AT&T has unveiled its new TV ad company Xandr, which encompasses all of the operator’s existing advertising and analytics businesses. The company also announced agreements with Altice USA and Frontier Communications to sell the cable operators’ national TV ad inventory.  

Brian Lesser, chief of AT&T’s advertising and analytics unit, is head of the new company.  

AT&T describes the pacts with Altice and Frontier as the “initial step” toward building a national TV marketplace for advertisers and premium content publishers.

Xandr will also partner with Altice’s new advanced advertising business, a4, to help expand a4’s national addressable digital advertising capabilities.

AT&T says that aggregating video inventory from multiple MVPDs enables it to start providing marketers with a “one-stop shop.”  

AT&T has been building up its digital advertising capabilities, including its purchase of ad-tech firm AppNexus earlier this year for a reported $1.6 billion.  

AppNexus will continue to support its U.S. and global customers under the Xandr umbrella, along with AT&T’s advanced TV business, AdWorks.

Xandr, (the name is a nod to AT&T’s founder Alexander Graham Bell) has four key advantages, according to AT&T, which include data, premium content, advanced advertising technology and AT&T’s distribution channels with more than 170 million direct-to-consumer relationships.  

“Our purpose is to Make Advertising Matter and to connect people with the brands and content they care about,” Lesser says in a statement. “Throughout AT&T’s 142-year history, it has innovated with data and technology, making its customers’ lives better. Xandr will bring that spirit of innovation to the advertising industry.”