CTV Roundup

Sweetgreen turned the World Cup into a marketing moment for its new wraps, running video ads in public viewing spaces through Atmosphere TV.

Women’s sports are a lot more popular than they used to be. But ad inventory remains scarce, because women’s sports still gets way less mainstream media exposure.

Streaming publishers are banking on pause ads to bolster revenue with a more user-friendly ad experience. With programmatic standardization still pending, Warner Bros. Discovery is taking a stab at advancing the capabilities behind its own pause ad formats.

Lightning-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.

For some marketers, the billboards that appear in the backgrounds of TV scenes – or heck, even just the blank walls of a building – feel like prime real estate for even more ad placements.

As much as consumers complain about AI-generated content, advertising experts say AI still has an important place in video creation and production, including for ads. But using AI in content without turning off consumers is a tricky dance.

The Trade Desk is muscling its way into the TV operating system business with its Ventura OS – but the real story isn’t the product itself. It’s what TTD’s ambitions reveal about conflicts of interest within the industry and the inherent mismatch between consumer and advertiser needs.

To squeeze the most juice out of their live sports campaigns, many marketers are adopting programmatic buying and marketing mix modeling, both of which are also drawing more advertisers to the digital live sports cornucopia.

The FAST channel ecosystem is providing advertisers with a sandbox (no, not that sandbox) to test new CTV formats, targeting tools and programmatic buying methods.

At AdExchanger’s Programmatic AI conference, media experts discussed how the rise of AI-generated content is changing the industry’s understanding of “premium” content.

During upfronts, publishers flexed their ad performance muscles at media buyers all week long in an effort to appeal to the biggest demands media buyers have during their upfront negotiations: flexibility and results.

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.

It seems like all the streaming services are getting into vertical video these days. But ads aren’t on the menu yet.

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.

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.

I’m pretty sure I’ve missed the window on becoming a Crumbl fan — but I can still appreciate the “pretty pictures of cookies” on their CTV ads.

Now that we have not one but two reporters covering the CTV advertising space, we thought we’d try something different and share the roundup newsletter this week!

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.

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

Late last week, Netflix walked away from plans to acquire Warner Bros., clearing the way for Paramount Skydance to scoop up the whole company with its hostile takeover bid.

Who says TV is the only media channel that could benefit from converged buying?

Putting aside Bad Bunny’s halftime show, AI companies stole the spotlight on Super Bowl Sunday, from Anthropic and OpenAI to Salesforce and Meta.

Now that the video ecosystem is converging, buying workflows need to match how consumers actually watch content, says Walton Isaacson’s Albert Thompson.

Returning to the news desk after a year away from CTV beat reporting is like discovering a time capsule with the industry’s core dilemmas. One thing that has changed, however, is the CTV industry’s infatuation with agentic AI.

Let’s close out the year with a roundup of the most impactful CTV stories of the year, from Netflix’s ad surge to Nielsen’s measurement missteps.

Is it too soon to start thinking about New Year’s resolutions? Because I’m setting a goal for myself to start talking to more media planners, agency executives and buy-side experts.

Is it just me, or do third-quarter earnings always seem especially strange?

Ignoring the fact that early pioneers in the space didn’t plan to have ads in the first place (looking at you, Netflix!), even with targeting and personalization, most major players are still thinking of national reach – not local reach – as their default.

High school sports are very different now than when I was a teenager. As is the case with basically all forms of modern entertainment, they’ve faced some disruption by the rise of streaming video – as well as the ads that often follow.

What does it feel like to be a media buyer and planner in 2025? That question launched a fascinating “Ask Me Anything”-style discussion at Cynopsis ScreenShift in New York City on Tuesday.