LONDON — If ads and subscription payments sit on two sides of the media see-saw, the trick is in getting the balance right.

Whilst many broadcasters are now keen to copy Netflix’s subscription model, what could be the impact on ad sales?

“There’s maybe less premium content available for the ad sales team to monetize,” says Comcast international GM, advanced advertising, Thomas Bremond in this video interview with Beet.TV.

“So, why don’t we look at it with data and make the right content exposition or content monetization choices in a way that maximizes profit for the organization as a whole?”

That’s what Bremond’s Comcast has been called on to do by Mediaset, Italy’s largest commercial broadcaster.

Back in July, Mediaset rebooted its former Mediaset On Demand service as Mediaset Play, adding new viewing options.

Now Comcast is announcing that is technology, together with that of its FreeWheel subsidiary, will power certain functions for the broadcaster.

Media set will use Comcast technology to manage backend distribution, transactions and subscriptions, and Comcast’s FreeWheel technology to manage advertising systems.

“They’re just in the beginning of their digital transformation story,” Bremond says.

“How do we help Mediaset make as much revenue or profit from its content that it acquires?

“In the past, we would look at it from just an advertising standpoint or we would look at it from just a subscription perspective. Guess what? We should really be putting those two together in order to maximize our yield as a company.”

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.