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.
Omdia reports that TV operating system platforms in North America now generate more revenue than physical hardware sales, driven by recurring software-based monetization models like home-screen advertising and FAST channels. The analysis highlights how platform providers use incentive payments and revenue-sharing models to secure market share and long-term ecosystem value from hardware manufacturers.
YouTube is launching a new initiative to centralize creator-brand deal management and offering hundreds of millions in incentives to agencies. The platform aims to streamline fragmented workflows and increase ad spend within its ecosystem by integrating these tools directly into YouTube Studio.
This article clarifies the distinction between CTV reporting transparency and actual inventory control for programmatic media buyers. It emphasizes that visibility into ad placement does not inherently grant the ability to target, exclude, or optimize specific streaming environments.
Amazon Ads announced new interactive ad formats, AI-driven personalization tools, and expanded programmatic partnerships with Netflix and Spotify at its 2026 Australian Upfront. The updates leverage Amazon's first-party data to enhance ad relevance and measurement for advertisers in the Australian market.
TiVo is leveraging its historical set-top box and smart TV viewing data to offer granular audience segmentation for connected TV advertisers. The initiative aims to help brands target specific demographics by aligning ad delivery with viewer behavior and second-screen engagement patterns.
Independent media firm Video Co. has entered an exclusive partnership to represent global ad-tech provider JWX in the Australian market. The deal grants local advertisers access to JWX's video ecosystem and provides publishers with the company's video player and content distribution technology.
GameSquare Holdings has partnered with UGC games media company Chartis to integrate Fortnite Creative and UEFN data into its Hatchet analytics platform. The collaboration aims to provide brands with unified attribution and engagement metrics across in-game experiences, live-streaming platforms, and social media.
Roku and Publicis Media Exchange released research indicating that social-first ad creative drives higher purchase intent and relevance when deployed on connected TV platforms. The report suggests that repurposing social media ad assets for streaming environments can yield measurable performance improvements for advertisers.
Marketing expert Mark Ritson and analytics firm Mutinex analyzed MiniMBA's marketing mix modeling (MMM) data, revealing that a 25% increase in paid spend resulted in only 2% revenue growth. The report highlights the growing industry reliance on MMM as digital attribution faces signal loss, with the market projected to reach $4.22 billion by 2031.
Dollar General Media Network is integrating The Trade Desk and Kevel Ads to unify its onsite and offsite advertising infrastructure. This initiative aims to enable consistent audience targeting and measurement across the retailer's digital properties and the open web.
Executives from Assembly Global, Mastercard, and Mutinex discussed the shift from traditional marketing mix models to AI-driven, real-time measurement of business outcomes. The panel highlighted how agentic pipelines can help align marketing spend with incremental sales and finance-friendly KPIs rather than proxy metrics.
Flowcode CEO Tim Armstrong discusses the impact of AI agents on the digital advertising landscape, suggesting that brands must shift focus toward real-world experiences to maintain relevance. He argues that as AI agents prioritize consumer value over traditional messaging, advertisers should increase investment in physical environments and out-of-home media.
The IAB Tech Lab is introducing OpenProposal within its AAMP 3.0 protocol to standardize how AI agents evaluate media proposals between buyers and sellers. The article advises media agencies to adopt hybrid architectures, combining deterministic software with agentic AI to optimize token costs and maintain financial accuracy.
HP TV+ has selected Magnite as its primary video ad server and programmatic technology provider for its PC-native FAST environment. The partnership integrates Magnite's SpringServe and ClearLine Curation tools to enable programmatic ad targeting across HP's ecosystem of 1,200 apps.
Transact Media Group (TMG) has integrated its Transactional Audiences into the Index Exchange Data Vendor Ecosystem. This integration allows programmatic buyers to utilize real-world commerce signals for targeting and measurement within Index Exchange's marketplace.
Swayable executive Jenny Wall discusses the evolving role of AI in CTV advertising, emphasizing the need for better measurement and the importance of the mid-funnel in ad strategy. Separately, Paramount has reached a settlement with 12 states to clear its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, while Disney+ has updated its subscriber terms to allow for broader ad integration.
Jennifer Quigley-Jones, VP of Strategy and Partnerships at Digital Voices, discusses the shift toward multi-platform creator marketing strategies. The agency, recently acquired by PMG, leverages AI and performance data to scale creator campaigns from dozens to thousands of partners.
The U.S. Joint Industry Committee has re-certified Comscore, iSpot, and VideoAmp as national media-measurement currencies for 2026 through 2028. While these vendors met criteria for cross-platform transactability, Nielsen maintains an estimated 80% to 90% market share in the national TV and video currency space.
Operative has launched a unified platform featuring Advertising Operating System (AOS) and Broadcast Operating System (BOS) suites to automate ad sales and broadcast management. The platform integrates native AI architecture and a Model Context Protocol framework to streamline revenue operations across linear and digital channels.
Equativ has partnered with ChatGPT Ads to provide a full-funnel advertising solution for brands. The integration allows advertisers to manage contextual and native campaigns across ChatGPT's platform using the proprietary Equativ Ad Studio.
Nielsen has implemented a new co-viewing methodology for sports measurement, while ESPN has increased its direct-to-consumer subscription pricing. Additionally, prediction market operators like Kalshi and Polymarket are significantly increasing their national linear TV advertising spend.
Data indicates that programmatic pause ads on CTV platforms like Fubo and Xumo generate significantly higher viewer attention and engagement compared to traditional 60-second video spots. The format is increasingly utilized by brands to drive performance through interactive elements like QR codes without the high production costs associated with standard video advertising.
The IAB Tech Lab has released AAMP 3.0, which introduces the OpenProposal specification to standardize the RFP and proposal process for AI-driven media buying. The framework aims to bridge the gap between buyer briefs and buy commitments by enabling agent-readable proposals that integrate with existing industry standards like AdCOM and OpenDirect.
Servers.com outlines the infrastructure requirements for scaling programmatic CTV advertising, emphasizing the need for a hybrid approach using dedicated and cloud resources. The article highlights how CTV's bandwidth and latency demands differ from traditional display advertising, particularly during high-traffic live events.
OpenAI is reportedly considering expanding its advertising inventory into paid ChatGPT tiers, including Plus, Pro, and Business, to reach a $100 billion annual revenue target by 2030. The strategy focuses on integrating sponsored commercial discovery tools while maintaining independent AI recommendations to subsidize high compute costs.
Amazon has blocked Meta's Muse AI shopping agent from its retail platform, citing violations of store terms regarding automated access. The move is intended to protect Amazon's advertising business by preventing third-party agents from bypassing sponsored listings and shoppable ad placements.
Best Buy is launching a TikTok Shop in October, featuring 10,000 products and integrated shoppable creator videos. The platform allows for in-app purchasing and provides advertisers with first-party data and measurement tools to track engagement and sales.
Georgia-Pacific has implemented SWYM.ai's supply path shaping technology to filter programmatic inventory before bidding. The deployment resulted in significant operational improvements, including up to 44% lower CPMs and an 11% increase in viewability across its digital campaigns.
Eyeota, a Dun & Bradstreet company, has partnered with InfoSum to integrate its B2B and B2C audience taxonomies and ID Graph into InfoSum's data collaboration platform. The integration enables advertisers to perform audience planning, activation, and measurement within a privacy-safe environment without moving underlying data.
A report from The Trade Desk Intelligence and PA Consulting indicates that connected TV is the only channel spanning all five stages of the sports fandom life cycle. The study highlights that 87% of sports fans engage with secondary channels like podcasts and gaming after interacting with CTV, suggesting a need for cross-channel advertising strategies.
Pixalate has launched OpenEPG DB 1.0 and a Pre-Bid API designed to map show-level metadata for programmatic CTV advertising across 580,000 shows and 13,900 FAST and linear channels. The solution integrates with OpenRTB 2.6 bid requests to provide content-level intelligence without requiring publisher-side SDKs or integrations.
IPinfo has launched IPinfo Places, a dataset mapping 2.7 million public Wi-Fi IP addresses to specific venues like stadiums and airports. The tool is designed to help adtech platforms improve frequency capping, attribution, and inventory valuation by providing venue-level context for shared IP traffic.
National CineMedia has acquired Captivate Holdings for $275 million to expand its digital out-of-home advertising network beyond movie theaters into office and residential buildings. The deal adds approximately 31,000 digital screens to NCM's existing inventory as the company continues its post-bankruptcy growth strategy.
X Corp. has filed a lawsuit in the UK High Court against several influencers, alleging they orchestrated a coordinated fraud scheme to extract over £207,000 from the platform's Creator Revenue Sharing Program. The legal action follows the platform's transition to a new impressions-based rewards model designed to mitigate artificial engagement manipulation.
Pinterest has launched a campaign optimization score in its Ads Manager to provide actionable recommendations for campaign setup, creative, and signal strength. The feature integrates data from tvScientific, an AI performance platform acquired by Pinterest earlier this year, to improve ad performance and conversion tracking.
Pharmaceutical company Ardelyx has launched a connected TV advertising campaign for its drug Ibsrela, specifically designing the creative to comply with recent FDA enforcement regarding risk disclosure clarity. The campaign, which targets 10 to 17 million viewers across major streaming platforms, utilizes non-distracting visual layouts to ensure safety information remains legible and prominent.
Google Ads has launched a multi-source conversions beta that allows advertisers to supplement website tag data with offline CRM or backend records. This integration aims to improve Smart Bidding accuracy and conversion measurement by filling gaps caused by browser restrictions and ad blockers.
Bill Harvey, a foundational figure in media research and addressable television advertising, has passed away at age 84. His career included the development of the Area of Dominant Influence (ADI) framework, pioneering set-top box data measurement, and establishing industry privacy principles through organizations like Next Century Media and TRA.
Meta has launched a unified Creator Marketing Hub and expanded live video partnership ads to Instagram. The update integrates Facebook creators into the Creator Marketplace API and introduces new messaging and discovery tools to facilitate brand-creator collaborations.
Adtech startup Adlyse has launched an AI-driven platform designed to automate cross-channel advertising campaign management for mid-to-enterprise level businesses. The system uses AI agents to monitor performance, execute optimizations, and suggest budget reallocations across platforms like Google, Meta, and Connected TV while maintaining human oversight.
Justice Leonie Brinkema has issued a ruling requiring Google to make its ad stack more interoperable and transparent, including opening AdX to rival ad servers and integrating with Prebid. The decision mandates significant architectural changes to Google Ad Manager but stops short of forcing a divestiture of the company's ad tech assets.
Advertisers are increasingly shifting from traditional slot-based TV buying to machine learning models that analyze behavioral signals across fragmented streaming platforms. This data-driven approach enables more precise targeting and budget allocation by treating connected TV as a data problem rather than a simple inventory purchase.
VideoWeek's guide to DMEXCO 2026 highlights key sessions on CTV advertising, retail media integration, and the shift toward hybrid streaming models. The event features industry leaders from companies including Samsung, Amazon, and Google discussing the operational scaling of AI and the future of live sports streaming.
Guideline has launched Signal, a data platform that aggregates $200 billion in annual advertising spend to provide KPI forecasts for nearly 40 companies. The tool is designed for investors to track media holding groups and advertising demand trends ahead of quarterly earnings reports.
Unilever CMO Keith Weed announced that the company is aggressively utilizing technology and partnerships with the Trustworthy Accountability Group to combat digital ad fraud. The initiative aims to ensure advertising spend is directed toward real human audiences rather than bots or fraudulent traffic.
Sam Palmer, president of Chase Media Solutions, discusses the bank's strategy of using first-party transaction data to drive consumer conversion through curated, culturally relevant experiences. The approach emphasizes moving away from vanity metrics toward measurable incremental business results by integrating platforms like The Infatuation into the bank's advertising ecosystem.
EMARKETER forecasts that commerce media will grow to represent over 25% of total digital advertising spend. The report highlights that future growth depends on integrating retail data with offsite channels like CTV and improving measurement transparency across fragmented networks.
Substack is formalizing its brand partnerships business by introducing native sponsorship tools and Creator Kits to capture a share of the creator advertising market. The platform is positioning its long-form content and community-driven model as a durable alternative to algorithmic social media feeds for enterprise marketers.
This guide provides an overview of programmatic advertising, detailing the automated buying and selling processes used across digital display, online video, and connected TV. It outlines the roles of DSPs and SSPs, explains various deal types, and offers best practices for measurement and transparency in the current cookieless environment.
Permutive has integrated TransUnion’s identity graph into its data management platform to enable publishers to match first-party data with advertiser-recognized IDs. The partnership aims to improve addressability for cookieless web traffic and reduce data fees associated with buy-side platforms.
James Varndell · Bitmovin
