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AT&T buys advertising company that focuses on personalized ads

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6 years ago

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After the controversial move of buying TimeWarner and it’s several subsidiary companies,  AT&T has decided to buy AppNexus, an advertising company that focuses on personalized ads, based on users’ browsing histories. The now multimedia company has stated: “AT&T is investing to accelerate the growth of its advertising platform and strengthen its leadership in advanced TV advertising.” This decision has only increased the concerns that AT&T is becoming too powerful and dominant in the industry, dominating so many areas and sources of entertainment.

Having both AppNexus and TimeWarner at its disposition could be incredibly helpful for AT&T since the latter could give them information about people’s watching habits. Merging both services could help them give even more personalized and accurate ads to customers, by promoting the content that they usually consume.

ArsTechnica asked the company if it planned to use both companies in this manner, and they replied: “We operate as two separate companies until we receive standard regulatory approval. Any comments about the companies post-merger would be premature. Customer privacy will remain a fundamental commitment, as always.”

AT&T’s CEO has stated that this is one of the many smaller purchases that the company will do in the coming months, to boost and improve its advertising strengths.

The company argued in court that the merging was necessary in order to compete against Facebook and Netflix, who currently dominate the market. The purchase shows a growing desire from companies to both create and distribute content themselves, in part following the Netflix model that revolutionized the streaming world.
This could cause a major shake-up in the entertainment industry operates, especially when it comes to TV and online streaming services. By creating content that will exclusively be distributed through the companies’ own streaming platforms, television networks would be unable to air other companies’ content, which has been the classic business model for TV.
Therefore, new content from these companies would be privatized and customers that stream a lot of content would be forced to have accounts on different platforms. In short, companies with this mindset would create more content, but at their benefit by streaming it through their own services. This is particularly concerning in the case of AT&T, as TimeWarner owned  HBO, CNN, Warner Bros. Entertainment and Adult Swim.
Creating a streaming platform that streams previous and new content for the properties of these subsidiary properties would make one that rivals Netflix or Hulu. Let’s consider that some of the said properties include the Harry Potter franchise, the DC Cinematic Universe, the LEGO franchise and Looney Tunes. Warner Bros. was also not unfamiliar with creating non-franchise content, as it has produced some of the decade’s most successful horror movies through their partnership with director James Wan.

These intentions were confirmed by CEO Randall Stephenson in a statement after the ruling. He said to the press:

“The content and creative talent at Warner Bros., HBO and Turner are first-rate. Combine all that with AT&T’s strengths in direct-to-consumer distribution, and we offer customers a differentiated, high-quality, mobile-first entertainment experience. We’re going to bring a fresh approach to how the media and entertainment industry works for consumers, content creators, distributors, and advertisers.”

Featured Image via Flickr/Mike Mozart
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