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The real competition between TV providers and broadcasters is social video, not each other. Or at least that’s what James Rook, president of Comcast Advertising, said during an interview at CES 2025 in Las Vegas on Wednesday. The advertising executive was talking about the company’s Monday to turn on “universal ads,” a solution that allows marketers to buy TV ads from different media companies in one place.
Launch partners for Universal ads include A+E, AMC Networks, DIRECTV, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Roku, TelevisaUnivision, Warner Bros. There’s Discovery and Xumo, and more are reportedly on the way. Inventory for Universal ads will be streaming inventory to begin with, with plans to add solutions for linear TV inventory over time.
The goal is to simplify buying TV ads to better compete with how easy it is to buy ads on social video sites like YouTube. In other words, buying broadcast TV ads should be as easy as buying ads on social video, where there isn’t as much of a learning curve to begin with.
“There are millions of advertisers out there who have built their businesses on social videos, YouTube ads, etc., who don’t have access to the power of content (and) advertising solutions from companies like this. and others as much as they want,” Rook said. “And as we talk to advertisers who have built their businesses on social video, they’re looking for new qualified audiences.”
They also want to connect their businesses with brand-safe content, something social video can’t always deliver as advertisers have in the past. is boycotting YouTube etc social sites have proven.
With the launch of universal ads, companies hope to transform their “premium” video into another category considered by those marketers who advertise on social video today, whether it’s unscripted or short-form video like those found on YouTube, or more social video, like those found in Meta programs, a Comcast executive noted.
That’s key because most of the competition and growth in the industry has come from social video, Rooke said — and not necessarily from other TV providers like Netflix and Amazon, or even broadcasters.
“While these companies and we compete in some ways, the real competition comes from new providers that are chasing TV dollars… So if you look at where the growth is, we’re all doing really well in our own growth. CTV (Connected TV) businesses – our streaming businesses – and app revenue from that, but overall, the majority of the growth is going to social video and that’s not slowing down,” Rook noted.
This led Comcast to decide to chase net new dollars from where the growth came from, as opposed to chasing the same ad dollars as before.
It was YouTube it works for years earn more TV adsespecially since his service has become more popular on televisions, which he now accounts for about half of its followers.
