NEW YORK: Media giant Viacom has taken a significant step forward in the crowded and competitive arena of ad-targeting technology with the announcement that it has secured a new licensing deal with Fox.

As reported by Advertising Age, Fox has agreed to licence Viacom Vantage, a proprietary ad tech product which is designed to help advertisers more precisely target audiences across TV networks.

The news came last week as Viacom president and CEO Bob Bakish presented the company’s third-quarter earnings, which showed that the film and TV conglomerate made $3.24bn over the three months ending on June 30.

However, with domestic advertising revenue and affiliate revenue (such as fees from TV packages) both declining 3% during the quarter, Viacom wants to develop new income streams by expanding its ad tech capabilities to other media companies.

“This is a powerful validation of our leadership in the space, and as we work to secure additional licensing partnerships with publishers, we’re excited about the potential of this new business to accelerate the ecosystem and evolve into an incremental revenue stream,” Bakish said.

If all goes to plan and more media companies come on board, Advertising Age noted that Viacom believes its licensing strategy will go a long way towards accelerating the adoption and growth of advanced TV advertising.

What’s more, that in turn would help traditional TV networks to compete on a more level footing with the digital advertising “duopoly” of Facebook and Google.

Although Viacom’s digital advertising revenues fell 3% to $922m during the quarter, Bakish told investors that the company’s Advanced Marketing Services division, which deals with such specialised offerings as experiential advertising, saw revenue climb 33% over the same period and that it is on course to generate $300m over the full calendar year.

“We think there’s a clear and demonstrable fact that this company is making material progress in a whole set of areas,” he said.

Sourced from Advertising Age; additional content by WARC staff