Opinion

The future of TV isn’t traditional vs. CTV. Rather, it’s a partnership of two sides. Fox and Roku represent this convergence.

I’ve always loved sci-fi movies and the way they portray futuristic worlds shaped by advanced technological innovation. One of my favorite movies is the ’80s classic “The Terminator.” And the more I hear about “agentic AI” in ad tech, the more I think the film is a perfect analogy for what’s happening right now.

Earlier this year, I wrote in AdExchanger about the 20% to 30% of programmatic video spend that gets lost in the gap between what inventory labels promise and what the actual viewing experience delivers.

Ask yourself where conversion data goes after a campaign runs. It flows back to the advertiser, the measurement vendor and the DSP. It does not flow back to the SSP.

We must reject the fantasy of infinite creative variations tailored to individuals – not just because it is technically impossible but because it fundamentally misunderstands how advertising works for the vast majority of brands.

With an anticipated viewership of more than 1.5 billion people, the 2026 World Cup is expected to represent the most-watched live event in history. For advertisers, that creates an obvious opportunity to reach soccer fans around matches, highlights, team coverage and tournament content.

With deterministic data like cookies becoming less reliable, advertising’s real value comes from being able to predict where audiences will be and how and when to reach them.

Most competitive intelligence is backward-looking. Earnings calls tell us what happened last quarter. Annual reports tell us where budgets went last year. Traditional competitive intelligence tools often focus on creative libraries, estimated spend or campaign archives.

For years, independent agencies won business by being different from holding companies: agile, responsive and flexible, with closer client relationships.

Connected TV has entered a new phase.

For years, the channel was primarily a reach vehicle, a way to follow audiences as viewing shifted from linear TV to streaming. That migration has reached critical mass. Audiences are engaged across CTV, and advertiser dollars are following. According to eMarketer, US CTV ad spending is projected to reach $53.42 billion, reflecting continued double-digit growth as streaming outpaces linear TV.

The pitch for dynamic take rates is reasonable. Total volume goes up, and the publisher sees more impressions clearing. But the problem is where the extra volume comes from. 

The W3C’s proposed “Attribution Level 1” browser standard deserves far more scrutiny from the advertising and measurement community than it has so far received.

The real AI risk in digital advertising isn’t automation, it’s autonomous decision-making without clear accountability and sufficient oversight.

The programmatic intelligence layer is owned by the same parties that are extracting margin from it. That structure is now being dismantled by an AI-underpinned protocol that moves the intelligence layer into the open.

Binary measurement preserves margin and lets late-arriving impressions claim credit they may not deserve. We need a new measurement model for the AI era.

Advertising has never been richer in data. With the right tools, marketers can now track competitor spend, campaigns and performance across media and markets, often in near-real time.

There is a myth that end-to-end platforms and sheer quantity of data yield efficiency and competitive advantage. But most clients need flexible, modular solutions that address their needs and work with their existing tech stacks.

Coming back from POSSIBLE last month, one thing stood out to me: Streaming TV has entered a much more operational phase. The conversation has evolved from where streaming is headed to how marketers drive better performance today. The content and conversations focused on how AI can improve campaign execution, how data can sharpen targeting and measurement and how channels work together within broader omnichannel strategies.

Between signal loss, missing audience information and aging data, most of the data that companies have is spotty. But despite what you may have heard, agentic AI can deal with spotty data.

LLM environments introduce new dimensions to brand safety and suitability. Understanding them is the starting point for testing ChatGPT ads.

The mass adoption of LLMs is shifting internet search for consumers from following blue links to synthesized answers from LLMs. Zero click is here. As generative engines and personal AI agents begin searching, comparing and acting on our behalf, discovery will no longer happen on a search page. It will happen inside the answers with personalized information and preferences.

The AI content licensing boom is real. But without neutral, scalable infrastructure, it’s on track to repeat programmatic’s trust and transparency failures.

The last decade of app marketing drove massive success in downloads thanks in large part to preloads, install campaigns and carrier partnerships. But the app download is just the beginning. EMarketer warns that 90% of new users stop using an app after seven days.

There is a clear set of capabilities that CTV OEMs and streamers can offer advertisers that the original content owner cannot. Here are the most material gaps that the buy side experiences between supply sent from the publisher and supply sent from distributors.

WPP is shifting to a pay-for-performance revenue model. But there are many barriers to clear before PFP becomes the industry standard.

As connected TV (CTV) matures, advertisers aren’t just raising expectations; they’re resetting them. And increasingly, transparency isn’t a value-add, it’s the cost of entry.

We can’t simply trust AI to make up for bland creative with sheer volume. The real performance shift happens when we use AI to push creativity further.

Brands have gotten adept at finding and following their audiences across the media landscape. Today, that means everywhere: linear TV, CTV, YouTube and the open web, often in the same evening.

When it comes to identity, most marketers moved past third-party cookie concerns a long time ago. Identity today is not about a single technology or solution; it is about learning how to combine different signals in ways that allow campaigns to reach real people across channels while respecting privacy and maintaining performance.

Data brokers will need to process consumers data-deletion requests every 45 days starting August 1, 2026, or face heavy fines.