The WIR: Microsoft Shuts Down Xandr DSP, Both Sides Claim Victory in TCF Ruling, and ITV’s Ad Sales Drop in Q1

In this week’s Week in Review: Microsoft shuts down Xandr DSP, Belgium’s Market Court releases its TCF ruling, and ITV’s ad sales drop despite digital growth.

Top Stories

Microsoft Shutters Xandr DSP, Citing AI Upheaval

Tech giant Microsoft announced this week it is shutting down Microsoft Invest, the demand-side platform it bought (and rebranded) through its acquisition of end-to-end ad tech business Xandr from AT&T. The sell-side portion of Xandr, its supply-side platform and publisher ad tech Microsoft Monetize, will be maintained.

Xandr, which started life as AppNexus, has been a long established player in the DSP space, and was founded by Brian O’Kelley, one of the pioneering forces behind programmatic advertising as a whole. O’Kelley himself, now heading up Scope3, has spoken extensively about the potential for AI-agents to massively disrupt the tools used to buy and sell media, and indeed this same thinking seems to have driven Microsoft’s decision. The company says it will replace the DSP with a new AI-powered interface for buying media across its properties.

“Our commitment to more private and personalised advertising experiences for a more agentic and conversational world is not achievable with the industry’s current DSP model which, therefore, no longer aligns with our investment in this future,” said Kya Sainsbury-Carter, corporate VP of Microsoft Advertising, in a blog post. “As a result, we will no longer support media buying through our DSP, Microsoft Invest, starting on February 28, 2026. We are committed to supporting our clients during this transition, ensuring they have the guidance needed to minimise disruption and continue to achieve their business goals through advertising.”

That’s not to say Microsoft is giving up DSPs entirely — Sainsbury-Carter said Microsoft inventory will still be available through third-party DSPs.

Both Sides Claim Victory in Belgian Market Court TCF Ruling

The Belgian Market Court (part of Belgium’s Court of Appeals) this week ruled on a long-running dispute between industry trade group IAB Europe and Belgium’s Data Protection Authority (DPA) over the Transparency and Consent Framework, an ad industry standard for collecting and transmitting consent for using personal data. Both sides have reported victories in the ruling, which annuls the Belgian DPA’s original decision, while upholding the €250,000 fine and other conditions imposed on IAB Europe.

Belgium’s DPA originally ruled in 2022 that the TCF, a means of complying with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, actually violates that very same law. It claimed that ‘TC strings’ — bits of data used to pass people’s consent preferences through digital advertising pipes — should themselves be classed as personal data. It also claimed that IAB Europe acts as a data controller through the TCF, placing it under certain obligations which it hasn’t been fulfilling.

Following a complex appeals process, the Belgian Market Court annulled the DPA’s decision on procedural grounds, and rejected its conclusion that IAB Europe acts as joint data controller for the processing operations that take place entirely within the OpenRTB protocol. However it upheld the fine, and agreed that TC strings count as personal data, and that IAB Europe is a data controller for these strings.

Some privacy advocates, including the ICCL, say the ruling proves that the widely-used TCF violates the GDPR, with massive implications for programmatic advertising as a whole. IAB Europe meanwhile says that it has already proposed changes to the TCF to bring it into compliance with the Market Court’s ruling, and that these changes could rapidly be put into place.

ITV Studios Returns to Growth as Ad Sales Decline

ITV’s business took a hit in Q1, according to the UK broadcaster’s earnings on Thursday, with total revenues down one percent YoY. The media and entertainment division was down 3 percent during the quarter, driven by a 2 percent fall in ad sales, despite a 15 percent rise in digital ad revenues at ITVX. 

The decline was partially offset by 1 percent growth at ITV Studios, whose future is to be determined as reports suggest the company is seeking to sell the studio business. The results mark a return to growth for ITV Studios, after its revenues fell 6 percent in 2024 due to the impact of Hollywood strikes. The broadcaster expects further gains to materialise in the second half of the year, when its more profitable shows are scheduled to be delivered.

And ITV noted that while it is monitoring the impact of trade tariffs in the US, its content is unlikely to be affected. “ITV Studios only produces TV programming and therefore do not anticipate any direct impact from the imposition of tariffs on films,” the company said.

The Week in Tech

Samsung Ads Brings Mobile Data into CTV

Samsung Ads has announced the integration of Samsung mobile data to enhance targeting, insights and reporting across its CTV offering. Now live in the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany, the integration takes mobile insights from over 20 million opted-in Samsung smartphones, including app installations and usage, to help inform advertising strategies. “For example, a travel booking company may be interested in reaching audiences watching travel content on their TVs with a high level brand awareness campaign, and in contrast, reach users actively using travel booking apps on their mobile phones with specific deals and promotions,” said Samsung Ads.

European Commission Finds TikTok Violated DSA Over Advertising Transparency

The European Commission has found TikTok in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA), for failing to publish details of who advertises and gets targeted on the short-form video app, as required under the EU law. The preliminary verdict follows an investigation into the Chinese-owned company in February 2024, and could result in TikTok being fined 6 percent of its global annual turnover, if the Commission upholds the ruling. A separate EU inquiry is also investigating TikTok’s alleged failure to safeguard election integrity in Romania, according to the Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen, who said there were “serious indications that foreign actors interfered in the Romanian presidential elections by using TikTok”.

CTV Drives Revenue Growth at Nexxen

Ad tech firm Nexxen reported its Q1 earnings on Wednesday, posting 5 percent YoY revenue growth, driven by 10 percent uplift in programmatic revenues, and 40 percent in CTV revenues. The company said the results reflected “years of investment in our technology, data capabilities and brand,” including its AI-driven data and tech solutions. Nexxen also maintained its full-year guidance for 2025, while acknowledging “the dynamic nature of the advertising landscape and that additional macroeconomic shocks, tariff impacts or policy shifts could materially affect market sentiment, consumer behavior and advertising demand.”

Upscale AI Raises $5.5 Million to Pursue “Trade Desk-Like” Opportunity in Performance TV

Upscale AI, a US startup that uses GenAI to produce and run ads on streaming TV, has raised $5.5 million in seed and pre-seed funding, Adweek reported on Monday. The business was founded by “ad tech veterans from Google, X, Salesforce and MNTN”, according to the report, with a view to replicate the performance-driven advertising process from Google and Meta on TV. “Google, or Meta, makes the majority of their money from driving performance outcomes,” Kevin Weatherman, Head of Business and Marketing at Upscale AI, told Adweek. “If we can take the biggest platform—streaming—and drive performance outcomes, we see a huge Trade Desk-like opportunity to be the leader in the space.”

The Trade Desk to Launch Supply Chain Transparency Tool ‘OpenSincera’

The Trade Desk, a demand-side platform (DSP), has unveiled OpenSincera, a supply chain transparency tool that offers macro- and publisher-level data on digital advertising performance, according to Digiday. The news follows the DSP’s acquisition of Sincera, a startup that aggregates and supplies metadata to ad tech companies, in January 2025. Slated for release next month, OpenSincera aims to provide transparency into supply chain quality, through such metrics as ads-to-content ratio, page weight, ads-in-view and ad refresh rate.

AI Video Startup Hedra Raises $32 Million

Hedra, an AI video startup, has raised $32 million in a Series A funding round, bringing its total funding to $43 million, according to Reuters. Led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Infrastructure fund, the latest round valued the company at $200 million. Founded in 2021, Hedra has developed an AI model that blends text, image and audio to create digital characters that brands can use in marketing materials.

Ryan Reynolds’ MNTN Files for IPO

MNTN, a CTV ad tech firm where actor Ryan Reynolds serves as Chief Creative Officer, is targeting a $1.24 billion valuation in its initial public offering (IPO), the company announced on Wednesday. The business, which aims to drive CTV as a performance marketing channel, plans to raise up to $187.2 million through a sale of 11.7 million shares, priced between $14 and $16 each.

IAB and MRC Seek to Rein In Attention Measurement “Wild West” with New Guidelines

Digital advertising trade group the IAB and measurement accreditation body the MRC have released new attention measurement guidelines for public comment. The guidelines, developed by the IAB Attention Task Force, a group made up of more than 200 members from across the industry, aim to establish a framework for consistent measurement and reporting of various attention indicators across media, with a view to eventual MRC accreditation audits of attention measurement services. Read more on VideoWeek.

The Week in TV

ProSieben Hit by Tough Linear TV Market in Q1

ProSiebenSat.1 reported a tough first quarter in its earnings on Thursday, with revenues down 1 percent YoY, and EBITDA falling 39 percent. The German media company cited “the decline in revenues in the highly profitable but also very cyclically sensitive linear TV advertising business.” But there were positive signs for streaming business Joyn, with AVOD revenues up 39 percent. The broadcaster is currently facing a takeover attempt by its largest shareholder MFE, alongside a rival offer from Czech investment firm PPF (see below).

Digital Sales Offset Linear Declines at RTL

Ad revenues were flat for RTL during Q1, according to the German media group, with a 4 percent decline in linear sales offset by 28.8 percent growth in digital advertising. Total revenues were down 2 percent however, with content business Fremantle falling 5.6 percent “due to budget cuts from broadcasters and streaming services.” But RTL expects its full-year revenues to be up 3 percent on 2024, “mainly due to significantly higher streaming revenue and portfolio effects.”

Broadcasters and Streamers Set Out Their Stalls at the Upfronts

US and international TV businesses including Disney, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Netflix, all pitched to advertisers at their annual Upfronts presentations this week. Sports was a major theme, with NBCU, Amazon, Netflix, Disney, and YouTube all touting their unique sports content and monetisation capabilities. AI-powered formats also popped up a few times, with both Netflix and Amazon announcing formats which use AI to adapt ad creative to fit the content a viewer is currently watching. Read VideoWeek’s full roundup of this week’s Upfronts.

M6+ Says CTV Viewing is 60 Percent Higher Than Other Devices  

M6+, the streaming service launched by French broadcaster M6 in May 2024, has seen its daily audience climb 26 percent over its first year in operation. The RTL-owned broadcaster said the M6+ app has had 10 million downloads, half of which were on CTV, where viewing time is 60 percent higher than the average. “M6+ is also establishing itself as the youngest free streaming platform on the market, with an average audience nine years younger than that of its main competitors,” the company said.

ProSieben Welcomes PPF’s “Better Alternative” Offer to MFE Takeover Bid

Six weeks after MFE launched its long-awaited takeover bid for German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1, a competing offer has been announced by PPF Group, a Czech investment firm that currently holds a 15 percent stake in the German media group. The two bids differ in structure; MFE, the broadcaster’s largest shareholder, is looking to buy all shares in ProSieben that it does not currently own, amounting to a full takeover of the business. PPF on the other hand is seeking to raise its holding to 29.99 percent, the same stake as MFE currently owns. However, the PPF bid is more financially appealing to ProSieben shareholders at €7.00 per share, compared with the €4.47 offer from MFE; the minimum price allowed under German takeover law. Read more on VideoWeek.

The Week for Publishers

UK Government Raises Cap on Foreign State Ownership of UK News

The UK government this week announced a number of media law reforms which it says are designed to protect the long-term sustainability and independence of the UK press. The government will raise the cap on foreign state-owned investors’ ability to hold a stake in UK businesses, allowing them to own up to 15 percent of a UK news company (up from five percent). Laws which give regulators special powers to scrutinise media mergers will also be extended to cover online news sites and news magazines, as well as TV, radio, and traditional newspapers.

Le Monde Signs Content Partnership with Perplexity

French newspaper Le Monde has signed a content partnership with AI search platform Perplexity, Reuters reported this week. The deal will give Perplexity access to Le Monde’s content, in order to fuel its AI-delivered search results, while Le Monde will build its own AI tools using Perplexity’s products. Perplexity now has similar partnerships with over a dozen media companies, according to Reuters, including the L.A. Times and the Independent.

Immediate Media Reaps Rewards from Video Strategy Rethink

UK specialist publisher Immediate Media has seen a 60 percent rise in its video revenues since rethinking its video strategy in 2022, Press Gazette reported this week. Immediate’s director of video strategy and delivery Paul Doyle told the PPA Festival in London last week that video viewership has soared across platforms, as it has invested in producing more video content and embraced third-party video platforms. Doyle described Immediate’s video strategy as “data-led and data-informed, but not data dictated”.

Mail Online Reports Search Clickthrough Drop Due to AI Summaries

News publisher Mail Online has seen a massive reduction in clickthrough rates from Google Search, its director of SEO Carly Steven told the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress this week (as reported by Press Gazette). Steven said that when Mail Online ranks top in an organic search, clickthrough rates typically sit around 13 percent on desktop and 20 percent on mobile. But when an AI Overview is displayed, these figures drop to 5 percent and 7 percent respectively.

The Independent Reports Continued US Audience Growth

UK newspaper The Independent, which has made a strategic push for growth in the US market, says it saw a nine percent year-on-year increase in unique visitors in March, bringing its total US audience to 30.9 million. This is despite a wider slowdown in US digital newspaper traffic, which Comscore data says fell 12 percent year-on-year in the same period.

The Observer Ditches Programmatic Advertising

UK Sunday newspaper The Observer plans to succeed without selling ads programmatically, its Co-CEO Richard Furness told Campaign in an interview this week. The Observer is setting out its own commercial strategy, having been separated from its previous sister publication The Guardian and sold to Tortoise Media.

The Week for Brands & Agencies

Dentsu Reports Revenue Growth but Net Revenue Fall

Japanese agency group Dentsu reported 3.7 percent growth year-on-year in total revenues in its Q1 earnings released this week, and organic net revenues rose by 0.2 percent, though net revenues fell by 0.6 percent. Net revenues saw organic growth of 5.5 percent in Dentsu’s home market, though net revenue organic growth rates were negative in the Americas (-5.1 percent), EMEA (-0.9 percent), and APAC excluding Japan (-4.6 percent).

Advertisers Seek Dismissal for X Lawsuit

Major advertisers including Colgate-Palmolive, CVS, Mars, and Nestlé have asked a US judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against them by social platform X, which accuses them of illegally colluding to boycott X advertising. The companies say that X has failed to prove they coordinated their spending pullbacks on the platform, and that spending decisions were driven by their own individual analyses and strategies, Reuters reported. “X Corporation’s suit is an attempt to use the courthouse to win back the business X lost in the free market when it disrupted its own business and alienated many of its customers,” the companies told the court.

GroupM Reorganisation Reportedly Set to Affect Up to 45 Percent of US Staff

Forty-five percent of US staff are likely to be affected by reorganisation at WPP’s media arm GroupM, according to a report from Adweek this week. A leaked internal memo from GroupM CEO Brian Lesser last week confirmed that the business is undergoing a restructure, and GroupM NA CEO Sharb Farjami told staff in a town hall meeting last week that between 40-45 percent of US staff are likely to be impacted — though Adweek reported that the word “impacted” doesn’t necessarily refer to job losses.

Marketing Budgets Likely to Be Flat This Year, says Gartner

Research firm Gartner says that marketing budgets as a share of total revenue are likely to remain flat this year, predicting an average figure of 7.7 percent in 2025, according to Adweek. Gartner’s research found that only 30 percent of CMOs believe they have enough budget to execute their strategies, while almost 80 percent report they’re being asked to do more with less.

Major Brands and Agencies Sign ISBA’s Influencer Code of Conduct

A number of brands and agencies have lent their backing to ISBA’s Influencer Code of Conduct, a set of principles for influencer marketing designed to drive transparency and effectiveness, as well as to ensure responsible marketing. New signatories include Asda, Sainsbury’s, HSBC, John Lewis, and Billion Dollar Boy.

Advertising Supports Five Percent of UK Employment, finds Credos

New research from advertising think tank Credos found that advertising now supports five percent of all UK employment, representing 1.7 million jobs across the UK. The advertising and marketing industries are found to have contributed £109 billion of gross value added (GVA) in 2024, accounting for four percent of total UK GVA, according to Credos’s new Advertising Pays report. “This report not only demonstrates advertising’s economic impact, but its unique position within the creative and professional services, contributing a record amount of GVA towards the UK economy,” said Dan Wilks, director of Credos.

Hires of the Week

Paramount Enlists Katie Coteman and Drachan Forster for Ad Sales and Sponsorships

Paramount has appointed Katie Coteman as SVP International Ad Sales, a newly created role designed to drive the company’s international ad sales strategy and revenue growth across its ecosystem of free-to-air networks, pay-TV channels, and streaming services. Coteman joins from Warner Bros. Discovery, where she served as GVP, Head of Advertising Sales and Partnerships. Meanwhile Drachan Forster, formerly Head of Content Partnerships at Sky Media, will join the team as VP of UK Sponsorships.

The Guardian Hires Donna Wilson as Ad Strategist and Expands Charlotte Byrne’s Australian Role

The Guardian has hired Donna Wilson as advertising strategist, where she will help develop creative brand solutions for the publisher. Wilson joins from the agency side, having held senior roles at Spark Foundry, Wavemaker and Dentsu Media. The Guardian also announced that partnerships sales manager Charlotte Byrne will expand her remit to cover the Western Australia region.

Running Total Promotes Dom Randle to Managing Director

Running Total, the Manchester arm of independent agency Mediaplus UK, has promoted Dom Randle to Managing Director, from his previous role as Business Director. The announcement follows the departure of previous Managing Partner Colin Reynolds, who co-founded Running Total alongside John Marshall. Randle was Running Total’s fifth employee, becoming Business Director in 2017, and has also been appointed to the company’s Board.

Trusted Media Brands Names Stephen Colvin as CEO

Trusted Media Brands, the publisher formerly known as the Reader’s Digest Association, has named Stephen Colvin as its next CEO. Colvin succeeds Bonnie Kintzer, who announced her retirement after 11 years at the helm. He joins from Nivloc Media, a consultancy firm he founded in 2024, following stints at Bloomberg, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

Schweppes, Martian Encounter

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