industry leader in data-driven, programmatic advertising, The Trade Desk was an ideal partner for AMC Networks in this pioneering effort.

“Our partnership with AMC is bringing advertisers all the benefits that come with programmatic, plus the opportunity to buy high-quality content in a way that hasn’t been done before,” said Tim Sims, chief revenue officer, The Trade Desk. “Giving advertisers the access to a new pool of premium inventory and the ability to use their first-party data through this linear addressable capability is a perfect match. We’re excited to see how this first-to-market inventory opens up more opportunities for advertisers as the TV marketplace continues to evolve.”

For AMC Networks, central to this effort was protecting the core linear product while introducing additional buyers coming in through The Trade Desk platform as opposed to a traditional buying channel. Leveraging the capability of this new mode and form of buying required the company to ensure category separation, frequency management, time-out management, and all the proper data, DSP and SSP connections to ensure all categories of advertising ran as intended. As the company progresses to its goal of making 100 percent of its linear reach fully addressable, regardless of where the consumer views the advertising, significant controls are required. AMC Networks, in cooperation with Magnite, custom built functionality in collaboration with its own broadcast delivery teams and linear order management system.

“The work we’ve done with AMC brings the full power of programmatic execution to linear TV for the first time and gives advertisers the technology they need to holistically manage campaigns across CTV and linear TV,” said Matt McLeggon, senior vice president of advanced solutions, Magnite. “Advertisers can now reach any AMC viewer, regardless of screen or how they access their content, through the Magnite platform. The success of our Q3 pilot proves that the act of buying CTV and linear TV no longer need to be siloed endeavors. We look forward to playing an expanded role in the proliferation of new addressable television opportunities alongside AMC.”

Late last year, AMC Networks completed the industry’s first national addressable campaigns, a significant and long-awaited step in unlocking the value and power of linear advertising at scale, with enhanced relevance never before possible on television.