LONDON — As the number of TV platforms proliferates and the range of buying options across them explodes, ad buyers need to seek out simplification.

That is why the new owner of Cablevision has launched what it’s calling a “one-stop shop”.

Altice USA’s a4, a division which helps brands and agencies advertise to citizens across screens, launched Athena, a system for agencies and brands to build audience-based media plans targeted at the household level.

“(They can) create audiences quickly within minutes by using either viewership data or third party data,” Altice’s president, A4, media and data solutions, Paul Haddad in this video interview with Beet.TV.

“They can use geolocation data, or they could use their own CRM to do an onboarding within an hour and create their own lists.”

For the last couple of years, ad technology companies have been racing to present options through which ad buyers can holistically plan and deliver campaigns that run across device types but which, nevertheless, target individual consumers or their households.

In the latest trend, platforms are switching on technology that helps brands use the data they have gathered on their own consumers or prospects, seemingly swinging the industry emphasis away from super-targeting otherwise-unknown prospects.

In a4’s Athena, ad inventory could be linear, optimized linear, VOD or other kinds.

“If it is inventory that requires cable networks, or broadcasters, or MVPD inventory, we issue the orders to our partners and they fulfill these campaigns for us. And then we report all the impressions back,” Haddad adds.

This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the Future of TV Advertising Forum 2018, London. The series is sponsored by Finecast. For more segments from the series, visit this page.