At CES on Monday, Comcast unveiled Universal Ads, an advertising platform aimed at being an “easy button” for small- and medium-sized businesses to buy ad time on traditional TV’s streaming businesses, with the goal of luring them away from social media and digital outlets. In addition to Comcast’s own NBCUniversal, additional partners include DirecTV, Fox Corporation, Paramount, Roku, TelevisaUnivision and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNBC Senior Media & Tech Correspondent Julia Boorstin moderated a panel with Comcast and some major partners who explained why they signed on to the new platform.

Comcast President of Advertising James Rooke noted that, with regard to the partners, “what’s clear is that everyone is bringing their own ingredients to the table, which is important for Universal.” “We’re also enabling partners to have their own storefronts, merchandized by the media company however they want,” he said.

NBCUniversal Chairman of Global Advertising & Partnerships Mark Marshall stressed the value of bringing in partners. “James and I kept talking about the ‘easy button’,” he said. “It’s very easy to buy ads on Meta and other such platforms, and we didn’t have that solution for premium video. It’s never been an option for Joe’s Pizza to be in Sunday Night Football, and now they can from Universal Ads.”

Boorstin asked how partners felt about teaming up with “frenemies.” DirecTV Chief Advertising Sales Officer Amy Leifer encouraged the panelists, saying “let’s collectively get together to see what premium TV can do.”

She also called out for “a tip of the hat” for panelist Rooke. “Today we have transformed our linear business when we joined Universal Ads,” she added. “We needed the power of our data and technology to plumb into Universal Ads. We can do that all together now.”

Fox President of Advertising Sales, Marketing and Brand Partnerships Jeff Collins stated that, “this unlocks linear inventory and makes it behave more like streaming.”

“Now, the overall barrier to entry has come down a lot for [smaller businesses] — they can use same tools they use for social media, and that’s exciting.” Warner Bros. Discovery EVP, Sales for Streaming, Digital and Advanced Advertising Ryan Gould agreed. “This alleviates the barrier for new customers that are medium-sized businesses,” he said. “And on the consumer side, more brands can alleviate the friction of repetitive ads.”

Gould noted that, if content is king, distribution is god. “We have so many brands we work with,” he explained. “Small- and medium-sized businesses want specific audiences in specific locations, and we’re excited to be able to aggregate our TV end points and make them accessible to a new group of clients — and to build this into linear.”

Boorstin asked if Universal Ads would change these media companies’ relationship with Trade Desk, a self-service platform for buying and managing digital advertising campaigns. Panelists agreed that Universal Ads opened up “demand outside of existing partnerships.”

“This is an entirely new category,” explained Rooke. “This enables people to make the most money by plugging in as many demand sources as possible, unlocking channels never unlocked before.” When Boorstin asked him if there would be more partners to announce, he replied in the affirmative: “Everyone sees the same opportunity.”