The WIR: Spotify Starts Paying Creators for Video Content, UK Pushes Ahead with Junk Food Ads Ban, and BBC Rules Out Ads in Licence Fee Talks

In this week’s Week in Review: Spotify set to start paying video creators, BBC rules out ads as alternative to licence fee, and UK pushes ahead with a junk food ad ban.

The Week in Tech

Google’s US Ad Tech Antitrust Trial Kicks Off

The antitrust trial filed against Google by the US Department of Justice and a number of states, accusing Google of anticompetitive behaviour in the ad tech market, kicked off this week. The opening week of the trial featured testimony from a range of ex-Googlers, ad tech CEOs, and publisher executives.

One focus during the first week was Google’s efforts to advantage its own sell-side tools by giving them exclusive access to demand from its own buy-side tools as much as possible. There was also a lot of discussion of Google’s efforts to fight back against header bidding, which made it easier for rival supply-side platforms to compete with its own AdX exchange. Google meanwhile maintained its position that the market it’s accused of dominating – digital display advertising on the open web – isn’t a real market. Google says that it competes with social platforms and in-app ad businesses, as well as rival ad tech businesses which operate across the open web.

Adobe Previews Text-to-Video GenAI Tools Launching This Year

Adobe has announced that its Firefly Video Model will be available in beta later this year, bringing a series of generative AI video tools to the company’s video editing software, including Premiere Pro and After Effects. The company released a series of previews for the tools, showcasing the capabilities in Adobe’s Creative Cloud applications, including text-to-video and image-to-video features. Firefly was launched in March 2023, enabling users to fill parts of a scene with AI-generated objects or automatically remove distractions from a video. Now the company says it has worked with the video editing community to advance the Firefly Video Model, allowing users to generate video to fill gaps in their timeline, and add new elements to existing footage. Read more on VideoWeek.

European Court of Justice Upholds Google Shopping Results Penalty

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has upheld the European Commission’s ruling that Google abused its dominant marketing position and misled consumers by favouring its own shopping service in its search results. The ECJ rejected the company’s appeal against a €2.4 billion fine, maintaining that the tech giant withheld important offers from consumers, with the aim of deliberately disadvantaging competitors. The ruling comes as Google goes to trial against the US Department of Justice over its alleged ad tech monopoly.

YouTube Introduces Pause Ads on CTV

YouTube has begun to introduce pause ads on its CTV app, 9to5Google reported on Wednesday. In May 2024, Google announced that YouTube would introduce new ad formats on smart TVs, including pause ads. No timeline was given for the roll-out, but users have reportedly started to notice the ads when they pause YouTube videos on their TVs.

OKAST Launches European Consortium for AVOD and FAST Advertising

OKAST, a video and audio streaming platform developer, today announced the launch of an EU-funded consortium for the development of a new solution for optimising advertising in ad-supported streaming environments. The ASAP4EU (Advertisement Solutions and Analytics Platform) consortium aims to accelerate the development of a European advertising network, specifically built for ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services. Read more on VideoWeek.

ISBA Pushes for Financial Audits to Become Commonplace in Programmatic

UK advertiser trade group ISBA this week released an update to tools which help advertisers run audits of their programmatic supply chains. These tools include a letter which advertisers can send to vendors asking for log level data, guidelines on how this data should be provided, and guidelines on how it can be used (as some vendors expressed privacy concerns about sharing data during ISBA’s studies). ISBA hopes that these tools will make programmatic financial transactions a more routine part of running programmatic campaigns. Read more on VideoWeek.

Smartclip Brings SSP Orchestration to Smartx

smartclip, RTL Group’s ad tech unit, has introduced supply-side platform (SSP) orchestration within smartx, its proprietary ad server and SSP. This allows media owners to manage inventory through a variety of third-party SSP partners, and optimise yield through a unified auction. “As the media landscape evolves and the lines between supply and demand platforms blur, simplifying the growing complexity for our partners is crucial,” said smartclip CPO Gloria Eichler. “That’s why we are extending our capabilities to connect to different ecosystems, allowing our broadcaster and publisher partners to leverage additional buy-side relationships while staying in full control of their supply path and data flow.”

OpenAI in Funding Talks at $150 Billion Valuation

OpenAI, the tech firm behind ChatGPT, DALL-E and Sora, is in talks to raise $6.5 billion from investors at a valuation of $150 billion, according to Bloomberg. The report notes that the new valuation is significantly higher than the $86 billion valuation from the company’s tender offer earlier this year, and makes OpenAI one of the most valuable startups in the world. The company declined to comment.

Australian Meta Users Unable to Opt-Out of Having Posts Scraped to Train AI

Facebook and Instagram users in Australia have not been given the option to opt-out of having their posts scraped to train Meta’s AI, a parliamentary inquiry into AI adoption in Australia has heard. European users can opt-out under GDPR, but the tech giant would not confirm whether the option would be offered to Australians in the future. “I do think the people around the world are sick of tech companies, giants … doing whatever they want, completely ignoring laws and rights as they go because having those things taken off people, they feel as if their inherent right has been taken off them,” said senator Tony Sheldon, Labor’s chair of the inquiry. “I do expect governments to do something about it.”

The Week in TV

Online News Consumption Overtakes TV in UK

Ofcom has found that online news sources have overtaken TV as the primary source of news consumption among UK adults. The report, ‘News consumption in the UK: 2024’, also found that more than half the UK population now uses social media as a news source, while newspapers (both online and in print) continue their steep decline. The watchdog is also launching a review into public service media, including how PSB news is made available to audiences online.

“Television has dominated people’s news habits since the sixties, and it still commands really high trust,” said Yih-Choung Teh, Group Director, Strategy and Research at Ofcom. “But we’re witnessing a generational shift to online news, which is often seen as less reliable – together with growing fears about misinformation and deepfake content. Ofcom wants to secure high-quality news for the next generation, so we’re kicking off a review of the public service media that help underpin the UK’s democracy and public debate.”

Channel 4 Extends Yospace Ad Insertion Partnership

Channel 4 has extended its partnership with Yospace, a dynamic ad insertion specialist, which sees the Channel 4 streaming service use Yospace’s server-side ad insertion (SSAI) technology. The deal takes the duo to more than 10 years of collaboration. “Channel 4 is a true pioneer of streaming and advertising and we are proud to continue our successful partnership,” said Yospace CEO Tim Sewell. “The broadcaster was one of the first companies in the world to leverage SSAI for addressable video streaming at scale and is still leading the way in advertising innovation for big screens.”

TF1 Partners with Magnite for Programmatic Sales

TF1 PUB has partnered with Magnite, a supply-side platform (SSP), to provide access to the French broadcaster’s programmatic demand. By integrating into TF1’s advertising stack, the SSP will help monetise video inventory on the TF1+ streaming service. “We’re pleased that TF1 has chosen to work with Magnite to streamline their programmatic capabilities,” said Leon Siotis, Senior Vice President, SpringServe International at Magnite. “We look forward to unlocking new opportunities as they grow their business and supporting their diverse slate of content with engaging advertising experiences across different screens and formats.”

Time Spent with Commercial Media Has Risen Since the Pandemic, Finds IPA

UK adults spend 64 percent of their media consumption time with commercial media, according to the IPA’s latest Making Sense: The Commercial Media Landscape report. Time spent with commercial media has risen by four percent since the 2020 lockdown, suggesting the “subscription-based services which were formerly seen as taking commercial media share” are not eroding that commercial proposition to the extent previously anticipated.

The IPA highlights the contribution of new ad tiers on streaming services, such as Netflix and Disney+, finding that 11 percent of UK adults consume part ad-funded commercial SVOD each week – a higher weekly reach than cinema. Commercial TV meanwhile (including live, recorded and BVOD) has fallen below 90 percent weekly reach among all adults, but still delivers “substantial scale in terms of both reach and time spent.” Read more on VideoWeek.

The Week for Publishers

New York Sun Owner Bids for The Telegraph

Dovid Efune, owner of conservative US newspaper the New York Sun, has put in a bid to acquire British newspaper The Telegraph, Semafor reported this week. Efune, who is reportedly working with a number of other US investors on the bid, is understood to be competing with publishing group National World and hedge fund boss Paul Marshall to buy the newspaper. Following an initial proposal, Efune has been invited to provide a second round bid by the end of the month.

News Corp Faced $9 Million Revenue Loss from Ditching Google’s Ad Tech

News Corp. concluded in 2017 that it would lose $9 million in ad revenues if it moved away from Google’s publisher ad tech stack, ex-executive Stephanie Layser testified at Google’s ad tech trial in Virginia this week. Layser said the company had considered switching away from Google’s tools, particularly after Google made a number of product changes which News Corp felt weren’t in publishers’ interests. But switching away from Google would mean losing access to Google’s exclusive demand, which accounted for around $9 million in annual revenues.

Paul Marshall Acquires The Spectator for £100 Million

Hedge fund manager Paul Marshall this week acquired The Spectator, a right-leaning UK magazine, for £100 million. The Spectator had been on sale alongside The Telegraph (which Marshall is also bidding for) after investment group RedBird IMI’s takeover was blocked by the UK government, due to ties with Abu Dhabi. Marshall said he plans to fix “underinvestment” in the title, and will work to expand its reach across English speaking markets.

Newsquest Reports Audience and Subscription Growth

UK local news publishing group Newsquest is seeing continued growth in its overall digital audience, with August page views up 13 percent year-on-year, according to Press Gazette. Chief executive Henry Faure Walker said the growth demonstrated “phenomenal demand” for local news in the UK. Newsquest is also seeing continued growth in its subscription offerings, which give access to extra content and a lighter ad load. Total subscriptions have now passed 100,000 across its titles.

Activist Investor Starboard Challenges Murdoch’s Grip on News Corp

Hedge fund Starboard Value has filed a shareholder resolution which would get rid of News Corp’s dual class share structure, weakening Rupert Murdoch’s control over the company, Reuters reported this week. News Corp’s current structure gives Murdoch 40 percent control of voting rights with an equity stake of 14 percent. The resolution would not be binding, but nonetheless represents a significant challenge to Murdoch’s grip on the company, according to Reuters. The timing is significant, since Murdoch is currently locked in a legal battle with his children over his plans to pass control of News Corp to his son Lachlan upon his death.

The Week for Brands & Agencies

Cost of Pitching Rises as Agencies Take More Targeted Approach

The average cost of an agency pitch in the UK has risen by 26 percent over the past year, according to data from Campaign, topping £50,000. The rise comes as agencies take a more targeted approach to pitching, contesting fewer accounts but investing more in those they wish to compete for, according to Campaign.

Havas Acquires Digital Data Agency DPMG

Havas this week announced its acquisition of DPMG, a global digital agency based in the UK, for an undisclosed fee. DMPG provides digital data technology services including customer experience strategy; digital analytics design, implementation and adoption; experience optimisation programme creation; and execution and omnichannel data activation support, according to Havas. DMPG will be folded into Havas Media Network’s data, tech and analytics consultancy CSA.

Coca-Cola Sees Curation as Critical to Open Web Investment

Drinks brand Coca-Cola is investing heavily in advertising on the open web, and sees curation as a critical tool for helping it do so efficiently, according to James Trott, Coca-Cola’s senior director of addressable media operations. Speaking at ATS London, Trott said the company had previously been focussed on supply-path optimisation, but that it is now exploring curation as a means of maintaining quality within open web programmatic buying.

Dentsu Launches ‘House of Creators’ on Roblox

Japanese holding group Dentsu this week launched ‘House of Creators’, a new initiative designed to support creators on social platforms and help match them up with relevant brands. Initially, House of Creators will specifically target creators on popular video game Roblox. Dentsu says the programme will identify promising creators and support them with content development, and then match existing IP with Roblox creators, help creators work with brands, and help creators extend their own IP into other media channels.

Spark Foundry Reports Drop in Diversity in UK Advertising

Representation levels in UK advertising have dropped by seven percent compared with last year, according to new research from Spark Foundry, with noticeable declines among People of Colour, LGBTQ+ members, and neurodivergent individuals. The research found that TV and YouTube ads lead in terms of inclusivity and are continuing to improve – representation in TV ads increased by 11 percent for TV ads and 17 percent for YouTube ads over the past year.

Kantar Finds Mismatch Between Advertisers’ and Brands Preferred Media Channels

Amazon and TikTok are global consumers’ two favourite media channels for advertising, according to new research from Kantar, with Instagram, Google, and Netflix rounding out the top five. Advertisers meanwhile placed YouTube as their preferred channel, followed by Instagram, Google, Netflix, and Spotify in that order.

Kantar’s research threw up some counterintuitive findings when breaking down age groups. Baby boomers listed TikTok – the defining media platform of Gen Z in the eyes of many – as their favourite media channel for ads. Gen Zers themselves meanwhile picked Amazon, Facebook, and Google as their preferred channels.

US Employment in Ad Sector Continues to Fall

Total employment in advertising, public relations and related services fell by 1,200 jobs in August, according to AdAge’s analysis on data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This was the sixth drop in the past seven months according to AdAge – total ad employment reached a peak of 523,000 in April this year, but has fallen by 3,300 since then.

Hires of the Week

IAS Announces New COO and CPO
Integral Ad Science, an ad tech business focused on ad measurement and verification, has appointed Marc Grabowski as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Srishti Gupta as Chief Product Officer (CPO). Grabowski previously worked as Global Vice President at Oracle Advertising, while Gupta served as Chief Product Officer at Rokt.

Index Exchange Names John Tigg SVP Buyer Development, Europe

Index Exchange, a supply-side platform (SSP), has announced the appointment of John Tigg as Senior Vice President, Buyer Development, Europe. The newly developed role will see Tigg responsible for driving growth for marketers across Europe, including managing supply path optimisation (SPO) initiatives. Tigg joins from Yieldmo where he was EVP, Global Buyer Development.

Spark Foundry UK Appoints Venya Wijegoonewardene as CSO

Spark Foundry UK, a Publicis agency, has named Venya Wijegoonewardene as Chief Strategy Officer. Wijegoonewardene previously served as SVP of Strategy and Planning at Brainlabs, a digital media agency.