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In this conversation, Jan Ozer from the Streaming Learning Center interviews Gabe Thomas, VP of Strategy and Business Development at A Parent Media Company (APMC). They discuss AdCurate, a powerful tool that helps streaming publishers improve ad quality and brand safety. Below is a detailed breakdown of their conversation, with each question and answer presented for clarity.
You can watch the interview on YouTube here and embedded below.
Contents
About APMC
Jan: Tell me about APMC and AdCurate.
Gabe: As a company, we’ve got two halves. We are a large CTV publisher with several owned and operated streaming apps. One of the newest and most exciting is Victory+, which is focused on live sports streaming. We also have Kidoodle.tv for kids and family content, and we work with various YouTube creators, like Dude Perfect, to help create custom CTV apps for them.
The other half of the company is the technology side, and we’ve built several great products that support monetization, and AdCurate is one of those tools.
The Problem AdCurate Resolves
Jan: What is a bad ad experience? What concerns are you trying to address with AdCurate?
Gabe: A bad ad experience can fall into a few categories.
The first is ads that are simply poor in quality — distorted visuals, pixelation, or volume issues. Sometimes, a display banner gets repurposed as a silent video ad, or an audio ad runs with a static “We’ll be right back” slate. These low-effort ads cheapen the overall viewing experience.
The second type is ads that aren’t appropriate for the content they accompany. This could include ads in the wrong language or ads that clash with the tone of the content. For instance, a high-energy car commercial doesn’t fit well with a meditation app or a somber political discussion.
Lastly, there are logistical issues like ad duplication. Publishers often struggle to ensure that viewers aren’t repeatedly shown the same ad, sometimes even back-to-back within the same ad pod.
Jan: How does that hurt the viewer experience and the publisher?
Gabe: The biggest issue is viewer frustration. Poor ad experiences can cause viewers to leave the app or stream entirely. This results in lower engagement, reduced ARPU (average revenue per user), and fewer ad opportunities.
There’s data to support this — 43% of streamers said bad ads would cause them to stop using an ad-supported service. While one bad ad might not drive someone away, consistently poor experiences will.
Jan: Between first-party data and contextual data, how is this still a problem in 2025?
Gabe: Most existing technology is designed to protect advertisers, not publishers. Publishers rely heavily on self-declared signals from advertisers to know what kind of ad they receive. Unfortunately, those values are often missing or inaccurate — not always because of malice, but often because overworked teams don’t input the correct data.
As a result, publishers can’t confidently determine what ads are coming through, making it hard to maintain quality and brand safety.
How AdCurate Works
Jan: How does AdCurate fix the problem?
Gabe: AdCurate isn’t an ad blocker — it’s a data tool. We provide granular data on each inbound ad so publishers (or the platforms that serve them) can make informed decisions automatically.
Our system verifies standard details like language, advertiser identity, and category. But we also provide additional insights like ad quality, duplication, and tone or sentiment. This enables automated filtering without manual review, ensuring publishers can confidently block inappropriate or low-quality ads.
Jan: Where does AdCurate fit into the ad decisioning process?
Gabe: We work wherever the final ad decisioning happens — ideally within the ad server where auctions occur. When the ad server fans out to demand sources, SSPs, DSPs, and internal campaigns, AdCurate’s data integrates directly into that decision-making process.
Our data adds signals that help publishers make smarter decisions. For example, if a show is about home improvement, home and garden ads can be prioritized. Or pharmaceutical ads can be excluded if they don’t fit the content’s tone.
Jan: What about publishers who don’t control their ad decisioning?
Gabe: For those publishers, we offer a solution that acts as a final firebreak for ads before they reach the publisher. We can wrap existing ad tags with an extra piece of code that filters out ads based on predefined criteria.
The downside is that this approach doesn’t always allow for backfilling, so some ad slots may end up empty. However, we recognize that not all publishers have control over their tech stack, so this solution provides an alternative.
Jan: Any difference between live content and VOD?
Gabe: For VOD, skipping an ad is straightforward. For live content, removing an ad could result in 30 seconds of dead air. While we offer solutions to help publishers backfill those gaps, a slate may still appear in some cases.
With our Victory+ app, we’ve developed strategies to ensure live ad pods are properly filled to minimize empty air time.
Cost and Revenue Impact
Jan: What’s the cost structure for AdCurate?
Gabe: Publishers pay for the data on a cost-per-ad basis. Once they’ve purchased data for a specific ad, they can reuse it as often as needed at no additional cost.
We also help publishers identify duplicate ads across channels, ensuring they only pay once for data on the same ad, even if it arrives with multiple IDs.
Jan: Can you estimate the impact on ad costs?
Gabe: It’s a small addition — just tens of cents per ad in a market where CTV CPMs range from $10 to $40. We know publishers dislike extra fees, so we’ve designed this to be lightweight and manageable.
Jan: Who’s using AdCurate outside your own networks?
Gabe: We partner with several industry leaders, including Vizio, LG, and Philo. For example, we successfully filtered political ads with Philo while preserving ad revenue by blocking only unwanted content.
Maximizing Revenue and Improving Targeting
Jan: How does AdCurate increase revenue for publishers?
Gabe: First, by improving the viewing experience, we reduce churn and increase engagement. This results in more ad opportunities and higher ARPU.
Second, by giving publishers better insights into incoming demand, they can confidently connect with more demand sources without risking poor ad quality or inappropriate content.
Jan: How does AdCurate support contextual targeting?
Gabe: AdCurate provides detailed metadata about ad content, allowing publishers to align ads with their programming. For instance, a home improvement show can prioritize ads for home and garden products while excluding content that feels disruptive or out of place.
Jan: Are publishers equipped to apply this kind of contextual targeting today?
Gabe: Yes, with AdCurate’s data, this is achievable now. While some technical adjustments are required, the foundational data and tools are already in place. Publishers can combine our insights with contextual data providers like GumGum and IRIS TV to improve targeting.
