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.
FreeWheel and Outernet have partnered to deliver CTV out-of-home advertising campaigns on Outernet's large screens in London. Outernet will use FreeWheel's SSP and its proprietary PIAMS system to monetize its premium inventory and provide real-time behavioral data to brands. This collaboration aims to provide new ways for brands to reach audiences and reflects a broader trend in converged TV strategies for out-of-home advertising.
Wurl research indicates that brand safety risks in CTV news are concentrated and predictable, suggesting a more targeted advertising approach. Separately, Ofcom found that video podcasts linked to TV shows improve the UK viewing experience for over half of weekly podcast listeners. Additionally, Ampere Analysis highlighted that the average gap between seasons for streaming originals has nearly doubled, potentially increasing subscriber churn.
Indian companies are reducing ad spending as elevated crude prices and geopolitical tensions lead to cautious consumer sentiment and increased input costs. This trend is accelerating a shift towards digital media, performance marketing, and ROI-focused campaigns, with Connected TV (CTV) advertising projected to double by 2026 in India.
Magnite reported Q1 earnings that exceeded revenue and adjusted EBITDA forecasts, driven by strong performance in connected TV (CTV) and increased adoption of AI across its advertising platform. The company's stock is currently trading at a discount compared to analyst targets, suggesting potential opportunity before Q1 momentum and AI updates are fully weighed. This highlights the growing financial impact of CTV and AI in advertising for streaming professionals.
A Redseer report indicates that AI is significantly transforming the global advertising industry, with India positioned to become a major AdTech hub. India's digital ad market is projected to grow to $33-42 billion by 2030, driven by AI-led innovation in areas like media buying, creative production, and targeting. Indian AdTech firms are evolving into global product companies, leveraging AI to rebuild advertising infrastructure.
Nestlé Philippines, in collaboration with WPP Media and Magnite, achieved an 11% brand awareness uplift and 97% brand consideration for Nescafé Sugar Free using programmatic video ads targeting streaming platforms like WeTV and Spotify. The campaign leveraged genre-targeted pause ads and audience data from Lotame to precisely reach health-conscious consumers in a fragmented media landscape. This case study highlights the successful application of ad tech innovation for brand uplift and sales growth in Southeast Asia.
Research by Gameloft for Brands indicates that in-game video advertising significantly outperforms YouTube pre-roll ads in brand recall and sustained attention. The study, combining eye-tracking and emotional response measurements, found in-game ads resulted in 25% higher brand recall and 18.1% more sustained attention. These findings suggest new opportunities for advertisers to achieve greater engagement and purchase intent within gaming environments.
Frequency has launched its new In-Scene Advertising solution, which allows broadcasters and streaming services to embed ads directly into video content using AI. This technology identifies natural placement opportunities within scenes and dynamically replaces them with targeted advertising. The offering aims to provide new monetization avenues beyond traditional commercial breaks.
A guide from REPLUG explores how mobile app marketers are now allocating 20-40% of their budgets to "open internet" channels for user acquisition, moving beyond traditional platforms like Meta and Google. The guide focuses on diversified and resilient acquisition strategies, including OEM advertising, DSPs, rewarded user acquisition, and CTV. It aims to help mobile-first apps optimize their channel mix, measure quality, and scale user acquisition effectively.
Amazon Ads showcased new ad formats and AI-powered creative tools for Prime Video, Twitch, and sports viewing at its Canadian Upfront, including the launch of "Complete TV." The company emphasized its DSP's leading CTV reach in Canada and new strategic content integrations to simplify ad-buying for marketers. New features like 'Ads Agent', 'Creative Agent', 'Dynamic TV Creative', and 'Location-based Interactive Video Ads' were introduced.
Google AdSense has introduced a new control that allows publishers to share full IP addresses in programmatic bid requests, a feature previously blocked by default. This restores a crucial signal for geographic, fraud, and business-to-business ad targeting, enabling demand partners to better assess impression quality. While the feature offers enhanced precision, its default setting is restricted, and its utility is constrained by privacy regulations for non-personalized, limited, and restricted data processing ad requests.
The article discusses how online misinformation, including AI-generated fake news, is driven by profit-seeking actors leveraging social media algorithms for monetization. This market dynamic leads to significant ad revenue for platforms and challenges for content moderation. Experts argue for better regulation of the digital advertising market, such as 'Know Your Customer' regulations, to prevent legitimate brands from inadvertently funding disinformation.
Connected TV transforms sports media into a lucrative digital advertising ecosystem, enabling programmatic advertising to tailor messages during live events. This shift is turning sports into a key testing ground for the future of television monetization and audience engagement. The article emphasizes how accuracy in ad targeting helps justify the high costs of sports inventory and attracts new advertiser categories.
Ampersand, Fandango, and Kochava have partnered to create a closed-loop TV-to-ticket sales solution for theatrical marketing. This new solution allows film studios to plan, activate, and measure TV advertising campaigns directly against verified ticket sales, utilizing precision audience creation and attribution.
Global, a UK media and entertainment group, announced its direct entry into premium video advertising sales across its YouTube content network, which reaches 16 million subscribers and 150 million monthly views in the UK. This move allows advertisers to buy spot advertising directly within Global's YouTube shows, bypassing programmatic auction-based sales, and positions Global as the only UK media owner offering audio, outdoor, and premium YouTube video in a single commercial relationship. The company also created a dedicated Video Sales team led by Fatima Dowlet.
StreamGuys has launched a new AI-powered ad tagging service designed to automatically identify and place ad markers in podcasts and on-demand audio content, including archival libraries. This enables content producers to monetize existing audio libraries and automates the identification of ad insertion points. The service supports content ingestion from various sources and returns ad marker data compatible with a wide range of hosting and publishing systems.
Assertive Yield, an AI-powered yield management platform, has partnered with The Media Trust, a Digital Trust & Safety leader. This collaboration aims to enhance publishers' ad quality and revenue by combining Assertive Yield's optimization capabilities with The Media Trust's malvertising prevention and digital governance. The partnership is designed to protect audiences from harmful ads while preserving publisher revenue and operational control.
Google is integrating AI across its marketing workflow, including Gemini-powered ad experiences and agentic commerce, indicating a central role for AI in future ad operations. OpenAI is expanding its ad stack within ChatGPT, rolling out CPA buying and ads for advertisers, pushing it towards a performance marketing platform. Netflix unveiled a new "Binge Ads" format at its Upfront, allowing sequential storytelling across episodes in a single viewing session to leverage viewing data for brands.
Google has integrated its Demand Gen campaign type into the Commerce Media Suite, allowing brands to leverage retailer first-party audience and catalog data across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail for ad placements. This expansion provides closed-loop reporting for ad exposure linked to retailer purchase outcomes, extending retailers' ad reach beyond their owned platforms. The move aligns with the industry trend of off-site retail media activation.
EDO CEO Kevin Krim highlighted at POSSIBLE 2026 that TV serves as both a brand and demand medium, driving mid-funnel actions like searches and web visits after ad exposure, particularly during live sports. EDO uses AI, including its ChatEDO interface, to optimize ad creative production and provide real-time performance data to agencies for Upfront planning. This approach aims to shift the industry from basic share-of-voice metrics to optimization and ROI.
Billions Network CEO Evin McMullen warns that AI agents pose an existential threat to the display advertising models of major tech companies like Google and Facebook, as these agents do not respond to visual ads. This disruption could lead to a collapse of primary revenue streams for media and telecommunications conglomerates. Billions Network is positioned as a key on-chain infrastructure provider for accountable AI agents, with its cryptographic tools used by various corporate and sovereign developers.
Peer39 has acquired Adloox from Scope3, integrating Adloox's MRC-accredited ad verification capabilities within Google and Meta's advertising platforms. This move allows Peer39 to extend its contextual intelligence into walled gardens, directly competing with DoubleVerify and IAS. The acquisition also reflects Scope3's strategic pivot towards agentic media buying and AI-driven advertising infrastructure.
Peer39, a contextual data platform, acquired Adloox from Scope3 to enhance its ad verification and measurement capabilities, particularly within Meta and Google's walled gardens. This acquisition provides Peer39 with MRC accreditation and aims to expand its brand suitability offerings to better compete with industry leaders in verifying media quality and outcomes across programmatic advertising.
Genius Sports' biometric research with MediaScience indicates that ads shown after high-intensity sports moments can double unaided brand recall, suggesting enhanced effectiveness for live sports streaming advertising. This research highlights a new approach to ad timing that could significantly impact how advertisers target viewers in CTV sports environments. The article frames this research within a valuation check of Genius Sports itself.
AI agents are predicted to fundamentally disrupt the $900 billion advertising industry by autonomously managing campaigns through real-time strategy optimization. This shift, dubbed "agentic advertising," moves beyond current programmatic models to dynamically adjust strategies without direct human intervention. The change threatens traditional ad agencies by automating campaign planning, media buying, and creative execution, necessitating a pivot towards overseeing AI ecosystems.
Google, Meta, and ByteDance are rapidly expanding AI-driven advertising systems that personalize ads and leverage generative AI for content creation. This development is blurring the lines between ads and organic content, making ad disclosures harder to recognize. The article highlights the public accountability and regulatory challenges this poses, advocating for clearer disclosure obligations.
YouTube has launched a public directory listing 17 agencies and platforms that are part of its Creator Partnerships program, making third-party firms using verified creator data more visible to advertisers. These partners gain access to creator-consented first-party data like audience demographics and interests via the Creator Partnerships API, ensuring controlled access to enhance advertiser campaign effectiveness. The directory aims to help brands select partners for YouTube creator campaigns, as direct API access is not self-serve.
Amazon has launched Amazon Music Unlimited in India, introducing premium tiers with HD, Ultra HD, and Spatial Audio, along with a three-tier structure that formalizes ad-supported listening. This move creates new opportunities for programmatic advertising within Amazon's broader ad ecosystem, particularly with the partially ad-supported Prime tier and a forthcoming free tier in India. The launch also impacts the competitive landscape for audio quality in the Indian music streaming market.
Nine announced that its streaming service, Stan, will launch an ad-supported tier called "Basic with Ads" for $9.99/month later this year. This expansion aims to broaden Stan's reach and provide advertisers with more opportunities to engage audiences across Nine's media portfolio, utilizing first-party data for integrated campaigns. The new tier will feature a light ad load to maintain a premium viewing experience while supporting continued investment in content.
A new Antenna report indicates that ad-supported SVOD subscriptions have reached 110 million in the U.S., making up 48% of the market. Ad-supported tiers were responsible for 59% of gross additions in Q1, highlighting them as the primary growth driver for streaming platforms. The report suggests that platforms are successfully encouraging users towards these tiers.
Pubstack announced a free live webinar on June 16th titled "Why Buyers Ignore Most Publisher Inventory: The Hidden Impact of SSP Throttling" to discuss how SSP throttling causes revenue loss for publishers. The session will cover why high-value inventory is eliminated before reaching the auction and practical solutions around supply-side signals and shaping. Loïc Sfiligoï (co-founder and CSO) and Federico Benincasa (CPO) will lead the 45-minute discussion.
Amazon has contracted outside partners to sell advertising inventory on Twitch and Alexa, a departure from the typical in-house strategy of major tech companies. Separately, Peer39 acquired ad verification specialist Adloox from Scope3, with Scope3 shifting its focus towards agentic AI applications.
American Home Shield (AHS) reported an 18% increase in cost-per-action efficiency by revamping its programmatic targeting strategy for streaming audio and online video. This improvement resulted from utilizing real-time audience segmentation data from Experian and Audigent, following Experian's acquisition of Audigent in late 2024. The strategy focuses on using purchase behavior and contextual data to optimize bids across fragmented media channels.
Magnite is enabling programmatic access for advertisers to premium live streaming inventory in Australia, including major sports and broadcast events across multiple streaming platforms. This initiative provides greater flexibility for brands to reach engaged audiences and complements traditional sponsorship deals by scaling campaigns across various live environments. The company also introduced Live Scheduler to coordinate programmatic campaigns around live programming efficiently.
TESTA conducted real-world testing of Brazilian sportsbooks, including Bet365, Betano, Betsson, and EstrelaBet, across the PIX payment ecosystem to assess their readiness for the 2026 World Cup. The testing identified challenges in withdrawal speeds, verification processes, and overall operational user experience that can impact player satisfaction, with Betano showing the fastest average withdrawal times.
StreamGuys has introduced a new AI ad tagging service designed to automate the placement of ad markers in digital audio content. This service aims to increase monetizable ad inventory across back catalogs and new productions for broadcasters and podcasters, while reducing manual effort. It integrates via API and supports multi-language content, building on prior AI workflow innovations from StreamGuys.
Frequency has introduced In-Scene Advertising, a new suite of ad formats (L-shape, double box, picture-in-picture, overlay) designed to place contextually targeted ads directly into streaming content without increasing traditional ad load. This technology uses AI-driven scene intelligence for brand safety and contextual targeting and supports programmatic activation through a partnership with OpenGlass across FAST and vMVPD platforms. The offering aims to create new revenue streams for content owners and distributors, integrating with existing workflows and infrastructure.
TripleLift identifies a $25 billion online sales opportunity for advertisers during Cyber Week across CTV, native, and video formats. The company projects approximately 63% of consumer spend during this period will occur via mobile devices, according to data from Transunion.
TripleLift published an article marketing advertising opportunities for Summer Prime Day across CTV, video, and display platforms. It highlights data points from TruAudience and Transunion, noting a 99% Video Completion Rate and a 115% traffic increase during the sales event.
Nielsen and Marketing Architects have expanded their partnership to integrate Nielsen’s Media Data Engine with Marketing Architects' Annika platform for national TV measurement. This collaboration aims to deliver faster and more detailed viewership data to advertisers for national linear TV buys, particularly around live events and premium inventory. The goal is to improve campaign planning and analysis by addressing the historical data lag in television advertising.
Smart TV users are reporting that devices are playing hidden video advertisements in the background, which is significantly impairing device performance. This issue highlights how unwanted ad processes can negatively affect device functionality and user experience on smart TVs.
FreeWheel and Outernet have partnered to enable CTV out-of-home advertising campaigns on Outernet's large digital screens in London. Outernet will utilize FreeWheel's SSP to monetize its digital out-of-home (DOOH) inventory, offering brands access to an audience of 120 million annual visitors. The collaboration aims to bring programmatic precision to this inventory, with plans to expand into a broader programmatic offering.
MediaRadar announced an expansion of its Connected TV (CTV) intelligence, adding AVOD coverage for The Roku Channel and YouTube, and integrating live sports data. This enhancement provides clients with improved visibility into advertiser activity across on-demand and live streaming environments, including local AVOD granularity across 210 DMAs. The expansion is part of MediaRadar's "Video Everywhere" initiative, aiming to offer a unified view of advertising strategy across the modern media marketplace.
WunderKIND Ads is promoting non-interruptive Connected TV (CTV) ad units, such as pause ads, with the goal of enabling programmatic buying across various OEMs. Industry professionals from Digitas, Yahoo, and Dentsu discuss the evolution of CTV advertising, including shoppable ads, high-impact units, and the integration of CTV into the retail media ecosystem. This article is the first in a series titled “A Kinder, Gentler CTV.”
Midterm political ad spending for 2026 has reached $3.9 billion through May 29, representing a 47% increase compared to 2022, primarily driven by California's spending of $315.8 million. Projections indicate $2.5 billion of the total political ad spend will go to connected TV (CTV), with approximately 70% of overall political ad expenditure directed towards TV and streaming/CTV platforms.
SiriusXM Podcast Network has partnered with Tubi to distribute its video podcasts, such as "Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend" and "What Now? with Trevor Noah," to Tubi's 100 million monthly active users. This non-exclusive deal includes shared advertising sales, offering new premium ad opportunities for brands across CTV, web, and mobile platforms. The collaboration aims to expand the reach of SiriusXM's video podcasts and provide Tubi audiences with more content, with more shows expected to be added.
Agoda and The Trade Desk have partnered to leverage Agoda's first-party travel data for programmatic advertising across Asia-Pacific. This collaboration enables brands to target travelers across Connected TV, streaming platforms, and mobile before booking, significantly enhancing ad precision and cross-channel marketing. The partnership aims to facilitate cohesive, data-driven ad campaigns for brands operating in APAC's travel and hospitality sectors.
Bell Media is expanding its Connected TV Live offering by integrating TELUS TV+ set-top box inventory, aiming to add over 1 million CTV-enabled households by 2026. This expansion provides advertisers with increased national reach in Canada, particularly in Western markets, utilizing existing buying processes. The new inventory is fully integrated into Bell Media's ad packages, including programmatic options, designed for seamless advertiser access.
Disney is making advertising a core revenue driver by focusing on ad-supported streaming, live sports, and enhanced ad technology. This strategy aims to combine its portfolio for advertisers, growing digital ad revenue faster than linear TV declines. Projections anticipate continued growth in Disney+ U.S. digital ad revenue through 2028, with advertising becoming a larger share of the platform’s total income mix.
European National Olympic Committees (NOCs), including Germany's DOSB and the British Olympic Association (BOA), are shifting their sponsorship strategies for events like Istanbul 2027 to focus on year-round athlete storytelling and digital activations. This move aims to provide partners with continuous relevance beyond the Games window and involves increased in-house content production and social media engagement. The European Games are positioned as a key opportunity for this new commercial approach and Olympic qualification.
