• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, March 22, 2016

In a drive to make the digital video marketplace more transparent, AppNexus on Tuesday announced it is expanding its video-buying product capability and adding new video demand partners.

AppNexus will incorporate leading video bidders along with existing sources of supply and demand on its platform. The goal is to achieve greater audience with lower cost while still maximizing yield for publishers with both instream and outstream solutions.

“With this announcement, we now have an integrated buy- and sell-side platform and product base for clients,” said Eric Hoffert, SVP of video technology, AppNexus. The company has been testing the platform with 15 publishers in the U.S. and Europe since last fall.

In conjunction with the announcement, AppNexus has partnered with the following video demand sources to complement its demand-side platform (DSP): Adform, engage:BDR, MediaMath, The Trade Desk, Tremor Video and TubeMogul. The partnerships will help AppNexus to build a large exchange-driven video marketplace.

The announcement, which will be made at AppNexus’ San Francisco Publisher Summit, builds on AppNexus’s announcement last June about its video buying product. In the fourth quarter of last year, it launched video deals, private marketplaces, log level data and made open APIs available for building on top of its platform. Last fall, AppNexus began a closed test for its video supply-side platform (SSP) offering for publishers.

The news reflects recent important shifts in the video marketplace. In a move that took a lot of inventory out of the open marketplace, Google pulled its YouTube inventory, making it only available through DoubleClick Bid Manager. Facebook pulled the plug on LiveRail, its video ad server, which also removed available video inventory.

AppNexus believes that complementing demand for its own SSP with six of the leading video bidders offers a new source of video supply. “We’re building our supply platform from the ground up. A lot of inventory is still pre-roll, post-roll, etc.—but outstream video, which is a form of advertising that only starts when it’s in view, is intriguing and a potentially large-market opportunity,” Hoffert said.

In Q2, AppNexus expects to offer general availability on its SSP and will have an array of video monetization options — instream, outstream—for all types of publishers, along with  anti-latency tech and video ad-serving.

Hoffert noted that Google’s removal of YouTube video inventory from the open market “makes things more challenging for marketers that want one-stop shopping. That development fragmented the market.”

He added: “We are looking to build transparent video exchanges that we think marketers are looking for: an open ecosystem.” Hoffert then referenced TubeMogul’s recent “Manifesto for Independence,” campaign, which took aim at Google’s so-called “walled garden” approach, saying that AppNexus aims to offer a “truly open exchange model for marketers” that “creates the most transparent and open environment possible.”

Hoeffert positioned the TubeMogul campaign as a call to arms for an open video ecosystem: “We’re putting a stake in the ground, too. We’re trying to build that open video ecosystem. Out-stream video inventory is a new form of supply, and that’s not part of YouTube.” Hoffert raised the possibility that YouTube might not remain the dominant video portal, with Vessel and other players on the rise.

For its part, TubeMogul CMO Keith Eadie stated: “TubeMogul is always eager to integrate with independent, transparent inventory sources to enable our clients to holistically plan and buy brand advertising across screens using our software. We applaud AppNexus for bringing more inventory to the market and taking an open approach.”