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.
Integral Ad Science (IAS) has launched 'IAS Total TV', a new suite of solutions for Connected TV (CTV). The product is designed to provide advertisers with comprehensive visibility and measurement for campaigns across the streaming ad ecosystem, with the stated aim of delivering a “linear-like” experience.
Integral Ad Science (IAS) launched its "Total TV" product on April 27, 2026, which provides advertisers with show, genre, and rating data for CTV ad placements. The service aims to increase transparency for ad buying on platforms including Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount, and Prime Video.
A roundup of media technology news, primarily from the POSSIBLE conference, details numerous product launches and partnerships focused on advertising performance and transparency. Key announcements include Nielsen's Predictive Sales Lift, Roku's Curate platform, and Integral Ad Science's IAS Total TV suite for program-level data. Other developments mentioned are Fox's AI-driven AdStudio, Netflix's plan for dynamic ad insertion in live sports, and new ad-focused partnerships involving YouTube, SiriusXM, Magnite, and PayPal.
Meta is reportedly preparing to extend its Facebook Audience Network to Connected TV (CTV) screens. The move is positioned as a strategy to fuel the company's next wave of advertising growth.
Senior executives from WPP Media, Google, and CBS have joined the advisory board of an unnamed startup working in programmatic advertising, media, and data. The new venture is developing a 'Cultural Relevance Score'. The formation of the board with representatives from major ad, tech, and media companies signals industry interest in the new metric.
Australian retailer JB Hi-Fi is the latest major retailer in the country creating its own in-house advertising network, part of a broader trend threatening traditional media. These retailers are leveraging their technology and customer data to compete directly for advertising dollars that have historically gone to free-to-air television networks.
Jay Askinasi, the newly-installed Chief Revenue Officer at Paramount Skydance, is publicly outlining his new ad sales strategy this week. The plan involves placing a greater spotlight on monetization for the company's streaming services.
Stagwell has become the first partner to adopt The Trade Desk's new AI product, Koa agents. The integration connects the Stagwell Media Platform with The Trade Desk, using new 'agentic capabilities' to automate advertising planning, activation, and optimization.
An NPR report details a new study on how ad-based technology is used for surveillance purposes. The article is based on the findings of this research.
SiriusXM will become the exclusive U.S. advertising sales representative for audio content on YouTube. The partnership enables advertisers to purchase guaranteed audio ads at scale across YouTube's podcasts, music, and other listening-focused content.
Swivel, a provider of agentic orchestration for ad operations, and Olyzon, a TV advertising decisioning platform, have launched a partnership. The collaboration is designed to enable what the companies describe as "agent-to-agent" activation for connected TV (CTV) advertising.
This article analyzes Roku's business, concluding that the expanding scale of its advertising platform is a clear driver of accelerated monetization. The growth is supported by an increasing user base and deeper relationships with advertisers.
Meta is reportedly being sued over allegations it earned billions of dollars from scam and fraudulent advertisements on its Facebook and Instagram platforms. The lawsuit, which the headline claims involves a $16 billion revenue figure, raises concerns about online ad fraud.
Google's 2026 Discover Core Update is reportedly reshaping mobile news delivery, with the article highlighting its impact on advertising technology companies such as The Trade Desk.
Brian O'Kelley is proposing a new standard, `adagents.json`, to serve as a replacement for `ads.txt`. The proposal argues that `ads.txt` is unable to express the commercial complexity of Connected TV (CTV) advertising. The new `adagents.json` standard would add features such as placement IDs, delegation types, and country scoping.
The Trade Desk announced a strategic partnership with DramaBox, a short-form drama series platform. This collaboration makes DramaBox's video advertising inventory available for programmatic purchase through The Trade Desk's demand-side platform. The announcement positions the deal as a way to grow premium video inventory on the open internet.
HUMAN Security has expanded its AI agent traffic intelligence capabilities to marketing teams through an integration with the Adobe Experience Platform. The move is a response to what the company reports as automated web activity outpacing human traffic by a factor of eight.
DoubleVerify has received Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for its video viewability reporting on TikTok in Australia. The company is reportedly the first measurement vendor to achieve this specific certification in the Australian market. The accreditation allows advertisers to utilize DoubleVerify for third-party verification of video ad viewability on the TikTok platform.
Amagi announced AdFlow Orchestrator at the NAB Show, a new product designed to manage ad break compliance and monetization for FAST channels. The solution targets issues where platforms reject traditional 4-8 minute linear ad pods, which can lead to ad server timeouts and reduced revenue.
Moloco has launched Moloco Ads for Performance CTV, an AI-driven product for the connected TV market. The solution is aimed at app marketers and is designed to provide mobile-style performance measurement and optimization capabilities for CTV advertising campaigns.
Comscore has signed agreements with Sinclair and more than 14 other broadcast stations to provide local TV measurement services. The deals are driven by demand from national advertisers for cross-platform planning and measurement across linear broadcast and connected TV (CTV).
According to Ryan Shepard, SVP at NBCUniversal, connected TV advertising has moved from being an incremental reach play to a 'performance era'. He argues that streaming platforms must now prove their value to advertisers by delivering measurable business outcomes and demonstrating return on investment, moving beyond the initial goal of just reaching cord-cutters.
Bell Media has launched its 2026 Upfront Digital Offer, providing preferred rates and discounts on advertising inventory across its digital portfolio, including Crave, Tubi, TSN, RDS, and its Connected TV footprint. Available until June 4, 2026, the offer includes discounts of up to 35% on digital investments, with fixed rates for platforms like Tubi ($20 ROS). Advertisers with a minimum spend of $100,000 receive a complimentary outcomes measurement report, created in partnership with Environics Analytics and Loblaw Advance™, to track sales lift and ROAS.
Amazon Web Services has expanded the availability of its AWS Elemental MediaTailor service to the Europe (London) AWS Region. The expansion allows video providers serving Northern Europe to run ad insertion workloads closer to their audience, aiming to reduce ad decisioning latency and improve ad fill rates. The London region also provides an additional option for redundancy and capacity for customers already using the service in the Europe (Ireland) region.
Expedia Group has partnered with adtech platform Magnite, enabling brands and agencies to use Expedia's first-party travel data for audience targeting. The agreement allows for targeting across streaming TV, online video, display, and audio, leveraging data from Expedia's approximately 200 petabytes. This marks an expansion of Expedia Group Advertising, the company's media network that launched in 2024 to include offsite ad buys.
FreeWheel is marketing its Buyer Cloud product, a demand-side platform (DSP) formerly known as Beeswax. The product, part of the FreeWheel Advertiser Suite, is designed for programmatic ad buying with features including access to premium CTV inventory, flexible turnkey or customizable buying environments, and integrated identity resolution. The platform also offers transparent analytics with log-level data for measurement and optimization.
Expedia Group Advertising and Magnite have formed a partnership to integrate Expedia's 200 petabytes of traveler intent data into programmatic advertising channels. The data will be available for targeting across streaming, video, display, and audio inventory via Magnite's platform.
At a TVNewsCheck panel at NAB, executives from NBCUniversal, LG, Nielsen, and Chronicle Studios discussed the industry's shift from viewership metrics towards measuring audience attention, engagement, and advertiser outcomes. Nielsen detailed its plan to move to a one-minute viewing qualifier for local TV measurement, down from five minutes, aiming to align with digital standards. The panel also covered challenges in content discovery, with Chronicle Studios presenting agentic AI as a solution for finding audiences on large platforms like YouTube.
Ad tech firms Clinch and OpenGlass have partnered, certifying Clinch's ad-serving tags to run within OpenGlass's Advanced CTV Formats, starting with pause ads. The integration provides a single path for advertisers to deliver personalized, AI-driven creative programmatically across a publisher network that includes Paramount, Tubi, TiVo, and Xumo. This certification aims to solve the operational fragmentation that previously limited creative personalization for the pause ad format at scale, enabling attributes like cross-device attribution and real-time optimization.
PubMatic has partnered with media buying consortium Untapped Growth to integrate its member agencies with the AgenticOS platform. The collaboration enables agencies to use proprietary buyer agents within PubMatic's advertising infrastructure to run campaigns across connected TV, mobile, and online video. Initial trials reportedly yielded a 40-50% reduction in supply chain costs, an 87% increase in campaign setup speed, and a 30% decrease in eCPM.
Ad-tech company Seedtag has launched NeuroX, a neuro-contextual advertising exchange for agencies, publishers, and brands. The product uses Seedtag's proprietary AI, Liz, to analyze web and connected television content for interest, emotion, and intent before an ad impression is traded. The platform is positioned as a cookieless alternative to identity-based targeting and offers multiple activation methods including managed service and open marketplace buying.
According to a report from IMARC Group, the Indian advertising market is projected to grow from INR 994 billion in 2025 to INR 2,157.71 billion by 2034, representing a 9.00% CAGR. The analysis states that digital advertising has surpassed traditional channels, now holding 44% of total expenditure, with mobile platforms driving 78% of that digital spend. The report highlights the growth of programmatic advertising, Connected TV (CTV), Retail Media Networks (RMNs), and the impact of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act as key market drivers.
An analysis piece from Luquire's Nichole Maggio argues that programmatic ad budgets are inefficient due to hidden fees from intermediaries, data surcharges for niche targeting, and fraudulent Made-for-Advertising (MFA) sites. Citing an ANA study that found only 36% of programmatic spend becomes "effective working media," the author advises advertisers to demand transparency from agencies on fee structures, ad placements, and brand safety measures. The article also notes the rise of AI-generated content used to create MFA sites that siphon ad budgets.
AMC Global Media is expanding its partnership with Magnite, making its unified linear and streaming ad inventory programmatically available via a single access point powered by Magnite's ClearLine. AMC is also using Magnite’s Live Scheduler to optimize live linear addressable inventory across its linear networks, FAST channels, and AMC+. The partnership aims to streamline media buying workflows and simplify access to AMC's content.
A report from ad agency Ad Results Media analyzes the migration of video podcasts to Netflix, identifying a trend toward a more premium but fragmented advertising landscape. The analysis details divergent monetization strategies from podcast networks like Spotify, iHeartMedia, and Barstool Sports, including hybrid ad models and licensing-first approaches. ARM's report also warns that Netflix's "walled garden" platform currently lacks the granular data needed for podcast attribution, creating measurement challenges for advertisers.
Netflix is planning to offer dynamic ad insertion (DAI) for its anticipated broadcast of the 2027 Women's World Cup, aiming to increase its advertising revenue. However, advertising agencies express caution, citing concerns over high CPMs and scalability issues observed in previous live event broadcasts on the platform. While strategies are being devised to target viewers, high costs have so far prevented live advertising deals from being finalized.
Setplex announced it has won an NAB Show Project of the Year Award for its deployment with UVOtv, a free, ad-supported streaming platform for diaspora audiences in North America. The platform, built on Setplex's Zapflex technology, offers over 700 live channels. It uses a proprietary AI ad-detection system to replace original ad breaks with localized North American inventory in real time with a reported 98% accuracy.
Belgian telecommunications provider Mobile Vikings has launched a new subscription management platform powered by Bango's Digital Vending Machine. The platform, integrated into the 'My Vikings' customer portal, enables subscribers to bundle, manage, and pay for third-party digital services, including a streaming service implied to be Disney Plus, on a single bill. The partnership aims to reduce subscription complexity for Mobile Vikings' digitally-native customer base.
Amazon is reportedly planning to launch an ad-supported tier for its Prime Video streaming service, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Discussions for the new tier have been ongoing for several weeks. The report also states Amazon is in talks with Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global to offer ad-supported versions of their streaming services through Prime Video Channels.
AI ad tech companies Olyzon and Swivel have partnered to facilitate 'agent-to-agent' media buying, with connected TV (CTV) as the initial focus. The system connects Olyzon's buyer agents with Swivel's seller agents, using the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) to automate the process of finding and negotiating ad placements, bypassing traditional programmatic workflows. French pharmaceutical company Pierre Fabre Group is an early adopter, testing the technology for a US-based CTV campaign for its Eau Thermale Avène skincare line.
TriCoast Media announced the expansion of its unified SSP and DSP platform, which originated from its own needs as a content library owner. The company claims its model, which combines buy-side and sell-side functions rooted in content ownership, can deliver CTV advertising CPMs that are 30-50% lower than traditional programmatic buying. The platform has direct partnerships with over 250 CTV publishers, including VIZIO, Samsung, and Paramount, and operates on a fully managed service model.
Fox has launched Fox AdStudio, an AI-based advertising platform focused on outcomes-based measurement and cross-property reach, including Tubi. Concurrently, Tubi has released a native ChatGPT app to enable conversational discovery, combining large language models with its deep-learning recommendation systems. Tubi's initiative leverages data from its 100 million monthly users and over 1 billion monthly viewing hours.
Disney is planning for its Super Bowl LXI broadcast in 2027, which will be telecast on ABC and ESPN, with a separate "alterna-cast" on ESPN2 led by Peyton and Eli Manning. According to sources, Disney is seeking $10 million for a 30-second ad and is looking for advertisers to commit to matching their Super Bowl spending elsewhere in its media portfolio. This asking price is reportedly meeting resistance.
Blavity Media Group has entered a channel sales partnership with OTTera, allowing Blavity to sell connected TV advertising inventory from OTTera's network. The agreement marks Blavity's first expansion into CTV, enabling its brand partners to distribute campaigns across more than 600 live streaming apps and 2,000 FAST channels. The partnership is focused on extending advertisers' reach into Black households across the U.S.
YouTube is testing a new 'side-by-side' ad format for live streams which has been observed by users. The format presents ads in a separate video player below the active stream, intended to be less interruptive than traditional ad breaks. According to user reports cited in the article, the ads currently have autoplaying audio, which can disrupt the viewing experience.
Untapped Growth and Grain Group are leveraging Magnite's platform to manage live sports advertising campaigns. This collaboration aims to enhance measurable campaign performance for advertisers seeking to reach audiences during live sports events.
India's Connected TV (CTV) market is experiencing rapid growth, with over 129 million users and projected ad investments reaching ₹2,800 crore to ₹3,000 crore by FY26. Despite this expansion, marketers are facing challenges related to audience fragmentation and inefficient measurement, leading to issues like ad frequency control and audience duplication. The industry is shifting towards audience-first strategies and unified measurement to optimize ad spend and leverage CTV as a performance channel, even in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.
IAB Tech Lab has released AAMP 2.0, introducing transaction-ready Buyer and Seller Agent SDKs that facilitate automated negotiation and deal execution within guardrails of existing standards. The update also includes an Agentic Audiences OpenRTB extension, Prebid module, and open-source scorer to enable the use of vector embeddings in programmatic advertising. The SDKs are designed for real-world deployment, supporting various storage backends and deployment options, with a focus on scaling, reliability, and security.
FreeWheel has launched a new Partner Portal, a centralized hub for technology partners to integrate with its FreeWheel Streaming Hub for CTV advertising. The portal offers a single dashboard for API access, sandbox testing, and production rollouts, aiming to streamline onboarding and accelerate the deployment of third-party tools for publishers.
Amagi announced an integration between its CTV ad marketplace, Amagi ADS PLUS, and The Trade Desk via The Trade Desk’s OpenPath to enable more direct access to Amagi-supplied premium CTV inventory within The Trade Desk buying platform. The companies position the connection as a way to simplify the programmatic CTV supply chain and improve pricing transparency and efficiency for advertisers and publishers. The announcement was dated March 25, 2025, and notes Amagi will present related capabilities at NAB 2025.
