Sky, C4 & ITV Align for Ad Marketplace

Channel 4, ITV and Sky, in collaboration with Comcast Advertising, are set to launch an advertising marketplace delivering seamless access to an on-demand and streaming inventory of premium content.

The move brings together the addressable inventory from all three sales houses into a single marketplace. It’s intended to help small- to medium-sized businesses bring their ad campaigns to premium video content. The marketplace will provide biddable pricing and more tools. The marketplace is set to launch in 2026, powered by Comcast’s Universal Ads platform and FreeWheel’s technology.

Priya Dogra, chief advertising, group data and new revenue officer at Sky, said: “In today’s fast-evolving media landscape, we strongly believe success will require collaboration, simplification, and innovation. In partnership with ITV and Channel 4, and following the successful U.S. launch of Comcast’s Universal Ads platform, we are excited to bring this to the U.K. and with it, the opportunity to open up TV advertising to new brands. Building on this innovation, we also want to simplify TV trading for established brands and agencies and look forward to exploring potential opportunities with ITV and Channel 4 to use Planet V.”

Kelly Williams, managing director for commercial at ITV said: “As a TV industry, it is important that we collaborate to make television easy to plan, buy and measure for our established customers as well as the huge potential of new to TV brands. Both of these initiatives, this new marketplace for SME’s and Planet V for agencies, represent a very exciting future.”

Rak Patel, chief commercial officer at Channel 4, said: “This marketplace underlines what sets TV apart from all other media: its ability to collaborate at scale. By uniting the power of Channel 4, ITV and Sky through a single marketplace, we’re creating a new home for premium video while accelerating our Fast Forward strategy to become the first public service streamer.”

Thomas Bremond, managing director for Comcast Advertising, international, commented: “We are excited to work with the U.K.’s premier broadcasters to offer advertisers a simplified way to access premium video, powered by Comcast’s Universal Ads platform. The collaborations across ITV, Channel 4 and Sky showcases the industry’s commitment to bringing together tech, media and data to offer greater efficiency and effectiveness to TV advertising.”