Equativ Invests In Digital Video Personalisation Firm Nowtilus

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Equativ, an ad monetisation platform, announced its strategic investment in Nowtilus, the digital video personalisation company that facilitates broadcaster and publisher transitions to digital streaming, featuring, interoperability, and flawless ad-delivery, and scale.

After the recent announcement of its rebranding, shifting away from Smart to Equativ to settle the complete integration of its unified and comprehensive value proposition, this move is the latest in a series of strategic acquisitions and partnerships that accelerate Equativ’s growth in the Connected TV (CTV) space.

Equativ has made great strides over the past year in the development of a fully interoperable TV stack, with the acquisition of DynAdmic, the launch of the TVMOTIK alliance, and the success of its award-winning Euro Cup 2020 live ad insertion innovation.

With more than a quarter of people in the US and UK pure “streamers”, a significant percentage of the population can now only be reached on streaming platforms. Server-side ad insertion (SSAI) technologies are vital for enabling ad-personalisation and targeting while maintaining a premium user experience.

The integration of Nowtilus’ core SSAI functionality into Equativ’s programmatic video ad tech stack will provide broadcasters and operators with industry-leading live video advertising insertion capabilities. Video rights owners, distributors, and aggregators will also have the flexibility to manage revenue from direct sales with the power of reaching programmatic buyers.

Nowtilus will continue to operate independently, with the Serverside.ai brand remaining unchanged to provide a standalone SSAI solution for OTT, HbbTV and Audio.

Features of the joint offering will include:

• Header Bidding: unified auctions between SSPs and direct demand
• Ad Routing: direct access to the best possible outcomes with every ad request
• Ad Break Management: optimising the fill for advertising opportunities with matching ad creatives for each break
• Dynamic Ad Substitution via HbbTV: ensuring essential broadcast ads are delivered into the signal while filling open placement opportunities dynamically

“The strategic investment in Nowtilus is the natural next step in Equativ’s advanced TV journey, allowing us to accelerate our vertical integration by internalising relevant TV tech expertise and resources,” said Arnaud Créput, CEO of Equativ.

“Nowtilus is the perfect match as it allows us to provide our clients with a completely interoperable and agnostic advanced TV and video solution that innovates with new format capabilities such as audio. Together we will provide greater control for the seller, limit ad leakage and optimise outcomes for the buyers.”

By investing a significant stake in Nowtilus, Equativ intends to build an open framework for SSAI integration with other vendors. The company’s goal is to maximise ad revenue and performance by combining all key attributes of TV ad management in an integrated and open monetisation platform.

“This partnership will provide our customers with a whole new level of sophisticated video monetisation, as Equativ and Nowtilus enable the holistic end-to-end advertising supply chain,” said Patrick Knippel, managing director and co-founder at Nowtilus.

“We’re all thrilled to be joining the Equativ family,” said Leander Carell, managing director and co-founder at Nowtilus. “As a fervent supporter of the Open Web, Equativ also advocates for the wider adoption of stronger standards in terms of data sharing, competition management, transparency, interoperability, and openness. All the ingredients of a more robust and efficient CTV ecosystem.”