Walmart has partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery to enable advertisers to utilize Walmart's first-party shopper data for targeting and measurement across linear TV inventory. This initiative allows brands to access Walmart's audience insights within a private marketplace, aiming to provide consistent cross-channel measurement between linear and connected TV environments.
This move signals a significant expansion of retail media beyond digital storefronts into the $203 billion broader advertising ecosystem. By integrating first-party shopper data with linear TV inventory, Walmart is challenging the traditional dominance of broadcasters and pure-play digital platforms like Amazon, which reported $68 billion in 2025 ad revenue. The strategy focuses on 'accountability,' offering brands a way to link television impressions directly to verified retail purchases. As the industry grapples with fragmented measurement standards, watch for whether other major retailers like Target or Kroger strike similar linear inventory deals to maintain competitive parity in attribution modeling.
Walmart Connect has been building the programmatic infrastructure that makes the Warner Bros. Discovery linear TV deal possible. In June 2026, Walmart Connect announced an expansion of its offsite retail media strategy through partnerships with Yahoo DSP and Magnite, marking the first time the retailer connected with those platforms to allow advertisers to activate Walmart customer data outside its own DSP. The expansion followed the end of Walmart's four-year exclusivity agreement with The Trade Desk in fall 2025 and emphasized CTV ad inventory as the initial focus. Offsite display campaigns through Walmart Connect delivered a median of 52% new-to-brand customers for advertisers in 2025, per the company's disclosures.
The Warner Bros. Discovery partnership was announced alongside broader ecosystem expansions at Walmart's Partner Connect event on October 6, 2026. Walmart Connect simultaneously moved its Yahoo DSP and Magnite proof of concept into Alpha phase, expanding beyond Vizio to include CTV inventory from additional publishers. A Hidden Valley Ranch campaign for The Clorox Company served as an early test case, delivering 55% incremental reach beyond linear TV, a 27% reduction in CPMs, a 26% increase in add-to-carts, and 3% brand lift. The linear TV component is enabled through FreeWheel's programmatic technology, giving advertisers access to live inventory across TBS, TLC, truTV, HLN, and Food Network.
Magnite's role as the sell-side technology layer has deepened throughout 2026. In April, Magnite was named a Premium+ Partner in Walmart Connect's Connect Select marketplace launch, a curated marketplace designed to simplify programmatic CTV activation at scale within the Walmart DSP. The integration provides deterministic measurement tied to real purchase signals, such as reaching households that recently bought a car seat at Walmart. At Cannes Lions in July 2026, Khurrum Malik of Walmart Connect and Mike Laband of Magnite discussed the convergence of retail media, CTV, and programmatic, framing the ecosystem around 150 million customers and 4,600 stores as the foundation for cross-channel audience activation.
Walmart has partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery to integrate first-party retail data into linear TV advertising. This deal allows brands to target shoppers on networks like TBS and TLC using Walmart's audience insights. It matters because it links television impressions directly to verified retail purchases, expanding retail media's influence.
The partnership includes linear TV inventory across networks such as TBS, TLC, truTV, HLN, and Food Network, including live sports programming.
Advertisers can use Walmart's first-party shopper data to target audiences on linear TV, providing consistent cross-channel measurement and linking television impressions directly to verified retail purchases.
The linear TV component is enabled through FreeWheel's programmatic technology, which allows for the integration of Walmart's data with Warner Bros. Discovery's inventory.
The campaign delivered 55% incremental reach beyond linear TV, a 27% reduction in CPMs, a 26% increase in add-to-carts, and a 3% brand lift.
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