FreeWheel’s Premium Programmatic Summit, an annual event for supply side industry professionals, brought together leading sell-side partners for a half day of panel discussions, breakout sessions, and networking. For the fourth year in a row, this premier summit spotlighted key products, partnerships, and revenue opportunities to drive publisher programmatic growth.
Mark McKee, General Manager at FreeWheel, kicked off this year’s summit, setting the stage for an afternoon filled with impactful conversations and actionable insights. Mark’s welcome address included some impressive stats pointing to the effectiveness of programmatic advertising:
- 170 billion impressions transacted programmatically in 2024 via FreeWheel, up 40% year-over-year.
- 2x increase in the number of advertisers transacting on FreeWheel’s Marketplace year-over-year.
Mark went on to highlight three key focus areas for FreeWheel to help premium publishers thrive in a competitive programmatic space, including:
- Introducing smarter tools and partnerships.
- Unlocking pools of high value programmatic supply like live.
- Making connections to more, diverse, and direct demand.
Several key themes emerged from the panels, breakout sessions, and conversations at the 2025 Premium Programmatic Summit.
1. Connected TV (CTV) is increasingly recognized as a powerful performance marketing channel.
FreeWheel’s Chief Commercial Officer, Soo Jin Oh, moderated a panel highlighting how TV wins, joined by panelists Nicole Alfonso, Head of Inventory Partnerships at MNTN, Dennis Buchheim, Global Head of Media, Entertainment & Advertising Technology/Marketing Technology at Snowflake, Eric Speck, Vice President of Programmatic Partnerships at Paramount, and Mike Treon, Head of CTV & Video at PMG.
CTV streaming platforms are proving to be highly effective channels for advertising budgets focused on measurable outcomes. This panel explored how partnerships across supply, demand, data, and technology make this a reality, and discussed CTV’s opportunity to win more with precise targeting capabilities, immersive full screen viewing environments, enhanced brand safety, and impactful performance metrics.
Programmatic video has become a fundamental building block of marketing campaigns to effectively reach consumers. Increased efficiency, more accurate targeting, and automation add value every step of the way.
While advertisers have traditionally focused on metrics like reach and frequency, attributable outcomes that directly link ad exposures to measurable results are becoming increasingly desirable. With more metadata now available through the increase of streaming and programmatic, publishers can pass through more signals to advertisers for better insights into campaign performance, future planning and optimization strategies, and tangible business outcomes.
2. Live programming remains a key differentiator.
Karen Babcock, Comcast Advertising’s Vice President of Strategy, Partnerships & Supply, moderated a panel exploring how programmatic powers women’s sports. She was joined on stage by Huda Kazi, Vice President of Advertising Technology & Operations at Warner Bros. Discovery, Joe Naylor, Senior Vice President of Streaming & Digital at The E.W. Scripps Company, and Jennifer Wolf, Vice President of Programmatic & Data Products at NBCUniversal. The panel highlighted the ways that programmatic CTV creates unprecedented advertising opportunities at the intersection of technology, marketing, and today’s dynamic sports environment.
The panelists discussed how their companies are addressing the growing opportunity around women’s sports, citing advertiser and audience diversification strategies, democratization of access to women’s sports content, and placing an emphasis on powerful moments to attract viewers.
The panel emphasized the growing value of women’s sports as a high-impact advertising channel. Brands that align with women’s sports content are seeing measurable lifts across key brand metrics – such as memorability, favorability, and purchase intent – driven by the authenticity and emotional resonance of these stories. Consumers are not only more likely to trust endorsements from female athletes, but also more inclined to support brands that champion them, making this space a powerful opportunity for advertisers seeking both performance and purpose.
People crave the connection that live events bring, and programmatic advertising provides access to this valuable supply of live inventory. The panelists spoke about how their companies are maximizing accessibility, including enabling dynamic ad insertion on all live sports inventory, eliminating barriers to entry for advertisers, increasing the focus on telling female athletes’ stories, and ensuring that fans know how and where to access sports-related content.
Live events continue to drive viewership and ad spend and offer a massive opportunity to reach highly engaged viewers during must-see programming – as seen in the record-breaking viewership of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Publishers can maximize the value of live inventory on streaming while navigating associated challenges such as the unpredictability of viewership, creative readiness, and content by working with the right technology partner. FreeWheel is the leader in live, enabling dynamic advertising in the largest, most watched live events, including the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup, the Super Bowl, the Grammys, and more.
3. Direct connections are driving diversified demand.
Diversification of demand sources in CTV advertising allows publishers to reach an array of audiences across platforms and genres, thinking beyond traditional categories. Working with a variety of demand partners can help publishers access a wide range of advertisers, leverage content diversity, and explore new ways to connect with target audiences, all while reducing ad fatigue and over-exposure and improving the overall viewing experience.
Cara Sogliuzzo, Senior Director of Publisher Development at FreeWheel, moderated a dedicated breakout session around Universal Ads, Comcast’s self-serve ad buying platform. Cara was joined by Adam Royle, Head of Publisher at Universal Ads, and Meagan Myers, Vice President of Programmatic Strategy & Partnerships at Fox Corporation.
Historically, CTV advertising was largely limited to big brands with large budgets. Universal Ads aims to expand access for SMBs and smaller advertisers to make CTV advertising accessible in the way that social media advertising has been. Universal Ads provides direct access to premium inventory at scale, creates diversified revenue opportunities for publishers, and makes buying TV ads as simple as buying social media ads. Publishers can reach new advertisers directly – without increased capital expenditure – unlock net new demand sources, and gain control over their monetization strategies.
Members of the FreeWheel team, including Michael Braunstein, Head of Enterprise Agency Partnerships, Kelsey Knoss, Director of Strategic Relationships, Jessie Chou, Senior Product Marketing Manager, and Justin Pau, Lead Sales Engineer, participated in a breakout session around FreeWheel’s Advertiser Suite.
FreeWheel brings buyers and sellers closer across one unified tech platform where publishers can work directly with their demand partners. FreeWheel’s Advertiser Suite provides publishers with increased control over their negotiations, direct access to agency demand with enhanced demand diversity, and increased inventory value via higher audience match rates and minimized tech fees.
The Evolution of Programmatic Advertising
As the programmatic ecosystem continues to evolve, FreeWheel remains committed to driving innovation in CTV and premium video. The 2025 Premium Programmatic Summit celebrated this momentum and offered a forward-looking view into the trends shaping the future of the industry.
Key themes from the event included the rise of CTV as a performance marketing channel, the growing value of live programming, and the importance of diversifying demand sources. These insights reflect FreeWheel’s ongoing commitment to advancing the tools, partnerships, and strategies that will help the industry grow.
To learn more about FreeWheel’s latest tools and partnerships, reach out to our team.
