AT&T’s advertising behemoth is coming for Facebook and Google

When AT&T officially closed its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, it spun up advertising as one of four core pillars of its newly expanded business. Over the next few years, that business could grow into a beast tough enough to fight off the digital ad giants of the world. Though linear television is experiencing some secular decline, it’s still a massive advertising magnet. Before the merger, AT&T had access to a modest amount of ad inventory through its DirecTV platform. By adding Turner—home of channels including Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS and TNT—AT&T is effectively tripling the amount of ad inventory it can sell to ad buyers and marketers.

But the key piece for AT&T is its massive troves of customer data. AT&T has more than 170 million direct-to-consumer relationships across its TV, video streaming, mobile and broadband services in the US, mobile in Mexico and TV in Latin America. On top of that, buying Time Warner gives AT&T a host of digital properties including HBO Now, Boomerang, FilmStruck and the upcoming DC Universe streaming service. All of that data—including email addresses, IP addresses and device IDs—will now be at Turner’s disposal thanks to AT&T.