Viant Technology Partners with Ad Fontes Media to Transform CTV Advertising Landscape

On May 20, 2026, Viant Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: DSP), a leader in Connected TV (CTV) and AI-powered programmatic advertising, announced a groundbreaking partnership with Ad Fontes Media, a company renowned for its news ratings data and technology. This collaboration marks a significant milestone as Viant becomes the first and only Demand-Side Platform (DSP) to introduce political bias-based targeting within news inventory on Connected TV. The integration utilizes the industry’s leading content ID, the IRIS_ID, enabling advertisers to access premium inventory with necessary content-level intelligence.

As the media landscape becomes increasingly complex, advertisers face challenges in navigating news content, which often leads to hesitation in allocating advertising budgets to this sector. Viant's partnership with Ad Fontes Media aims to alleviate these concerns by providing a new and reliable path for advertisers. Richie Hyden, SVP of Publisher Solutions at Viant, emphasized this point, stating, "Through Viant's partnership with Ad Fontes, advertisers can reach the most relevant audiences while ensuring their ads appear in trusted, high-quality news environments."

Research reveals that news audiences are among the most attentive and engaged when it comes to advertising. Ads placed in news environments receive 20% more attention and achieve a staggering 77% higher brand recall, according to a recent study conducted by Teads and Lumen Research. As the United States prepares for what is projected to be the most expensive midterm election cycle in history, the news environment has become more crowded and consequential than ever. Brands that previously hesitated to invest in this sector may find themselves missing significant performance opportunities.

The partnership aims to address a critical gap in programmatic advertising by integrating Ad Fontes Media's Reliability and Bias framework into the Viant platform. Advertisers can now identify and activate campaigns against trusted news programming at a granular content level, directly correlating their investments to real household-level outcomes. Brands leveraging Ad Fontes' high-quality inventory have reported approximately 60% lower Cost Per Acquisition and over 50% higher conversion rates within contextually aligned environments.

Vanessa Otero, Founder and CEO of Ad Fontes Media, highlighted the need for better navigation tools within the news sector: "Advertisers don't need to avoid news, but they do need better tools to navigate it." The partnership provides a consistent, data-driven approach for evaluating content quality, extending beyond the domain or app level to real-time content as it airs.

Historically, brands have struggled to engage with news content due to a cluttered market filled with low-quality, misidentified news sources. This has led many to pull back from advertising in the news category altogether, resulting in underutilized and undervalued high-quality news environments. As Hyden stated, "This puts premium supply back to work at scale. For brands that have been sitting on the sidelines of news, the calculus has changed."

The integration of Ad Fontes’ framework is now live on the Viant advertising platform, allowing for activation across leading CTV publishers and enabling advertisers to confidently access and target high-quality news programming. This new capability positions Viant and Ad Fontes Media at the forefront of a rapidly evolving advertising landscape, where trust and quality are paramount.

In conclusion, as advertisers look for innovative ways to reach engaged audiences, the partnership between Viant Technology and Ad Fontes Media represents a significant advancement in the realm of political bias-based targeting on Connected TV. With a focus on quality, precision, and measurable outcomes, this collaboration is set to reshape the advertising strategies of brands navigating an increasingly competitive news environment.