Bitcentral FUELs audience reach and new monetization opportunities for Cowles Broadcasting on NewsON

Bitcentral Inc., an industry-leading provider of efficient media workflows, announces support for ad trigger insertion in its FUEL online video platform. The solution is being used by Cowles Broadcasting to enable Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) for its launch on the popular NewsON service.

Broadcasters, content creators, and digital publishers who utilize FUEL's automation, encoding, and distribution solutions, can take advantage of FUEL's server-side ad trigger solution. Using ad triggers, applications or distribution platforms can include advertising cue points (SCTE-35), which enable ads to be inserted downstream by a third-party DAI vendor. In the case of Cowles, Google has been used, which is common practice for many of the Free Ad-Supported TV (FAST) channels today.

Cowles Broadcasting is taking advantage of this new FUEL feature to expand its distribution of local news content and to create monetization opportunities for its multiple stations, who are providing live streams, with the necessary ad cue points, on the NewsON network.

NewsON is a leading distributor of local news online in the U.S., covering more than 75% of the U.S. population. The free, ad-funded service is available on the most popular connected TV platforms, including Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV and others.

We're delighted to be adding Cowles Broadcasting to our growing roster of local news providers, saidRon Stitt,VP and General Manager at NewsON. The ability to open up advertising opportunities is a critical factor in online distribution agreements today, andFUEL is providing the basis for new ad revenues no matter what device the viewer is using.

Cowles Broadcasting has been using FUEL's Linear on Demand (LOD) and Non-Stop Live (NSL) streaming solutions since 2018 to create dynamic linear channels from a combination of VOD assets and live newscasts. FUEL automatically replaces Cowles' on-air ads with digital ads. This has resulted in better viewer engagement with longer viewing sessions and a huge lift to ads inserted, driving a 10x growth in available ad spots inventory.

Our launch with NewsON is great for viewers across the country who want to keep up with the news that matters to them in the most accessible way, saidNeal Boling, General Manager at Cowles' KHQ-TV. Bitcentral has become a highly valuable partner in helping us expand our ability to distribute our news and sports content across all digital platforms. FUEL continues to not only help us extend our reach considerably, but also to maximize monetization opportunities while providing a true TV experience.

It's a real privilege to be extending our work with Cowles, to help it to grow its audience reach and advertising revenue opportunities through NewsON, said Greg Morrow, General Manager, FUEL at Bitcentral. Reaching audiences across multiple platforms can be a real challenge, and monetization adds an extra layer of complexity beyond that. It is absolutely critical that streams are dynamic enough to handle the advertising nuances of the most popular devices, like Roku and Samsung TV. This new FUEL enhancement solves a common challenge in OTT streaming today, that of monetizing channels effectively across disparate audiences.

LINK:	https://www.kitplus.com/news/Bitcentral_FUELs_audience_reach_and_new_m...
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