Mediaocean to Buy 4C Insights Amid Changing Television Landscape

Given the decline of traditional TV and the acceleration of streaming, which has been further spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, the deal will look to create an omnichannel ad platform to account for changing consumption habits.

“The Covid crisis will be remembered as a tipping point in the digital disruption of many industries including advertising,” Bill Wise, CEO of Mediaocean, said in a statement. “Mediaocean and 4C together will lead the evolution of modern omnichannel advertising by addressing the needs of global marketers and agencies—transparency, neutrality, intelligence and accountability.”

Mediaocean processes around $150 billion in annual media spend, including roughly $60 billion in TV spend from its partnerships with the buy-side, sell-side and ad-tech companies. Its deal for 4C is valued at around $150 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.

4C is a self-service platform that marketers use to measure the results of their campaigns across different types of media. The company said over $2 billion in annual media spend runs through Scope, its insights and planning platform that covers linear, streaming and social video, among other channels.

“Joining Mediaocean is a game-changer for our clients and the industry, fulfilling the promise of true cross-channel advertising. Marketers need to market the way consumers consume efficiently across all devices and screens,” Lance Neuhauser, CEO and co-founder of 4C, said in a statement. “Mediaocean and 4C’s combined solution will be the independent, self-serve platform to anchor marketers, agencies, publishers and broadcasters across converged media.”

Mediaocean and 4C are coming together as the pandemic has slowed down dealmaking in ad tech, which saw a flurry of deals late last year. While the deal between two companies is a strategic one to ready for TV’s shift to streaming, Terence Kawaja, Luma Partners CEO, recently told Adweek that there “will likely also be a wave of capitulation deals” as smaller companies with diminishing capital look for outs.

Streaming has been steadily increasing in popularity, while linear TV faces steep decline. Research firm MoffettNathason expects traditional linear pay-TV subscriptions to drop by 27 million over the next four years.

Based in Chicago, 4C has staff in 15 locations worldwide. A spokesperson told Adweek that its staff of more than 200 people will join Mediaocean as part of the deal. Mediaocean employs 950 people.

Neuhauser will be president of Mediaocean. Fellow founder Alok Choudhary will be the chief scientist of Mediaocean, the role he currently holds at 4C. Choudhary will also join the Mediaocean’s board of directors, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The deal is expected to close by the end of the month.