CTV

For CTV advertisers, Warner Bros. Discovery’s first earnings report of the 2025 fiscal year was a bit of a mixed bag.

Does a connected TV DSP need lower take rates? Inside the battle among DSP’s to take on The Trade Desk’s dominant market position. Plus: an on-the-ground report from the TV Newfronts.

When it comes to third-party cookies on Chrome, Google’s plan to reverse course is neither here nor there, says Magnite CEO Michael Barrett. “Forget Privacy Sandbox,” Barrett said. “That thing was dead upon arrival.”

At NewFronts, marketers weigh new budget priorities under the Trump tariffs; The New York Times isn’t letting tariffs temper its 2025 outlook; and video podcasting is taking over CTV.

Disney had a good quarter, with revenue on the rise and streaming on the brain. Its DTC division, which houses its streaming business, is also growing and remains profitable.

Just before bringing the Jonas Brothers up on stage to celebrate their upcoming content partnership, Samsung made a curious announcement to attendees at their NewFronts presentation in New York City on Tuesday.

Why did Walmart buy Vizio? What happens when a CTV campaign turns on the S&P500+? Is Google losing its search engine edge?

According to Google, DV360 now reaches 98% of CTV households in the US and represents 5 billion hours of ad-supported watch time per month – roughly 40% more than The Trade Desk and 90% more than Amazon’s DSP.

Roku acquired subscription streaming service Frndly TV for $185M and reported Q1 revenue over $1 billion. But its Q2 outlook missed expectations due to tariffs dinging manufacturing revenue.

Ad-supported television made up 72% of all TV viewing in the first quarter of 2025, according to Nielsen’s newly announced Ad-Supported Gauge.

Emarketer is predicting tariffs could lead to a $2.78 billion to $4 billion decline in linear TV upfront spending, but CTV spending will be flat to up. Emarketer analyst Ross Benes unpacks these findings. Plus: At the Possible conference, optimism reins.

Agentic AI aims to take the work out of campaign targeting; marketers are increasingly using retail media data in non-retail channels; and Puma drives sales by re-embracing its branding.

FreeWheel thinks the best way to simplify streaming video is by fostering more direct connections between buyers and sellers.

Shutterfly’s recent CTV campaign tested a custom algorithm that relies on search data to find geographic regions with the most prospects. It performed better than targeting deterministic IDs.

Outcomes measurement company EDO is no stranger to large data sets. So I sat down with Kevin in March to learn how he thinks AI will continue to transform programmatic CTV advertising. 

Parts of Comcast might be struggling, but the company still feels “well-positioned” in advance of the TV upfronts in May, according to CFO Jason Armstrong.

On Wednesday, Magnite announced plans to merge Magnite Streaming, its ad exchange and SSP, with SpringServe, its ad server and mediation platform, into a single unified product.

On Wednesday, AD-ID announced a partnership with Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS), a division of Comcast Cable that develops buying and planning products for advertisers.

It’s still too soon to tell what kind of impact Netflix’s proprietary ad tech platform is having on the streaming service’s larger revenue goals –- but so far, leadership says, the rollout has “gone well.”

In 2017, Mediaocean CEO Bill Wise predicted the demise of supply-side platforms. The category survived, but he’s sticking to his theory that pureplay SSPs are a thing of the past. Plus: An update on Mediaocean’s $550 million Innovid acquisition and Wise’s counterpoint to recent criticisms of The Trade Desk.

Many well-intentioned advertising standards efforts gather digital dust thanks to industry politics and competing interests. Here’s how the industry can stop sabotaging its own progress.

At VideoAmp’s “Vampfront” presentation on Tuesday, I couldn’t help but be reminded of my favorite pop culture vampire stories (in a good way).

A lot of F-bombs got dropped on stage at the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement’s (CIMM) summit in New York City earlier this week. And no, probably not the F-bomb you’re thinking of.

Agencies around the globe weigh in on principal-based buying; live sports are king, but new sports like F1 are having trouble gaining traction; and Adobe gets roasted by Bluesky’s artist community.

CTV advertising has made great strides, but it still lags behind social platforms in one critical area: optimizing campaigns based on outcome data. Here’s how standardized conversion API integrations for CTV can help.

While advertisers’ interest in gaming may be growing, their spending commitments seem stuck on pause, judging by Tuesday’s IAB PlayFronts event.

Comcast is trying to win over digital-native and social-savvy marketers for with its recently launched Universal Ads, a self-serve ad buying platform that makes it easier for SMBs to buy streaming TV inventory.

An Adalytics report released Friday details numerous instances of brands serving ads to known bots that appear on the IAB Tech Lab’s International Spiders and Bots list and TAG’s Data Center IP List.

A unit of attention doesn’t serve as a useful indicator of interest or resonance among consumers. So what does? Well, consistency certainly helps.

That car dealership in your neighborhood? It’s probably got a branding problem. Most local car dealerships do.