The WIR: ITV Reports Return to Ad Growth, WPP Invests in Stability AI, and IAB UK Forecasts Demise of the Traditional Media Funnel

In this week’s Week in Review: ITV shares rise after strong results, WPP announces a new AI investment, and IAB sees major changes coming in the digital ad market.

The Week in Tech

Viant Acquires First-Party Data Business Lockr

Ad tech business Viant has announced the acquisition of Lockr, a first-party data collaboration platform, for an undisclosed amount. The firm plans to enable alternative IDs for publishers integrating their first-party data using Lockr, following Viant’s acquisition of CTV content data business IRIS.TV last year. “Similar to IRIS_ID, we plan to make Lockr’s solutions open to the entire ecosystem including other alternative identifiers, as Viant is committed to helping the broader open internet succeed,” said Viant CEO Tim Vanderhook.

ICO Investigates How TikTok, Reddit, and Imgur Use Children’s Data

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection authority, this week announced it is launching investigations into TikTok, Reddit, and Imgur relating to how they collect and use children’s data. The regulator says the three inquiries are part of a wider investigation into how video sharing platforms and social media businesses use children’s data. TikTok is being investigated over how it uses 13-17-year-olds’ personal information in order to make content recommendations. Reddit and Imgur meanwhile are being assessed on how they use children’s personal information, and which age assurance measures they use to estimate and verify individual users’ ages. Read more on VideoWeek.

Reddit Co-Founder Joins TikTok Bid

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, has joined a bid to acquire TikTok led by billionaire Frank McCourt, according to Reuters. McCourt’s internet advocacy group, Project Liberty, has organised a consortium of investors called The People’s Bid to buy the ByteDance-owned platform. Other interested parties reportedly include Microsoft, Oracle and Perplexity.

CTV Drives Nexxen Revenues Up 10 Percent

Ad tech company Nexxen posted 10 percent YoY revenue growth across 2024, led by 33 percent uplift in CTV revenue. The business also expects to invest more heavily in data, tech and generative AI in 2025, with a focus on enhancing Nexxen’s DSP and data platform. “Q4 capped off a strong and transformational year highlighted by all-time Contribution ex-TAC, programmatic revenue and CTV revenue records,” said Nexxen CEO Ofer Druker.

Ryan Reynolds’ MNTN CTV Business Files for IPO

MNTN, a CTV advertising business whose Chief Creative Officer is actor Ryan Reynolds, filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last week. The IPO revealed the firm’s 2024 revenues were $226 million and net loss $32.9 million, a marked improvement on $176 million revenue and $53.3 million net loss in 2023. The company, whose MNTN Performance TV platform offers targeting, measurement and optimisation tools, raised $119 million in a Series D funding round in 2021. The IPO is led by Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Evercore, with plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Rakuten TV Offers FAST Channels to European Telcos

Rakuten TV is looking to collaborate with European telcos to launch, distribute and monetise their content on its free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels. Through Rakuten TV Enterprise Services, the company is leveraging existing partnerships with Virgin Media O2 in the UK, MasOrange in Spain, 1&1 in Germany, and Altibox in Norway. “We have been already working with major telcos across Europe to provide them TVOD and AVOD options, and we are now ready to offer them easy access to the FAST market, which data shows being the most rapidly growing segment of the entertainment landscape,” said Rakuten TV CEO Cédric Dufour.

FreeWheel Integrates VideoAmp Measurement and Currency into Strata Platform

FreeWheel, an ad tech firm specialised in TV, has partnered with VideoAmp, a media measurement company, to integrate VideoAmp’s audience measurement and currency solutions into FreeWheel’s Strata platform. Strata clients will have access to the measurement data, informing their decisions across national TV buys. “VideoAmp is a growing leader in the measurement landscape; we want to ensure that Strata clients have access to the richest, most data-driven insights to make the most out of their media dollars,” said Rich Baudo, Head of Strata Revenue at FreeWheel. “VideoAmp’s measurement offerings give our buyers the ability to maximise impact and reach to better understand performance across their TV buys.”

Ofcom Calls on Online Services to Submit Illegal Harms Risk Assessments

Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, has launched an enforcement programme to assess industry compliance with the Online Safety Act. The programme requires large online services, as well as smaller sites that may present risks to users, to submit “illegal harms risk assessments” to the watchdog by 31st March. Failure to do so could result in enforcement action, according to Ofcom, including fines up to 10 percent of the company’s turnover. “Regardless of size or location, all services in scope of the Online Safety Act must carry out a proper illegal harms risk assessment – a vital first step in protecting their users and making their platforms safer by design,” said Suzanne Cater, Enforcement Director at Ofcom.

The Week in TV

RTL AdAlliance Launches Self-Serve AdManager for International Video Campaigns

RTL AdAlliance, RTL Group’s media sales house, on Thursday announced the launch of AdManager, a self-serve platform for advertisers buying video inventory across its network of broadcasters, streaming companies and media brands. The AdManager provides access to ATV, CTV, BVOD and streaming inventories in multiple markets, according to RTL AdAlliance, including Warner Bros. Discovery in Germany and Viaplay in Finland. The product is designed to simplify the process of accessing premium video inventory, particularly for international advertisers who RTL said “previously faced barriers” in running campaigns across different European markets. Read more on VideoWeek.

Streaming Growth Offsets Linear Declines at ProSieben

ProSieben posted 2 percent YoY revenue growth for 2024, with 33 percent revenue growth at the Joyn streaming service offsetting full-year declines for the linear TV business. The Dating & Video segment also fell 13 percent, but the Commerce & Ventures division grew 19 percent, led by perfume retail business Flaconi. The German media group expects similar results to apply in 2025, noting a “difficult advertising market environment.”

DAZN Settles French Football Debt After Turbulent First Six Months as Ligue 1 Broadcaster

DAZN has settled the debt owned to the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), paying the full €35 million it owed the LFP, with the sum to be distributed among the 18 clubs in Ligue 1. The disagreement stems from a five-year deal agreed in August 2024, when DAZN secured Ligue 1 rights for €400 million per year. The streaming company estimated it needed to attract 1.5 million subscribers to make a return on the investment, and the contract included the option for DAZN to terminate the agreement after two seasons if it failed to reach that threshold by December 2025.

By December 2024, DAZN had only attracted 400,000 subscribers to its Ligue 1 package, and sought to renegotiate the agreement. The company refused to make its payment to the LFP in February 2025, and demanded €573 million compensation from the French league. The LFP responded by taking DAZN to the Paris Commercial Court, with a verdict expected last Friday. Read more on VideoWeek.

Canal+ Boss Backs London Listing Despite 20 Percent Drop

Maxime Saada, CEO of French broadcaster Canal+, has backed parent company Vivendi’s decision to list the pay-TV firm’s shares on the London Stock Exchange, despite a sharp drop in its market value. The company posted 3.6 percent YoY revenue growth for 2024, but its share price has fallen 20 percent since December. Saada told the Financial Times he had no regrets about the move. “We are not in a hurry,” he said. “It’s a three-year story.”

ITV and Carwow Announce Retail Media Partnership to Target Car Buyers on ITVX

ITV has announced a retail media partnership with Carwow, a UK car marketplace, enabling automotive advertisers to identify active car buyers on the ITVX streaming service. The ‘Auto Match’ solution will be available through Planet V, ITV’s self-serve programmatic platform, using Carwow’s first-party data to target registered users on ITVX. “By combining ITVX’s scale and power with Carwow’s high-quality auto intender graph, we are providing Autos advertisers with an unparalleled opportunity to connect with in-market car buyers and drive measurable results,” said Jay Rajdev, Controller of Advanced Advertising at ITV.

Hulu Crashes During Oscars

Hulu subscribers were unable to access the streaming service during the Oscars on Sunday night, according to Bloomberg, with up to 34,145 users complaining about site outages. The glitch follows similar struggles for streaming services handling large numbers of viewers during live events, such as Netflix’s livestream of the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight in November. The Academy is reportedly exploring its options for broadcasting the Oscars; its current agreement with Disney, which has aired the ceremony for almost 50 years, is due to expire in 2028.

Channel 4 Launches Sustainability in Advertising Prize for B Corps

Channel 4 Sales, the UK broadcaster’s commercial arm, has launched a competition for B Corps in the UK, with five winners given free advertising airtime worth £120,000 each. The initiative supports Channel 4’s commitment to the Ad Net Zero Action Plan, according to the broadcaster, using advertising to drive positive consumer behaviour. “Channel 4 is renowned for addressing climate and sustainability issues in its programming to drive national conversations and inspire change,” said Ewan Douglas, Head of Sales Nations & Regions & Business Development at Channel 4. “We want to take that a step further by turning our attention to the impact of adverts and rewarding those who are committing to sustainable practices.”

M6 Publicité Makes CTV Inventory Available Through Index Exchange

M6 Publicité, the French broadcaster’s sales house, has partnered with Index Exchange, a supply-side platform (SSP), to accelerate its programmatic strategy. M6 streaming inventory will be accessible via Index Exchange, including ad podding, targeting and reporting capabilities. “We are excited to partner with Index Exchange and support our growth objective in streaming and connected TV,” said M6 Publicité CEO Hortense Thomine-Desmazures. “We are committed to offering increasingly accessible and innovative solutions and to reaching new advertisers.”

Sky Media Awards Local Businesses Ad Funding for Sustainability Efforts

Sky Media has announced the winners of its Sky Zero Footprint Fund: Local Heroes initiative, which awards regional businesses’ sustainability efforts with TV advertising funding. The winners are GLORIAH (Scotland), Boatyard Distillery (Northern Ireland), Suma (North), Penrhos Spirits (Midlands), Halen Môn (Wales), Seep (London), Green Doors (South East), and Grace & Green (South West). The winners receive a £20,000 local TV ad campaign, and up to £2,500 towards creative production through Sky’s AdSmart.

The Week for Publishers

The Guardian Launches Ad-Lite Tier in Consent-or-Pay Strategy

UK newspaper The Guardian this week launched a new ad-lite subscription tier, which allows readers to pay £5 per month in order to opt-out of personalised advertising. The move comes shortly after the UK’s data regulator gave the green light to consent-or-pay mechanisms as a way of collecting consent for personalised advertising.

“Put simply, the more people who press “reject”, the less money we have to fund the quality reporting you value from the Guardian, including in-depth investigations and world-leading climate coverage,” said The Guardian’s chief advertising officer Imogen Fox. “As a result, we are now asking readers who aren’t already paying for an ad-free experience to pay to reject personalised advertising.”

Reach’s Post-Cookie Strategy is Helping it Deal with Gen AI Threats

While third-party cookies no longer look set to disappear from Chrome entirely, Reach executives say the publisher’s first-party data strategy has delivered strong results for the publisher regardless. Reach’s full year financial results show that while total revenues fell by 5.3 percent, to £538.6 million, digital revenues were up by 2.1 percent. And within digital, it’s data-driven revenues which are driving growth.

Speaking on an earnings call, CEO Jim Mullen also said that the group’s focus on first-party data has seen its newspapers forge closer relationships with audiences. And this in turn is helping Reach-owned newspapers become less dependent on search traffic, which is at risk of drying up as search engines promote AI-generated news summaries within their interfaces. Read more on VideoWeek.

Over Half of Oscars Coverage Blocked by Traditional Keyword Blocklists, Finds Mantis

Agencies using traditional keyword blocklists saw 56 percent of Oscars-related coverage inaccurately filtered out, according to Reach-owned contextual ads business Mantis. According to Mantis’ findings, agency master blocklists flagged 3,161 Oscar-related pages as potentially problematic, representing 258,568 page views. In many cases, the themes and content of some of the films which were mentioned in coverage, such as war, death, and drug cartels, saw coverage picked up by blocklists.

Immediate Partners with The GoodNet on Publisher Sustainability Platform

UK publisher group Immediate, owner of titles including Good Food, Radio Times, and BBC Gardeners’ World, has partnered with ESG data company The GoodNet to launch a new sustainable advertising platform called IM Clear. Immediate says IM Clear will help advertisers achieve their specific sustainability goals, while also maximising media performance, using over 50 data sources to assess content, corporate practices, and technology.

UK Publishers’ £13 Billion Ad Tech Case Against Google Moves Forward

A legal claim seeking over £13 billion in damages for UK publishers from Google, alleging unfair practices in the digital ad tech market, took a significant step forward this week as the Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled that the case will be allowed to proceed as a collective action. “With the collective action now advancing, Google can be held accountable for its actions,” said Kate Wellington, a consumer rights lawyer and one of the parties behind the case. “We are committed to ensuring that affected publishers and publisher partners have the opportunity to receive fair compensation for the harm we allege they have suffered.”

Brand Safety Institute Helps Publishers Check Whether They’re Classed as MFA

Amid an industry push to crack down on wasteful ad funding of made for advertising (MFA) websites, there’s been debate about what does and doesn’t constitute MFA, with some publishers saying they’ve unwittingly found themselves on MFA blocklists. The Brand Safety Institute has launched a new tool to help solve this problem, allowing publishers to check whether their site domains appear on MFA blocklists used by third-party vendors. The tool will also help publishers make changes to their websites to prevent them from appearing on these lists, according to AdExchanger.

The Week for Brands & Agencies

Publicis Acquires Data Business Lotame

French holding group Publicis announced on Thursday it has acquired data and identity business Lotame, continuing its heavy investment in data capabilities. Publicis says Lotame has one of the largest end-to-end data marketplaces in the world, with over 1.6 billion IDs covering 109 countries. The company says that combined with Epsilon, another data business owned by Publicis, the group will have almost four billion unique profiles, covering more than 90 percent of consumers worldwide.

“In the age of AI, the name of the game is connect or die,” said Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun. “By connecting Lotame to Epsilon, we’re reinforcing our industry-leading identity graph, giving clients the unique competitive advantage of seeing and engaging with 91 percent of all adults who use the internet, safely and transparently.”

Havas Reports 0.8 Percent Drop in Organic Revenues in 2024

French agency group Havas, freshly operating as an independent company after the break up of Vivendi, reported its full year financial results this week, posting a 0.8 percent drop in organic revenues. Total net growth however hit 1.5 percent, and CEO and chairman Yannick Bolloré said he is confident in Havas’s “ability to accelerate in an evolving market”. Bolloré said the company is “committed to driving profitable growth, seizing opportunities in rapidly expanding sectors like digital, retail, customer experience, design and strategic advisory, while increasing our investments in data, tech, and AI, and strengthening our global content-at-scale network”.

IPG Sells R/GA to TrueLink Capital

American holding group Interpublic Group this week announced it has agreed a deal to sell creative innovation business R/GA to private equity firm TrueLink Capital, for an undisclosed fee. IPG had been known to be looking to offload R/GA, and had been rumoured in recent weeks to be nearing a deal. “This strategic move allows Interpublic to further sharpen our focus on our core strategic offerings,” said Philippe Krakowsky, Chief Executive Officer of Interpublic Group. “We wish all the great people at R/GA the best of luck going forward.”

Stagwell Plans for Aggressive M&A Strategy

Challenger agency group Stagwell will pursue an aggressive M&A strategy as it looks to double the size of its business, the company’s founder and chief executive Mark Penn told the Financial Times this week. Penn told the FT he believes some of the major players in the agency space have become too big, and he hopes to bring Stagwell up to a “goldilocks” size — neither too big nor too small.

ISBA Reemphasises Transparency in New Media Services Framework

British advertiser trade group ISBA has launched a new version of its Media Services Framework, designed as a template to govern the relationship between advertisers and their media agencies. The framework sets out terms for media strategy, planning, and buying services, and is designed to help agencies and advertisers be clear on expectations and obligations. ISBA says the new version, an update on the last edition released in 2021, addresses agency non-compliance in proprietary media, and refines generative AI elements.

EA Picks GroupM as Global Media Partner

Video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) has picked WPP’s GroupM to handle its media duties globally, following a review which kicked off in the second half of last year. EA’s account was previously held by T&Pm, which sits within the wider GroupM business. COMvergence data puts EA’s media spending at $120 million, according to Adweek.

WPP partners with Visible Start

WPP announced this week it is continuing its partnership with Visible Start, a business which offers workforce training for midlife women, for a fourth consecutive year. WPP works with Visible Start on a free eight-week online course designed to empower midlife women seeking to re-enter the advertising and marketing industry, and WPP says the programme has a strong track record of placing graduates in roles across its agencies.

Hires of the Week

Bloomberg Media Promotes Duncan Chater to Lead Global Advertising

Bloomberg Media has promoted Duncan Chater to Global Managing Director of Advertising, overseeing the publisher’s ad revenues worldwide. Chater joined Bloomberg in 2020, becoming European Managing Director in 2022. David Bradford has also been appointed European Managing Director of Advertising, reporting to Chater.

Assembly Announces European Leadership Promotions

Assembly, a Stagwell-owned media agency, has promoted European CEO Matt Adams to Global Chief Operating Officer, while Clare Chapman (formerly Europe Chief of Staff) will take his place as Europe CEO. As Global COO, Adams will assume commercial leadership and oversee Assembly’s global media partnerships. Meanwhile Chapman will take on responsibility for Assembly Europe’s product, client services, new business, marketing, activation, people, and consultancy teams.

OMD USA Appoints Leadership Trio

OMD USA, an Omnicom-owned agency, has named Dan Rolli as Chief Investment Officer, replacing Kelly Metz who is leaving the group after four years. Rolli comes from Publicis, having joined its Zenith agency in 2007. Kim Einan has also been appointed as Chief Strategy Officer, following 25 years at Publicis-owned Starcom. And Suzanne Irving becomes President of Integrated Investment and Client Solutions, with more than 10 years service at OMD.

Mickey Zhang Named President of Publicis Media in China

Publicis Groupe has appointed Mickey Zhang as President of Publicis Media in China, where she is tasked with expanding the agency group’s Connected Media proposition, AI-driven solutions and market presence. Zhang has more than two decades experience in media and marketing, including the last three years with cosmetics giant Shanghai Jahwa.