France’s TF1 Group, Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 and Mediaset (Italy and Spain) have announced the creation of a joint venture designed to address the demand for brand-safe environments and high-quality pan-European video campaigns at scale. Headquartered in London, the new company will be called the European Broadcaster Exchange (EBX) and will initially focus on programmatic video campaigns, involving the automated and data-based management of digital advertising purchases and sales. The founders said the joint venture also marks the start of a deeper strategic collaboration to drive forward the technological development of online advertising.
In the coming weeks, an EBX sales team and an automated trading platform for digital video advertising will be set up, allowing the media companies to compete more efficiently with global competitors and to design a joint innovation strategy to create new ways for advertisers to reach their customers. The aim is to use technology, research and premium content to tap into the programmatic video advertising market, which is growing at an annual rate of 45 percent in Western Europe, said the founders in a statement.
ProSiebenSat.1, TF1 Group and Mediaset previously announced that they would work together in the area of multi-channel networks (MCNs), with TF1 Group and Mediaset (Italy) subsequently investing in Studio71, a ProSiebenSat.1 subsidiary that is one of the top 3 MCNs worldwide. The broadcasters added that the agreement to create the EBX remains subject to approval by European competition authorities.
