The WIR: MFE Seeks €3.4 Billion Loan for ProSieben Plans, IPG Acquires Intelligence Node, and Madison and Wall Forecasts Trump Impact on TV Advertising

In this week’s Week in Review: MFE speaks to banks about funding ProSieben moves, IPG makes a commerce media play, and Madison and Wall forecast negative impacts of Trump’s election on TV advertising.

The Week in Tech

Experian Acquires Ad Tech Company Audigent

Data giant Experian has acquired Audigent, a data activation and identity business, for an undisclosed amount. Experian said the acquisition expands its marketing data and identity offering in the advertising ecosystem. According to the company, Audigent’s first-party publisher data and inventory network will add sell-side distribution to Experian’s capabilities. “Experian data and identity solutions already underpin much of today’s advertising spend,” said Scott Brown, Group President, Experian Financial and Marketing Solutions. “With our acquisition of Audigent, we’re bolstering our industry recognised best-in-class data and technology, enabling a better understanding of consumers and driving better outcomes for marketers.”

UK Government Extends Online Advertising Taskforce

Chris Bryant, the UK Minister of State for Data and Digital Infrastructure, has extended the term of the Online Advertising Taskforce by 12 months. The previous UK Government established the taskforce to explore how industry-led initiatives can help address illegal advertising and improve protections for children from age-restricted ads online. “The continued work of the Taskforce and its working groups will be very important to help us understand and address the issues facing the online advertising sector, particularly those around trust and transparency,” said Brant. “This will allow for further work in this area, with the work already completed enabling a sharper focus moving forward.” The move was welcomed by trade body IAB UK, which sits on the Taskforce, noting that “good progress” has been made to reduce the risk of harmful ads online. “It makes complete sense to extend the Taskforce to continue this valuable work,” said Christie Dennehy-Neil, Head of Policy & Regulatory Affairs at IAB UK.

OpenAI Discusses Introducing Ads

OpenAI, owner of ChatGPT, is in discussions over introducing ads to its products, according to the FT. The company has reportedly been hiring advertising talent from the likes of Meta and Google. OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said the business plans to be “thoughtful about when and where we implement” advertising.

Ipsos Prepares Kantar Acquisition Offer

Ipsos is in discussions with audience measurement company Kantar Media over a potential acquisition, the market research firm announced on Monday. The announcement confirms reports from Reuters that Ipsos is preparing to make an offer on Kantar’s TV ratings data division. The company cautioned that “there can be no certainty that any offer will be made”.

Teads Extends VIDAA Partnership for Exclusive Access to Home Screen Ads

Teads has extended its partnership with VIDAA USA, a smart TV operating system (OS), which grants the video ads business exclusive access to VIDAA’s native CTV home screen ads. The partnership offers advertisers in the US, Europe and APAC premium homescreen placements on TVs from Hisense, Toshiba, Scheider, Loewe, Leica and Akai. “Extending our exclusive partnership with VIDAA allows us to further support our global CTV strategy with an unrivaled offering that bridges the gap between digital and TV,’ said Teads Co-CEO Jeremy Arditi.

IAB Publishes Final In-Store Retail Media Standards

IAB and IAB Europe have finalised their in-store retail media standards, aiming to increase investment in the channel by providing clear industry definitions. The standards include media metrics such as ad loop duration, ad segments and ad units; impression metrics designed to ensure accurate measurement of ad visibility; and sales measurement metrics including recommended reporting durations. “These standards lay the groundwork for transparency and consistency in in-store retail media by focusing on what matters—clear definitions and measurement methodologies,” said Jeffrey Bustos, VP Measurement Addressability Data at IAB. “It’s about understanding the true impact of campaigns and driving better outcomes for brands and retailers. This collaborative effort is a big step forward for the industry.”

Innovid Partners with 51toCarbonZero for Carbon Reduction

Innovid, a specialist in converged TV advertising, has selected carbon platform 51toCarbonZero (51-0) to help reduce its carbon footprint. The platform enables companies to measure, manage, reduce and eliminate corporate emissions, according to 51-0, by recommending strategies for decarbonisation alongside the tools required to monitor progress. “Partnering with 51-0 is a major step in Innovid’s commitment to reducing carbon impact—not just for us, but for the entire ad ecosystem,” said David Fahey, SVP Strategic Agency Partnerships at Innovid. “With visibility into over a billion video ad impressions daily, we see the sustainability issues that need fixing. This collaboration will help us drive environmental change at scale.”

The Week in TV

Sky Media Announces Insight Tools, Biddable Inventory and FAST Expansion

Sky Media, the UK broadcaster’s sales house, unveiled new advertising opportunities at its Sky Media Connects showcase last week. Sky revealed new insight tools, Sky Media IQ and Project Norman, built on its data and campaign measurement capabilities, as well as new ad opportunities in women’s sport and the Premier League. The company also announced the expansion of its free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels to the VIDAA operating system, alongside biddable inventory via The Trade Desk, and the roll-out of voice-activated ads.

David Ellison Plans TV Networks and Leadership Cuts at Paramount

Skydance Media CEO David Ellison is planning “sweeping changes” at Paramount Global upon their merger next year, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. According to sources familiar with the moves, Ellison is planning to cut Paramount’s TV business, potentially combining all the TV networks, including CBS and MTV, into a single unit. The report suggests Ellison also plans to pump “billions of dollars” into streaming, and trim Paramount’s trio of CEOs, raising questions over Chris McCarthy’s future at the company.

DAZN Makes $1 Billion Bet on Club World Cup

Sports streaming specialist DAZN has acquired exclusive global broadcasting rights for next year’s revamped FIFA Club World Cup, FIFA has announced, in a deal reported to be worth $1 billion. Under the terms of the deal, DAZN will make all 63 matches from the 2025 tournament available for free on its platform worldwide, meaning that advertising will presumably be the primary revenue driver from DAZN. The streamer will have the option to sublicense matches to local free-to-air networks in individual markets. Read more on VideoWeek.

Channel 4 Signs Up StackAdapt for Private Marketplace Sales

Channel 4 this week announced a new partnership with demand-side platform StackAdapt, which gives the latter access to Channel 4’s inventory for programmatic buys. The two say the partnership will open up international buyers’ ability to buy ads on Channel 4. “[This week’s] news is another step in Channel 4 Sales’ effort to create the best advertising experience in the market, building on the unique ability of broadcaster VOD (BVOD) services to captivate and retain desirable audiences,” said Fatima Dowlet, Channel 4 Sales’s head of streaming and social propositions. “Through the enhancements to our private marketplace, we’re giving advertisers more choice in buying brand-safe broadcaster video programmatically across platforms.”

UK Broadcaster App Freely Signs Up New Broadcast Partners

Freely, the free streaming service launched by the UK’s public service broadcasters (PSB), announced a slate of new content agreements this week. The partnerships bring content from AMC Networks International UK (AMCNI UK), PBS America, GB News and QVC to the CTV app. Everyone TV, the PSB-owned joint venture that operates Freely, said the deals expand the total content offering on the streaming service to over 40 live channels, alongside 74,000 hours of on-demand content from 11 different content partners. The new content will arrive on Freely in early 2025, according to Everyone TV. Read more on VideoWeek.

ITVX Viewing Hours Up 35 Percent Since Launch

Viewing hours on ITVX have grown 35 percent in the two years since its launch, ITV announced ahead of the BVOD service’s second anniversary. Highlights from the two-year period included 133 million streams during Euro 2024, 640 million for Love Island, and 1.5 billion across drama content. “Mr Bates vs The Post Office is the most watched UK drama of 2024, bigger than anything on any other channel or streamer,” added Kevin Lygo, Managing Director of Media and Entertainment at ITV. “And when England defeated The Netherlands to make it into the Euro 2024 final, our coverage peaked with 21.6 million viewers, that’s the biggest sporting audience of the year.”

The Week for Publishers

Future Reports Flat Revenues for 2024, but Saw Strong Organic Growth in H2

UK publishing group Future released its full year financial results this week, reporting flat revenue year-on-year. But adverse US exchange rates brought total revenues down, and Future reported one percent organic growth across the year, with five percent organic growth in H2 specifically.

Even on an organic basis, US revenues struggled, down by six percent. Again, Future said conditions improved in H2, with digital ad revenues returning to organic growth. And the UK market performed much better, recording six percent organic growth across the full year.

Perplexity Signs Partnerships with The Independent, RTL Deutschland, LA Times and More

AI-powered search business Perplexity this week announced a number of new revenue sharing partnerships with major publishers including The Independent, the LA Times, and RTL Deutschland among others. The deals will see publishers receive a share of ad revenue whenever their content is referenced by Perplexity, though exact terms of the deals have not been disclosed.

Musk Confirms Link Throttling on X

X owner Elon Musk this week essentially confirmed suspicions that the platform throttles posts containing links to external content, reducing the platform’s ability to drive traffic to publisher sites. Musk responded to one user commenting on link throttling, stating that posts aren’t affected if the link is included in a reply rather than the original post. He also retweeted a comment stating that including external links in X posts limits their potential reach.

Elon Musk effectively admits that posts with links are throttled. If you’ve been wondering why your posts with links to journalistic articles haven’t been getting nearly the engagement you would expect, this is why. I have less and less reason to be here. pic.twitter.com/JjwgH6raeu

— stevanzetti.bsky.social (@stevanzetti) November 25, 2024

Green Energy Industrialist Dale Vince Flags Interest in Observer Acquisition

Dale Vince, owner of green energy business Ecotricity, has expressed his interest in buying The Guardian’s Sunday sister newspaper The Observer. Fellow UK news outlet Tortoise is currently in talks to buy The Observer, a move which has ignited strikes from some staff at The Guardian. Vince said in a statement that “should there be a problem concluding [the Tortoise] deal I would like to enter negotiations and would be interested in the idea of holding the title in a trust,” though he didn’t provide detail on any plans for the newspaper’s future.

Meta to Face Spanish Publisher Trial Next October

Meta will have to go to trial next October over an unfair competition complaint filed by a coalition of more than 80 Spanish publishers, a Madrid court ruled this week. The AMI media association alleges that Meta did not follow European data laws between 2018 and 2023, gaining a significant competitive advantage in the advertising market in the process. The publishers claim damages of over €550 million.

Italy’s Data Protection Watchdog Warns GEDI Over AI Deal

Italy’s data protection authority has issued a warning to Italian publisher GEDI, stating that it must not share any personal data it holds with OpenAI. The publisher, which runs Italian newspapers la Repubblica and La Stampa, signed a content licensing deal with OpenAI a few months back, giving the AI business access to its content. But Italy’s data authority has said there is a risk that personal data could be shared unlawfully.

“The digital archives of newspapers contain the stories of millions of people, with information, details and even extremely sensitive personal data that cannot be licensed without due care for use by third parties to train artificial intelligence,” said the regulator. “If GEDI, on the basis of the agreement signed with OpenAI, were to disclose to the latter the personal data contained in its archive, it could violate EU regulation, with all the consequences, including those of a sanctioning nature.”

The Week for Brands & Agencies

Dentsu Forecasts 5.9 Percent Growth in Global Ad Market Next Year

The global ad market is expected to have grown 6.8 percent year-on-year in 2024, according to a new forecast released by Japanese holding group Dentsu, while the UK-specific growth is pegged to reach 7.5 percent. Growth is predicted to slow slightly next year to 5.9 percent, though this is still higher than the rate of global economic growth expected in 2025.

CTV ad spend is forecasted to see continued strong growth, up by 18.4 percent in 2025, while online video advertising is predicted to grow by nine percent.

Phil Smith Steps Down as Director General of ISBA

Phil Smith, the director general of British advertiser trade association ISBA, has announced his intention to step down from the role in mid-2025. He will continue to support the ISBA-led cross media measurement initiative Origin, becoming Origin’s chair. A nominations committee to choose Smith’s successor has been appointed from ISBA’s council and officers, comprising Ben Rhodes, Taide Guajardo and Marg Jobling.

“Serving ISBA’s members has been the best role of my career,” said Smith. “I look forward to focusing my efforts on driving the success of Origin and will support the Nominations Committee in every way I can in finding an energetic new Director General to take ISBA as an agent of positive change to the next level.”

OMG Tops New Business Rankings for Q1-Q3

Omnicom Media Group has topped COMvergence’s new business ranking, which weighs up total business wins and retentions against business losses among media agencies, for the first three quarters of the year. OMG won and retained around $7.4 billion in new business over the period, beating out second placed Publicis Media which won and retained $5.2 billion in new business.

Source: COMvergence/Omnicom

Jellyfish Launches Share of Model

Digital marketing business Jellyfish this week launched its ‘share of model’ platform, which analyses how different large language models (LLMs) perceive brands, products, and services. The tool can help companies understand whether their online presences are helping them secure recommendations from LLMs whenever users ask for guidance, and then optimise keywords strategies, website text, and images in cases where more work is needed.

Use of Experiments to Measure Campaign Impact Doubled in 2024, finds WARC

When it comes to the tools used to measure a campaign’s impact, brand health tracking studies are the most commonly used, according to research released by WARC this week. Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed said they or their clients use brand health tracking studies, while econometrics and media mix modelling (MMM) are used by 45 percent, and attribution modelling is used by 42 percent.

Controlled experiments – such as conversion lift experiments, hold-out tests, and geo experiments – are less commonly used, with 36 percent of those surveyed saying they or their clients use controlled experiments to measure impact. But this is double the rate of the previous year, when only 18 percent reported using controlled experiments. Read more on VideoWeek.

UK Government Gives Clarity on Junk Food Ad Ban

The UK government confirmed this week it is to lay the secondary legislation for the incoming junk food advertising ban across online channels and a TV watershed, which will come into force on October 1st next year. The government has given clarity on exactly which types of products will be affected. The Advertising Association released a statement arguing that the legislation won’t have much impact in combatting childhood obesity, and urged the government to consider more holistic policies to tackle the problem.

Hires of the Week

Nagmeh Taheri Joins IPG Mediabrands as Chief Growth Officer

Nagmeh Taheri has left Publicis Media and joined Interpublic Group’s IPG Mediabrands as chief growth officer, Campaign reported this week. Taheri was chief business development officer at Publicis Media for over three years, and has also previously worked for Yonder Media and Wavemaker.

Goodstuff Chooses Genevieve Tompkins as First CEO

Stagwell-owned media agency Goodstuff has chosen Genevieve Tompkins as its first CEO. Tompkins has worked for Goodstuff since 2019, most recently holding the role of chief client experience officer.

Austin Scott Joins Bedrock Platform as Chief Commercial Officer

Media curation and trading business Bedrock Platform this week announced it has appointed Austin Scott as chief commercial officer and co-founding partner. Scott joins Bedrock from Microsoft, where she was most recently director of partner sales for its programmatic platform Monetize.

PubMatic Promotes Harpreet Kallah to Associate Marketing Director, UK & MENA

PubMatic has announced that Harpreet Kallah has been promoted to the position of associate marketing director, UK & MENA. In this new role, Kallah will lead strategic marketing efforts across the UK and MENA regions, according to PubMatic, collaborating closely with the company’s local commercial teams and the global marketing team to develop unified strategies for these high-growth markets.