Streaming platform OrkaTV has teamed with Comcast’s FreeWheel adtech firm on a product designed to help marketers reach target audiences for their advertising in the FAST sector. The partnership allows marketers using FreeWheel to access OrkaTV’s more than 3,500 free ad-supported streaming TV channels. The end result is expected to be “access to a more diverse pool of FAST ad inventory” that in turn helps drive up demand for inventory, according to the firms, which say the “more accurate contextual advertising targeting abilities” also raise the ante.

“The partnership will help FreeWheel and OrkaTV resolve some pain points experienced by marketers who launch streaming-related campaigns, including missing and inconsistent metadata associated with certain inventory across channels and platforms,” reports StreamTV Insider.

“The outcome will help ensure ‘consistent video contextual data is available to the ad buyer and can be mapped to corresponding audience segments,’ and marketers using FreeWheel’s ad solutions can buy inventory that will help them reach certain demographics.”

“Improving the viewer experience is a top industry priority for us and this new partnership with OrkaTV will help pave the way for that,” FreeWheel VP of Growth Emily Bromley said in a news announcement. “With this new integration, advertisers can better reach target audiences at a granular level, while engaging and capturing their interest with a new array of premium FAST channels.”

OrkaTV touts itself as “the leading marketplace for streaming television,” claiming important relationships with channel providers in the FAST space. Its clients, per StreamTV Insider, “include Samsung, LG, Plex, Amazon, Redbox, Philo, Local Now and Sinclair’s STIRR, along with Comcast and Charter Communications’ joint venture Xumo.”

FreeWheel says it provides “technology, data enablement and convergent marketplaces required to ensure buyers and sellers can transact across all screens, across all data types, and all sales channels” in order to ensure successful outcomes for marketers, with offices across the globe.

Meanwhile, research released last month by Xumo and Comcast Advertising found 84 percent of advertisers plan to increase FAST spending in 2024, as consumer awareness and usage “reaches new heights,” according to the report, which draws data insights from Comcast Advertising and Xumo Play along with custom research from CRG Global.