Streaming Monetization, CTV Advertising & Ad Tech News

The IAB Tech Lab has launched the Agentic Advertising Management Protocols (AAMP) to standardize how AI agents interact with existing programmatic frameworks like OpenRTB. Industry stakeholders are increasingly testing agentic workflows for deal execution, predictive ad-load management, and metadata enrichment to improve operational efficiency in streaming advertising.

Walmart Connect and Vizio have debuted a shoppable ad model on the WatchFree+ streaming service, integrating branded content with direct retail purchasing. The platform, powered by Vizio’s infrastructure and Walmart’s retail media network, aims to merge storytelling and commerce by targeting major retail shopping events.

OpenX, a supply-side platform (SSP), launched OpenX IQ, an AI and machine learning suite designed to give ad buyers greater control and performance in programmatic media workflows, including CTV. The suite leverages supply-side data for inventory quality scoring, audience modeling, and predictive attention and performance modeling.

Hearst Television partners with Viamedia.ai to deploy the Parrot Ad Decisioning System for household-level dynamic ad insertion across select local broadcast stations, using MediaKind's advertising software for last-mile delivery. The integration aims to boost addressability and monetizable impressions by approximately 25%.

Mobile app operations startup Kinoa Labs has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Transcend Fund to expand its predictive AI platform. The company provides algorithmic tools for user retention and dynamic monetization targeted at gaming and streaming app operators.

UPROXX TV, Comscore, and Warner Music Group released a study indicating that premium music video content on YouTube generates significantly higher viewer attention and engagement metrics than user-generated content. The data demonstrates that this content category is driving substantial viewership on connected TV for younger demographics, positioning it as a distinct media planning segment for advertisers.

Former Apple engineers have launched ZeroSettle, a new SDK that enables mobile app developers to route in-app purchases through direct billing systems to bypass standard application store commissions. The service provides a Merchant of Record model and entitlement synchronization, targeting the $150 billion in-app purchase market unlocked by recent regulatory rulings.

Asda has announced a partnership with Amazon Ads to bring the Amazon Retail Ad Service to the UK market starting in Q4. This integration will enable brands to use Amazon's ad-tech tools to target audiences across Asda's digital grocery and George e-commerce platforms.

REI removed an Instagram advertisement after Meta's automated generative ad tool produced inaccurate product imagery by adding extra handlebars to a bike. The incident highlights emerging brand-safety challenges for advertisers using platform-level generative AI tools that auto-enroll users and alter creative assets.

Major media agencies and publishers, including WPP, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery, are adopting agentic AI to automate ad planning and buying across linear and CTV. The shift is supported by emerging industry protocols like AdCP and ARTF, which aim to standardize communication and data governance between buyer and seller agents.

Industry analysis suggests the 2026 FIFA World Cup will serve as a major testing ground for infrastructure improvements in addressable, shoppable, and data-driven advertising across streaming platforms. Broadcasters and streamers are currently focusing on latency management and identity resolution to support these personalized interactive fan experiences.

Advertisers and ad tech executives are reportedly pressuring Netflix to provide more granular IP address data to improve geotargeting and cross-platform measurement. The lack of standardized granular data is leading some marketers to reallocate programmatic spend to other streaming platforms with more robust attribution capabilities.

Samsung Electronics Canada legal counsel Sahil Razdan discusses using established privacy-by-design frameworks as the foundation for AI governance in the company's ad-tech and smart TV divisions. Razdan also highlights his work with IAB Canada in setting industry-standard contracting terms for AI across the digital advertising ecosystem.

Samsung and InMobi-owned Glance have partnered to integrate a generative AI-powered shopping platform into the Tizen OS on Samsung smart TVs. The rollout targets smart TV models manufactured in 2020 or later, enabling viewers to navigate and purchase products directly via voice commands.

Spotify CPO Per Sandell discusses the industry-wide lag in audio ad spend, attributing it to historical fragmentation and measurement challenges. To address this, Spotify is scaling its first-party ad infrastructure and leveraging generative AI to automate ad creative production and improve inventory monetization.

Shopify has introduced a new tool called Campaign Autopilot to automate budget allocation across several advertising platforms including Google, Meta, and others. The company is simultaneously expanding its ad-serving ecosystem by partnering with ChatGPT, Pinterest, and Microsoft Monetize while maintaining a model that avoids taking a commission from ad spend.

Advertisers and ad-tech firms are pressuring Netflix to provide more granular IP address data to support better geotargeting and cross-platform measurement. While Netflix maintain its use of deterministic identity signals, some buyers have reportedly reallocated programmatic budget to other streaming platforms that share more comprehensive data.

Samsung Ads has integrated Amazon Ads' interactive video technology into its Samsung TV Plus FAST service, enabling shoppable ad experiences for viewers. The feature allows brands to drive purchases directly via remote control, leveraging Amazon's shopping-specific signals and functionality within the FAST environment.

PubMatic has introduced a new Creator Marketplace designed to connect independent content creators with programmatic and agentic AI advertising demand in the CTV space. The platform integrates partnerships with Holmes Media and FreeWheel to provide the ad-serving and technical infrastructure necessary for programmatic monetization of creator-led inventory.

Meta is launching an AI-powered creative solutions suite, integrating its platform with WPP Open, and consolidating its creator marketing tools into a single hub. These updates feature automated video translation, expanded text generation for advertisements, and integrated performance analytics for brand-creator partnerships.

The IAB Tech Lab has proposed an update to the OpenRTB SupplyChain v1.1 object intended to provide buyers with greater transparency into the technical routing entities of programmatic ad bid requests. The proposal aims to enable advertisers to audit not only financial payment flows but also the specific technical infrastructure, such as SSAI platforms and wrappers, involved in the transaction lifecycle.

Research from Wunderkind, in partnership with OpenGlass and TVision, indicates that programmatic CTV pause ads deliver nearly double the attention of standard 60-second video formats. The study, analyzing various verticals including automotive and technology, suggests pause ads are highly preferred by viewers and significantly drive actionable engagement like QR code scans.

Smart TV platform developer V has partnered with Mexican media company Grupo Multimedios to manage and monetize advertising inventory across the VIDAA platform in Mexico. Under the agreement, Multimedios will represent VIDAA's display, video, and FAST channel advertising assets to local advertisers and agencies.

A Consumer Reports survey of 2,183 U.S. adults reveals that 63 percent of streaming subscribers use ad-supported tiers, but many report severe frustration with ad repetition and poor ad insertion timing. The study underscores a clear need for streaming platforms and ad-tech providers to improve frequency capping, ad load management, and programmatic ad placement technologies.

Podscribe's Q2 2026 performance report indicates that podcast ad retargeting campaigns drive significantly higher conversion rates compared to traditional buys. The data also reveals a shift toward audience-based and programmatic purchasing strategies, which now account for a larger share of overall podcast ad impressions.

This interview discusses the shift in digital out-of-home (DOOH) from a reach-based to a performance-based medium, necessitated by programmatic buying and AI-driven optimization. The article highlights the requirement for increased data collaboration, clean room infrastructure, and standardized measurement to allow DOOH to compete with other digital advertising channels.

Madison & Wall Managing Director Luke Stillman and host Tim Hanlon discuss the shift in ad spending from traditional Designated Market Areas (DMAs) toward location-based programmatic targeting. They analyze how regulatory pressure on third-party location data indirectly benefits major digital 'walled gardens' and what this implies for the long-term viability of local broadcast advertising models.

A report from iHeartMedia and Omnicom Media Intelligence reveals that host-read audio advertisements significantly increase ad recall and purchase intent compared to standard formats. Despite the performance gains, analytical data from Magellan AI indicates that brands are currently underutilizing host-read inventory in favor of programmatic and pre-produced spots.

Capgemini analyzes the adoption of composable CDP architectures, such as those enabled by Hightouch and Databricks, to facilitate secure, warehouse-native identity resolution and data activation. The report argues that financial services institutions are increasingly moving away from third-party data movement toward 'zero-copy' activation models to navigate strict regulatory compliance while maintaining identity graph precision.

France-based Concord has raised $3 million in seed funding to scale its agentic media execution platform designed for ad campaign activation. The platform integrates directly with third-party ad platforms via API to automate media execution while focusing on a headless architecture strategy.

OpenAI formally announced its entry into the advertising market at Cannes Lions, detailing a new ad product and management toolset currently in a pilot testing phase. The company aims to monetize its AI platform while subsidizing access for free users, emphasizing intelligence-based targeting over traditional attention-based metrics.

Asda has announced a partnership with Amazon Ads to implement the Amazon Retail Ad Service across its online retail platforms starting in Q4 2026. This integration aims to provide brands with access to Amazon's ad technology, measurement tools, and shopper signals to enhance advertising relevance and performance on Asda's digital properties.

Agentio has expanded its AI-driven creator advertising platform to support Meta's Facebook and Instagram, enabling brands to automate the launch of partnership ads. The move builds on the company's existing YouTube-focused infrastructure and follows a successful beta phase for the new integration.

Google has launched Ask Ad Manager, a Gemini-powered AI assistant designed to help publishers troubleshoot delivery issues, generate reports, and navigate platform settings. The tool, currently in beta, transitions Google's AI agent strategy from advertiser-facing campaign management to publisher-side ad operations.

Omnicom Media and Disney Advertising are implementing a dynamic sequential CTV ad solution using Innovid technology to reduce ad fatigue. The initiative allows brands to deliver evolving creative narratives across both live sports and VOD content, with matching powered by Acxiom and Omni data.

Cloudflare reports that bots now account for 58% of global HTML page traffic, surpassing human activity for the first time. Ad-tech firms and agencies are responding by integrating traffic verification tools to combat fraud, particularly in high-value sectors like financial services.

Albertsons Media Collective has integrated Criteo's platform to enable sponsored product advertisements within its AI-powered conversational search interface. This partnership allows brands to display shoppable product carousels based on natural language customer queries.

Amazon has launched 'Alexa+ Agentic Ads,' a new AI-driven ad format that allows users to make transactions directly within LLM-powered interfaces. The product is currently in beta with partners including Papa Johns and The Orchard, as the industry evaluates how conversational commerce may replace traditional click-based metrics.

Omnicom Media and Disney Advertising have partnered to launch a dynamic sequential ad delivery solution across VOD and live streaming environments. Powered by ad-tech vendor Innovid, the system rotates coordinated creative messages within a single viewing session to reduce repetitive ad fatigue. The integration leverages clean room data connectivity between Disney's identity graph and Omnicom's Acxiom platform.

Hub Entertainment Research's latest study shows US Gen Z viewers are reaching record-high levels of ad tolerance, preferring ad-supported tiers to reduce streaming subscription costs. The study also highlights that younger audiences are open to using generative AI tools to optimize the viewing experience through improved ad relevance and reduced repetition.

LiveRamp has integrated its Curation service with Google Ad Manager in a closed beta to support addressable and cookieless programmatic advertising. The integration utilizes LiveRamp's RampID and Authenticated Traffic Solution to allow marketers to leverage first-party and market segment data for forecasting and targeting.

LiveRamp and Magnite have integrated LiveRamp's RampID identity solution into the Magnite Streaming CTV SSP. This global partnership allows publishers to pass privacy-conscious identifiers to Magnite, enabling advertisers to execute cookieless, omnichannel targeting campaigns and closed-loop measurement across CTV.

LiveRamp implemented a scheduled, CRON-based infrastructure pre-heating strategy to handle DAZN's massive authentication surges during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. Rather than relying on reactive Kubernetes metrics, the proactive scaling successfully managed traffic spikes of up to 200,000 requests per second with zero failures. The technical setup also utilized Google Cloud Armor rules as a multi-tenant safeguard to isolate DAZN's traffic and protect other platform users.

LiveRamp has expanded its partnership with Microsoft Advertising to integrate its Clean Room technology, facilitating privacy-centric connected TV (CTV) measurement. The collaboration leverages Microsoft Azure Confidential Compute to allow joint customers to securely connect first-, second-, and third-party data across Microsoft properties.

LiveRamp and OpenX have expanded their partnership to integrate LiveRamp's Conversion API (CAPI) into OpenX's supply-side platform. The integration resolves first-party online and offline transaction data to RampIDs, allowing programmatic advertisers to buy and optimize based on actual business outcomes rather than proxies.

LiveRamp has integrated Apache DataFusion Comet to accelerate Apache Spark performance within its clean room architecture for cross-media data collaboration and ad-tech analytics. By transitioning Spark from JVM-based row-level execution to native columnar execution via Apache Arrow and Rust, the company achieved up to a 50% runtime reduction on complex queries. This technical optimization aims to lower resource overhead and infrastructure costs for brands, publishers, and platforms operating multi-terabyte ad measurement and attribution workloads.

LiveRamp has updated its Data Collaboration Platform, incorporating conversational AI capabilities for natural language audience segment generation and secure data orchestration. The release also expands LiveRamp's global network with over 25 new integrations, including first-party segment activation on Netflix Ads via RampID and partnerships with AI optimization firms like Chalice AI and Scope3.