Strategic investment in Nowtilus and its Serverside.ai, a server-side dynamic ad insertion (SSAI) platform, will power Equativ’s addressable live TV advertising for broadcasters, rights owners, distributors and operators. 

Paris / London / New York / Berlin,  July 7, 2022: Equativ, the leading independent ad monetization platform, today announces its strategic investment in Nowtilus, the digital video personalization company that facilitates broadcaster and publisher transitions to digital streaming, featuring, interoperability, flawless ad-delivery, and scale. After the recent announcement of its rebranding, shifting away from Smart to Equativ to settle the complete integration of its unified and comprehensive value proposition, this move is the latest in a series of strategic acquisitions and partnerships that accelerates Equativ’s growth in the Connected TV (CTV) space.

Equativ has made great strides over the past year in the development of a fully interoperable TV stack, with the acquisition of DynAdmic, the launch of the TVMOTIK alliance, and the success of its award-winning Euro Cup 2020 live ad insertion innovation.

With more than a quarter of people in the US and UK pure “streamers”, a significant percentage of the population can now only be reached on streaming platforms. Server-side ad insertion (SSAI) technologies are vital for enabling ad-personalization and targeting, while maintaining a premium user experience. The integration of Nowtilus’ core SSAI functionality into Equativ’s programmatic video ad tech stack will provide broadcasters and operators with industry-leading live video advertising insertion capabilities. Video rights owners, distributors, and aggregators will also have the flexibility to manage revenue from direct sales with the power of reaching programmatic buyers.

Nowtilus will continue to operate independently, with the Serverside.ai brand remaining unchanged to provide a standalone SSAI solution for OTT, HbbTV and Audio.

Features of the joint offering will include:

  • Header Bidding: unified auctions between SSPs and direct demand
  • Ad Routing: direct access to the best possible outcomes with every ad request
  • Ad Break Management: optimizing the fill for advertising opportunities with matching ad creatives for each break
  • Dynamic Ad Substitution via HbbTV: ensuring essential broadcast ads are delivered into the signal  while filling open placement opportunities dynamically 

“The strategic investment in Nowtilus is the natural next step in Equativ’s advanced TV journey, allowing us to accelerate our vertical integration by internalizing relevant TV tech expertise and resources,” said Arnaud Créput, CEO at Equativ. “Nowtilus is the perfect match as it allows us to provide our clients with a completely interoperable and agnostic advanced TV and video solution that innovates with new format capabilities such as audio. Together we will provide greater control for the seller, limit ad leakage and optimize outcomes for the buyers.”

By investing a significant stake in Nowtilus, Equativ intends to build an open framework for SSAI integration with other vendors. The company’s goal is to maximize ad revenue and performance by combining all key attributes of TV ad management in an integrated and open monetization platform.

“This partnership will provide our customers with a whole new level of sophisticated video monetization, as Equativ and Nowtilus enable the holistic end-to-end advertising supply chain,” said Patrick Knippel, Managing Director and Co-Founder at Nowtilus.

“We’re all thrilled to be joining the Equativ family,” said Leander Carell, Managing Director and Co-Founder at Nowtilus. “As a fervent supporter of the Open Web, Equativ also advocates for the wider adoption of stronger standards in terms of data sharing, competition management, transparency, interoperability, and openness. All the ingredients of a more robust and efficient CTV ecosystem.”

About Equativ:

Equativ is the new single name for Smart Adserver, DynAdmic and LiquidM — three proven innovators in advertising technology. The vertically integrated company provides brand and privacy-safe solutions that empower its clients to achieve maximum impact while respecting the rights of consumers. The union combines client expertise and engineering excellence to serve the interests of both the supply-side and demand-side with equal professionalism and technical sophistication.

Headquartered in Paris and New York, Equativ operates globally with a team of more than 450 in 20 offices. Equativ offers the market its own independent ad server, SSP, buyer tools, and media services to fulfill the promise of advertising technology.

Learn more at Equativ.com. 

About Nowtilus:

Founded in Berlin and Halle in 2007, Nowtilus has pioneered AI-driven video personalization services through its dynamic award-winning Ad Insertion Platform Serverside.ai, a comprehensive solution that addresses the compatibility issues that video broadcasters have faced while transitioning to digital streaming. They help broadcasters, telcos and content providers to monetize their FAST, AVOD and OTT TV streaming platforms by offering seamless, personalized and relevant ad experiences. By simplifying the workflow and optimizing connections between delivery platforms and monetization engines, Serverside.ai gives video creators the ability to focus on building and distributing content, while advertising and revenue systems work smoothly in the background.

Nowtilus is also at the forefront of HbbTV technology development and deployment, helping to lead the evolution of traditional broadcasting into the possibilities that IP datacasting offers to programmers and advertisers.