Apple has handed over responsibility for selling ad inventory in Apple News in the US to NBCUniversal.

NBCU will become the exclusive seller for ads on the news aggregation app from 1 January 2017. Currently Apple News ads are bought through iAd, but with that platforms sales team having been shuttered back at the start of the year, its no surprise that Apple would turn to an outside company.

NBCU says it will remain committed to maintaining every publisher’s unique voice, and delivering the very best for the advertising industry’s marketing clients while bringing its scale and expertise to bear to help Apple News advertisers reach more users.

The company is forming a dedicated sales group for Apple News, overseen by NBCU SVP James Kreckler. This team will be focused on developing strategic opportunities and developing new products that it promises will enable both advertisers and publishers to better take advantage of the platform.

Coming preloaded on all new iOS devices, Apple News has over 70m monthly active users.