Paramount Aims to Keep Some Top Streaming Ads Out of Programmatic Fray

Every person who streams a video favorite does so on their own terms, but Paramount is hoping to make the experience a little more unifying.

The media conglomerate, now under the aegis of Skydance Media, is unveiling a new ad format on Paramount+ that ensures sponsors who choose it get seen by broader audiences, even if every streaming subscriber is free to watch a comedy, drama, or other program at times of their own choosing.

New “streaming fixed units” give advertisers who buy them the same ad placement in the premieres of new episodes of top shows including “Tulsa King,” “Landman” and “Mayor of Kingstown.” When an advertiser buys the unit, it it is also buying a guarantee that Paramount will run the ad in a fixed place, such as the first spot in a commercial break, for the first seven days after the episode debuts.

The offering may give Paramount a little more control over specific types of streaming inventory that would allow it to seek a premium, or higher-than-expected pricing, rather than letting that ad time be sold via programmatic means. Programmatic buying, which has fast become a major marketplace for media companies, allows advertisers to snap up advertising inventory via the use of algorithms that use specific audience and consumer criteria to govern purchasing.

In an era when streaming subscribers pick their own viewing hours, every program is watched by individual consumers at different times of day, in different geographic regions and with different interests and needs. By buying programmatically, advertisers can snatch up inventory likely to reach a particular type of consumer under more specific conditions than possible in linear TV.

Paramount’s new units have been purchased by financial-services companies, marketers of alcoholic beverages, consumer product giants, backers of A.I., app publishers, automobile marketers, casual-dining chains and even Western lifestyle brands such as Boot Barn that want to reach viewers of series under the supervision of producer Taylor Sheridan.

Paramount feels the new units give advertisers a chance to boost their programmatic stock by having a defined presence when bigger audiences are likely to watch popular programs in broader fashion.