EBX, the new digital ad sales partnership between four major European broadcasters, has hired Clear Channel’s Damon Westbury as commercial director.
Westbury will begin his new role in August and will lead on all commercial aspects of the business, including agency relationships and trading agreements.
EBX – the European Broadcaster Exchange – is a joint venture founded by four major European broadcasters, including Channel 4, Mediaset, ProSiebenSat.1 Media and TF1 Group.
Although it is early days, broadcasters see big potential in EBX, which consolidates their respective tech, giving them the scale they need to deliver digital advertising with a single buying point.
Crucially, it also gives advertisers access to TV’s premium VOD content and comes with brand safety built in due to the high standards broadcasters must operate to.
In a statement issued on Thursday, EBX said it had invested heavily this year in a “first-of its-kind” tech stack with a remit to aggregate and streamline the supply of advanced TV formats across multiple European broadcasters. It said this will result in greater media buying efficiency.
Westbury joins EBX from Clear Channel, where he was the international sales director. Prior to that he held several roles at Microsoft.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be joining EBX at this exciting time,” he said. “We have a unique opportunity to change the way TV is bought and delivered on an international scale and I’m proud to represent many of Europe’s most premium broadcasters.”
Chris Le May, CEO, EBX added: “Damon is well known and highly respected within the industry and I could not be more delighted about his appointment as it comes at the perfect time for EBX.
“The development of our unique tech stack means we are in a great position to drive forward technological development in online advertising.”
