Hulu Teams Up with Facebook’s LiveRail to Sell Ads Based on User Data

Hulu’s ads are going “programmatic”: The Internet TV site is launching an invitation-only ad-buying marketplace powered by Facebook’s LiveRail, to let marketers target ads using data about who’s watching the video.

According to Hulu, the new programmatic system will result in more relevant ads — ideally, boosting the effectiveness of the spots. The capability will be available for Hulu’s inventory across desktop, mobile and connected-TV devices.

“The marketplace has shown that data is overwhelmingly the new currency,” said Peter Naylor, Hulu’s SVP of advertising, in announcing the initiative.

At the same time, Hulu has been mulling the prospect of launching a higher-priced ad-free version of the service. YouTube, for its part, also is cooking up a subscription VOD service without any ads.

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