max

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

Warner Bros. Discovery officially launched OpenPath last week, with the goal of driving demand for its news sites’ display inventory. But for now, CTV is not part of the integration.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s overall ad revenue dropped 7% last year. Its survival depends on its streaming service, Max, its lifeline in the intensifying streaming wars.

Disney redirects subscribers to its site to avoid Apple’s App Store fee; ad tech IPOs are in a lull, but the tech companies that are going public rely on ads for growth; and a Democratic PAC spent $30 million on Spanish-language ads.

Airbnb gets one step closer to launching a retail media biz; Google shakes up its ad tech executive team; and streamers struggle to balance ad and subscriber revenues.

In today’s newsletter: How membership bundles are creating new forms of consumer-facing partnerships; typically unflappable platforms leap to action when billionaires are harmed by bad ads; and X’s GARM lawsuit helped politicize brand safety.

WBD’s overall revenue fell 5% year-over-year to $9.7 billion, continuing a recent decline and missing investor expectations, according to its earnings report on Wednesday. WBD shares dropped 8% during after-hours trading.

In today’s newsletter: US rules Google has a monopoly in search, but not search ads; Nvidia’s unreleased AI has been scraping online video from YouTube, Netflix and others; and streaming app Max debuts a new personalized home page.

In today’s newsletter: Ampla suspends loans to DTC brands, putting their ad budgets at risk; why Sony is investing in IP rather than a streaming platform; and Netflix will move on from Microsoft in favor of in-house ad tech by 2025.

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.

In today’s newsletter: Google’s cookie deprecation delay hurts Chrome Privacy Sandbox supporters; mall chains go for broke with their DTC efforts; Warner Bros. Discovery launches a first-party data product.

In today’s newsletter: Shoppable TV needs a better reason to exist; Disney+ will roll out password-sharing bans worldwide this summer; and “Bluey” is a huge hit, but Disney doesn’t make much from it.

The US ad market is set to grow this year, according to a Magna forecast released Thursday. Streaming and political advertising play outsized roles in that growth.

In today’s newsletter: Microsoft Edge debuts its Ad Selection API, a PAAPI competitor; the EU’s DMA is live; and OhHello aims to help ad industry employees network.

Warner Bros. Discovery is in a tight spot with double-digit TV ad revenue declines – and its core streaming service, Max, hasn’t picked up the slack … yet.

In today’s newsletter: Uber, the New York Times and Roblox all have ads businesses, but in different flavors; Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery plan to launch a sports streaming service; and Amazon gets introspective in response to competition from Temu, Shein and TikTok.

In today’s newsletter: Netflix is the only profitable streaming service; Meta’s automated support software frustrates advertisers; and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission may designate Amazon a “distributor of goods.”

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Can You Hear Me Now? Consumers wary about targeted ads are convinced their devices are eavesdropping on their conversations. Most marketers insist that’s not the case, and their use of other targeting signals has gotten so sophisticated that it just feels like your […]

Under The Hood When Gary Numan sang, “Here in my car, I feel safest of all,” he didn’t know about the rapacious data collection practices of modern-day automakers. Ars Technica reports that, late last week, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) sent letters to 14 car companies, including Ford, GM, Honda and Hyundai, asking pointed questions about […]

GroupM and Magna release their global year-end industry growth forecasts, sharing their 2024 outlook for CTV, retail media and the advertising industry overall.

Warner Bros. Discovery continues to lose subscribers to a lack of original content (for which it blames the Hollywood actors’ strike). But streaming advertising revenue, which is up 29% YOY, represents a glimmer of hope.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Thanks For Not Sharing Non-advertising companies can end up with strange new incentive structures when they start collecting ad dollars. For instance, the more Netflix’s ad revenue grows, the greater the internal pressure to crack down on password sharing. Previously, Netflix could turn […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Search And Discovery The Department of Justice’s antitrust suit against Google began in earnest this week, with Google economist Hal Varian taking the stand and both sides presenting their opening arguments. The case could have major repercussions, just like the government’s 1990s antitrust […]

YouTube is now a rival to TV networks. Yet many networks still post their content to the platform via friendly licensing agreements. In the current war for viewer attention, this is a potentially crippling move.

Streaming services still need new subscribers, but account growth alone isn’t enough to achieve profitability. Which may explain why they’re struggling to grow accounts and advertising revenue at the same time.

Warner Bros. Discovery lost 1.8 million global streaming subscribers this quarter, but streaming ad revenue is up 25% YOY, thanks to the merged company’s new streaming service, Max.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Looking For ADvice No one likes cruddy TV ads. But how much of a problem are they, really? Enough for Comcast-owned FreeWheel to unveil The Viewer Experience Lab at Cannes in partnership with research company MediaScience. The lab will test consumer responses to […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Currency Contest Can the TV industry’s currency debate get any hotter? (For something so in the weeds, that is.) Guess so. Nielsen has formally repudiated the broadcaster-backed joint industry committee’s (JIC) video standards agreement. In a letter to OpenAP, the data vendor behind […]

Warner Bros. Discovery announced the birth of its new streaming service, Max, combining HBO Max and Discovery+ content offerings. Starting May 23, HBO Max will be no more – but Discovery+ gets to also remain a standalone app.

AppLovin is looking at software as its main cash cow. Going forward, the company told investors that plans to prioritize its software platform and focus less on its apps business. Software is now responsible for 40% of AppLovin’s revenue compared with 14% when the company went public in April of last year.