NCC Media, the TV ad sales and technology company owned by Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Communications, has changed its name to Ampersand, adding that it plans to aggregate viewership data from its partners for targeted advertising and to build on its Open AP partnership.
The new name reflects the company's mission of unifying the TV advertising ecosystem across all screens, inventory and audiences, Ampersand said in a press release.
In addition, Ampersand said it has unified aggregated viewership data from nearly 40 million households in the Comcast, Charter and Cox footprints. The company added it is building on its Open AP partnership, allowing advertisers who work with Ampersand’s Client Partnerships team to directly share audience definitions created in OpenAP for expression and use in local advanced advertising.
As part of that expanded relationship, Ampersand said it will serve as part of the central hub for network-enabled addressable ads for Comcast, Charter and Cox. Working in partnership with Canoe, Ampersand will help TV programmers enable addressable capabilities on their national linear and VOD TV inventory.
"Thirty years ago, NCC showed the TV world the power of working together, unifying the fragmented cable TV ad market within a single, open platform for the benefit of advertisers, agencies and MVPDs," Ampersand CEO Nicolle Pangis said in a press release. "The Ampersand name and the new audience products represent both a nod to our past and our vision for a successful TV future in which the industry rallies around a shared approach for connecting brands to audiences across the entirety of the viewing experience."
