• by Ben Frederick  @mp_benfred, January 27, 2016

ITN Networks announced a strategic investment in Torrential Inc. on Wednesday to combine the capabilities of its programmatic linear television technology with Torrential’s mobile-first video platform.

Founded in 2013, Torrential focuses on serving video across smartphones, tablets and connected TVs, as well as on desktop computers. Many sites are finding their video audiences are increasingly accessing content from mobile devices, but that the content itself is mostly derived from linear television.

Part of the reason that mobile video exploded last year is that smartphones became bigger physically (“phablets”), data plans made online video streaming became easier, and loading times got faster.

Mobile devices have become the primary or secondary device for many Americans, and as their eyeballs shift to the devices, TV has attempted to follow.

Mobile video ad spending is projected to grow 50% to $4 billion, according to eMarketer.

Torrential’s mobile-first video ad platform has a heavy-hitting list of clients such as Diageo, Dell, Geico, P&G and Papa John’s, as well as media companies such as Dailymotion, Fox Entertainment, NBCU Telemundo, Weather Channel and USA Today Sports. 

ITN brings a majority of the top 100 U.S advertisers, all major advertising holding companies, and inventory with all major broadcast television stations, as well as national cable, local cable and satellite inventory providers.

“This is the first ripple of a digital tsunami that will advance the traditional TV industry for everyone,” stated Matt Wasserlauf, CEO and cofounder, Torrential. While cord-cutting has pulled many eyes away from traditional television and driven up costs, mobile video serves as a compliment to the format, making it a desirable platform for advertisers and marketers to reach consumers.