Agency & Consulting
Election Night news-watching spiked hardest in Texas, Madhive data shows
The Measure’s John Cassillo reports that Madhive data shows 63 of every 100 Texas TVs in use during primetime on Election Night were tuned to news, the highest share of any state.
TiVo’s Chinn: home screen is CTV’s most valuable ad real estate
TVREV’s Alan Wolk interviews TiVo Ads’ Craig Chinn, who argues advertisers still plan linear, streaming and home-screen as separate channels even though viewers experience them as one journey.
Skydance vows to remain sports power player despite WBD debt load
Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp reports that Skydance executive Kevin Creighton told investors the company holds more than three dozen premium sports agreements after combining CBS Sports and TNT Sports.
IAB report calls for shared standards in creator deal measurement
IAB is reporting that creator marketing budgets grew from $13.9 billion in 2021 to an expected $44 billion in 2026, and that sustaining that growth now requires more consistent measurement, contracting, payment, and reporting practices across the creator ecosystem.
Retail media’s consolidation wave arrives as DoorDash buys Instacart
Adweek’s Lauren Johnson reports that retail media’s long-awaited consolidation is landing in 2027, with more than two hundred fifty retail media networks now competing for ad dollars.
Next in Media: YouTube’s creator economy has haves and have-nots
Next in Media’s Mike Shields reports that YouTube’s creator ecosystem is stratifying, with a small tier of top creators capturing outsized brand deals, platform support and ad revenue while the long tail struggles for visibility.
IAB issues new guidance for measuring CTV pause and home screen ads
eMarketer’s Asa Hiken reports that the IAB released new guidance aimed at bringing clarity to how the industry measures pause ads and home screen ads on connected TV.
Doug Shapiro’s 11-point playbook for content firms facing AI commoditization
The Mediator’s Doug Shapiro argues GenAI delivers a direct hit to content creation, unlike the internet’s indirect disruption of distribution.
Omnicom names Tom Schwenger CEO of Omnicom Health marketing arm
Adweek’s Katie Duffy reports that Omnicom appointed Tom Schwenger, a former Veeva Systems president, as CEO of Omnicom Health’s marketing branch, succeeding Dana Maiman.
Skydance ends subscriber reporting, making streaming scale harder to gauge
eMarketer’s Marisa Jones reports that Skydance has stopped disclosing Paramount+ subscriber counts, following other media companies in pulling back from a metric that once anchored streaming’s growth story.
Publicis, WPP trade public jabs over pitchless agency wins
Marketing Brew’s Jasmine Sheena reports that Publicis Groupe posted a 16-paragraph Instagram rebuttal to WPP CEO Cindy Rose, who had criticized “pitchless CEO handshake” wins on WPP’s Q3 earnings call.
Texas election-night TV viewing swung heavily to news, Madhive data shows
The Measure reports that Madhive data found 63 of every 100 active Texas TVs tuned to news on Election night, with news capturing half of all ad minutes airing from 8pm to midnight statewide.
Paramount Skydance posts $73M profit as linear drag offsets streaming gains
TheWrap’s Lucas Manfredi reports Paramount Skydance posted a $73 million Q3 profit on $7 billion revenue, missing Wall Street’s 20-cents-per-share estimate, as streaming and studio growth were offset by continued linear TV ad and affiliate revenue declines.
CAA, Ogilvy launch AI platform to scale celebrity ad campaigns
The Hollywood Reporter’s Winston Cho reports that Ogilvy and CAA are launching ECHO, a platform letting brands generate AI ads from celebrities’ licensed digital likenesses stored in CAA’s “vault.”
Highdive launches first T-Mobile campaign with Bryan Cranston
MediaPost’s Fern Siegel reports that Highdive debuted its first work for T-Mobile, a Bryan Cranston-led campaign for the carrier’s new T-Mix plan.
Puck: Netflix insiders say Bajaria firing broke its own “keeper test” code
Puck’s Kim Masters reports that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos denied to Bela Bajaria that Peter Rice was getting her job days before firing her, then admitted to executives he wasn’t ready to have that talk.
IAB expands Open Measurement SDK to pause and home screen ads
MediaPost’s Wayne Friedman reports that the IAB is expanding its Open Measurement SDK to cover pause, home screen, screensaver and overlay ads on CTV.
Netflix’s new brand push shoots on 35mm, swaps shows by market
Marketing Dive’s Sara Karlovitch reports that Netflix launched “Find the Thing You Never Knew You Needed,” three 35mm spots plus the social series “Typecast,” running in Canada, the U.S., Brazil and Spain across paid social, broadcast, CTV and theaters.
Sesame Street rebuilds its business as a multi-platform brand, not a channel
The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin reports that after HBO declined to renew its output deal in late 2024 and federal public-media funding cuts forced layoffs, Sesame Workshop struck a new Netflix deal for subscription streaming with same-day PBS Kids airings.
Netflix holds US streaming lead as HBO Max leapfrogs Paramount Plus
TheDesk.net’s Matthew Keys reports that Parks Associates’ updated Streaming Video Tracker found Netflix used in 67 percent of American broadband households through September, up from 64 percent a year earlier.
IAB launches initiative to fix creator deal measurement and payment gaps
IAB’s Jianna Caronan reports that the trade group’s new Trusted Creator Brand Deal Initiative found 67% of industry leaders cite measurement as the top problem, with a common definition of a “view” the most-requested standard.
Shopify expands Campaign Autopilot, its pay-per-sale ad product
AdExchanger’s James Hercher reports that Shopify’s Campaign Autopilot, an agentic ad tool spanning Meta, Microsoft Advertising and Snapchat, now adds SEO optimization, with X in the pipeline, per VP Samir Pradhan.