Starling today announced its launch as a new supply-side platform built from the ground up for connected television with an ambitious mission: to build the advertising infrastructure for the next era of CTV advertising.
Starling has assembled the foundation to compete at scale, combining strategic technology and assets with continued platform investment, growing publisher relationships, and leaders from across television, advertising technology, and media.
Starling enters a market where tens of billions of advertising dollars are transacted across platforms built for an earlier era of digital advertising. The result is a CTV ecosystem defined by fragmentation, inconsistent audience and content signals, and too little transparency for buyers and sellers. Starling is designed to address these challenges and bring opportunities to help advertisers activate against CTV signals.
Built for the Next Era of Television
The company is backed by MBL Partners and strategic investors, whose investment strategy combines capital with hands-on operating expertise to build and scale technology businesses.
“We didn’t invest in Starling to build another SSP,” said Matthew Mathison, Founder and Managing Partner of MBL Partners. “CTV is becoming the center of the television advertising market, yet the infrastructure underneath it remains fragmented and often opaque. We see a massive opportunity for a platform purpose-built for this market, combining premium supply, powerful signals, and modern technology with a fundamentally more transparent model.”
As Starling emerges from stealth, the company is focused on three principles it believes should define the next generation of CTV infrastructure:
Intelligence. Unlock more of the content, program, and audience signals within every CTV impression and make them actionable to drive outcomes for advertisers.
Authenticity. Gain insight into exactly where your ads ran at the show-level, so you can optimize your approach as you see fit.
Innovation. Bring emerging CTV experiences – including pause ads, home-screen placements and new interactive formats – into the programmatic marketplace, creating new opportunities for publishers and advertisers to engage audiences.
Seasoned CTV Leadership
Starling will be led by Executive Chair and Acting Chief Executive Michael Bassik alongside a leadership team with experience spanning television, media, advertising technology and programmatic infrastructure.
MBL Partners Operating Partner Sean Miller will serve as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, reflecting MBL’s model of pairing investment with hands-on operating leadership.
Reshmi Nair, a former senior engineering executive at Magnite, joins as Chief Technology Officer. Wil Danielson, formerly SVP, Business Planning and Sales at Nexstar Media Group, Inc., will serve as Chief Revenue Officer.
Together, the team will lead Starling’s expansion as the company invests in technology, publisher partnerships, and new capabilities across the CTV advertising ecosystem.
“Connected TV has become one of the most dominant advertising channels in the world, but somewhere along the way, the industry lost sight of what made it so powerful in the first place,” said Michael Bassik, Executive Chair and Acting Chief Executive of Starling. “We built Starling around what makes television different: premium content, rich viewing signals, engaged audiences, and high-value advertising experiences. We’re already proving that when you unlock more of the intelligence inside a CTV impression, you can create significantly more value for advertisers and publishers.”
The SSP for CTV
Unlike platforms that originated in desktop display or mobile advertising that expanded into streaming, Starling is built around the unique characteristics of television: premium video, content and program-level intelligence, live programming, sophisticated audience signals, and greater transparency across every transaction.
The Starling platform puts those capabilities to work today, helping buyers better understand what audiences are watching while enabling publishers to capture more of the value of their content. Starling data shows that publishers that pass content signals see higher CPMs.
While every CTV impression contains dozens of valuable signals, most platforms activate only a fraction of them. Starling is designed to capture more of that value, using content and program-level intelligence to help advertisers better understand viewing behavior, gain deeper understanding of relevant audiences, and make more informed media investments. With Starling, advertisers receive reporting down to the show and program level, providing greater visibility into campaign delivery. They also gain more efficient access to premium inventory, including live sports, tentpole programming, and other high-value viewing opportunities with publishers including Xumo.
“Advertisers are increasingly looking for both scale and accountability from their CTV investments,” said Mike Gammone, Senior Director, Ad Sales, Xumo. “At Xumo, we’re committed to delivering premium content, reaching high-value audiences at scale, and measuring campaign impact. Our work with Starling supports that goal by helping advertisers make more informed media investment decisions that deliver on their KPIs.”
As Starling grows, its focus will remain on creating greater value for advertisers and publishers across the CTV ecosystem.
