IAB Tech Lab Has a Court Date; Spotify Launches Its Rival To Clubhouse

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Court Date

Dun, dun! Cue the “Law & Order” sound effect because the IAB Tech Lab is being taken to court in Germany by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) over what the advocacy group considers an ongoing breach of personal privacy by RTB-based online ad platforms (i.e. ad tech and the walled gardens). The person driving the suit is Johnny Ryan, former head of ecosystem at PageFair, an ad tech company that made publisher solutions to counteract ad blockers. He served a stint at Brave, a privacy-focused browser, where he tried to force regulatory action against RTB tech companies – EU data protection authorities have opened investigations, but not taken action on Ryan’s issues. Now a senior fellow at the ICCL, Ryan is pursuing the case himself. He has his work cut out: the ICCL must prove its standing in a German court – they’re suing there because the IAB Tech Lab has a German consultancy that represents them in Europe, which the group considers grounds to litigate there, TechCrunch reports. Then he has to make the case. “This may very well end up at the ECJ [European Court of Justice]. And that would take a few years but long before this ends up at the ECJ I think it’ll be clear to the industry now that it’s time to reform,” Ryan said.

Crowded Clubhouse

Spotify launched a Clubhouse rival called Greenroom on Wednesday. The new service is meant to give musicians and content creators a way to connect with their audience via live audio. Spotify also announced plans for a creator fund that would pay Greenroom standouts for their work. Per Variety, Greenroom is the audio chat app formerly known as Locker Room that was developed by the startup Betty Labs, which Spotify acquired in March. Greenroom is now available on iOS and Android in more than 135 markets around the world, and Spotify said it’s optimizing the app for “interactivity and deep connections between participants in live rooms.” Spotify isn’t the only company challenging (or mimicking) Clubhouse: on Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hosted the first public test of a Clubhouse clone called Live Audio Rooms. Twitter launched its version of Clubhouse, called Spaces, in April, and followed with a tip jar feature for hosts in May.

Ad Free, For Now

The shift to streaming video in the past year has seen the launch of ad-supported services such as Peacock, Paramount Plus and the new HBO Max, all of which offer ad-free and cheaper, ad-supported pricing tiers. But according to Disney CEO Bob Chapek, there are no such plans for a lower-cost ad supported option for Disney Plus. Not yet, at least. Speaking at the Credit Suisse Communications Conference on Tuesday, Chapek said that the company’s marquee streaming entertainment plan won’t be adding ads to its service anytime soon, though he didn’t entirely dismiss the concept. And the recent leap from $7 per month to $8 (call it the Disney plus) did little to dampen the company’s subscription numbers, he said. “We won’t limit ourselves and say no to anything. But right now, we have no such plans for that,” Chapek said. The Verge has more. And while AVOD is seeing growth, a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that there is still a larger appetite for SVOD.

But Wait, There’s More!

The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement is conducting a study of time spent across “every” TV platform, including linear TV, OTT devices, smart TV apps and video game consoles. [MediaPost]

Activision turns to data clean rooms to find new privacy-compliant data sets. [Digiday]

Comscore and Viant partner to expand cookie-free predictive audiences. [release]