Altice Unveils Household OTT Solution To Aid Advertisers

Altice USA, Inc.’s (NYSE:ATUS) operating unit a4 has launched a national, cross-section OTT (over-the-top) solution for advertisers, reinforcing its commitment toward advertising business. This first-of-its-kind product will help advertisers reach targeted audience at the household level through connected TVs.

The OTT platform has emerged as a leading method to stay ahead of competition in a crowded market, enabling content providers to distribute streaming media as a standalone product directly to viewers over the Internet. Altice aimed to leverage this extensive coverage with the introduction of the first and only addressable OTT ad product at the household level. Powered by fully authenticated household data, it would offer quantifiable and actionable data with superior analytics service and frequency among all devices inside the universe of targeted households.

From being the first MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor) partner to offer addressable advertising solutions in the New York DMA, Altice has evolved as a leading player in digital advertising and has subsequently created a niche market for itself. This was achieved through the acquisitions of Cablevision (NYSE:CVC) in 2015, followed by Audience Partners, a leading provider of authenticated IP addressability technology, and Placemedia — a premier provider of programmatic ad solutions for OTT and on-demand television.

With the successful integration of these businesses with Cablevision’s advertising and data business, Altice has brought to the fore unique skill sets for advertisers to identify the target audience across screens and local and national TV. They can then create an effective media plan, execute the buy and measure cross-screen reach, frequency and attribution to measure the efficacy of the program.

Leveraging the superior reach of a4, advertisers can reportedly extend their content to more than 90 million households, 85% of broadband subscribers and 1 billion devices in the United States. This would significantly benefit advertisers to screen their advertising messages to the target audience, thereby reducing operating costs.

Altice has further supplemented a4’s precision with the recent launch of Athena — a proprietary platform that enables advertisers to considerably simplify the process of executing, tracking and evaluating their cross-screen media campaigns. With in-depth reporting, measurement and analytics services, Athena has been the primary growth driver of a4. Buoyed by such tailwinds, advertising revenues totaled $162 million in fourth-quarter 2018, up 33.2% owing to higher targeted data and analytics revenues.

We remain impressed with the inherent growth potential of this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock. Some other top-ranked stocks in the industry are Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) , Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE:PLT) and Airgain, Inc. (NASDAQ:AIRG) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Arista Networks has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 20.1%. It topped estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average positive earnings surprise being 11.4%.

Plantronics topped estimates thrice in the trailing four quarters, the average positive earnings surprise being 31.7%.

Airgain topped estimates thrice in the trailing four quarters, the average positive earnings surprise being 90.2%.

Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2019

In addition to the stocks discussed above, wouldn't you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-holds for the year?

From more than 4,000 companies covered by the Zacks Rank, these 10 were picked by a process that consistently beats the market. Even during 2018 while the market dropped -5.2%, our Top 10s were up well into double-digits. And during bullish 2012 – 2017, they soared far above the market's +126.3%, reaching +181.9%.

This year, the portfolio features a player that thrives on volatility, an AI comer, and a dynamic tech company that helps doctors deliver better patient outcomes at lower costs.

See Stocks Today >>