Accenture To End Media Auditing; Disney Hugs Hulu Close

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.

Accenture Ends Its Audits

Beginning in August 2020, Accenture will no longer provide services around media auditing, benchmarking and agency pitches, Seb Joseph reports for Digiday. In ending its auditing services, Accenture will no longer face a conflict with its media buying services. Writes Joseph: “Competitors asserted Accenture could use its knowledge gleaned through audits to gain an edge in competing for ad-buying contracts.” Media auditing is just a small part of Accenture’s business, Digiday notes, accounting for 0.1% of its total earnings. Given the rise of its Accenture Interactive services division, which drove $10 billion in revenue in 2019, Accenture seemed ready to sacrifice the smaller business. With Accenture out, media auditing is down to only a handful of consultancies, most notably Ebiquity. More.

Hulu Hooped

Hulu CEO Randy Freer is leaving the company, and Disney, which took full ownership of Hulu last year, is integrating the streaming service into its own content and advertising operation. Hulu leaders that reported to Freer will now report to Kevin Mayer, Disney’s chairman of direct-to-consumer and international operations (DTCI), according to The Wall Street Journal. The DTCI unit was created in 2018 as part of Disney’s reorganization when it took over 21st Century Fox. Disney execs are eager to incorporate Hulu because it has a general adult audience, compared to the more children and family-oriented Disney Plus package. Hulu also has almost three times more subscribers than Disney Plus. And it’s one of the biggest addressable video and CTV supply sources, whereas the ad-free Disney Plus needs to sign creative co-marketing deals to get any brand dollars. More.

Invasion Of Privacy

Google executives feel trapped in a “damned if you, damned if you don’t” situation when it comes to new data privacy and ad tech rules, Bloomberg reports. Google is under pressure to restrict its platform data even more than it historically has. Some kinds of online tracking and profiling are being quashed by laws like GDPR and the CCPA in California. Google also faces public backlash from online ad scandals, especially around YouTube content, and must contend with rivals such as Apple trying to gain market share with a privacy-first approach. But some industry execs see Google using privacy as a guise to enact restrictive policies that advantage its own ad platform. More.

But Wait, There’s More