- Peacock Hits Profitability As Comcast Prepares To Spin Off NBCUPeacock hit what Comcast Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh called “meaningful profitability” for the first time in Q2, just as Comcast decided to let it leave the nest. The post Peacock Hits Profitability As Comcast Prepares To ... read more
- Programmatic Platforms Champion Transparency, But Not If It Means Giving Activists AccessDSPs want to vet buyers before letting them into their platforms. No one wants to serve ads from advertisers they don’t trust. But what happens when a DSP is worried about a buyer digging too ... read more
- Google Says AI Isn't Taking Media Buyers' Jobs, It's Just Making Them FasterWorkers aren't asking AI to run the whole show. They're asking it to brainstorm, draft, edit, research and sanity-check their ideas. ... read more
- Anthropic, SpaceX Hand Google Profit WindfallAt least on paper, for now, Google's investments in Anthropic and SpaceX have paid off and enabled its parent company Alphabet to offset any losses when quarterly financial reports come. ... read more
- Report: Gen Z Rejects Fandom's Hidebound TraditionsAccording to the research, traditional sports fandom was founded on team loyalty and was inherited. But today's younger audiences are taking a different path. ... read more
- NBCU Ad Spend Soars 55% In Q2, Peacock Posts ProfitNBCU's Peacock streaming platform grew 68% to $717 million in ad revenue, following a 120% climb in Q1 to $908 million from the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. ... read more
- Did The World Cup Dial In The Right Brand Ad Frequency?Data from a new DoubleVerify survey finds 40% of viewers continue to watch an ad when the ad has repeated. Does this also mean 60% aren't too happy and look away? ... read more
- TV Lends A Hand In Historic DiscoveryA Discovery Channel show played a key role in the discovery of an airliner missing in the Atlantic Ocean for 74 years. ... read more
- Advertising’s Next Audience Isn’t Human. So We Must Rethink The Value Of Non-Human TrafficFor years, advertising has been all about reaching the right human at the right time. That premise, however, is shifting in an unexpected way. Agentic AI has created new complexity, with autonomous “agents” that can ... read more
- Sports Rule The TV Upfronts; Are Reddit And Google Breaking Up?Sports are where the money is; Reddit’s rethinking its AI licensing strategy; and data targeting has its darker sides. The post Sports Rule The TV Upfronts; Are Reddit And Google Breaking Up? appeared first on ... read more
- Media Briefing: Brand authority and trust are becoming publishers’ newest AI assetsThis week’s Media Briefing looks into the emerging vibe shift in AI search: execs are sensing that trust, authority and established brands in LLMs are becoming key advantages for premium publishers. The return of ... read more
- As athletes embrace owned media properties, they’re pushing for more involved brand dealsTwo days before the climax of this year’s World Cup, kitmaker Adidas ran a hastily constructed ad campaign highlighting talisman players Lamine Yamal and Lionel Messi in front of its famous triple stripe logo. The ... read more
- In Graphic Detail: The real impact of creators at the World CupThe 2026 FIFA World Cup is over, and the impact of content creators (and how brands and platforms leveraged them) is clear. For perhaps the first time in the tournament’s history, creators were given unprecedented ... read more
- TikTok’s Kat Marquez unpacks NBA and WNBA creator deal
- Lifestyle brand Stanley uses AI behind the scenes — but execs claim it won’t touch ad creativeStanley 1913, the lifestyle brand, openly embraces AI behind the scenes, but is drawing a line amid the AI hype when it comes to what consumers see. Stanley has “not used AI for any external-facing, ... read more
- News Corp. Sues Brave, Accusing It Of Content TheftNews Corp. has filed a countersuit against Brave, a search engine, alleging that it distributed versions of articles from the Wall Street Journal and New York Post to AI firms in acts of “flagrant theft,” Reuters reports. Brave had sued News ... read more
- Comscore Offers Transcript-Level Podcast AdvertisingComscore says its Proximic by Comscore platform has been integrated with Acast, Libsyn, SiriusXM, Spotify, and Triton Digital in a move to provide transcript-level targeting to programmatic podcast advertisers, Inside Radio reports. The arrangement allows advertisers to ... read more
- Florida Teen Drops Addiction Lawsuit Against MetaA Florida teenager has withdrawn a social media addiction lawsuit against Meta a week before it was to go to trial, The New York Times reports. The 15-year old youth, identified only by his initials, R.K.C., dropped ... read more
- Anthropic Settles Copyright Suit Filed By Book AuthorsA group of thousands of authors has won a $1.5 billion settlement from Anthropic that their lead lawyer calls “the largest known copyright recovery in history," the Guardian reports. In the case filed in 2024 ... read more
- Wired For Worry: LSD Brand Launches Therapist-Targeted CampaignAwareness campaign from Definium tells mental healthcare providers disregulated brain circuitry may contribute to chronic anxiety symptoms. ... read more
- Alphabet Smashes Ad Revenue Earnings Again – But Does It Still Care About Ads?The second quarter was what you might call an interesting one for Alphabet – especially if you care about advertising. Google’s Network advertising business, which constitutes ad spend across the open web, was down year ... read more
- A Field Guide to RFP Red FlagsAs an industry, we need to get better at walking away from misaligned opportunities while still being willing to compete for the right ones. The solution isn't to stop pitching entirely; it's to stop pitching ... read more
- Automotive TV Spending Dips Nearly 17% YTDNotably, the Spanish-language broadcasts of FIFA World Cup generated a larger share of automaker impressions than English broadcasts. ... read more
- Omnicom Media Retains Uber's Primary AORUnder its renewed agreement, Omnicom Media will continue to oversee media responsibilities across North America, EMEA and LATAM and adds Brazil to its assignment. ... read more
- Alphabet Earnings Rise 24% As Google Faces Reddit ChallengesAlphabet has recorded double-digit growth for 12 consecutive quarters. But Google faces challenges, as reports suggest Reddit is considering shutting off its flow of information for use in Google's AI engines. And massive investments have ... read more
- Republicans Despair Voting Is Easier Than Getting Bottomless Pasta At Olive GardenConservatives, half tongue-in-cheek, "are boasting that the preeminent fast-casual Italian chain is more vigilant about fraud than Democrats," says "Fast Company." ... read more
- In Transparency We Trust, All Others Would Pay CashThat's right, roughly half of consumers would pay brands more - an average of 7% more - for AI transparency, according to the 2026 edition of an annual digital trust study. ... read more
- Pinterest Creator Fund Incentivizes Use Of 'Inclusive' Search FeaturesPinterest has announced the return of its "Inclusion Fund," an ongoing program designed to offer monetary and educational support to up-and-coming creators from a diverse range of backgrounds who are utilizing the platform's "inclusive features." ... read more
- Senators Urge FTC To Reject Musk Bid To Cancel Ad-Targeting Snafu Order"X has not shown, or even come close to showing, that the order is obsolete, unfair, or contrary to the public interest," Senators Ed Markey, Richard Blumenthal and Ron Wyden say in a letter sent ... read more
- Horizon Media’s Katie Comerford: Organizational Change Is the Main Barrier to AI AdoptionCANNES, France — Agencies and brands have access to sophisticated AI tools, but getting employees to incorporate them into daily workflows presents a harder challenge than any technology deployment — one that requires hands-on demonstration ... read more
- We Want Your TV Ad to Ring Up at the Checkout: Christine Foster of Kroger Precision MarketingCANNES, France – For years, marketers have treated brand building and sales activation like divorced parents awkwardly sharing custody of the media budget. Christine Foster, group vice president of Kroger Precision Marketing, says it’s time ... read more
- Consumer Federation Battles Meta Over Scam Ads"Meta might prefer that Section 230 grant it sweeping immunity, but that is not the law," the Consumer Federation of America argues in new court papers. ... read more
- World Cup Final Scores 66.4M, Highest-Rated Event Since Super BowlFox and its platforms averaged 42.5 million viewers for the English-language edition of the World Cup finals, and Telemundo/Peacock had 23.9 million viewers for the Spanish-language version. It is the highest-rated TV event since Super ... read more
- If AI Keeps Getting Your Facts Wrong, You Should Worry About Your BrandSomeone on your team needs to own the question of what AI platforms are saying about you, not just whether they are saying anything at all. ... read more
- A Narrative Of PossibilityThe hope for a technological break with decadence is nothing new. You may remember some of the buzzy concepts in this long inventory of hype: The Global Village, The Information Superhighway, Cyberspace, The New Economy, ... read more
- Amazon Expands Location-Based Interactive Video AdsVideo ads based on location continue to expand into other countries and market segments, as Amazon reports sales in its business division rose nearly 30% globally this year, with expansion in categories such as repair ... read more
- Replacing Digital Pennies With AI Half-PenniesDecades ago, then NBCU chief Jeff Zucker famously quipped how search engines were replacing news publishers' "analog dollars" with "digital pennies." Twenty-one years later they are becoming AI half-pennies. ... read more
- Not In-Game? Gen Z Scores Legacy Media Sports PointsGen Z may be the next generation of sports fans - but in a way that revolves around the buzzword "fandom." ... read more
- 'Creator' Content Now 26% Of Time Spent Daily With TV/VideoTotal daily time spent with all platforms is estimated at 6.7 hours for persons two years of age and up, according to Media Dynamics Inc. ... read more
- 'Creator' Content Now 26% Of Time Spent With TV/VideoTotal daily time spent with all platforms is estimated at 6.7 hours for persons two years of age and up, according to Media Dynamics Inc. ... read more
- Stagwell Survey Shows That 25% Of Consumers Are 'News Fanatics'A full quarter of Americans qualify as “news fanatics, according to Stagwell’s Future of News study, Barrett Media reports. This means they check the news more than five times per day. And 78% of these "fanatics" believe ... read more
- Non-Physicist 'Stuart' Tries To Save World In 'Big Bang' SpinoffUnlike "The Big Bang Theory," the premise of the new spinoff coming to HBO Max on Thursday can be described as physics in reverse. ... read more
- Linear TV Enabler: Getting A Boost From Streaming PlatformsNearly 40% of linear audiences now access linear TV channels via some form of streaming platforms or apps - up from 38% a year ago. ... read more
- OpenAI Rogue Models Should Send Warning To Ad IndustryThe models needed a way on to the internet to find answers, so they broke out of their test environment and hacked into Hugging Face, an open source research platform. ... read more
- Comscore Wants To Make Buying Podcast Ads Feel More Like Buying CTV Or DisplayAudio platforms are fed up with tolerating the persistent gap between the amount of time people spend listening to podcasts and how much advertisers spend on podcast advertising. So instead of waiting for advertisers to ... read more
- AMC’s Content Chief Reveals The Three-Part Formula Behind Every Hit ShowLightning-in-a-bottle characters, a world we've never seen, and something to say. AMC's Dan McDermott breaks down what separates a hit from everything else. The post AMC’s Content Chief Reveals The Three-Part Formula Behind Every Hit ... read more
- Disney And Ketchup, Together At Last; The True Cost Of Better AdsThe New Attribution Kraft Heinz owns iconic American grocery brands – but it’s in a slump. Now it’s betting on new marketing flagships for a turnaround. To that end, the company signed a multiyear deal with ... read more
- Fears of Big Tech bias underpin debates around W3C’s Attribution APIIn a relatively obscure industry standards body, the World Wide Web Consortium, Big Tech players, including Apple, Google, Meta, and Mozilla, are making inroads to introduce a new ad attribution tool to the industry’s major ... read more
- Why agencies are taking a hybrid approach to synthetic audience researchTraditional research can be slow, expensive and hard to scale but agencies are increasingly testing AI-generated personas to supplement things like media planning and concept testing. In theory, the pitch makes sense: Synthetic audiences can ... read more
- Mastercard is tapping foodie creators to drive awareness and adoptionMastercard recently rolled out an episodic social series focused on foodie creators visiting restaurants to help create buzz and grow their small business. It’s yet another aspect of Mastercard doubling down on its creator marketing ... read more
- How Bloom Nutrition is expanding internationallyThis podcast was first published by Digiday sibling ModernRetail Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify For many U.S. retail startups, expanding international distribution is the ultimate goal to establish themselves as a truly global brand. In the ... read more
- Albertsons’ new ‘micro sitcom’ is a big deal for retail mediaThis story was first published by Digiday sibling ModernRetail Retail media content is becoming more complex, with major brands making big investments in videos made specifically to reach shoppers on screens in grocery stores or ... read more
- Future of TV Briefing: The streaming ad industry finally has levers to pull on qualityThis week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how the IAB’s Redefining Media Types Standard could address the streaming ad market’s call for quality controls. Quality check Paramount-WBD’s pause, Netflix-YouTube’s tug-of-war, Nielsen-VideoAmp’s exit and ... read more
- The upfront market is nearly done, as sports acts as both negotiation driver and obstacleThe upfront marketplace, long in the making this year, is nearing completion, as the major holding companies and larger independent agencies wrap their negotiations with the biggest of the sellers from traditional media giants to ... read more
- Congressman Calls For FCC Review Of ABC, NBC And CBSRep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) has asked the Federal Communications Commission to review whether ABC, NBC and CBS violated their obligation to “serve the public interest” after choosing not to run President Trump’s speech on election security last Thursday, Fox News reports. "Broadcasters may ... read more
- ESPN Layoffs Include Baseball, NFL BroadcastersESPN has laid off dozens of employees as it rolls out changes to its business, The Hill reports. Included were notable names like baseball broadcasterer Karl Ravech, NFL analyst Ryan Clark and reporter Tom Pelissero, but these ... read more
- Gray Media Uses Cogent Strategies For LobbyingGray Media has hired Cogent Strategies LLC for exclusive federal lobbying, Legis1 reports. Gray has spent $130,000 on lobbying in each of the two quarters so far this year. A filing by Cogent Strategies cites issues ... read more
- Threads To Launch Parental Tools As Meta Faces Regulatory PressuresMeta is announcing parental supervision tools for Threads, despite allegations that they could have little impact on teens' social-media use. ... read more
- Threads Preps Parental Tools As Meta Faces RegulatorsMeta is announcing parental supervision tools for Threads, despite allegations that they could have little impact on teens' social-media use. ... read more
- Twitch Allows Parents To Restrict Teens From LivestreamingTwitch is introducing parental control features, which include the ability for guardians to block their teen's ability to broadcast livestreams on the platform. ... read more
- Out-of-Home Is the Last Scaled Reach Medium Standing, Says Clear Channel CMOCANNES, France — Out-of-home advertising remains the only truly scaled reach medium available to marketers, according to one industry executive. The difference now is that billboards and transit advertising have evolved far beyond simple static ... read more
- Walmart Connect’s Khurrum Malik: Branded Content Series Drives 37% Sales Lift for Participating BrandsCANNES, France — Integrated commerce programs combining branded content, connected television, in-store marketing, and search are generating measurable sales impact that points toward a broader industry shift from one-time performance captures toward durable brand growth. ... read more
- Ad Groups Raise Concerns Over Bill Banning Junk Food Ads To ChildrenThe bill "may have the practical effect of discouraging lawful advertising for ordinary food and beverage products, including, for example, restaurant advertising," the Association of National Advertisers and others tell lawmakers. ... read more
- Sellers Are Fed Up With Amazon, But Can They Force Change?The Million Dollar Sellers group convened last week in New York City during and around Amazon’s own Seller Growth Summit event. MDS, as the 10-year-old membership-based community of Amazon sellers is known, is probably the ... read more
- Judge Dismisses Google Complaint Against SerpApi Over ScrapingA federal judge has dismissed Google's complaint against the Texas-based company SerpApi, which allegedly circumvented attempts to prevent it from scraping search results. ... read more
- Podcasts Get Measurement Guidelines From IAB Tech LabIAB Tech Lab, the standards arm of the IAB, has introduced new standards to ensure totals for podcast listeners and advertising numbers from downloads and clicks are calculated accurately. ... read more
- Google Gives Publishers Opt-Out For AIGoogle is testing new controls in Google Search Console, enabling publishers to opt content out of AI-generated search features while remaining visible in traditional search. ... read more
- PHD, WARC: Agent/Consumer Spend To Reach $3.35T By 2030The analysis leveraged proprietary Acxiom data representing consumer decision-making, transaction value, purchase frequency, data availability, media mix and regulation of 10 markets: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, South Korea, the U.K. and the ... read more
- Modern Media Companies: What's The Right Channel Mix?Should media companies pursue more live TV, streaming deals, mobile, video or gaming opportunities? What's the right mix? Much depends on where they are in the broad media-platform spectrum. ... read more
- Forget The Shiny Objects And Focus On FundamentalsIn marketing, there’s always a shiny new object to admire, whether it’s a (supposedly) smarter algorithm or a platform promising effortless performance. But the fundamentals always still matter more than whatever’s trending, says Sharona Sankar-King, ... read more
- Netflix Has Top 3 Shows, 8 In Top 25 For 2025-26Over a 35-day viewing period of TV shows' debut episodes, Netflix had eight of the top 25 shows and the three strongest shows overall, according to a CBS release citing Nielsen data. ... read more
- Mattel Consolidates Global Media With Spark FoundryThe toy and family entertainment company spent $522 million on advertising and promotion last year, according to an SEC filing. ... read more
- Company Uses Wikipedia Views To Measure TV Show PopularityTelevisionStats.com lists Wikipedia as the "foundation" for its "Attention Score" popularity lists that are updated daily. ... read more
- Creative Plus Performance Equals Less Ad Waste, Says The Corcoran GroupFor marketers, just knowing that an ad performed isn’t good enough anymore. To better understand the why behind ad performance, luxury real estate firm The Corcoran Group tapped an AI-based startup called mktg.ai. The post ... read more
- A New Code For Countering Ad Fraud; The GLP-1 Food Market CorrectionYou’ll Pay For This Ofcom, the British communications regulator, published a report earlier this month on best practices for countering platform ad fraud and threats to account integrity. Rob Leathern, who led ads integrity and ... read more
- ‘We’re starting to wonder’: Ad industry chases AI value as usage outpaces proofEvery choice has a price and the bill always comes due. Marketers are only just starting to work out what theirs actually costs for AI. Laura Higgins had been at Dollar Shave Club for two ... read more
- In Graphic Detail: AI visibility is no longer about referral trafficThe conversation around AI visibility is changing. Publishers once focused on whether AI answer engines like ChatGPT would send enough referral traffic to offset declining clicks from traditional search, have mostly moved on. Publishers are ... read more
- Ad Tech Briefing: Apple’s continued interest in adsApple may have raised the ire of some within the ad industry for its more-or-less discontinuation of SKAdNetwork, a framework that dozens of companies collectively invested hundreds of millions of dollars in adopting, but that’s ... read more
- As AI automates media work, Omnicom Media is rethinking the agency business modelSubscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify The era of the traditional holding company is over. At least, that’s how Ralph Pardo sees it. It’s less a bold call and more an apt observation coming from Pardo. ... read more
- W3C Attribution API prompts debate over the future of web measurementRelated Insights The Long Goodbye WTF: W3C’s Attribution API? Read More The World Wide Web Consortium’s proposed Attribution API has entered one of the most significant phases of its ... read more
- Nike versus Adidas: Which brand won the World Cup?Now that the World Cup is finally over, brand marketers hoping to dominate consumers’ attention during the tournament will be analyzing the performance of every channel, creative asset and dollar spent along the way — ... read more
- OpenAI Models Went Rogue And Hacked Hugging FaceTwo of OpenAI’s artificial intelligence went rogue and hacked into Hugging Face, a digital library of AI technology, the company said on Tuesday, The New York Times reports. The episode occurred last week when OpenAI was testing ... read more
- Judge Orders Two-Week Halt To Paramount-Warner Bros. MergerA federal judge has halted the $81 billion merger between Paramount and Warner Bros.Discoery for at least two weeks to give states that sued to challenge the deal more time to pursue their case, ABC ... read more
- News Media Are Second Only To Congress In Lack Of Public TrustA new Gallup poll finds that news media are among the least-trusted institutions in the U.S., The Hill reports. A mere 17% of Americans have “a great deal” or “quite a lot of confidence in newspaper reporting, one ... read more
- News Media Second Only To Congress In Lack Of Public TrustA new Gallup poll finds that news media are among the least-trusted institutions in the U.S., The Hill reports. A mere 17% of Americans have “a great deal” or “quite a lot of confidence in newspaper reporting, one ... read more
- OpenAI Ad Revenue Is Way Under Its Goal, Analysis StateOpenAI is struggling to meet its advertising goals, and will miss its five-year ad revenue projections by 90%, Futurism reports, sourcing an analysis by Emarketer. The combined 2025 advertising total for OpenAI, Googe, Microsoft and ... read more
- OpenAI Ad Revenue Is Far Under Its Goal, Analysis StatesOpenAI is struggling to meet its advertising goals, and will miss its five-year ad revenue projections by 90%, Futurism reports, sourcing an analysis by Emarketer. The combined 2025 advertising total for OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and ... read more
- French Set To Pass Bill Banning Social Media Access For ChildrenFrench Parliament are on the path toward banning social media for children under age 15, Reuters reports. The compromise bill will have a final vote on Tuesday, and would take effect at the start of ... read more
- France Set To Pass Bill Banning Social Media Access For ChildrenFrench Parliament is on the path toward banning social media for children under age 15, Reuters reports. The compromise bill will have a final vote on Tuesday, and would take effect at the start of ... read more
- X Announces Completion Of Year-Long Android App RebuildX has completed the rebuild of its Android app - a process that head of product Nikita Bier describes as "one of the largest engineering projects" the company has undergone since Elon Musk took over ... read more
- OpenAI CFO Outlines Measurement Framework For AI InvestmentsOpenAI's CFO Sarah Friar outlined a new measurement approach to measure the value of AI investments. ... read more
- Zara 'Death Pants' Cause Social Media StormTikToks with titles like "These trousers should come with a warning label," show wearers falling on the street, in their own homes, and even in the hallway of a hospital. ... read more
- Google Local Ads For Services Transitions Into Wider Campaign PlatformPay-per-lead goals will transition into ones supported by Performance Max campaigns - a significant change. ... read more
- PayPal's Honey Users Want Appeals Court To Revive LawsuitWeb users based in the U.K. have appealed an order dismissing their class-action complaint against PayPal's Honey, a browser extension that offers downloadable coupons. ... read more
- Federal Employees Can Download TikTok On Government Devices: DOJAccording to the Justice Department's statement, the previous law banning TikTok on government devices no longer applies to TikTok USDS because the app now "functions independently of ByteDance" and is majority-owned by American investors. However, ... read more
- Judge Puts Brakes On Paramount-WBD MergerA federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked Paramount from completing its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. ... read more
- Kids' Media Has A Measurement Problem, While Ad Industry Has A Trust ProblemA CIMM report says children's viewing has scattered across YouTube, streaming and gaming while measurement has fallen behind, raising fresh questions about privacy, ad dollars and whether Big Tech can ever stop chasing young eyeballs. ... read more
- IAS’s Srishti Gupta: Media Quality has Shifted ‘From Protection to Growth’CANNES, France — As AI-generated content floods digital environments, the case for media quality investment has fundamentally changed — moving from defensive brand protection toward measurable performance improvement that drives sales lift, brand awareness, and ... read more
- Interactive TV Is Ready to Press Start: Phynd CEO André SwanstonCANNES, France – Television has spent decades asking viewers to sit down, stay quiet and watch whatever happened to be on. André Swanston, chief executive of cloud gaming platform Phynd, thinks that era is ending. ... read more
- Why Beehiiv Is Betting On Programmatic To Scale Its Ad Platform For NewslettersWebsites just don’t get as much traffic as they used to. (Thanks a lot, AI search.) But publishers and content creators are bullish on email newsletters as a way to reach their most engaged readers ... read more