Channel 4, ITV and Sky roll out ad marketplace to attract new advertisers

Channel 4, ITV and Sky are embarking on a pioneering collaboration to provide a self-serve TV advertising marketplace to make their broadcaster inventory more accessible for digital-native advertisers as well as small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
These are the kinds of businesses that are used to buying their own media in social and digital environments. The sales houses involved believe this will attract new-to-TV brands. Biddable pricing is among the tools available.
The marketplace covers addressable streaming and on-demand inventory. For the first time, advertisers will be able to buy, measure and report a single campaign across all three sales houses.
It will harness adtech from Comcast Advertising, using its groundbreaking Universal Ads platform, which launched in the US earlier this year. The marketplace for SMBs will launch in 2026.
Comcast’s Universal Ads looks to attract SMBs by simplifying TV
The broadcasters are also in discussions to simplify the purchase of addressable inventory for media agencies.
This includes exploring the potential of a joint agency-facing solution based on ITV’s Planet V technology.
The solution for SMBs and digital-native advertisers will have a user-friendly interface made specifically for these types of advertisers.
“There will be a focus on outcomes,” the broadcasters said in a statement. “There will be tools and analytics to help brands measure and optimise their advertising performance.”
Buying addressable TV should be straightforward
The aim is that buying addressable broadcaster inventory across Channel 4 Sales, ITV Media and Sky Media should be straightforward and efficient. The broadcasters believe that SMBs will welcome the opportunity to harness the scale of TV and what they describe as its trusted environment and creative power.
“It’s a major step in bringing the ease of digital ad buying into the world of premium TV,” they declared. Rak Patel, chief commercial officer at Channel 4, added that “this marketplace underlines what sets TV apart from all other media: its ability to collaborate at scale”.
Priya Dogra, chief advertising, group data and new revenue officer at Sky, explained: “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 US launch of Comcast’s Universal Ads platform, we are excited to bring this to the UK 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.”
Important to collaborate to make TV easy
Kelly Williams, ITV’s managing director, commercial, added: “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 these initiatives — this new marketplace for SMEs and Planet V for agencies — represent a very exciting future.”
Patel noted: “By uniting the power of Channel 4, ITV and Sky through a single marketplace, we are creating a new home for premium video while accelerating our Fast Forward strategy to become the first public-service streamer.”
Thomas Bremond, managing director, Comcast Advertising International, commented: “We are excited to work with the UK’s premier broadcasters to offer advertisers a simplified way to access premium video, powered by Comcast’s Universal Ads platform.
“Their collaboration showcases the industry’s commitment to bringing together tech, media and data to offer greater efficiency and effectiveness to TV advertising.”
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