The WIR: Canal+ Makes “Tepid” Stock Market Debut, UK Publishers Call on Government to Protect Copyright, and Venu Sports Set for 2025 Trial

In this week’s Week in Review: Canal+ lands on the London Stock Exchange, UK publishers form coalition for copyright protection in AI policy, and a US judge blocks attempts to dismiss Venu Sports lawsuit.

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The Week in Tech

Ofcom “Fires Starting Gun” on Tech Firms with New Online Safety Guidance

UK communications regulator Ofcom has published its first codes of practice and guidance on tackling illegal harms, a move it describes as “firing the starting gun on new duties for tech firms”. Under the UK’s Online Safety Act, the new guidelines set out over 40 safety measures for platforms to introduce from March 2025. These include ensuring that moderation teams are appropriately resourced and trained, and children are protected from sexual abuse and exploitation online. “While we will offer support to providers to help them to comply with these new duties, we are gearing up to take early enforcement action against any platforms that ultimately fall short,” said Ofcom. “We have the power to fine companies up to £18 million or 10 percent of their qualifying worldwide revenue – whichever is greater – and in very serious cases we can apply for a court order to block a site in the UK.”

Supreme Court Will Hear TikTok Appeal Against US Ban

The US Supreme Court will hear TikTok’s appeal against the proposed ban due to come into force in January, the Court announced on Wednesday. Under new US law, parent company ByteDance will be forced to divest TikTok or the short-form video app will be banned in the country. After the Chinese firm appealed the legislation, the Supreme Court said it would hear arguments on 10th January.

Anzu Taps ID5 for Addressability in Gaming Ads

ID5, an identification services provider, has announced a new partnership with Anzu, an in-game advertising company, to enhance the addressability of Anzu’s gaming inventory. The partners said the agreement will enhance monetisation opportunities for game developers, while offering targeting and measurement options to advertisers. “According to ID5’s most recent ‘State of Digital Identity’ report, 90 percent of respondents believe the current identification system in gaming lacks transparency and control for users,” said Ben Fenster, Anzu’s Co-Founder and CPO. “At Anzu, we’re committed to changing this by collaborating with leading CMPs and identity providers to address these challenges. Our goal is to provide the gaming community with greater transparency and control over their data while ensuring that users remain addressable for advertisers.”

IAS Launches Attention Tools for Social and Programmatic

Integral Ad Science (IAS), an ad tech business focused on ad measurement and verification, has released an attention optimisation product in beta. The ‘Quality Attention Optimisation’ service will enable advertisers to optimise campaigns for attention across programmatic display and video, while an expanded partnership with Lumen for social attention will allow IAS customers to measure both programmatic and social media campaigns. “Marketers want to understand two things about their ad budgets, ‘is it working?’ and ‘what can I do about it?’”, said Srishti Gupta, Chief Product Officer at IAS. “Attention is rightly growing as a way to answer those questions, going beyond isolated metrics like viewability, to truly understand how consumers are engaging and interacting with brands’ ads.”

EDO and DoubleVerify Team Up for CTV Campaign Optimisation

EDO, a TV measurement company, has partnered with DoubleVerify (DV), a digital media measurement firm, to deliver optimisation services for CTV advertising. The partnership combines DV’s Scibids AI technology, which is designed to maximise ad performance and cost efficiency across DSPs, and EDO’s outcome measurement insights, enabling advertisers to optimise their CTV ad buys according to their desired campaign objectives. “Our work with DoubleVerify empowers advertisers to make smarter, more effective programmatic investments by giving them the syndicated, scaled mid-funnel metrics they need to predict and improve campaign performance,” said EDO CEO Kevin Krim.  “As consumers flock to CTV and audiences become more fragmented, outcomes like search and website visits provide brands with powerful signals that they are reaching the right consumers and moving them closer to purchase.”

TV Ads Drive Gaming Product Searches in LG Report

New research from LG Ad Solutions into “connected gamers” has found that 88 percent of UK console gamers have been driven to act after seeing a gaming TV ad in the past 12 months. According to the report, 51 percent of console gamers searched for a product online after seeing a gaming ad on TV, while 37 percent bought a gaming product. In addition, 72 percent of UK gamers said streaming TV ads are more relevant to them than “traditional” TV ads.

Instagram Forecast to Generate Half Meta’s Ad Revenues Next Year

Instagram will account for half Meta’s US ad revenues in 2025, according to estimates from Emarketer. The app contributed 27 percent of Meta’s total sales in 2021, rising to 30 percent in 2022. Next year, Instagram is forecast to generate $32 billion in ad revenue in the US alone, compared with 2021 when it made $32.4 billion globally.

The Week in TV

M6 Calls on Smartclip to Monetise Streaming Inventory

M6 Publicité, the French broadcaster’s sales house, has announced the integration of ad tech solutions from Smartclip, as the media group seeks to triple its streaming revenues to €200 million by 2028. Though both companies are owned by RTL, M6 previously used video ad tech business FreeWheel to monetise its ad inventory. “Our partnership with Groupe M6 marks a pivotal step in our commitment to the French TV industry,” said Smartclip Co-Ceo Thomas Servatius. “With a dedicated local team, we are ready to deliver tailored solutions that meet the unique needs of M6 Publicité and the broader market.”

Netflix Fined for GDPR Violations in the Netherlands

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) has fined Netflix €4.75 million for failure to properly inform customers about the use of their personal data between 2018 and 2020. The DPA opened the investigation in 2019, and concluded on Wednesday: “Netflix did not inform customers clearly enough in its privacy statement about what exactly Netflix does with those data. Furthermore, customers did not receive sufficient information when they asked Netflix which data the company collects about them. These are violations of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).” Netflix objected to the decision, and said it has since updated its privacy statement.

ITV and BBC to Share World Cup Rights

ITV and BBC Sport this week struck an agreement for shared live coverage of the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and 2030. The UK broadcasters will split the matches equally, and share the final for both tournaments. “We are looking forward to bringing these two tournaments free-to-air across ITV and ITVX,” said Niall Sloane, Director of Sport at ITV.

The Week for Publishers

Paywalls “Guarantee Journalistic Jobs” Says Bloomberg Editor

Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait gave a speech at City University last week, where he called paywalls “the safest way to guarantee journalistic jobs”. Micklethwait said that between Bloomberg’s paywalls for consumers and financial professionals (Bloomberg Terminal), around one million people pay for the publisher’s content. He added that automation was used in around one-third of Bloomberg’s articles, including scouring social media for keywords and using market data to prompt story ideas.

Tortoise Media Finalises Observer Acquisition

Tortoise Media, a digital news startup, has finalised an agreement to acquire UK Sunday newspaper The Observer. The deal will give the Scott Trust, the Observer’s current owner, a 9 percent stake in Tortoise Media, and will also commit £5 million to the company. Meanwhile Tortoise Media will invest £25 million in the 233-year-old newspaper. The agreement follows four days of strikes by Guardian and Observer staff in protest at the sale.

Ad-Blockers Continue to Impact Publisher Monetisation Despite Lower Use on Mobile

One in five internet users across almost 60 countries regularly use an ad-blocker, according to Press Gazette analysis of GWI data, negatively impacting “the ability of news publishers to monetise their traffic.” But the research noted that the number of regular ad-blocker users has gone down by 15 percent since 2021. “The last few years have also seen the continuing trend of more consumers saying their smartphone is their most-used device, not their PC,” said Chris Beer, Consumer and Tech Analyst at GWI. “And as ad-blockers are relatively harder to install on mobile, this ongoing trend in device usage may be a key factor.”

UK and US Publishers Hit by 2000+ Job Cuts in 2024

The UK and US media sectors were hit by more than 2,500 job cuts during the first nine months of 2024, according to Press Gazette. The hardest-hit media outlets include US publishers Gannett, Time and Hollywood Reporter, as well as UK outlets GB News, the Mail and The Times.

The Week for Brands & Agencies

US House Judiciary Committee Probes Omnicom and IPG Merger Over GARM Affiliation

The US House Judiciary Committee has launched a probe into Omnicom’s acquisition of Interpublic Group, the New York Post reported on Wednesday. The Committee will investigate the agencies’ association with GARM, the World Federation of Advertisers’ (WFA) brand safety initiative which shut down after being accused of anti-conservative bias by the House Judiciary Committee, and sued by Elon Musk’s X. Jim Jordan, the Republican Chairman of the Committee, has reportedly ordered the companies to preserve documents and all contact with the WFA and GARM.

Dentsu Launches Influencer Marketing System

Dentsu has launched an influencer and creator marketing system called Dentsu Influence, combining a new operating system and measurement capabilities. The agency group said Dentsu Influence provides access to a global network of creators across social platforms, and uses Generative AI to continuously analyse data to optimise campaign strategies. “Dentsu Influence harnesses audience and influencer insight to broker effective partnerships and measures impact through engagement quality, building trusted relationships between audiences, brands, and creators,” said Jessica Tamsedge, Exec Sponsor for Dentsu Influence EMEA.

Agency Bosses React to Omnicom’s IPG Acquisition

Stagwell CEO Mark Penn expressed surprise at Omnicom’s acquisition of Interpublic Group this week in an interview with Campaign, warning of a protracted process to merge the agency rivals. “They’re going to go through a year of regulatory review, then they’ll probably go through a year of reorganisation,” said Penn, adding, “I don’t think the industry needs another huge behemoth.” But the Stagwell CEO conceded that the merged entity “will be successful in ways that I haven’t predicted.”

Meanwhile WPP CEO Mark Read has described the tie-up as a “moment of opportunity” for the UK holding company in a memo to staff. “Clients will not have missed the fact that, in the last week or two, several of our competitors have spent a lot of time talking about themselves,” Read said in the memo seen by Adweek. “This is a moment of opportunity for WPP to stand out through an unwavering focus on our clients and their interests, not our own.”

Walmart Shares Have “Best Year Since 1998”

US retail giant Walmart is headed for “its best year since 1998”, according to Bloomberg, its share price up 78 percent since the start of the year. The report noted that rival US retailers, such as Dollar Tree and Dollar General, have slumped more than 40 percent over the same period. Walmart has diversified its revenues away from retail sales in recent years, moving into retail media and digital advertising. The company has made significant investments in its media business, Walmart Connect, and completed its acquisition of smart TV manufacturer Vizio earlier this month.

 

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