• by Wayne Friedman , August 10, 2018

Viacom is finding new ways to generate revenue. It is licensing its Viacom Vantage advanced advertising technology product to other companies, including 21st Century Fox.

Viacom is a partner with Fox -- along with Turner, NBCUniversal, and Univision -- in Open AP, a consortium looking to find new audience segments for national TV advertisers. The effort was begun in 2017.  

Open AP members represent well over 50% of the national gross rating points in the U.S., per Viacom, one of the first networks to use data to target audiences to sell ads. Vantage kicked off in 2015.

Bob Bakish, president-CEO, Viacom, said in the company’s recent earnings call with analysts: “Fox will be the first media partner to use the Vantage editing to power its linear optimization service across its networks." He added that the company was working to "secure additional licensing partnerships with publishers.”

Wade Davis, executive vice president-CFO, Viacom, said: “It is also important that this is a new line item in our AMS [Advanced Marketing Solutions] business.”

For all of Viacom’s efforts in advanced advertising -- its Advanced Marketing Solutions business -- Viacom says the company expects revenue growth of 33%, anticipating about $300 million for the full year.