What kind of targeting capabilities is WBD offering advertisers across linear and streaming?
We’ve spent a lot of time gearing up our data capabilities. We announced Olli a week or two ago, and it gets first-party data from 100 million households. With Olli, the offering we are promoting to buyers is called converged Data-Driven Video. That allows us to follow a targeted segment from linear over to digital, which enables us to manage frequency caps, as well as the optimal level of reach for those 100 million households.
For linear, we have a product called Data-Driven Linear, which has been in market for about five years. It allows us to take a look at the 25 or so linear networks that we own and breaks each into five parts. From that, we get about 125 different segments. We then look at an advertiser’s strategic target, and see which of those 125 options has the highest index for that target. In a nutshell, it’s a way for us to reach an advertiser’s target audience across linear channels.
Sports have been a growing source of interest for streamers and ad buyers because of their scale and engagement. What offerings does WBD have in that space?
In the sports world, we have two very prominent properties: the NBA and the NCAA Men’s March Madness, which is close to a $1 billion ad sales property. This year, the Super Bowl was followed almost immediately by the NBA All-Star Weekend on TNT. In general, I look at that stretch from February to May as the time in which our sports inventory is most prominent.
On some nights, our sports properties have reached as much as 60% of the entire linear audience, which speaks to the power of our sports portfolio. While we are working to build out our sports offerings on streaming, we have a great respect for the 71 million homes still paying for television. As an audience, they are often wealthy, highly educated and sports fans. In terms of new sports contracts, we added Nascar this year on a multi-year deal. We will also be bringing back our offerings from the MLB, NHL and others.
What can you share about WBD’s ongoing negotiations to sign a package of games from the NBA?
I understand that is a hot topic, but I can’t comment on it unfortunately. Same thing with our joint venture alongside Disney and Fox.
What updates can you share about new ad-supported offerings on Max?
At our upfront Wednesday, we are going to be talking about our “IP Upfronts,” which are our tentpole moments that drive pop culture. On that front, we have two main offerings: our WBD theatrical releases and our HBO Original Series. We have a lot of great theatrical releases coming to theaters and then to Max, including Dune 2, Furiosa, Beetlejuice and Joker 2. When those movies arrive on Max, they become television events. As a result, we are looking to sell sponsorships against those debuts. This is the first upfront where we are offering that.
We are doing the same thing with the HBO Original Series. In the next few months, we have second seasons of shows including House of the Dragon and White Lotus, as well as the new season of And Just Like That and The Last of Us. We sold sponsorships against these in the last year, but this will be the first time they’re available at the upfront.