NBCU partners with Trade Desk to make Olympic inventory biddable

NBCUniversal will make Olympic inventory available programmatically for the first time this summer. The media giant also unveiled a stoppable TV offering called Virtual Concessions that will officially launch during the Games.

To do it, the broadcaster is partnering with The Trade Desk, which will build a private marketplace that’ll let advertisers bid on everything from the US Olympic Trials to the Paris games.

The move follows the media giant’s efforts to open up more TV inventory to the programmatic world. Ryan McConville, EVP of advertising platforms and operations at NBCUniversal, said during a press briefing that the broadcaster has seen a 40% increase in advertisers in the last year, “driven mostly by programmatic access.”

Much of that is on streaming; in fact, more than 30% of Peacock ads are sold programmatically, he said.

“This ability to buy into these premium environments now in an automated way is opening up the ability for more and more marketers to come in,” he said.

Full story at Marketing Brew.