Streaming Monetization, CTV Advertising & Ad Tech News

Amazon DSP has launched new delivery troubleshooting features for deal inventory, providing advertisers with detailed missed bid reasons within the campaign management table. This update includes demand and supply side missed bid codes, nested deal and breakdown views, and a 'Deal Opportunities Insight Card' to help identify under-delivery issues. These features are available to self-service Amazon DSP customers with deal inventory across North America, South America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific.

Thinkbox announced the shortlist for its 2026 TV Planning Awards, which recognize effective uses of TV advertising. The awards, in conjunction with Campaign, cover categories such as best TV newcomer, best use of addressability, and young TV planner of the year. Winners for the various awards will be revealed at a ceremony on July 8.

This Substack page promotes the 'Go Addressable Certification Program,' offering various training classes focused on addressable TV advertising. Topics covered in the available courses include buying media in the addressable ecosystem, measurement, attribution, optimization, and the importance of identity in advertising.

Market Research Intellect has published a report titled "Dynamic Ad Insertion Market Size, Share & Forecast 2035." The report provides an outlook and growth analysis for ad insertion technologies, covering product types like Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) and Client-Side Ad Insertion (CSAI), and applications including Connected TV (CTV), OTT streaming, and Video on Demand (VOD) services.

MANSCAPED partnered with Tatari to unify its linear and streaming TV advertising strategy, moving beyond digital channels to scale its reach and improve measurable performance. This collaboration allowed MANSCAPED to track website traffic, branded search, and conversions, successfully demonstrating TV's impact in both direct response and brand awareness, including a significant spike in traffic during a Super Bowl pregame placement.

This article discusses the critical role of attribution in internet monetization, highlighting how its disruption led to significant revenue challenges for major digital advertisers like Meta and Snap. It posits that effective attribution is essential for Web 3's success, suggesting blockchain technology could provide a suitable infrastructure for this function. The author argues that without proper attribution, Web 3 economies, particularly for NFTs and virtual goods, will struggle to move beyond speculative markets.

IAB Tech Lab has standardized six Connected TV (CTV) ad formats, including pause ads, as part of its CTV Ad Portfolio. This standardization enables consistent creative production, programmatic buying and selling, and cross-platform measurement for these ad formats. The article highlights pause ads as the most immediately impactful format due to their viewer-initiated context, 100% share of voice, natural duration, and non-disruptive perception.

Google Ads defines "co-viewing" as multiple people watching YouTube on a connected TV (CTV) device and viewing an ad simultaneously, aiming to provide advertisers with more accurate impression and reach metrics. This measurement uses Google's connected TV panel data and real-time surveys across over 100 countries and 70 languages to inform a dynamic reach model that accounts for factors like day, time, country, and demographics. The goal is to offer advertisers better insights for planning and comparing YouTube CTV campaigns against linear and connected TV buys, while still supporting Nielsen DAR guarantees.

Microsoft Advertising is exclusively focusing its buy-side advertising technology investments on the Microsoft Advertising Platform starting in 2026, driven by an increased emphasis on generative AI capabilities for conversational, personalized, and agentic advertising. As a result, the company will no longer support media buying through its DSP, Microsoft Invest, starting February 28, 2026, but will continue to support access to Microsoft and partner inventory via third-party DSPs. This strategic shift aims to leverage AI to simplify audience targeting complexities and enhance monetization for publishers through platforms like Microsoft Monetize and Curate.

JioHotstar has launched a new "commerce signal-led advertising capability" designed to connect brands with high-intent audiences on its streaming platform. This new offering leverages real purchase intent signals for sharper audience identification and engagement, with Instamart as its first partner. The capability aims to transform advertising by seamlessly connecting content consumption to product exploration and is going live during the current cricket season.

GMS has launched Generative Response Ads, an AI-powered ad format enabling real-time, natural language conversations within ad spaces. This innovation, which allows users to ask questions and receive answers directly in the ad, was first adopted in the Philippines by AdSpark for its client Globe Platinum. The new format aims to create dynamic, two-way dialogues between brands and consumers.

Specsavers has renewed its sponsorship with Seven's 'Home and Away' through 2026, expanding its advertising campaign across TV, streaming, and social platforms. The renewed partnership introduces hearing-related storylines for the first time, integrating Specsavers' audiology business into the campaign. This initiative leverages in-show advertising and bespoke content to engage the show's audience.

Versant has enhanced its platform with 24-hour support for managing and monitoring distribution deals, aiming to assist cable networks. This update helps programmers ensure compliance and optimize revenue from various affiliate agreements.

Publicis Health Media's EVP Diana Bernstein outlined how the agency leverages AI and cross-device signal gathering in fragmented CTV environments for healthcare marketing. The strategy focuses on data privacy compliance and moving measurement beyond standard media metrics to real-world outcomes like physician consultations and prescription lift. This approach aims to deliver personalized, non-linear messaging across patient journeys.

Criteo Chief Customer Officer Ed Dinichert detailed the advertising industry's challenges with measurement fragmentation and excessive AI noise at the POSSIBLE conference. Criteo is addressing this with its new Criteo Go self-service platform, which utilizes agentic technology and product catalog ingestion to achieve 28% better performance than traditional managed-service campaigns. Dinichert emphasized Criteo's historical focus on performance marketing and its large commerce data assets, including a shopper graph reaching 750 million users daily.

A study by WPP Media and Thinkbox indicates that UK brands could double their average annual media advertising spend from £15 million to £30 million and still generate profitable returns, leaving £32 billion in profit growth on the table by underinvesting. The report, titled "The Growth Gap," analyzed 624 brands and over 7,400 campaign scenarios across 10 media channels, challenging the prioritization of short-term 'performance' channels by proving brand investment delivers in the first year with optimal media planning.

Meta's AI support chatbot reportedly had a security flaw that allowed hackers to gain admin access to high-profile Instagram accounts, which Meta has since patched, while advertiser concerns about agency transparency and principal media deals persist. A survey by ANA indicated that 43% of its members are concerned about lack of transparency from agency partners, though principal media deals generated $713 million for WPP in 2024. Separately, luxury marketing agency Interluxe Group acquired data-driven performance marketing agency adMixt.

This article discusses the risks of autonomous AI systems in digital advertising, emphasizing that accidental failures and regulatory exposure could arise from AI making commercial decisions without human oversight. It advocates for implementing formal control layers above AI systems, including clear configuration authority, defined risk thresholds, and auditability. The piece suggests that human operators will become more crucial in managing these AI systems rather than less.

Agoda announced a partnership with The Trade Desk to utilize first-party data and digital media to engage travelers across the APAC region. This collaboration aims to reach potential customers before they finalize booking decisions.

Adweek spoke with ad leaders from Disney, Netflix, and Amazon regarding their expectations for the upcoming TV Upfront season. The article will outline four trends that industry leaders are focusing on during this period.

This article discusses how modern publishers are moving beyond traditional display ads on pageviews to capture revenue across various audience touchpoints, including on-site, on-platform, and within branded content. It highlights the importance of a unified view of every dollar generated through these diverse monetization strategies. The piece is framed as an informational piece about monetizing audience attention.

The TripleLift article provides an overview for advertisers on leveraging the Thanksgiving holiday period for advertising campaigns, offering insights and opportunities relevant to ad tech. It details strategies for reaching audiences during this specific tentpole event. The content focuses on ad monetization and planning related to consumer behavior during Thanksgiving.

AdsWizz states that podcast advertising is growing in effectiveness within the UK. This is attributed to increasing UK audiences, improved measurement techniques, and brands leveraging the trust relationship with content creators.

Khushboo Mulani, Founder & CEO of Slay Media, discusses how data, attribution, connected TV (CTV), and clean-room partnerships are advancing measurement in OTT advertising. The article explains how these elements contribute to closing the measurement gap in the sector.

Raj Mishra, head of Chtrbox, discussed the growth and challenges within the influencer economy, focusing on compliance and monetization. He also highlighted the role of AI in marketing strategies within this sector.

FreeWheel has partnered with Stagwell and Walmart Connect to advance outcome-based optimization for CTV advertising, linking ad exposure to retail purchase data and consumer actions. These collaborations aim to enhance publisher yields and CPMs by integrating traditional television buying signals into programmatic ecosystems. FreeWheel is working to translate traditional TV metrics like ad load and production quality into programmatic signals.

LG Uplus is introducing a subscription bundle in Korea that includes YouTube Premium and Google AI Pro. This marks the first time such a bundle combining these services will be available in the country.

The article discusses the emergence of shoppable TV in India, outlining how direct-to-consumer (D2C) and retail brands can leverage this technology for sales directly from the living room. It highlights the potential for seamless purchase experiences via QR codes and interactive overlays on CTVs, moving beyond traditional e-commerce. The piece serves as a guide for Indian brands on adopting this interactive advertising model.

Disney is preparing to increase its advertising revenue by selling ad placements for high-profile events like the Super Bowl, Oscars, and Grammys in 2027. This push is being led by Disney's global ad president, Rita Ferro.

The article from Beet.TV discusses how consumer search data, specifically travel-related searches for flights, provides insight into consumer intent such as income and spending habits. This data can be leveraged by companies like The Trade Desk to inform retail advertising strategies.

Cuebiq's Zora Senat raises the question of whether media publishers truly understand which ads resonate with their targeted streaming audiences. The discussion highlights the significant investments made by media companies in identity infrastructure and first-party data capabilities to improve consumer targeting.

LiveRamp offers comprehensive cross-media measurement and analytics solutions designed to help brands optimize advertising decisions across various formats. These solutions encompass traditional TV, connected TV (CTV), social media, and programmatic advertising. The company highlights its role in enabling strategic decision-making for advertisers using its technology.

LiveRamp promotes its marketing impact solution, aiming to help businesses maximize marketing investments, drive revenue, and achieve growth and efficiencies. The solution focuses on improving return on marketing investment through the company's identity platform.

Equativ discusses the increasing importance of video in retail media, highlighting its ability to capture attention, boost engagement, and drive stronger business results across the shopper journey. The article emphasizes that video is becoming a performance engine, demonstrating higher conversion uplifts on product pages and increased recall and shopping intent. It concludes that successful brands will leverage video for both storytelling and measurable impact in the evolving retail media landscape.

Bedrock Platform has debuted the first containerized demand-side platform (DSP), deploying its bidder on Index Exchange's Index Cloud infrastructure. This integration aims to enable more efficient and scalable programmatic buying by operating the DSP's custom models and bidder closer to the impression, reducing infrastructure costs and expanding participation across available opportunities. Independent agencies like InterMedia Group and Bay Street Media are among the first to test this new model for AI-driven programmatic decisioning.

PDI's blog post details Primer's AiTD (Artificial Intelligent Trading Desk) platform, a meta-DSP utilizing custom AI/machine learning to centralize and streamline digital advertising campaigns. The platform integrates multiple DSPs and ad tech software via global-first APIs, aiming to simplify programmatic advertising by optimizing execution, management, and reporting across various channels including video (OLV) and CTV. AiTD offers cross-platform integration, consolidated reporting, and AI-enhanced campaign management based on historical performance data.

JWX and AWS Elemental are hosting a webinar titled "CTV's Programmatic Moment" on June 4, 2026, to discuss how modern streaming operators can optimize their infrastructure for programmatic CTV advertising. The webinar will cover topics such as quantifying revenue gaps from render rate leakage and fill rate gaps, demonstrating Just-in-Time ad insertion with real-time auctions, and detailing future trends in Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI). The event aims to help streaming companies improve ad revenue and reduce SSAI costs by updating infrastructure built on outdated assumptions.

TikTok has introduced a paid ad-free subscription option priced at £3.99 per month for its users in the UK. This new offering allows subscribers to use the platform without advertisements.

Kavout's analysis suggests that ad-tech firm Taboola (TBLA) is undervalued, currently trading below analyst targets. The company recently achieved profitability, attributed to its AI platform and growth within the Connected TV (CTV) sector. Aggressive share buybacks further indicate the company's potential.

Magnite, a digital advertising company specializing in connected TV and online ad sales, has been added to Claude's investment portfolio. This indicates a positive outlook on the company's financial prospects by an AI-driven investment strategy. The article highlights Magnite's focus within the digital advertising sector.

Walmart Connect is expanding its retail media business by partnering with Yahoo DSP and Magnite. This collaboration will allow advertisers to access Walmart audiences beyond its own platforms. The move aims to broaden the reach of Walmart's retail media offerings.

PubMatic is collaborating with DIRECTV Advertising to expand the reach of live sports advertising campaigns. This partnership is designed to increase audience reach across both traditional linear television and streaming platforms.

The article from KuCoin highlights The Trade Desk ($TTD) as a significant entity in programmatic ad-tech, noting its market presence. It states that the company maintains over 95% client retention despite recent market fluctuations.

YouTube has launched its Premium Lite subscription plan in Kenya, priced at KES 299 per month. This new tier offers ad-free viewing, background play, and offline downloads at a 40% lower cost than the standard Premium plan. The expansion targets a new market for YouTube's subscription offerings.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma highlighted the significant revenue generated by advertising-driven technology models, specifically mentioning Meta's Reels achieving a $50 billion revenue run rate. Sharma characterized these models as a "bottomless profit pool," prompting him to question the effectiveness of Silicon Valley's approach to advertising.

David Buonasera, CTO of Magnite, was interviewed on The Current's podcast "The Build" to discuss the challenges and strategies involved in building and scaling complex systems within ad tech. The discussion focused on the technical aspects required to develop robust advertising technology platforms.

ICE is reportedly exploring the acquisition of advertising data for use in federal immigration probes. This development has initiated an ethical debate among businesses that collect and sell information on Americans regarding its potential federal use.

This article, titled "Shoppable AI Data Sets New Standard For Media Buyers", suggests a future development in the advertising technology space where artificial intelligence is used to enhance shoppable media data for media buyers. The headline indicates a focus on how AI-driven data will establish new benchmarks for media purchasing. Given the article text is only the headline, further specifics are not available.