DirecTV Acquires Majority Stake In Invidi

DirecTV expanded its stake in addressable TV advertising platform Invidi on Wednesday. He is now the majority owner.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This acquisition did not come out of the blue. DirecTV has partial ownership of Invidi along with Dish and WPP from 2020.

Invidi will remain jointly owned by DirectV, Dish and WPP and will operate as an independent company.

But now DirecTV will have more control over Invidi’s data and technology, which it can use to monetize its own inventory and compete for ad dollars with other TV providers.

DirecTV data playback

Invidi’s technology includes tools designed to help programmers and distributors deliver and optimize ads across traditional, addressable and streaming TV.

In terms of media buying, TV media is nowhere near converged, although progress has certainly been made. Many ad tech companies and media owners are converging streaming and linear TV data to eliminate duplicate audiences, better manage reach and frequency, and reduce wasted media.

As a satellite television service, DirecTV has reams of first-party subscriber data, including demographic information, home address and television viewing patterns. Combined with Invidi’s technology stack, DirecTV can improve the monetization value of advertising inventory among programmers who distribute content on DirecTV.

The allure of data monetization is why broadband companies have spent years—and a hell of a lot of money—acquiring ad tech assets. This trend has largely faded since then. Most telcos, with the exception is T-Mobile, which acquired out-of-home SSP Vistar Media earlier this weekthey have since pulled their ad technologies.

However, the same does not seem to be true for Television distribution services.

“DirecTV is a strong supporter of addressable advertising,” said Bruce Anderson, CEO of Invidi. declaration. “With their increased involvement, we expect to be able to further grow our business in the US.”

DirecTV’s majority stake in Invidi marks its third ad tech acquisition in as many days.

Also on Wednesday, The Trade Desk acquired (hired?) launch of Sincera ad metadataand T-Mobile announced the acquisition of Vistar on Monday.