CINEVERSE ANNOUNCES THE LAUNCH OF NEW AD PLATFORM 'CINEVERSE 360'

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Feb 15, 2024, 12:00 ET

New Omnichannel Platform Brings Together CTV, FAST, Audio, Digital, Social, and Events reaching more than 82 million enthusiast monthly viewers across more than 1.2 billion devices

Top Independent Publisher of Digital Content, Podcasts and CTV/FAST Channels Connects with Fans Across Popular Genres Such as Anime, Family and Horror

Terry City, Ad Industry Veteran from Yahoo!, Buzzfeed, Tastemade and Variety, joins Cineverse as SVP and Head of Cineverse 360

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Cineverse (NASDAQ: CNVS), today announced the launch of Cineverse 360 (C360), a new ad platform providing brands the ability to connect with enthusiast audiences across an exclusive, omnichannel mix of marketing offerings. C360 will offer custom marketing integrations including audio opportunities on the Cineverse Podcast Network, display, social, experiential in-person events, and connected TV (CTV) advertising on the company's owned and operated free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels. At launch the network will reach 82 million monthly viewers across the company's owned and operated partners.

Additional Information:

Cineverse 360 Audience Network – As part of the launch, Cineverse is also launching the Cineverse 360 Audience Network (CAN), which starting next quarter, will bring advertisers a scalable solution for reaching enthusiast audiences across a network of Cineverse and third-party publishers. At launch, advertisers will be able to have access through CAN and its partners to hundreds of FAST channels with inventory on platforms such as Philo, Plex, Samsung TV Plus, Vizio Watchfree, Xumo and others. Cineverse's sales and partnership teams are in active conversations to expand the network significantly throughout 2024.

The network will expand upon the highly engaged, enthusiast fan bases across popular genres – from anime and Asian content to family programming, horror, and indie film, to IP-focused channels featuring pop culture icons from Bob Ross to Sid and Marty Krofft.

Properties that will be available in the network at launch include: AsianCrush, Cineverse, Crime Hunters, Docurama, Dove Channel, EntrepreneurTV, Fandor, Film Detective, For Us By Us, Lone Star, Midnight Pulp, Real Madrid TV, RetroCrush, SCREAMBOX, Sid and Marty Krofft Channel, So...Real, The Preview Channel, The Bob Ross Channel and more.

Cineverse also operates and sells advertising against several social video channels reaching more than 40 million monthly viewers on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, including Cineverse Romance, Free Movies by Cineverse, K-Crush, QTTV and more.
Matchpoint Integration – In addition to select 3^rd party enthusiast streaming services, Cineverse 360 will be offered as an optional, integrated monetization service for SaaS customers of Matchpoint's Blueprint™ product. In addition to world-class monetization opportunities, Matchpoint customers will have access to a suite of tools that will automate ad break creation, provide enhanced metadata enrichment for improved targeting, SSAI, advanced ad analytics, and more. These capabilities are available immediately.
New Leadership – To lead these new efforts, Terry City, an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience building and leading sales and partnerships divisions, has joined as Senior Vice President and Head of Cineverse 360. City has extensive experience in the ad landscape, with executive roles at Variety, Yahoo Entertainment, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Tumblr and most recently Tastemade. In addition, City is the co-founder of Steel Titan Entertainment, producers of the Emmy Award winning ESPN: 30 for 30 film, Playing for the Mob. City is also an advisor to many startups and entrepreneurs as well as being a mentor to college students and young industry professionals. City will expand the advertising team significantly over the next quarter to provide expanded ad vertical coverage nationally.

"With our unique ability to execute 360-degree programs for our clients, bring exclusive access to audiences of passionate fans across several popular genres – fans that are not available anywhere else – and offer brands the ability to get in early on a number of our new and soon-to-debut FAST channels we are positioned stronger than ever to take advantage of industry trends," said City. "We have taken control of more inventory and put the resources behind brand partnerships to do creative, custom sponsorships, giving us the capacity to achieve significant growth."

Additionally, Cineverse has brought on Andrew Baritz, and Eventually A Castle where he is principal, to oversee C360 ad operations and strategy. Baritz will focus on launching The Cineverse Audience Network, to include developing new advertising products, audience targeting capabilities, and data activation, as well as overseeing ad operations and optimization of the overall 360 business.
Case Study: Bloody Disgusting - One example of how well this 360-degree approach is already working for Cineverse can be seen by its horror vertical, Bloody Disgusting. The top digital horror brand for approximately two decades, Bloody Disgusting is in a unique position to offer advertisers access to a rabid fan-base across several touchpoints including its website, social channels, live events, podcast network, and CTV via the fastest-growing horror streaming service, SCREAMBOX. This has translated to success with advertisers – not to mention extraordinary traction launching franchise hits, such as cult slasher favorite, Terrifier 2.

In 2023, Bloody Disgusting saw its ad revenue increase 11% vs. 2022 driven by work with Hollywood studios such as A24, Neon, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Studios, and Warner Bros. to develop 360-degree campaigns to support key horror titles throughout the year, as well as brands in other categories, such as Alamo Drafthouse, Jack in the Box and Spirit Halloween. Brands like these are taking advantage of Bloody Disgusting's unique access to horror enthusiasts in various ways, ranging from sold-out live screenings to the creation of custom content, display and CTV advertising, authentic branded podcast episodes (cross-promoted throughout the podcast network) and more.
Upfront Presentations and Events – Cineverse 360 will be participating in a variety of industry events and presentations this spring. Interested brands, agencies, and publishers can receive updates by request at [email protected].

About Cineverse
Cineverse's advanced, proprietary technology drives the distribution of over 71,000 premium films, series, and podcasts to more than 82 million unique viewers monthly. From providing a complete streaming solution to some of the world's most recognizable brands, to super-serving their own network of fan channels, Cineverse (NASDAQ: CNVS) is powering the future of Entertainment. For more information, please visit cineverse.com. (NASDAQ: CNVS)

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SOURCE Cineverse Corp.