Walmart Connect is expanding its retail media network capabilities by integrating audience targeting and closed-loop measurement across Warner Bros. Discovery linear TV, Spotify, and additional CTV publishers via Yahoo DSP. The initiative leverages FreeWheel's programmatic technology to allow advertisers to connect media exposure across linear and streaming channels directly to retail sales at Walmart.
This expansion bridges the gap between traditional linear reach and digital attribution, allowing brands to justify top-of-funnel spend with bottom-of-funnel sales data. By integrating with Warner Bros. Discovery and Spotify, Walmart is positioning its high-margin advertising business as a central hub for cross-platform media buying. This move pressures traditional broadcasters to adopt retail-backed measurement to compete for performance-driven budgets. Watch for Walmart to integrate Vizio's hardware data more deeply into this ecosystem to further refine its proprietary attribution models.
Walmart Connect has been systematically opening its first-party shopper data to external buying platforms throughout 2026. In late April, the company launched Connect Select, a curated CTV marketplace within Walmart DSP that named Magnite, PubMatic, FreeWheel, and Index Exchange as SSP partners, bringing Vizio, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery inventory into a structured deal layer accessible to all advertisers on the Walmart DSP. The Yahoo DSP integration announced in May extended that architecture further by carrying Walmart's data into an external buying platform rather than only opening new supply within Walmart's own interface.
The Magnite partnership sits at the center of Walmart Connect's offsite expansion strategy. At Cannes Lions 2026, Walmart Connect VP Khurrum Malik and Magnite Group SVP Mike Laband discussed the convergence of retail media, CTV, and programmatic, emphasizing the elimination of short-term solutions in favor of durable infrastructure connecting 150 million customers and 4,600 stores to premium programmatic inventory. Walmart Connect's own May 28 announcement confirmed that advertisers' Offsite Display campaigns delivered a median of 52% new-to-brand customers in 2025, providing a concrete performance benchmark for the closed-loop measurement model now extending to linear TV and audio.
The October 2026 expansion to Warner Bros. Discovery linear networks and Spotify represents a progression from the May pilot phase. At its annual Partner Connect event, Walmart confirmed the Yahoo DSP integration had moved from pilot into alpha test phase and expanded beyond Vizio to include CTV inventory from additional publishers, while the Warner Bros. Discovery offering combined streaming portfolio and select live linear inventory through FreeWheel programmatic technology. The linear TV component covers TBS, TLC, truTV, HLN, and Food Network, with more inventory planned over time, marking the first time Walmart Connect audience targeting advertisers can use Walmart audiences for addressable targeting across live linear television.
Walmart Connect has expanded its audience targeting and measurement capabilities to include Warner Bros. Discovery linear networks and Spotify. By utilizing FreeWheel technology, advertisers can now link live TV and streaming audio exposure directly to Walmart sales data, effectively bridging the gap between traditional linear reach and digital performance-driven attribution.
The expansion includes Warner Bros. Discovery linear networks such as TBS, TLC, truTV, HLN, and Food Network.
Walmart Connect uses FreeWheel programmatic technology to link live TV and streaming audio exposure directly to Walmart's first-party shopper sales data.
The integration with Spotify enables closed-loop measurement across audio, video, and display inventory for the first time, allowing advertisers to track performance across these formats.
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