Crackle Plus—the company behind free, ad-supported streaming services like Crackle and Popcornflix—will be selling U.S. advertising inventory for streaming media platform Plex in the direct ad sales market.
Top line
The expanded deal will allow Crackle Plus, which is owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, to market Plex’s advertising inventory to marketers and consumer brands across the U.S., just in time for the NewFronts.
Between the lines
Plex and Crackle Plus first began working together last May, which led to the rollout of a Popcornflix video on demand offering on Plex in November, and the first U.S. linear channels from Crackle and Popcornflix in December and January.
“Crackle Plus has been a valued partner in every part of our expansion into offering consumers great free-to-watch movies and TV shows,” said Shawn Eldridge, vp of strategic alliances at Plex, in a statement. “Working with them for direct ad sales is a natural extension that will allow easier campaign planning for advertising partners.”
The companies said the expanded content and distribution agreement will allow easier campaign planning through a single point of contact, resulting in more targeted advertising. Crackle Plus will be able to offer specific and brand-safe advertising packages through Plex’s content category management abilities.
Bottom line
The deal furthers Crackle’s expansion in the AVOD space. In 2020, it returned to the NewFronts to debut an expanded, evolved programming slate and two new formats to improve the ad experience for users of the AVOD platform.
