Paramount is taking a big advertising swing by bringing guaranteed programmatic placement to live sports.
Today, the company announced it was adding live, in-game programmatic buying for select ad units in premium sporting events. The offering starts with Paramount+’s UFC debut, Pimblett vs. Gaethje on Jan. 24. According to Paramount, this is the first time advertisers can get guaranteed, live placement in Paramount+’s sports properties.
“This initiative underscores Paramount’s commitment to media modernization, expanding opportunities for marketers to show up during the biggest and buzziest moments of scaled audience attention,” Jay Askinasi, chief revenue officer, Paramount, said in a statement.
The ad offerings work in tandem with Paramount’s Streaming Fixed Units, which provide marketers with premium, fixed ad placements within programming. For example, a Streaming Fixed Unit could give advertisers placement during the first seven days of new-episode premieres of Paramount series, such as Landman and Tulsa King.
Paramount noted that it will create a private marketplace with biddable ad inventory thanks to partnerships with Amazon DSP, Google’s Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk, and Yahoo DSP. This private marketplace is available for UFC’s full slate of numbered preliminaries and Fight Nights in the U.S. Meanwhile, the numbered event main cards will exclusively be sold as Streaming Fixed Units.
With the news, Paramount joins other premium publishers bolstering their programmatic offerings in live sports.
Notably, NBCUniversal delivered the first programmatic Olympics in 2024, helping the company set a record for ad sales for the event. Meanwhile, publishers such as Disney and Prime Video are also providing biddable opportunities in live events, as companies look to let advertisers activate within the biggest moments of games as they happen.
