AMC Networks Moves Ad Tech to FreeWheel

From left: H. Richard Greene as Jim Hobart, Jon Hamm as Don Draper and Paul Johansson as Ferg Donnelly in AMC's 'Mad Men'

AMC's 'Mad Men' depicted the ad business when less technology was available (Image credit: Justina Mintz/AMC)

In a rare shift in the ad tech world, AMC Networks is moving its back-office commercial serving business to Comcast’s FreeWheel, sources said.

AMC Networks had been working with Google.

A spokesperson for AMC had no comment, nor did a FreeWheel representative.

For the majority of networks, FreeWheel provides the technology, data enablement and convergent marketplaces needed to let buyers and sellers transact across screens, across data types and across sales channels.

Google continues to work with The Walt Disney Co.

Another major Google customer is expected to decide soon whether to consolidate its business at Google or Freewheel. When Viacom and CBS merged last year to form ViacomCBS, Viacom worked with FreeWheel and CBS worked with Google. Google also works with The CW, a joint venture of ViacomCBS and AT&T.

AMC Networks' ad sales business has been going through changes.

In 2019, AMC Networks brought in Kim Kelleher as president of advertising sales and partnerships, and she brought in Evan Adlman as senior VP, advanced advertising and digital partnerships.

Since then, AMC Networks has embarked on a strategy of putting its content on a variety of digital and streaming platforms, while retaining the ability to sell most of the commercials appearing in its content.

On Wednesday, it set up AMCN Digital to sell its streaming inventory.

AMC Networks has streaming channels on a number of platforms, including Samsung TV Plus, Pluto TV, IMDb TV and Sling.

The company also makes its inventor available on a number of automated supply side platforms including Open AP and Xandr, and is a part of the On Addressability initiative led by large cable operators including Comcast.

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.