MNTN & Magnite Unlock Live TV for Performance-Driven Brands

NEW YORK, NY – January 22, 2026 – In a move set to reshape the landscape of television advertising, performance marketing platform MNTN and sell-side advertising company Magnite have announced a landmark partnership. The collaboration grants MNTN's advertisers, a group largely composed of brands new to TV, unprecedented access to premium live streaming inventory, including major sporting events, breaking news, and other high-demand programming.

This integration effectively bridges the gap between the high-stakes world of live television and the data-driven realm of performance marketing. For the first time, growth-oriented businesses can place their ads within the same live content traditionally dominated by Fortune 500 companies, leveraging the precision targeting and measurement capabilities of digital advertising on television's most engaging stages.

“Live sports and events are the most powerful moments on TV, and Magnite helps us make those moments perform for advertisers,” said Mark Douglas, CEO of MNTN, in the official announcement. The partnership signals a significant maturation of the Connected TV (CTV) ecosystem, where the value of an ad is increasingly judged not just by eyeballs, but by tangible business outcomes.

Democratizing Access to TV's Biggest Stages

The collaboration's most profound impact may be its democratization of premium TV advertising. MNTN reports that an astonishing 97% of its clients had never advertised on television before using its platform. This statistic highlights a massive, previously untapped segment of the market: small and medium-sized businesses and direct-to-consumer brands that found traditional TV advertising to be prohibitively expensive, complex, and difficult to measure.

Historically, securing a spot during a major live event required massive upfront financial commitments, intricate negotiations with broadcasters, and a reliance on broad, panel-based measurement systems that offered little insight into direct return on investment. MNTN's self-serve platform, now supercharged with Magnite's inventory, upends this model. It allows advertisers to run TV campaigns with the agility and accountability of search or social media marketing, focusing on key performance indicators like website visits, lead generation, and direct sales.

This influx of performance-focused advertisers represents a significant source of new revenue for publishers. “This collaboration brings performance-driven marketers into streaming at scale, creating meaningful new revenue opportunities for publishers,” commented Mike Laband, Group SVP, US Revenue at Magnite. By opening the doors to a new class of advertisers, publishers can increase demand for their most valuable inventory and diversify their client base beyond legacy brands.

Riding the Wave of Live Streaming Dominance

The timing of the MNTN-Magnite partnership is critical, capitalizing on a fundamental shift in media consumption. Streaming viewership has officially surpassed both cable and broadcast in total viewing time, making CTV the undisputed center of the modern television experience. The global CTV ad market is projected to soar past $100 billion by 2027, with live content acting as a primary engine of that growth.

Live sports, in particular, have become a digital-first phenomenon. In 2025, over 105 million viewers in the U.S. watched live sports via digital streams, outpacing the 85.7 million on traditional pay TV. Events like the record-breaking Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight, which drew 65 million concurrent streams, underscore the immense and highly engaged audiences available in these environments. Research shows that 40% of advertisers are already planning to increase their spending on live sports on CTV, recognizing it as a powerful channel for capturing consumer attention.

This partnership goes beyond standard in-stream video ads. It enables MNTN advertisers to utilize high-impact formats native to the streaming environment, such as interactive pause ads and prominent home screen placements on select publisher platforms. These formats are designed to be less intrusive and more integrated into the viewing experience, offering novel ways for brands to connect with audiences during moments of peak engagement.

A Strategic Alliance in a Competitive Ad Tech Arena

For both companies, this alliance represents a calculated strategic move to solidify their positions in the fiercely competitive ad tech market. For Magnite, the world's largest independent sell-side platform, integrating with a performance-focused powerhouse like MNTN expands its demand pool significantly. It allows Magnite to offer its publisher partners access to a resilient and growing segment of advertisers who are focused on measurable outcomes, thereby strengthening its value proposition and competitive moat against other SSPs.

For MNTN, the deal is a game-changer. It provides its client base of challenger brands with the keys to the kingdom: the premium live inventory that was once unattainable. This access elevates MNTN's offering from a powerful performance tool to a full-funnel advertising solution, capable of driving both brand awareness on the biggest stages and quantifiable conversions. It directly addresses the top KPI for 54% of advertisers, which is achieving tangible business outcomes.

This integration is not the beginning of their cooperation but an evolution. Over the past year, the companies have jointly worked to make CTV more effective and transparent, a collaboration that produced a sophisticated AI-driven contextual taxonomy.

Powering Performance with Advanced Technology

Underpinning this partnership is a shared commitment to technological innovation that makes TV advertising more intelligent and accountable. The previously developed AI-driven contextual taxonomy is a core component of this strategy. This technology uses artificial intelligence to analyze video content in real-time, classifying it based on nuanced contextual signals far beyond simple keywords.

This allows for highly accurate ad placements without relying on third-party cookies or individual user identifiers, an approach that is both privacy-compliant and effective. For example, a brand selling outdoor gear could have its ads automatically placed within content related to hiking or adventure sports, reaching a highly relevant audience at the precise moment their interest is piqued. This enhances targeting accuracy and ensures brand safety, giving advertisers confidence that their message is appearing in an appropriate environment.

By combining this advanced contextual intelligence with access to live, high-stakes programming, MNTN and Magnite are creating a uniquely powerful offering. It transforms television from a passive, top-of-funnel medium into a dynamic, full-funnel performance channel, ultimately making the biggest moments on TV work for businesses of every size.