UK startup Tablet Media has launched an ad network to deliver rich media ads to consumers browsing websites on tablets. 

The network is the brainchild of John Byrne, an experienced media professional who has previously worked at Viacom and NBC, and who helped establish Collective’s publisher offering when that company launched in the UK. 

Byrne told Mobile Marketing he launched Tablet Media when he realised “to my astonishment” that no such solution existed. “It seems clear to me that the tablet is going to become the dominant device in the home, yet despite this, there is no standalone tablet network solution in the UK. I just couldn’t see how that could be,” he said. 

Byrne hopes to sign up around 120 titles across 30 mainly magazine publishers, drawn from Comscore 100 sites and AOP members. The firm has partnered with Celtra for ad serving, and Theorem for creative. Advertisers will be able to target by context and demographic across the publisher distribution. Byrne said the company is targeting b2c brand advertisers, as opposed to apps. “It’s all up the funnel stuff, entertainment, gaming automotive,” he said. 

When a consumer arrives at a site in the Tablet Media network, rather than seeing an ad served by a mobile ad network, they will be served a rich media ad that makes more intelligent use of the tablet medium. “Publishers are not monetising their inventory as they should,” said Byrne. “Typically, when the site detects access from a tablet, the ad call will go to the mobile network that monetizes mobile impressions, or to a third party exchange or SSP where they will achieve a similar payout to desktop, which is much lower than on our network.”

Tablet Media will offer advertisers access to around 6m unique visitors and 50m impressions per month. The first campaigns are due to go live this month.