Agency & Consulting
Emmys ratings sink 10%, but Apple TV dominates with 29 wins
This year’s Emmys drew just 6.7 million viewers, down 10% from last year, even as NBCU touted 133 million social video views.
Disney unwinds DTC co-presidency, hands Adam Smith sole control
Six months after naming Adam Smith and Joe Earley co-presidents of direct-to-consumer, Disney has made Smith sole leader as Chairman, Direct-to-Consumer. Earley moves to Disney Entertainment Television to run franchise and content strategy under Debra O’Connell.
Automotive TV spending falls 15.4% in August, sports still dominant
Automakers spent $72.5 million on national linear TV in August, down from $85.7 million a year ago, per iSpot.tv. Household impressions fell 20.2%, while NFL preseason alone drew over 22% of auto industry outlay.
New study puts streaming tech spend at 16.4% of revenue
Bedrock and DPP surveyed 15 major US and European streaming platforms and found a median “Streaming Platform Ratio” of 16.4% of revenue spent on tech, versus Netflix’s disclosed 10%.
Nielsen study: pairing digital audio with CTV nearly doubles brand recall
A Nielsen and Katz Digital brand-lift study of 600 D.C.-area adults found unaided recall of 37 percent for audio-only and 37 percent for CTV-only ads, versus 65 percent when both formats reached the same person.
Why performance advertisers should look back to linear TV
Dave Morgan argues CTV’s performance plateau is an inventory problem: only 15% of TV ad viewing time is streamed even though streaming accounts for 50% of content viewing, and most of that ad inventory is locked up in upfront and linear-forest deals.
In-store retail media to stay under 1% of ad spend through 2028
eMarketer projects in-store retail media spend will top $1 billion by 2028, growing faster than online formats through 2027, yet still make up less than 1% of total omnichannel retail media ad spending.
CTV’s show-level data gains don’t yet translate into show-level buying
CTV buyers are getting better show-level reporting, but a Tatari executive writes that major exchanges still don’t offer scaled show-level optimization as a standard product.
IAB’s Creator Fronts exposes how fractured creator ad budgets remain
At the IAB’s inaugural Creator Fronts, the trade group forecast creator ad spending will eclipse $44 billion this year and pushed for standardized ways to find, contract and measure creators.
Sam’s Club adds predictive targeting, claims 94% accuracy on P&G test
Sam’s Club Connect launched Predictive Precision Targeting, using membership data and 400-plus intent signals to forecast purchases.
Nielsen halves the lag on its Streaming Top 10, to two weeks
Nielsen cut the reporting delay on its weekly Streaming Top 10 charts from four weeks to two, citing improved analytics capabilities. The company calls it the most significant enhancement to Streaming Content Ratings since the metric launched in 2017.
CTV set to overtake linear in healthcare and pharma TV by 2028
EMARKETER projects connected TV will surpass traditional TV in healthcare and pharma ad spending by 2028. The shift reflects advertisers chasing targetable, measurable inventory as linear audiences keep shrinking.
SAGE data: Wendy’s value messaging beats humor and sports tie-ins on likeability
iSpot’s SAGE AI analyzed Wendy’s 2026 TV ads, finding value/price messaging the top likeability and purchase-intent driver, ahead of humor and sports tie-ins.
Nielsen moves streaming ratings to daily delivery, matching linear TV speed
Nielsen is shifting Streaming Content Ratings from weekly to daily reporting, cutting delivery time by up to 80%. Clients get data each business day for viewing two days prior, and Streaming Top 10 reports move up by two weeks.
Roku launches 30 streaming bundles across Premium Subscriptions storefront
Roku is rolling out 30 bundle combinations of services like AMC+, Fox One and Starz through its Premium Subscriptions storefront, its first bundles offered there, with savings of up to 30% versus buying each service alone.
Brands can claim log-level campaign data as their own first-party asset
A commentary argues brands can request log-level campaign data, including hashed viewer data, free from buying platforms. Loaded into a CRM, it lets brands find who watched most of a CTV ad and retarget them on Facebook or Instagram.
Sam’s Club Connect launches predictive targeting for future, not past, purchases
Sam’s Club Connect debuted tools that predict future purchases rather than retarget past ones, including churn-prevention segments and audiences likely to buy big-ticket items like TVs based on adjacent category signals.
Sony pitches PS5 FAST channels as a hard-to-reach ad audience
Sony TV chief Keith Le Goy says the console’s 40-50 million engaged users are a rare shot at gamers who are traditionally hard for linear channels and advertisers to reach.
Flexcar’s single Netflix ad spikes site traffic 22x
A one-time Flexcar spot during Netflix’s lone Thursday Night Football broadcast drove site traffic up as much as 22 times baseline, crashing Flexcar’s website for about an hour and lifting organic search 156 percent.
Perplexity builds out creator-marketing role with multi-million budget
Perplexity quietly filled a creator-marketing lead role paying $175,000 to $225,000, overseeing campaigns past 100 creators and reviewing “builds” made with Perplexity Computer for authenticity, per Digiday.
Giggly Squad podcast lands SiriusXM deal after $150M bidding war
Hannah Berner and Paige DeSorbo signed a new multi-year deal with SiriusXM for their podcast Giggly Squad. Three suitors competed for the show, with offers reaching $150 million before SiriusXM won out, per The Ankler’s reporting.
Broadcasters admit TV only needs a fraction of their spectrum
Sinclair, Nexstar and Gray executives now say ATSC 3.0 lets them deliver core broadcast service on as little as 2 MHz of a 6 MHz channel.
TVREV’s Hot List rounds up 18 think pieces on AI, influencers and fragmentation
TVREV’s newsletter curates 18 original think pieces from its analysts and sister pub The Measure, spanning IBC fragmentation, AI in ad production, influencer marketing and local TV’s political ad boom.
NFL ad revenue stays 80% linear even as streaming catches up elsewhere
EMarketer’s Ross Benes says the NFL still draws over 80% of ad revenue from linear TV, four times streaming’s share, even as converged TV in the broader market nears parity.
FreeWheel adds attention and emotion signals to CTV inventory packaging
FreeWheel’s Premium Signal Packaging now folds in data from Mediaprobe, Adelaide and Magid, letting CTV buyers select inventory by attention, quality and emotional resonance. A FreeWheel-Mediaprobe study found six-minute hourly ad loads drove 89% higher recall than twelve-minute loads.