And both broadcasters have addressable and advanced TV divisions. At Fox, that’s led by Joe Marchese, its president of advanced advertising and formerly true[x]’s CEO. And Sky’s media and advertising division, Sky Media, focuses on addressable TV ads and partners with companies like Videology to create cross-screen video solutions. Wieser sees more ways the two companies can align around media. In markets where pay TV is less penetrated than in the US, Sky could benefit from licensing its content or programming to Fox more widely, Wieser hypothesized. Fox could also foreseeably use Sky’s addressable TV ad server, AdSmart, to serve ads targeted to different household demographics and data attributes. And if Fox were to close its deal with Sky, both would gain regional expertise. “The UK market is very different than the US,” Wieser said. “There’s no such thing as local advertising on TV historically in the UK, and AdSmart made it possible to do more in addressable.” “TV is not a global thing from an advertiser’s perspective,” he added. “It’s very localized,” which would prove mutually beneficial.
Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox has made a preliminary bid to acquire Sky for an estimated $14.1bn . The deal could see the two firms "aligning around media", according to Wieser , a senior equity analyst at Pivotal Research . Brian Wieser also said Sky could licence its content to Fox , while the UK media company could gain a regional insight into the UK . Brian Wieser ’s News Corp tried to take over Sky in 2010 , but was stymied by the then-breaking phone hacking scandal at News International .