18th November, 2016

Channel 4 launches first interactive digital sponsorship formats on TV

Channel 4 announced at its recent Upfronts 2017 event that it is soon to launch the first ever interactive adverts on TV through a broadcast TV player, as the trend to watch on-demand on the biggest TV screen available has soared with views up +35%* compared to last year to representing half of all All 4 views.

In addition, the station is launching ispon, the first ever suite of interactive digital sponsorship formats on TV, with interactive technology company Innovid, to extend the benefits of viewer engagement across All 4 platforms to its sponsorship partners.

In addition, the station is launching ispon, the first ever suite of interactive digital sponsorship formats on TV, with interactive technology company Innovid, to extend the benefits of viewer engagement across All 4 platforms to its sponsorship partners.

The first ad partners to take advantage of this sponsorship innovation include Mitsubishi with Documentaries on 4, Domino's with Hollyoaks and Sofology with Gogglebox.

ispon joins Channel 4's successful interactive ad suite which mines first party data from its 15 million registered viewers to offer formats such as the award-winning dynamic personalisation format AD 4 You, sequential format Ad Journey and product showcasing formats Ad Shop and Hotspots amongst others, which now account for 15% of all digital advertising revenues.

David Amodio, Digital and Creative Leader at Channel 4, said: "We were the first broadcaster in the UK to launch interactive ads on our TV player back in 2011 with Innovid, so we're excited to exclusively introduce the next game changer to the digital TV market.

"TV viewing behaviour is evolving with a broader choice of content platforms than ever before - but viewers still gravitate to their favourite screen, the telly! By extending our interactive suite to the big screen, advertisers are now able to uniquely interact with our young, proactive audience across all screens".

Rupinder Downie, Partnerships Controller, Sponsorship at Channel 4, said: "Using the innovation available to us we wanted to enhance our sponsorship offering in the digital space with exciting new formats. We have already created a real buzz for a number of our sponsors, with more to follow".

Tal Chalozin, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Innovid, said: "We truly believe premium, long form television content will be viewed on a large screen and the data shows viewers believe that as well.

"This time around, the large screen is smarter, personalised and more engaging than ever and we are thrilled to partner with Channel 4 to bring the best innovation to connected devices marketing for the first time at such scale to the British television landscape".

Channel 4's innovative digital strategy yields consistent revenue growth with digital revenues up +30% in 2015. The on-going roll out of programmatic and data targeted ad solutions across every TV screen via PVX and direct business now represents 70% of total digital advertising revenues.

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