• by Alex Weprin , January 9, 2019

On Tuesday, the European media and telecom giant RTL Group announced it had acquired Yospace, a U.K.-based video technology company.

While the deal is European-focused, it will impact the U.S. and global markets, as Yospace begins to work in earnest with another RTL Group company: the Denver-based video ad platform SpotX.

At the heart of the deal is Yospace’s expertise in server-side ad insertion (sometimes called dynamic ad insertion, or server-side dynamic ad insertion). SSAI allows for existing commercial spots to be dynamically replaced by more personalized or targeted spots.

It is becoming the leading ad format in premium over-the-top streaming video environments.

Once the deal closes, SpotX will work with Yospace to advance programmatic video advertising for both live streaming and VOD, and will allow them to offer joint solutions for their clients.

SpotX’s day-to-day operations will not change anytime soon, as the company will continue to operate independently. It will continue to work with other SSAI providers, in addition to Yospace.

Bert Habets, CEO RTL Group, stated the acquisition is “an important step in building out our Total Video portfolio.” By combining resources, the company can “gain a competitive, fully integrated and profitable solution which is key to further grow our ad-tech business.” 

“Our goal is to continue expanding SpotX into a leading, independent monetization platform for broadcasters, video on demand services and publishers,” he added.

Ultimately, the deal is another example of how the ad-tech space is shifting toward full-stack solutions, with companies looking to control more experience for clients in order to deliver effective products.

RTL is targeting a more seamless operational experience, higher yield optimization, more secure data transactions and improved forecasting accuracy once the deal closes.