Publisher video platform EX.CO hopes to help publishers capitalise on the growth in online video with the launch of a new solution aimed at advertising sales houses managing multiple websites.
The new technology is being used by London-based 1XL, a publisher co-operative of 43 local news publishers with 700 sites including City AM, Newsquest and the Irish News.
EX.CO founder and CEO Tom Pachys told Press Gazette: “Youtube and other closed garden social platforms are not driving the revenue for publishers that they should.”
He said EX.CO’s publisher video platform aims to “create an experience users want to engage with” by serving them with high-quality publisher video based on their interests. It also ensures content is served to audiences “in the right place at the right time” and in a way that does not slow down website performance.
Pachys said EX.CO is committed to helping publishers fund journalism on the open web and that its video monetisation solutions typically result in a doubling of revenue. He added: “Our publishers tell us that video is now the biggest line item in terms of advertising revenue on their sites.”
EX.CO rolls out AI-based engine to improve advertising yield
The new advertising management solution from EX.CO is driven by its new machine-learning-based yield engine. This provides ad management partners with a seamless, self-serve interface to oversee multiple accounts across their entire website network, including detailed revenue performance breakdowns per publisher and network-wide, as well as insights into individual demand sources.
Individual publishers within a unified network can leverage EX.CO technology to personalise players, upload videos, curate dynamic playlists, explore a premium content marketplace for supplemental videos, generate customised reports, and more, while maintaining data privacy within their respective domains.
EX.CO’s partnership with 1Xl won the “Best Video Platform” in the Digiday Media Awards.
Within the first three months of working with EX.CO, 1XL doubled monthly revenue across its network of websites (see full case study).
EX.CO’s technology also contributed to an increase in audience engagement for 1XL, resulting in 30m+ monthly player loads and nearly four times higher dwell time. Currently, EX.CO is actively working on rolling out the technology with other publisher partners.
Managing director of 1XL Scott Gill said: “EX.CO’s innovative approach to our unique setup has played a vital role in enhancing audience engagement and fueling revenue growth across our network.
“In today’s dynamic digital landscape, strategic alliances like ours are essential for navigating challenges, meeting evolving industry demands, and achieving long-term success.”
1XL harnesses EX.CO’s intelligent matching playlist solutions, streamlining the video upload process across multiple domains via a tag-based mechanism. 1XL also consistently adds their own demand sources to the platform, uses EX.CO’s newest video player which improves Google Core Web Vitals and leverages EX.CO’s AI-based contextually relevant video recommendations which cater to the diverse geographic regions across 1XL’s portfolio.
EX.CO is world’s leading publisher video platform
EX.CO chief exec Pachys added: “We recognize that ad management partners have distinct business needs that diverge significantly from those of traditional digital publishers, and this new solution is designed to accelerate their growth trajectory.
“We’re thrilled to see 1XL’s tremendous success and look forward to further innovation with them, as well as in collaboration with future ad management partners.”
EX.CO is the world’s leading publisher video technology platform empowering publishers to own their video strategy for maximum yield.
Its AI-based solutions for video management, video monetisation, content automation and video recommendation are trusted by some of the largest publishers globally including: The Arena Group, CBSi, Hearst Newspapers, Nasdaq and News Corp.
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York City with employees located around the world, EX.CO is backed by The Walt Disney Company, Saban Ventures, Viola Group, 83North and Firstime Ventures.
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