CTV

Views of Shorts on CTV devices more than doubled last year, people watch more than 1 billion hours of YouTube daily on their TVs – and other fun facts from YouTube’s Brandcast event.

Remember back when Netflix insisted it would never run ads on its platform? Well, not only does it now have 40 million MAUs for its AVOD tier, it’s also launching an ad tech platform.

Warner Bros. Discovery had the most to prove during this week’s upfronts. So, the company used its upfront stage on Wednesday to showcase a new suite of ad products.

What is Google’s true motive in launching the Chrome Privacy Sandbox? An optimist might give Google credit for not dropping the hammer like Apple did. But it’s hard not to be a little cynical about Google’s goals, according to Samantha Jacobson, chief strategy officer at The Trade Desk.

In today’s newsletter: Google’s generative search experience launches in the US; kid-focused brands worry Instagram is serving their ads to predators; Fox hypes clean rooms and shoppable TV at the upfronts.

During Disney’s upfront event on Tuesday, just hours after Amazon’s, the Mouse House couldn’t hold back on pitching its content and advertising prowess. Sports was a big highlight.

Amazon kicked off its first-ever upfront event with advertising right out of the gate, including pitches about its scale, shopper data and content, particularly its sports programming.

TelevisaUnivision used its upfront stage to remind agencies and advertisers that Hispanic audiences drive business results. It shared ways buyers can work directly with it for targeting and measurement, plus new video currency options for media transactions.

Actors, musicians, dancers and comedians vouched for the value of NBCU media in between flashy performances and trailers during the programmer’s TV upfront. But about advertising, NBCU execs barely made a mention.

In today’s newsletter: Companies looking to sell data target the US market; which media companies to bet on at TV upfronts; and generative AI data licensing is the new publisher revenue stream.

Programmers are using their Q1 earnings reports as a dress rehearsal for their upfront pitches. Meanwhile, programmatic platforms, including Magnite and PubMatic, also had upfronts in mind during their Q1 earnings.

Will data dazzle media buyers at this year’s TV upfronts? Plus: Why recent changes to Google search results have decimated traffic for some digital publishers – and rewarded others.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) broke the trend of streaming publishers reporting positive gains last quarter. But it’s slowly gaining subscribers, and expects bundling and global expansion to help speed up traction for its streaming service, Max.

For Magnite, the biggest growth opportunity lies in supply-path optimization. The trade-off is the pressure to differentiate itself from other supply-side platforms competing for agency deals.

PubMatic has its supply-path optimization initiative, its strategy to introduce direct deals for CTV and online video, to thank for its quarterly revenue growth.

Disney Advertising links up with Walmart Connect to let advertisers match Walmart’s and Disney’s first-party data for audience-based bids on Disney+ and Hulu inventory.

DoubleVerify reported its Q1 earnings on Tuesday and guess which topics didn’t come up, even once? The Forbes-run MFA subdomain, DV’s apparent misreporting of X’s brand safety rates and not a single tough question about measurement gaps.

Disney is on track for its combined streaming offerings to reach profitability by the end of this year. Continued growth will hinge on bundling its streaming properties and its management of sports media.

Amazon unveiled three new interactive ad units for Prime Video, all of which are shoppable, ahead of its TV upfront debut.

NBCUniversal’s upfront pitch centers on advanced audiences, attribution and the fact that it built Peacock with advertising features baked in, rather than retrofitting it to support an AVOD model (unlike newer entrants to the ad-supported streaming competition).

Multiple factors such as buy-side practices, the CTV industry structure and shortcomings in ad tech contribute to CTV’s ad frequency problem. Yet there are several ways to overcome these limitations.

It’s been a busy week in CTV and streaming, with Google kicking off NewFronts, Paramount ousting its CEO and the IAB projecting social video will outpace CTV in 2024.

Using Samba TV’s ACR data, StackAdapt is launching two features to help clients attribute and forecast incremental reach directly to streaming, compared to linear alone.

In today’s newsletter: Roku and The Trade Desk expand their partnership; Instagram changes its content recommendation system; and the European Commission investigates Meta for potential Digital Services Act violations.

TV buyers predict that streaming publishers will heed their demands for greater flexibility, more programmatic execution and improved measurement during this year’s upfront season.

In today’s newsletter: The CMA still has a bone to pick with the Chrome Privacy Sandbox; the FCC fines mobile carriers for selling customer location data to data brokers; and the Financial Times is the latest publisher to strike a licensing deal with an AI company.

Paramount Global is reeling from shareholder pushback against a pending merger with private equity-backed production company Skydance Media. In the meantime, it’s hoping to impress advertisers with streaming subscriber and advertising growth.

Google used its NewFronts stage to unveil updates to DV360 that should make it easier for advertisers to manage campaigns across Google and other connected TV publishers.

If anyone asks what the main theme of Roku’s Q1 earnings call was on Thursday, say: “programmatic.”

GSTV is trying to win a larger share of spend earmarked for TV. In GSTV’s case, it wants to reach a broad and captive audience – while they’re at the fuel pump.