Fox, NBCU and Viacom unveil OpenAP 2.0 update for audience segment ad platform

Fox, NBCUniversal, and Viacom today unveiled OpenAP 2.0, which looks to turn its advanced audience platform into a centralized premium video marketplace.

OpenAP 2.0 is adding workflow automation for national linear and long-form digital video, which the group developed in collaboration with Accenture and FreeWheel. The update to OpenAP will go live in time for fall 2019 campaigns.

OpenAP 2.0 will now let buyers put together cross-publisher audience segments for both national linear and long-form digital video, and submit orders to activate these segments through a centralized cross-publisher marketplace. OpenAP 2.0 will be accessible at OpenAP.tv and via APIs for agency planning systems and approved demand side platforms. OpenAP 2.0 will also now provide cross-publisher analytics including pre-campaign performance projections and post-campaign delivery metrics like total unduplicated reach, overall tCPM and total audience impressions.

“With competition rising in every industry, marketers need new ways to define their audience and engage viewers across all platforms. Expanding OpenAP can help turn that vision into a reality. Krishan Bhatia and a group of industry leaders are creating solutions that will benefit the entire advertising ecosystem, and that should be commended,” said Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising and client partnerships at NBCUniversal, in a statement.

“We’re incredibly proud of the pioneering work that our team and OpenAP partners have accomplished in unifying and standardizing the television business. OpenAP’s evolution into a transactional platform is intended to simplify activation for our brand and agency partners, which we believe will significantly impact the scale of advanced advertising moving forward,” said Sean Moran, head of ad solutions at Viacom, in a statement.

RELATED: Exit of AT&T's WarnerMedia could spell trouble for OpenAP

OpenAP 2.0 will be moving on without one of the group’s founding members. AT&T’s WarnerMedia announced late last week that it is leaving OpenAP so it can pursue its own advanced advertising strategy.

“As our company has transformed, our advanced advertising strategy has evolved. As a result, we are withdrawing from Open AP,” AT&T said in a statement. “We appreciate what OpenAP has supported to this point in widening the adoption of audience-based buying on television.”

OpenAP was founded in 2017 by Fox, Turner and Viacom. NBCUniversal joined the group in 2018, and Univision is also a current member.