Today (23rd June, 2026), Universal Ads, Comcast’s self-service advertising platform for the premium TV industry, has officially launched in the UK in partnership with Channel 4, ITV and Sky. The launch, first unveiled by the cohort at Cannes Lions 2025, marks a ground-breaking move for the UK advertising industry as well as a significant step in Universal Ads’ international expansion. 

From today, for the first time, small and medium-sized enterprises can create, buy, and measure premium TV advertising campaigns across the three broadcasters' sales houses - ITV Media, Sky Media, and Channel 4 Sales from a single interface, helping to reach millions of viewers while simplifying the buying process, improving efficiency, and enhancing accessibility for new-to-TV advertisers. 

The Universal Ads platform enables advertisers to go live in minutes through a few easy steps: select a budget, target the ideal customer, upload creative, and launch. Designed to feel as familiar as buying on social, while delivering the brand safety and proven effectiveness that only broadcaster-quality TV can offer, it combines ease of use with the mass reach, cost-efficient impact, and long-term brand building of TV, creating a platform built for the next generation of advertisers.  

"This milestone represents the next phase of Universal Ads as we expand onto the global stage," said David Shaw, head of global expansion at Universal Ads. "Together with Channel 4, ITV, and Sky, we’ve built a platform that changes how TV advertising works in the UK today, bringing an experience that feels as simple as social, while preserving everything that makes broadcaster TV trusted, effective, and impactful." 

Rak Patel, chief commercial officer at Channel 4, commented, "Lowering the barriers to premium media can be a gamechanger for smaller brands. Greater collaboration across broadcasters can simplify TV buys for advertisers, attract new categories and brands into TV, and help ensure premium TV remains innovative and competitive alongside global social and digital platforms."

"This initiative proves that trusted, premium TV environments deliver real value for small-to-medium advertisers," said Kelly Williams, managing director, commercial at ITV.  "Driving this kind of innovation is a major step forward. It allows broadcasters to make TV advertising more accessible, effective, and future-proofed for the entire industry."

Karen Eccles, managing director, Sky Media added: "Through Universal Ads, we are breaking down traditional barriers and making it easier than ever for a whole new wave of brands to harness the power of TV. This partnership is an opportunity to show that the quality and impact of broadcast TV is now truly accessible to everyone."

Available to advertisers in the US for over a year, the Universal Ads platform has shown compelling results, demonstrating how broadcasters can work collectively to modernise how advertisers access TV while protecting the quality and effectiveness that define it. 

The platform is designed for growth-focused brands, whether digital-native, DTC, or scaling beyond social, that have historically found TV out of reach, but it retains the performance depth and targeting sophistication that larger advertisers and agencies expect*. Built on an API-first foundation, Universal Ads offers the flexibility brands and technology partners need to integrate, customise, and scale. The result is a TV advertising ecosystem that works harder for everyone: more brands on screen, more choice and personalisation for viewers, and more reach for advertisers.  

This launch in particular represents a major development in television advertising, giving SMEs access to a powerful self-serve platform to strengthen their marketing efforts. It follows a year of close collaboration between Sky, Channel 4, ITV, and Comcast’s product, operations and commercial teams, during which Universal Ads and the broadcast partners tested, refined and enhanced the offering to create a market-ready solution built for the evolving needs of UK advertisers. 

Comcast Advertising

Comcast Advertising is the advertising division of Comcast. As a global leader in media, technology and advertising, the company fosters powerful connections between brands and their audiences as well as among publishers, distributors, MVPDs, agencie...

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