• by Alex Weprin , December 11, 2018

The streaming video service Hulu will launch a new private marketplace for advertisers on January 1. 

Hulu says when the marketplace launches, it will be the “largest scale, premium private marketplace to reach consumers on OTT.” 

The automated, biddable marketplace will be operated by the supply-side video advertising platform Telaria. Marketers will be able to bid on inventory through their DSPs or agency trading desks.

The company says all brands and buys will be treated equally, with programmatic buys treated the same as buys made through Hulu’s direct-sales team, or those sold during the upfront period. There will be price floors, though of course buyers will be able to dynamically influence pricing.

As one would expect with a programmatic marketplace, it will allow for more control from advertisers. That includes the ability to define the value of the audience, with brand protection offerings like category separations, viewability and fraud-free assurances, and brand frequency caps.

Hulu previously launched a programmatic marketplace in late 2015; subsequently, it was tweaked in 2016 and 2017. However, where that marketplace was a first step in programmatic with an automated mechanism to buy, the new marketplace is an invite-only auction.

The new marketplace also comes as Hulu dramatically increases the number and types of ads it sells. Whereas in 2015 the service had pre-roll and commercial loads for its on-demand programming, it now also has advertising available through its live TV service.

At the company’s newfront earlier this year, Hulu said it would be adding dynamic ad insertion to its live TV service and creating new ad formats, such as ads that can be attached to downloaded videos to a users' device for offline viewing.

It isn’t clear whether those advertising opportunities have launched yet or if they will be included in the programmatic platform.