Nexxen Highlights AI, CTV Growth Strategy and Path to 40% EBITDA Margins

Nexxen is emphasizing an integrated ad-tech platform spanning demand-side, supply-side, data and AI tools, with proprietary data viewed as a more durable advantage than AI alone.

The company cited a 62% reduction in Toyota’s cost per vehicle sold as an example of advertiser outcomes.

Connected TV is a major growth engine: CTV revenue rose 33% year over year in the second quarter and represented about 40% of revenue generation.

Nexxen is expanding into programmatic TV home screens and expects its VIDAA investment and OEM relationships to broaden its reach.

Management is targeting significant margin expansion, forecasting an approximately 34% EBITDA margin in 2027 and eventual margins in the “40-ish” percent range.

Mobile revenue also grew 23% year over year, while the company is considering acquiring an SDK network for roughly $50 million.

Nexxen International NASDAQ: NEXN executives highlighted the company’s integrated advertising technology platform, connected TV growth strategy and artificial-intelligence investments during a fireside chat hosted by Rosenblatt internet media analyst Barton Crockett.

Chief Product Officer Karim Rayes described Nexxen as a unified programmatic platform operating demand-side, supply-side and data businesses, supported by proprietary data, exclusive media assets and AI tools.

The company’s platform covers audience discovery, planning, activation, optimization and monetization, he said.

Rayes said Nexxen’s integrated approach is designed to consolidate functions and fees that may otherwise be spread across the ad-tech ecosystem.

While the company charges fees on both the demand and supply sides when transacting with third-party platforms, it can unify fees and offer savings when customers use its end-to-end platform, according to Rayes.

“Ultimately, it’s really about return on ad spend and the outcomes you’re driving for the advertisers,” Rayes said.

He cited Toyota as an example, saying the automaker achieved a 62% reduction in cost per vehicle sold through Nexxen’s advertising solutions.

Rayes said operating both a demand-side platform, or DSP, and a supply-side platform, or SSP, allows Nexxen to manage data and signals across an advertising transaction.

The company said this can help it understand media being purchased, advertiser objectives and resulting outcomes while seeking to reduce operating costs for publishers and advertisers.

Addressing questions about neutrality in auctions, Rayes said Nexxen maintains separate supply-side and demand-side teams with distinct targets.

He said the company runs neutral auctions and that advertisers can audit what they pay across supply-side platforms.

Automated algorithms determine where spending is directed based on expected return on investment, he said.

AI alone will not be the long-term differentiator in advertising technology, Rayes said.

Instead, he said value will be determined by the data used to train AI systems and the technology underneath those tools.

Nexxen’s data assets include its Nexxen Discovery platform, proprietary television data and transaction-level data, he said.

The company’s nexAI offering includes AI agents for audience research, reporting, troubleshooting, quality assurance and, soon, planning, Rayes said.

Nexxen is using the tools internally and intends to make agents interoperable with customers’ own AI ecosystems.

Rayes also said the company uses AI in operations and engineering, adding that more than 90% of its code is written using AI tools.

Chief Financial Officer Sagi Niri said connected TV revenue increa...