“We kind of accidentally fell into becoming an SSP. But what ended up making it work is that we started leveraging our library.” TriCoast is one of those companies that makes more sense the longer you talk to them. On the surface, it’s a film distribution company with a big library and a handful of FAST channels. But somewhere along the way, it also became an ad-tech company—largely because it needed to sell its own inventory, then realized it could use that same model more broadly. I spoke with TriCoast Media CEO Nick Risher about how that happened, why owning content changes the math, and how the company is trying to build a more direct path between publishers and buyers. ALAN WOLK (AW): Let’s start at the beginning. How did a film distribution company wind up building an ad-tech business? NICK RISHER (NR): TriCoast is a film distribution company with over 5,000 titles in our library. We also have four FAST channels, and we release about 12 films a year in theaters as well. But as we built channels like Dark Matter, we had to start our own ad sales team and our own ad network because we wanted to fill that inventory. We kind of accidentally fell into becoming an SSP. What ended up making it work was that we started leveraging our library. AW: Walk me through that part—how are you leveraging the library? NR: The way it works is that TriCoast Media Network provides content assets from our library to publishers. We leverage that content library and give publishers a cheaper rev share. In return for that reduced rate, we ask for reduced backfill—not just on our own content, but on all of their inventory. So if it’s Tubi or Samsung or whoever, we’ll give them our titles, and instead of a higher tag we’re asking for a lower one. That comes back to TriCoast Media Network in the form of cheaper rates, so that we can sell it to demand partners. That’s the flywheel for us, and that’s what we’re excited to unveil. AW: So where does the advantage come from in practical terms? NR: The cheaper rev share enables the cheaper CPM while the publisher is still making the same money. They’re getting money from the better rev share, so they’re fine giving us cheaper CPMs on the backfill side. It’s very much a you-scratch-my-back, I-scratch-yours model. AW: Now talk me through how the ad-tech piece comes in? NR: On the supply path optimization side, we’re trying to get closer to the brands and closer to the publishers without a DSP and an SSP and an agency all sitting in the middle taking pieces out. If a brand has $100 to spend, the agency takes some, the DSP takes some, the SSP takes some, and by the time it gets to the publisher, there’s a lot less left. If you can compress that path, there’s simply more money left for the publisher and more efficiency in the market. That’s the part we’re excited about. AW: Plenty of companies talk about efficiency. What’s your secret sauce on that—why is TriCoast’s version different? NR: I think what’s different about us is that we’re a studio that came into this from the content side. We’re not just a pure ad-tech company. We already had the library, we already had the channels, and then we became an ad network as well. That’s why the 5,000 titles matter in our case. It’s not just a big number. It’s a library we can actually use to create leverage in the marketplace. AW: When you say “use,” what does that actually look like outside of your own channels? NR: Unlocking those titles on multiple platforms is a big part of it. I think what’s exciting about us is that we’re one of the only SSPs that also has a distribution outlet. That’s pretty unusual. We’re kind of an odd, unique company that does things a little differently. AW: Where is the content showing up right now—who do you have deals with? NR: Tubi has a lot of our content. Vizio, Samsung, Plex, Xumo, Fubo. We’re on Amazon as well. We just started getting onto VIDAA through Xumo, so that’s coming up too. AW: You mentioned a channel called Dark Matter earlier. Where does it fit into the broader business? NR: Dark Matter is our best-known FAST channel. It does really well. We have 3,000 to 4,000 titles on Dark Matter that we licensed from other studios. But the bigger point for us is that we’re a studio coming in with this flywheel and reinventing it a little bit by becoming an ad network too. AW: You mentioned publisher relationships earlier. How important is that side of it? NR: It’s huge. We have direct access to around 150 premium publisher partners—Vizio, Samsung, TCL, Tubi, Paramount and others. On the demand side, we work with major partners like FreeWheel. That’s really what helped us. Our relationship with publishers is a big reason this has worked. AW: You also talked about acting almost like a service layer in some cases. What does that mean in practice? NR: We can operate like an IO service company. So if an agency needs help with an IO, or a sales company talking to an agency needs help putting something together, we can do that. A lot of what we really work with is the curated network. We’ve created our own curated network, where we use targeting partners and contextual targeting companies like Subjective to build a network around the audience a demand partner needs. We can do that because we’re directly connected not just to our own FAST channels, but also to the publisher network we’ve built. AW: So when people hear “TriCoast has 5,000 titles,” what do you want the takeaway to be? NR: That it’s not just about having a large library. It’s about what that library allows us to do. Because we own and distribute content, we can structure deals differently. We can give publishers a cheaper rev share, get access to inventory across their network, and then bring that to demand partners in a more efficient way. That’s really the story for us. AW: What’s next? Where are you focused now? NR: Growing the library and growing the sales team. We think there’s a big opportunity in continuing to expand both sides of the business—our content footprint and the network we’ve built around it. |
