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.
Amazon has launched 'Alexa+ Agentic Ads,' a new AI-driven ad format that allows users to make transactions directly within LLM-powered interfaces. The product is currently in beta with partners including Papa Johns and The Orchard, as the industry evaluates how conversational commerce may replace traditional click-based metrics.
Podscribe's Q2 2026 performance report indicates that podcast ad retargeting campaigns drive significantly higher conversion rates compared to traditional buys. The data also reveals a shift toward audience-based and programmatic purchasing strategies, which now account for a larger share of overall podcast ad impressions.
Hub Entertainment Research's latest study shows US Gen Z viewers are reaching record-high levels of ad tolerance, preferring ad-supported tiers to reduce streaming subscription costs. The study also highlights that younger audiences are open to using generative AI tools to optimize the viewing experience through improved ad relevance and reduced repetition.
LiveRamp has integrated its Curation service with Google Ad Manager in a closed beta to support addressable and cookieless programmatic advertising. The integration utilizes LiveRamp's RampID and Authenticated Traffic Solution to allow marketers to leverage first-party and market segment data for forecasting and targeting.
LiveRamp and Magnite have integrated LiveRamp's RampID identity solution into the Magnite Streaming CTV SSP. This global partnership allows publishers to pass privacy-conscious identifiers to Magnite, enabling advertisers to execute cookieless, omnichannel targeting campaigns and closed-loop measurement across CTV.
LiveRamp implemented a scheduled, CRON-based infrastructure pre-heating strategy to handle DAZN's massive authentication surges during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. Rather than relying on reactive Kubernetes metrics, the proactive scaling successfully managed traffic spikes of up to 200,000 requests per second with zero failures. The technical setup also utilized Google Cloud Armor rules as a multi-tenant safeguard to isolate DAZN's traffic and protect other platform users.
LiveRamp has expanded its partnership with Microsoft Advertising to integrate its Clean Room technology, facilitating privacy-centric connected TV (CTV) measurement. The collaboration leverages Microsoft Azure Confidential Compute to allow joint customers to securely connect first-, second-, and third-party data across Microsoft properties.
LiveRamp and OpenX have expanded their partnership to integrate LiveRamp's Conversion API (CAPI) into OpenX's supply-side platform. The integration resolves first-party online and offline transaction data to RampIDs, allowing programmatic advertisers to buy and optimize based on actual business outcomes rather than proxies.
LiveRamp has integrated Apache DataFusion Comet to accelerate Apache Spark performance within its clean room architecture for cross-media data collaboration and ad-tech analytics. By transitioning Spark from JVM-based row-level execution to native columnar execution via Apache Arrow and Rust, the company achieved up to a 50% runtime reduction on complex queries. This technical optimization aims to lower resource overhead and infrastructure costs for brands, publishers, and platforms operating multi-terabyte ad measurement and attribution workloads.
LiveRamp has updated its Data Collaboration Platform, incorporating conversational AI capabilities for natural language audience segment generation and secure data orchestration. The release also expands LiveRamp's global network with over 25 new integrations, including first-party segment activation on Netflix Ads via RampID and partnerships with AI optimization firms like Chalice AI and Scope3.
LiveRamp outlines 12 transition points redefining connected TV (CTV) advertising, highlighting shifts toward automated in-flight measurement, identity resolution, and clean room data collaboration. The piece references real-world implementations, including NBCUniversal's Performance Insights Hub co-developed with LiveRamp, and Netflix's programmatic expansions.
DoubleVerify has partnered with Roblox to integrate its media quality and performance measurement suite across Roblox's advertising inventory. The collaboration provides advertisers with fraud, viewability, and brand safety verification for display, in-game video ads, and upcoming Rewarded Videos.
DoubleVerify has released a formal rebuttal to Adalytics' March 28 report, refuting claims that advertisers are being billed for General Invalid Traffic (GIVT). DoubleVerify asserts that its post-bid systems accurately filter these impressions in compliance with MRC and TAG standards, and argues that Adalytics' methodology relied heavily on mischaracterizing URLScan bot traffic.
DoubleVerify released findings from its global insights report revealing that CTV advertisers risk losing $700,000 per billion impressions due to unviewed ads playing while TVs are turned off. The study notes that nearly two-thirds of marketers struggle to verify whether their streaming ads actually reach viewers, highlighting the need for better detection and viewability standards.
DoubleVerify has exposed methods used by fraudsters to bypass and exploit the IAB Tech Lab's ads.txt standard, highlighting vectors such as site scraping, domain spoofing, and programmatic impersonation via AI-generated 'Synthetic Echo' networks. The article details best practices for both publishers and programmatic platforms to tighten ads.txt parameters and maintain ad supply chain integrity.
DoubleVerify reports a critical surge in AI-powered fraudulent mobile and CTV apps in 2025, with classifications of fraudulent iOS apps growing nearly three-fold and Android apps nearly six-fold compared to five-year averages. Fraudsters are leveraging generative AI to build realistic fake apps, synthesize reviews, and imitate human behavior, bypassing app store review mechanisms to falsify ad impressions. The report warns that these schemes infiltrate all programmatic channels, including direct and Private Marketplace (PMP) deals.
DoubleVerify has detailed its 'Authentic Streaming TV' solution, which utilizes licensed IMDb metadata to deliver program-level content intelligence to CTV advertisers. The tool incorporates an AI-powered assistant to help media planners build custom content lists and control ad placements based on granular genres, ratings, and release dates. Additionally, Charter Communications' Spectrum Reach has joined as the first partner leveraging the platform for post-bid show-level reporting.
Spectrum Intelligence Ventures, a unit of Charter, has launched Latis, an AI-powered household intelligence platform built on data from 30 million US households. The platform models digital, video, and device signals to generate insights for media targeting, data clean room collaboration, and personalization. Selected partners are entering beta testing, with a wider commercial rollout scheduled for the second half of 2026.
Smartly has integrated Horizon Media's proprietary Blu Audience API, becoming the first SaaS platform activation partner to bring Horizon's audience segments directly into campaign workflows. The partnership allows programmatic data to flow directly into social, commerce, and connected TV (CTV) campaign execution without manual translation, minimizing workflow friction.
European footwear retailer Deichmann has brought its media planning in-house by deploying the AEOS OS platform from All Eyes On Screens, replacing its long-term agency partner Mediaplus. The AI-driven platform utilizes Vodafone household viewing data from over one million German households to optimize and balance advertising spend across linear television and streaming services in real time.
Warner Bros. Discovery is expanding its ad tech stack on AWS with a new agentic AI-driven platform designed to automate media planning, audience forecasting, and inventory allocation across digital and linear channels. Built on AWS services like Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker, the platform unifies previously siloed buying workflows to offer real-time optimization for advertisers.
PwC's Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2025–2029 forecasts industry revenues to reach $3.5 trillion by 2029, propelled by digital advertising spending outgrowing consumer subscriptions. The report highlights massive growth in AVOD, connected TV (CTV) advertising, and generative AI workflow integration as traditional pay TV and subscription growth flatten.
The Roku Channel has grown to capture over 6% of U.S. TV streaming time, becoming a primary driver of the company\'s financial transition from hardware sales to platform monetization. In Q1 2026, Roku\'s platform revenue reached $1.13 billion, representing 90% of total net revenue, fueled by gains in advertising and subscription billing. This shift highlights the powerful role of device-level OS integration in scaling ad-supported streaming ecosystems and owned-and-operated inventory.
PubMatic has launched its Creator Marketplace, a programmatic connected TV (CTV) marketplace designed to connect independent creator-led media companies with automated advertising campaigns. Developed in partnership with Holmes Media and supporting FreeWheel as its initial ad-serving partner, the platform aims to bridge the gap between scale programmatic buyers and highly-engaged creator-driven audiences.
UK broadcaster Channel 4 has expanded its programmatic advertising reach by partnering with Amazon Ads, FreeWheel, Hawk, PubMatic, and Yahoo DSP. The agreements will integrate its streaming video-on-demand inventory into multiple demand-side and supply-side platforms, including Amazon DSP, during Q3 2026. This expansion follows a previous agreement with Google Display & Video 360, aiming to scale automated connected TV ad campaigns.
Claire Wyatt, GM at The Trade Desk, discussed the persistent challenges of data fragmentation and measurement inconsistency within retail media networks. Wyatt highlighted that establishing true incremental return on ad spend (ROAS) remains a roadblock as these networks increasingly look to integrate their first-party data into programmatic CTV and streaming ecosystems.
Amazon is promoting new Fire TV home screen interface upgrades and custom ad formats, including a dedicated 2026 FIFA World Cup hub, to capture more CTV ad budgets. The initiative aims to capitalize on high user engagement during the content discovery phase, where Amazon pitches strong performance metrics to advertisers.
The trade roundup details an industry-wide shift toward agentic AI in advertising ahead of Cannes Lions 2026, highlighting frameworks and automated trading tools from WPP, Yahoo DSP, and Warner Bros. Discovery. Additionally, Amazon Ads and FreeWheel have integrated to launch Outcome Optimizer, using predictive AI to connect retail signals directly to premium streaming inventory.
Omnicom Media has updated its cross-platform clean room with new capabilities to measure ad reach, frequency, and performance across multiple CTV platforms and linear TV. Leveraging identity tech from Acxiom and telemetry from VideoAmp, the solution is designed to tackle the industry's persistent CTV ad-frequency capping issues by tracking Creative IDs across major publishers including Disney, NBCUniversal, and Paramount.
At the StreamTV Show, executives from Tastemade, Fuse Media, 24i, Revry, and Wurl argued that the FAST market must transition from increasing channel counts to improving search discovery through contextual data. Panelists emphasized that standardized ad measurement, audience-intent targeting, and scene-level artificial intelligence analysis are essential to scale modern streaming ad revenues.
Xumo, the joint venture between Comcast and Charter, has expanded its integrations with Gracenote and IRIS.TV to bring program-level metadata and frame-level AI analysis to its free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) inventory. The integrations cover Xumo's global footprint of 2,000 channels across more than 30 platforms. This technical deployment aims to solve historical FAST metadata gaps and enable programmatic advertisers to execute standardized, brand-safe contextual targeting at scale.
This newsletter digest outlines the technical setup of header bidding using Prebid.js and Google Ad Manager, designed to help publishers maximize ad inventory yield. It also covers Disney's upcoming July beta for an AI-powered self-service TV ad tool and Microsoft's latest advertising updates from Activate 2026.
Samsung Ads has officially integrated Amazon Ads’ remote-enabled interactive video ad technology into the Samsung TV Plus FAST service, enabling new shoppable TV capabilities. Flagship brand partners, including Logitech and Reckitt, are launching the first remote-driven ad experiences to connect viewing attention directly with commerce. This integration allows advertisers to access Samsung's CTV inventory through the Amazon DSP using native shopping signals.
Fox Sports is leveraging FIFA-mandated hydration breaks at the 2026 World Cup to generate estimated advertising revenues between $250 million and $600 million. This tactical use of natural game-stoppage windows provides a workaround for monetizing live sports content that typically lacks traditional ad-friendly intervals.
ITN has integrated Comscore’s demographic and behavioral data segments into its NXTv Programmatic Hub for local linear TV ad execution. Dentsu will act as the alpha partner for the deployment, which also leverages Magnite's ClearLine to unify local linear inventory with programmatic video workflows.
TikTok debuted its new Symphony Agent at Cannes Lions 2026, a suite of agentic AI tools integrated into its existing creative and content platforms to streamline ad production and creator discovery for advertisers. The launch aims to reduce the time from ideation to campaign execution by leveraging platform-wide content trends and performance data.
Analyst Ian Whittaker explains how broadcaster efforts to align television pricing with digital video for programmatic buyers may be inadvertently commoditizing premium content. By integrating with high-liquidity programmatic platforms, broadcasters subject premium BVOD and SVOD inventory to direct comparison with lower-cost digital video, shifting buyer focus from cultural impact to short-term efficiency.
Vizio Group VP Adam Bergman outlined the company's strategy targeting the top U.S. TV OS spot by early 2027 through scaling its advertising business. The approach hinges on leveraging Inscape viewing data for outcome-based measurement, expanding retail media integrations via Walmart, and utilizing AI for enhanced content discovery.
UK broadcaster Channel 4 has expanded its partnership with Google Display & Video 360 to launch a new private marketplace. Developed in collaboration with Omnicom Media Group, the initiative allows advertisers to use Google Audiences data to target Channel 4's premium streaming inventory programmatically while maintaining privacy protections.
Ionic Studios has made a strategic equity investment in the factual streaming platform Documentary+ and will take on overall operation of the platform's ad-supported streaming business. Under the agreement, all Documentary+ advertising inventory will be exclusively managed by Ionic and integrated into its unified buying system via its iX Access framework.
Wurl's CTV Trends Report reveals that 35.7% of news scenes on FAST platforms are brand safe, challenging broad genre-level exclusions by advertisers. The report shows news represents 8.6% of total FAST viewing hours, arguing that scene-level contextual targeting can unlock this premium, highly engaged inventory.
FOX Advertising and animation studio Toonstar have entered a strategic partnership to bring creator-led digital animation into mainstream advertising workflows. The deal leverages FOX's sales infrastructure alongside Toonstar's proprietary production and audience analytics technologies, 'Ink & Pixel' and 'SPOT,' to let brands sponsor shows or co-produce branded original content.
Transmit has been chosen for the Google Ad Manager Technology Partner Program, enabling streaming publishers to programmatically scale dynamic in-moment ad formats. By connecting Transmit's server-side ad insertion (SSAI) technology with Google Ad Manager, clients can monetize live and VOD streams with picture-in-picture and L-Bar ad experiences.
Teads has officially launched its Connected TV ad suite, Teads CTV Ensemble, designed to unify brand storytelling and performance marketing across CTV and digital channels. The suite integrates premium OEM placements with automated creative personalization and AI-powered performance optimization. Additionally, Teads announced the general availability of its CTV Performance solution, which aims to drive lower-funnel outcomes on CTV screens.
Gracenote and PubMatic have partnered to integrate Gracenote’s content metadata into PubMatic’s platform, allowing CTV advertisers to programmatically target specific shows, episodes, and live sports. The integration uses the IAB Tech Lab’s Agentic Real-Time Framework (ARTF) to process bids with under half a millisecond of added latency, facilitating automated agentic advertising workflows.
At the StreamTV Show, The Trade Desk detailed the market positioning for its Ventura TV OS, pitching it as a neutral alternative to operating systems from Google, Amazon, and Roku. The company aims to address neutrality concerns by passing ad engagement data one-way to its DSP without managing inventory partnerships directly. To gain scale in a saturated market, Ventura is pursuing custom integrations with partners like DirecTV, Nexxen, and V (formerly VIDAA).
Integral Ad Science (IAS) has launched an episode-level pre-bid optimization solution for programmatic podcast audio and video on Spotify, available through The Trade Desk. The new solution leverages IAS Context Control to allow advertisers to apply contextual filters and brand suitability settings before bidding on the Spotify Ad Exchange. This rollout builds on IAS's existing brand safety and suitability partnership with Spotify established in 2025.
PubMatic has launched its Creator Marketplace, a programmatic connected TV (CTV) auction designed to connect premium independent creator inventory with programmatic and AI-driven agentic demand. Developed in partnership with Holmes Media and integrating FreeWheel as the inaugural ad server, the marketplace enables creators to monetize outside of traditional walled gardens. Independent outdoor lifestyle media brand MeatEater has signed on as the marketplace's launch partner.
Ionic Studios has made a strategic equity investment in non-fiction streaming service Documentary+ through its Ionic Emerging Channels Fund. As part of the agreement, Ionic will assume operating responsibility for monetization and exclusively manage ad sales across the platform's AVOD and FAST channels.
This technical analysis outlines why FAST channel profit margins break at scale due to structural architectural inefficiencies rather than a soft advertising market. It identifies five key architectural decision areas that operators must optimize, including the transition from server-side ad insertion (SSAI) to server-guided ad insertion (SGAI), ad pod diagnostics, and cost-aware multi-CDN steering.
