Comcast’s entertainment arm NBCUniversal and its European pay TV business Sky on Wednesday unveiled the global expansion of CFlight, with Sky adopting NBCUniversal’s next-generation advertising metric across its operations.
CFlight, which Viacom has adopted in the U.S., was launched in 2018 and captures all live, on-demand and time-shifted commercial impressions on every viewing platform, promising to ensure that every impression counts. The news brings CFlight closer to becoming a global standard in ad measurement, beginning to roll out to Sky Media in the U.K. in the fall, with further expansion across Sky’s European territories in 2020.
Sky, which Comcast acquired late last year, and NBCUniversal previously unveiled the global rollout of advanced video advertising service AdSmart as they look to take advantage of new opportunities for the combined company. “Now, with the expansion of CFlight as a unified advertising metric, NBCUniversal and Sky are continuing their mission of creating a one-of-a-kind global premium video offering, making it easy for advertisers to reach customers in key international markets and measure results across NBCUniversal and Sky’s extensive TV and digital portfolio,” the companies said.
“The consumer appetite for premium video content is stronger than ever,” said Kavita Vazirani, executive vp insights and measurement at NBCUniversal. “Global consumers aren’t going back in time. They are watching premium video across a wide range of screens, and it’s imperative that the industry comes together and develops new measurement to match. We’re thrilled that Sky Media is adopting CFlight and joining NBCUniversal in the mission to show brands the true value of taking their message to the content fans love on all platforms.”
“Sky offers viewers the ability to watch all their favorite programs live, on-demand, via catch-up, at home in front of the TV or on their mobile while on the go,”said John Litster, managing director of Sky advertising sales arm Sky Media U.K. “Now with CFlight, we can give advertisers consistent, accurate measurement across all platforms and types of viewing — a first for the U.K.”
Sky highlighted that it will also continue to support, as a shareholder and otherwise, traditional ratings provider BARB in the U.K. and Ireland. After all, CFlight includes data from such traditional media measurement providers as Nielsen in the U.S. and BARB in the U.K., among others.
