Agency & Consulting
V pitches screen-size and location as the new TV ad currency
TVREV’s Alan Wolk reports that V CEO Guy Edri has proposed VIP, or Verified Inch Price, a measurement system that would let advertisers buy and sell across streaming and linear using TV screen size and the demographics of the set’s location.
Higher borrowing costs reshape who can buy media assets
Axios’s Kerry Flynn and Sara Fischer report that rising borrowing costs are reshaping media M&A, favoring cash-rich companies and strategic investors over buyers that depend on debt.
Hollywood’s M&A playbook shifts from scale to scarcity
Axios’ Kerry Flynn and Sara Fischer report that after a decade of failed megamergers, media dealmakers are no longer chasing scale for its own sake.
Sports, live events and data top media’s deal wishlist
Axios’s Kerry Flynn and Sara Fischer report that sports, live events, original IP and proprietary data are the hottest assets in media dealmaking right now.
Reddit tests AI-generated review summaries pulled from user threads
The New Things’ Joanna Stern reports that Reddit has launched Reddit Reviews, a test feature that aggregates forum conversations into crowdsourced, AI-generated product review summaries.
UK SVoD homes top 21m, but growth is now about stacking services
Advanced Television reports that Barb’s Establishment Survey found 21 million UK homes (71 per cent) had SVoD access in Q3 2026, up only 290,000 from Q2.
Fake headhunters are scamming TV executives with $400K job offers
The Ankler reports that TV executives now have to worry whether the jobs they’re being offered even exist, as an elaborate new breed of hiring scam preys on the desperation of an industry in crisis with fake recruiters dangling dream jobs.
Campaign’s Information newsletter rounds up UK Christmas ad reactions and agency news
Campaign’s Lucy Shelley reports that this week’s Information bulletin covers Morrisons’, Waitrose’s and Lidl’s 2026 Christmas ads, plus a pitch update, movers and shakers, and a podcast debating whether advertising awards still hold weight.
Madison and Wall: 3Q26 ad earnings show growth slowing, not stalling
Madison and Wall reports that 3Q26 earnings show advertising growth slowing broadly, with Google down to 11% from 13% and Amazon to 12% from 26%, while Meta and Unity accelerated.
eMarketer: Amazon’s product-mapping push aims to own shopping discovery
eMarketer’s Rachel Wolff reports that Amazon wants to map the world’s products to own shopping discovery, a project she says underpins how the company plans to compete as AI tools reshape how consumers search for and find products to buy.
Pluto TV lands ‘Two and a Half Men’ in free-streaming debut
Variety’s Michael Schneider reports that Pluto TV will stream “Two and a Half Men” for the first time ever, part of a five-series output deal with Warner Bros. TV that also brings “Veronica Mars,” “Martin,” “The Jamie Foxx Show” and “The Wayans Bros.” to the AVOD platform starting November 15.
Consumers refile suit to unwind Skydance’s $110B Paramount-WBD deal
The Hollywood Reporter’s Winston Cho reports that consumers refiled a lawsuit seeking to unwind Skydance’s $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, citing the planned HBO Max-Paramount+ bundle and DC Studios leadership ouster as proof of consolidated power.
eMarketer: independent agencies beat holding cos in AI recommendations
eMarketer’s Eleni Digalaki reports that independent agencies outshine industry giants in AI-generated recommendations across 28 categories, though visibility doesn’t always translate into top rankings, with AI platforms favoring different brands and sources than traditional search.
Netflix’s Natalee Holloway doc tops Samba’s weekly streaming chart
TheWrap reports that “Taken: Natalee Holloway” debuted at No. 1 on Samba’s Weekly Wrap Report chart, with Netflix now claiming six of the last seven weekly chart toppers, while Paramount+‘s “Tulsa King” and “MobLand” held second and third.
Netflix emerges as top bidder-in-waiting for a spun-off NBCUniversal
Variety’s Todd Spangler reports industry sources uniformly point to Netflix as the leading candidate to acquire NBCUniversal after its mid-2027 Comcast spinoff, with Morningstar estimating NBCU could fetch sixty billion dollars from a motivated buyer.
Pizza Hut preps US media agency review under new ownership
Ad Age’s Brian Bonilla reports that Pizza Hut has submitted an RFI for its US media account, a precursor to a formal review, two months after Yum Brands sold the chain to a private equity firm.
IAB’s AI attribution push stalls on platform data gaps
Digiday’s Sara Guaglione reports that the IAB’s months-long effort to standardize AI attribution has hit a roadblock: publishers and measurement vendors lack visibility into what happens inside AI platforms.
Fanatics Studios to produce NBA All-Star events starting 2027
Sports Business Journal reports Fanatics Studio, the Fanatics-OBB joint venture, signed a multiyear deal with the NBA to handle creative and production for All-Star events starting in 2027, working alongside NBC Sports.
Movers & Shakers: McCann New York taps Britt Nolan as CEO, Gut expands studio
Campaign US reports that this week’s agency moves include McCann New York naming Britt Nolan CEO, Horizon Global landing Harley-Davidson’s global media business, and Gut expanding its in-house production studio Glory with new hubs in Mexico City and Buenos Aires.