Ad tech rebuilt itself around identity resolution and clean rooms once third-party cookies disappeared. Coverage here spans SSAI, programmatic CTV, ad-supported tier economics, frequency capping, and the measurement approaches replacing the old playbook.
Mission used generative AI to produce a World Cup advertisement featuring Lionel Messi, bypassing traditional on-site shooting which highlights a growing trend in sports marketing to reduce costs and increase content iteration. The adoption of AI in ad production is prompting discussions around IP rights and contract terms, suggesting a shift in how celebrity endorsements are negotiated and activated.
YouTube Shorts has become the first short-form video platform to receive Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for brand safety. This independent verification assures advertisers of robust brand safety controls and accurate campaign measurement, enhancing confidence in advertising on the platform. The accreditation follows an independent audit of YouTube's advertising systems and controls.
SiriusXM and Tubi announced a non-exclusive distribution and monetization deal to bring SiriusXM Podcast Network video content to Tubi's 100 million monthly active users. This partnership expands SiriusXM's video reach and creates new advertising revenue opportunities for both companies through shared ad revenue from video podcasts. The deal highlights the growth of video podcasts and on-demand viewing, and follows SiriusXM's recent expansion of its audio advertising footprint with YouTube.
The article discusses how the leading streaming service is evolving its model from subscription-only to include advertising tiers and stricter account sharing. This strategic shift aims to expand monetization opportunities and serves as a template for the wider streaming industry. The move diversifies revenue streams by supplementing subscription fees with advertising income.
Nine is launching an ad-supported tier for its Stan entertainment service, priced at A$9.99 per month, expanding advertising opportunities beyond Stan Sport. This move introduces new ad inventory for brands and provides a more accessible entry point for Stan subscribers. The advertising offering will leverage Nine's first-party data and audience intelligence.
Connected TV (CTV) ad impressions for Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) increased by 11% from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026, with McDonald's and Chick-fil-A leading in impressions. This growth reflects brands shifting advertising spend to streaming platforms to reach target audiences. Chicken chains, in particular, saw a 310% rise in CTV impressions during the period.
AppHarbr discusses ad quality challenges in sports apps, focusing on issues like competitor advertisements, gambling ads, and deceptive creatives within programmatic ad stacks. The article emphasizes the need for impression-level control to protect audience trust and exclusivity agreements, which current programmatic systems often lack. AppHarbr positions its solution as providing this necessary control before ads reach the user.
Illumin is promoting its omnichannel advertising strategy for the FIFA World Cup 2026, leveraging DOOH, video, display, and social media. The company highlights its proprietary tools, RadiusIQ for geo-fencing and audience retargeting, and ClarityTV for premium CTV ad inventory and verified measurement, to help brands maximize marketing ROI. This approach aims to engage fans across the entire match-day journey, from pre-match excitement to post-match engagement.
Wurl's latest CTV Trends Report advocates for advertisers to re-evaluate their brand safety strategies on FAST news channels, suggesting that broad exclusions lead to missed valuable audiences. The report highlights how scene-level contextual targeting, which evaluates content moments before ad breaks, provides advertisers with more precise control to unlock premium inventory. Wurl's CEO Dave Bernath noted that this technology allows for a more nuanced approach to brand safety compared to traditional genre-level exclusions.
FreeWheel has partnered with Stagwell and Walmart Connect to develop outcome-based optimization for CTV advertising, aiming to directly link ad exposure to consumer actions. These collaborations integrate FreeWheel's curation tools with Stagwell's media acquisition layer and leverage Walmart Connect's retail data to enhance transparency and measurement for advertisers. The initiatives address challenges in proving ad effectiveness and translating traditional TV buying criteria into programmatic signals.
InMobi Advertising has partnered with Scope3 to introduce the first "Agentic Seller," enabling AI-powered buying agents to access premium mobile in-app and CTV ad inventory, including Glance's 300 million first-party users. This initiative, built on AgenticAdvertising.org's Ad Context Protocol, aims to streamline programmatic advertising and offer differentiated inventory previously unavailable to AI buying agents. The partnership seeks to remove manual setup complexities, allowing rapid campaign activation and optimizing ad experiences for outcomes.
Magnite and dentsu have expanded their existing EMEA partnership to Sweden, focusing on programmatic Connected TV (CTV) advertising. The collaboration aims to streamline CTV activation, enhance data-driven media buying, and accelerate innovation in the Swedish market by leveraging Magnite's programmatic infrastructure.
Integral Ad Science's Nick Welch highlights that the future growth of Connected TV (CTV) advertising relies heavily on improved transparency in supply paths and more reliable performance insights. The article notes that lack of clarity in how CTV inventory is bought and measured, including unawareness of programmatic activity, hinders advertiser confidence. Solving these measurement and visibility challenges, possibly through AI-driven content and supply chain analysis, is crucial for fostering trust and sustained investment in CTV.
Major media companies at the 2026 Upfronts, including NBCUniversal, FOX, Amazon, TelevisaUnivision, Disney, Netflix, and Warner Bros. Discovery, highlighted advancements in AI-powered ad technology, cross-platform measurement, and unified advertising platforms. They showcased new ad products, data tools, and strategies for connecting brand storytelling with performance outcomes across linear and streaming video, with a strong focus on authenticated audiences and enhanced targeting capabilities.
This article explains Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD) as a central model in the modern TV ecosystem, projected to reach 210 million U.S. users by 2026 with a U.S. Connected TV ad spend forecast of $37.95 billion. It details how AVOD works, its key features like Dynamic Ad Insertion and granular audience targeting, and differentiates it from SVOD, TVOD, and FAST. The article highlights major AVOD platforms and promotes MNTN's performance TV solutions for advertisers.
Google, Meta, TikTok, and Amazon's Ads MCP servers are centralizing campaign command, enabling advertisers to manage ads across various channels. These servers integrate agentic technology, allowing media buyers to use AI assistants for ad management. This marks a new era of campaign centralization and the adoption of AI in ad tech.
Advertising volumes for IPL 2026 linear TV increased by 4.2% year-over-year, with e-commerce and Google dominating ad spend across both linear and connected TV platforms, according to TAM Sports. The report highlights a strong overlap between advertisers using both linear TV and CTV, suggesting brands view them as complementary mediums for broad reach and targeted engagement. CTV is increasingly appealing to premium and technology-focused advertisers seeking digitally connected audiences.
Roku has expanded its free ad-supported streaming lineup by launching four new live sports channels on The Roku Channel, bringing its total number of free live offerings to over 500. This move follows a 28% year-over-year increase in platform revenue during the first quarter, fueled by advertising and subscriptions. The newly added channels include FIFA Plus Women, FIFA Plus Español, Sports Illustrated, and Stingray Hooked.
StreamGuys has launched a new AI ad tagging service which automates the identification and placement of ad markers in podcasts and archived audio content. This service aims to increase monetizable inventory and reduce manual effort for broadcasters and podcasters. The platform is designed to be agnostic, accepting content from various sources and returning ad markers in industry-standard or custom specifications.
OnlyFans is reportedly losing creators in 2026 due to its 20% fee, lack of native DRM, and limited features compared to competitors. Platforms like Passes.com are gaining traction by offering a 90/10 revenue split, native DRM protection using BuyDRM KeyOS, and multiple monetization streams and business tools.
Amidst overall ad budget cuts of 10-40% in the upfront market, TV networks and streamers are prioritizing sports advertising, with sports-related ad dollars being the only category showing growth. While traditional TV ad spend declines, streaming ad dollars are up 17.9% to $13.2 billion, but ad buyers are pushing for price rollbacks on much of the streaming inventory due to its diffuse nature, with sports being the exception due to live, large audiences.
OpenGlass TV launched a supply-side platform (SSP) aimed at standardizing and streamlining the programmatic trading of dynamic CTV ad formats like pause and home screen ads. This initiative seeks to counter publishers' resistance to standardization and scale emerging CTV advertising experiences that were previously hampered by proprietary formats. OpenGlass is also developing AI solutions to help advertisers adapt standard video ads into these advanced formats.
Ad revenue for the NFL's 2025-26 season increased 7% to $5.9 billion, with significant contributions from both TV networks and streaming platforms. Streaming platform ad growth was up a modest 5% year-over-year, while broadcasters saw a 7% increase, highlighting the ongoing value of live sports content for advertisers.
Adtech platform Nexxen has launched programmatic activation capabilities for native Smart TV inventory in the Asia-Pacific region, powered by its Nexxen DSP. This new offering, called Nexxen TV Home Screen, allows advertisers to target audiences on VIDAA-powered Smart TV home screens in markets including Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The initiative aims to enhance ad engagement by reaching viewers in the discovery phase before content playback.
Advertising volumes for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 grew over 4% on Linear TV, with e-commerce, automotive, and smartphone brands as top spenders. Google emerged as the largest advertiser across both Linear TV and Connected TV (CTV), highlighting the blended investment by digital-first and traditional brands in sports advertising. The report noted distinct advertiser preferences, with CTV attracting digitally connected audiences and Linear TV retaining mass-market consumer brands.
Outernet has partnered with FreeWheel to integrate its digital out-of-home (DooH) inventory, including large LED screens, into FreeWheel's supply-side platform (SSP). This collaboration enables media buyers to extend video campaigns from connected TV (CTV) into public digital media environments. The partnership aims to provide advertisers with a new avenue for premium video campaign extension.
Quick service restaurant (QSR) Connected TV (CTV) ad impressions increased 11% between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026, with McDonald's and Chick-fil-A leading in impressions. This growth reflects QSR brands' strategic shift of advertising spend to capitalize on increasing streaming viewership. AdImpressions reported that CTV QSR ad impressions were dominated by national chains.
TripleLift has partnered with Epsilon to integrate Epsilon's audience data for 250 million consumers into TripleLift's TL Spark platform. This integration enables advertisers and publishers to access enhanced targeting across CTV, web, and mobile, aiming for more efficient and transparent ad performance without additional curation markups.
Rakuten TV research reveals that Free Ad-supported Streaming Television (FAST) has gone mainstream in Europe, with 73.7% of viewers using services daily or several times weekly, and 80.1% considering FAST a primary TV source. The study highlights growing viewer acceptance of advertising within FAST and its role as a content discovery and monetization platform for rights holders and advertisers.
Corus Entertainment is focusing its 2026 Upfront pitch on Canadian original programming, aiming to attract audiences and offer advertisers integrated opportunities across linear, streaming, and shoppable TV. This strategy emphasizes connecting advertisers with viewers through diverse platforms and ad tools.
Amazon Prime Video's NASCAR coverage is effectively driving sales for sponsors, with Logitech seeing a twofold increase in branded searches and a 73% rise in purchase rates among exposed viewers. This data highlights Prime Video's increasing ad effectiveness as a sports streaming platform, leveraging its audience to generate significant returns for advertisers.
Marketing Architects has expanded its use of Nielsen's Media Data Engine (MDE) from local to national television measurement, integrating it with its Annika platform. This collaboration provides Marketing Architects with faster, more consistent viewership data across all 208 DMAs for national linear TV campaigns, aiming to reduce the traditional data lag. The partnership enables quicker insights for campaign planning, forecasting, and premium inventory strategy for Marketing Architects' clients.
JioHotstar has secured partnerships with 50 brands, including 11 major sponsors like Pidilite Industries, Samsung, and Pepsi, for the digital premiere of "Dhurandhar The Revenge." This collaboration underscores increasing advertiser interest in major OTT film releases, creating premium digital advertising opportunities.
Adobe's Doug Wyatt discusses how leveraging 'travel intent' provides marketers with a high-value signal for engaging consumers before, during, and after events, offering a model for integrated advertising beyond single ad impressions. This strategy involves partnering with various entities along the consumer journey to create emotional connections. Wyatt also highlights AI's role in personalization and scaling messaging while emphasizing the enduring need for human emotion in storytelling.
Prebid President Mike Racic and Product Director Christian Janelli are departing from the organization to join Knower Tech, while Chairman Garrett McGrath is also stepping down. Despite these leadership changes, Prebid aims to continue its membership growth, support publishers, and develop agentic protocols. Prebid also continues its work on agentic protocols like AdCP and faces evolving challenges in the ad tech landscape.
Indian marketers are facing significant challenges with Made-For-Advertising (MFA) websites draining programmatic ad budgets, leading to concerns about campaign effectiveness. These sites exploit programmatic buying incentives by generating large volumes of low-value, ad-centric inventory rather than meaningful content. The article highlights the growing awareness among advertisers and agencies in India to prioritize media quality over quantity, urging a shift in how success is measured in programmatic advertising.
Magnite has expanded its partnership with dentsu in Sweden to enhance programmatic CTV innovation. Magnite’s technology will power dentsu’s AMX Premium Video, facilitating data-driven activation for advertisers in the Swedish CTV market. This collaboration aims to improve efficiency and control in programmatic CTV buying.
Studio Blo CEO Dipankar Mukherjee predicts that, by 2027, 90% of global ad films will be AI-enabled, citing cost reductions of up to 90% compared to traditional production. The studio emphasizes human-led creativity alongside its proprietary AI tech stack for celebrity cloning and performance capture. Mukherjee discusses the impact of AI as an infrastructure, not just a tool, for transforming filmmaking processes while maintaining cultural authenticity.
Nielsen has expanded its partnership with Marketing Architects, integrating its national television measurement tools into Marketing Architects' proprietary media-buying platform, Annika. This collaboration aims to provide faster and more detailed viewership data for national broadcast campaign planning and performance analysis. The expanded agreement builds on their existing relationship, which previously focused on local television measurement.
Nine will launch an advertising-supported tier, "Basic with Ads," for its Stan streaming service later this year, priced at $9.99 per month with HD streaming. This initiative expands Stan's commercial offering beyond Stan Sport, allowing advertisers to utilize Nine's first-party data and audience intelligence across its integrated media portfolio. The new tier aims to broaden access to Stan and support continued investment in premium content.
Magnite reported Q1 results that exceeded revenue and adjusted EBITDA forecasts, highlighting strong growth in connected TV (CTV) and the increasing integration of AI within its advertising platform. The company is strategically partnering with major streaming platforms like Netflix, Roku, and Warner Bros. Discovery to capitalize on the shift in ad spend from traditional TV to digital channels.
AMC Global Media, Disney, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision, and Warner Bros. Discovery are unifying their linear TV and streaming ad inventory for the upcoming upfront market. This strategy aims to provide increased flexibility to advertisers by consolidating sales across platforms. The move signifies a shift towards integrated ad sales practices in the TV and streaming industry.
Publishers are increasingly using paid traffic to acquire new readers and offset declining organic referrals, balancing audience growth with the risk of being misclassified as Made-For-Advertising (MFA) sites. This strategy, while crucial for some, can lead to reduced ad revenue due to the negative perception of arbitrage tactics by advertisers and ad tech vendors. The industry is grappling with defining clear lines between legitimate audience building and problematic arbitrage.
The Trade Desk announced a partnership with Utiq to integrate Utiq's telco-powered, consent-based advertising identifiers into the DSP's identity framework across EMEA. This collaboration allows advertisers to reach users not addressable via email-hash-based IDs, improving addressability across the open internet, especially in diverse European markets. The integration also includes netID in Germany, expanding The Trade Desk's portfolio approach to identity.
Different Minds has announced Equativ, Seedtag, and InMobi as its founding partners ahead of its formal launch. The initiative aims to raise awareness and promote support for neurodiversity within the creative industries, including advertising, marketing, and technology sectors. The partners are backing the launch to highlight the importance of diverse thinking for innovation and problem-solving in ad tech and digital media.
A report by IAB Australia highlights a significant talent shortage in the Australian digital advertising and ad tech industry, with only 1% of open roles being entry-level and nearly half requiring over six years of experience. This talent crunch is exacerbated by a shift towards AI and automation, requiring professionals with both AI fluency and commercial judgment. The report calls for increased investment in early-career talent, leadership development, and AI-for-advertising training pathways to address this issue.
Publicis' acquisition of LiveRamp has sparked widespread skepticism among ad industry leaders in the U.K. and Europe, who argue it compromises LiveRamp's essential neutrality. This concern is leading advertisers and retailers to re-evaluate their ad-tech strategies and seek alternative data solutions. The industry anticipates increased fragmentation and a push for rival agency groups to develop their own identity solutions.
Amazon is reportedly engaging external advertising agencies to sell ad inventory across its growing media properties, including Prime Video. This strategic move aims to scale Amazon's advertising business and increase its competitiveness within the connected TV (CTV) ad market.
PubMatic has launched "Decision Fabric" on AgenticOS, a containerization layer enabling partners to run decisioning models directly within the programmatic supply path. This move follows Index Exchange's "Index Cloud" and aims to reduce operational costs, lower latency, and improve signal fidelity by moving compute closer to where ad impressions are created. The article highlights an industry trend towards re-architecting the ad tech supply chain to address inefficiencies.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) launched a new digital ad against Republican Ashley Hinson, airing on connected TV platforms like Hulu, Roku, and Peacock. The ad targets persuadable voters in Iowa regarding political issues. This highlights the use of CTV platforms for political advertising campaigns.
