CTV

Paramount Skydance’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is proceeding apace. It expects to finalize the deal by the end of Q3.

As a queer media trade reporter, I often wonder whether media companies and marketers are interested in trying to form a connection with me based on my queer identity.

Roku’s two content offerings, The Roku Channel and Howdy, are both performing well, the leadership disclosed during a recent earnings call. But streaming numbers aside, the company is finding ways to translate engagement into revenue.

Pinterest announced on Monday that the tvScientific platform will now have access to its new parent company’s user audience data for CTV ad targeting.

Nielsen announced a new outcomes-based measurement capability called Predictive Sales Lift. The feature is designed to help media buyers predict sales lift and incremental revenue for video ad campaigns they run via the company’s comprehensive measurement platform, Nielsen One Ads.

Platforms using talent to corroborate sales pitches is nothing new – the TV upfronts have always included publishers peacocking their talent to impress buyers. But YouTube arguably juggles an additional obligation to act in accordance with its self-imposed competitive differentiator: authenticity.

Paramount might have outlasted and outbid Netflix in the competition to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, but Netflix is not overly fussed about the loss.

Paramount is merging the ad tech stacks behind Paramount+ and Pluto TV, releasing a new performance product, offering more control over ad placements and introducing dynamic ad insertion in live sports.

One acquisition often begets another. Take Viant, which announced its plan to acquire TVision for $40 million on Wednesday.

TelevisaUnivision is the latest TV publisher to join the self-serve trend that’s rising in popularity across connected TV advertising. Its streaming inventory is now available to buy through fullthrottle.ai’s self-serve platform. The collaboration includes an ad bidder designed to improve both targeting and measurement.

Live sports is one of programmatic’s biggest opportunities, even if the buying process is still kind of a mess. But efforts are being made.

Earlier this year, datafuelX rehired Dan Aversano, one of the company’s co-founders, to take the helm as CEO. Aversano will lead the company through its next growth phase, which revolves around – surprise, surprise! – connected TV and digital expansion.

European TV has never been an easy ad market, with content distributed across different languages, currencies and regulatory frameworks. RTL Group’s total video strategy aims to help global advertisers navigate this fragmented market.

Walmart and Vizio announced at NewFronts that unified account logins are coming to smart TVs using Vizio’s operating system.

America’s Test Kitchen introduced direct and programmatic buying for its free ad-supported TV channels – marking the first time it’s selling ad inventory as a standalone package.

Someday soon, marketers may be able to pay NBCUniversal to have an AI-generated approximation of “Real Housewives” executive producer Andy Cohen namedrop their brand to hundreds of thousands of fans.

Netflix unveiled its own conversion API to help brands measure outcomes as CAPIs become increasingly popular in streaming advertising.

NBCU used this year’s Olympic Winter Games to lean further into programmatic buying for live sports at scale. NBCU also made Olympics inventory available through Comcast’s Universal Ads self-serve platform for the first time and used AI for creative review and campaign optimization in near real time.

“We are focused on being where the world watches video,” said Tara Walpert Levy, YouTube’s VP, Americas at the Convergent TV conference in NYC on Thursday. “And to us that now is TV.”

Versant Media Group reported its first earnings as a publicly traded company. The portfolio of networks, which includes CNBC, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), USA Network, E! and Fandango, was spun off from Comcast in January.

Last year was a massive success for Warner Bros. Discovery’s content – but maybe not so much for its financials.

Display advertising is old and busted. Streaming CTV is the new hotness. Obviously, those aren’t the exact words Magnite CEO Michael Barrett used, but it’s pretty much what the numbers say.

While the outcome of Paramount Skydance’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery hangs in the balance, Paramount is laser-focused on driving streaming growth.

On Wednesday, and in time for the upfronts, Nielsen added more than 200 advanced audience segments in Nielsen ONE, its cross-platform analytics dashboard.

Upstream, a supply-side company that until today was called TheViewPoint, introduced a platform that automates direct TV and streaming ad sales. The platform launch and company rebrand strive to highlight the role of TV and streaming as an upper-funnel awareness channel.

“Transitional.” “Developing.” “Work-in-progress.” Those are the best descriptions of the current state of TV and video convergence, according to the top leaders influencing the video advertising landscape.

At the risk of getting dorky with sports metaphors, DTC agency Rain the Growth already has a game plan to make sure its programmatic placements are a slam dunk.

The kids companies Hasbro and Animaj have formed a co-venture for selling their ads on YouTube and streaming media.

Roku has a simple equation for generative AI: cheaper content production leads to more viewing time and engagement which leads to more ad spend.

Three quarters in and MNTN CEO Mark Douglas isn’t changing his script: small businesses need performance-driven CTV they can measure.