In this week’s Week in Review: Sky makes a bid for ITV’s TV business, Jeff Green responds to the threat of Amazon’s DSP, and Netflix released new ads tier data.
Top Stories
Sky Makes £1.6 Billion Offer for ITV’s Media Business
UK broadcaster ITV confirmed this morning that it has entered talks with fellow British TV business Sky over a potential £1.6 billion sale of its media and entertainment business, which spans its linear TV channels and streaming service ITVX. The deal would combine two of the UK’s largest commercial broadcasters, reshaping the domestic TV ad market, but would certainly draw scrutiny from antitrust regulators. The proposed transaction wouldn’t include ITV Studios, ITV’s production arm.
ITV’s share price has risen by around 20 percent since this morning’s news. Prior to the announcement, the whole business was valued at around £2.5 billion. Media and entertainment makes up more than half of the group’s revenues at present, though in recent years ITV Studios typically delivered growth while M&E revenues have struggled.
Sky’s interest seems to be another bet that amid the challenges facing the TV sector, scale is going to be key to success. In Europe, Italian broadcaster MFE-MediaForEurope recently took control of German TV business ProSiebenSat.1, while in the US, Paramount has made several unsolicited offers for Warner Bros. Discovery.
For ITV and Sky, a key question will be whether a tie up would survive scrutiny from the UK’s competition watchdog. Consolidation is a response to competition not just from international streaming businesses, but from the major tech companies like Google and Meta as well. Whether the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority shares that thinking is an open question.
The Trade Desk’s Jeff Green Talks Down Amazon Threat
Amazon’s demand-side platform has made a lot of noise in the market over the past year. It’s signed a number of significant supply partnerships, particularly in the CTV space, gaining access to inventory from Netflix, Disney+, and Spotify among others. And it’s reportedly been pursuing an aggressive pricing strategy, which has included offering free head-to-head tests against rivals, according to Adweek.
This has been seen as a significant threat to The Trade Desk, the largest independent DSP on the market. Previously, CEO Jeff Green has played down Amazon’s competitive threat, and he continued to do so on an earnings call following The Trade Desk’s Q3 earnings.
Green painted Amazon’s DSP as a low priority for Amazon’s ads business, claiming that it primarily wants to steal ad revenues from Google’s search business, with driving ad spend on its streaming platform Prime Video as its second priority. The Amazon DSP, according to Green, is a “very distant priority” — and is primarily geared towards driving spend on Amazon’s owned-and-operated properties, rather than independent media. “Our estimates are that low single digits (of Amazon’s ad revenues) are in their DSP and a small percentage of that is pointed at decisioning the open internet,” said Green. “It’s either Prime video or non-decision buying like programmatic guaranteed.”
Green’s remarks came after The Trade Desk reported continued strong revenue growth in Q3, with total revenues up 18 percent year-on-year.
Netflix Claims 190 Million Monthly Active Viewers
Netflix is introducing a new Monthly Active Viewers (MAV) metric to help measure its ad-supported viewing, the streaming giant announced on Wednesday. The company defines MAV as members who have watched at least one minute of ads on Netflix per month, multiplied by the estimated average number of people per household. At present, the streamer claims it reached 190 million monthly active viewers on its ads tier.
In the announcement, Netflix’s ads chief Amy Reinhard said its previous measurement was based on account profiles, and therefore did not represent multiple viewers watching in the same room. “Our move to viewers means we can give a more comprehensive count of how many people are actually on the couch, enjoying our can’t-miss series, films, games and live events with friends and family,” said Reinhard.
The company also announced upgrades to its targeting tools and capabilities, by extending its advanced demographic targeting to cover education, marital status, and household income, and expanding its partnership with LiveRamp to global markets. In addition, the business is testing a planning API within the Netflix Ads Suite to help agency partners find audiences. “The API will seamlessly work with in-house planning tools and use real-time forecasting to provide insights for marketers to plan across key demographics and geographies,” according to Reinhard.
The Week in Tech
ID5 Acquires TrueData in Consolidation of Identity Vendors
ID5, an identification services provider, has announced the acquisition of TrueData, a US-based identity graph company. ID5 said the move will strengthen its presence in the US, and broaden the value it can deliver to partners worldwide. Financial terms were not disclosed. TrueData operates an identity graph designed to connect users to digital devices in the US. By integrating the graph into its Adaptive Identity technology, ID5 aims to bolster its identity services for a digital advertising industry facing ongoing regulatory changes and signal loss. The merged companies will operate under the ID5 brand, with a combined team of around 80 employees across North America, Europe, and Asia. TrueData CEO Scott Conine will join ID5’s executive team as Strategic Advisor, while President and COO Jon Durkee will become Chief Revenue Officer at ID5. Read more on VideoWeek.
IAB Tech Lab Cracks Down on CTV Fraud with Device Attestation
IAB Tech Lab, a non-profit consortium which creates technologies and standards for the digital media ecosystem, this week launched a new capability designed to help crack down on one prevalent type of fraud called device spoofing. Tech Lab says that ‘Device Attestation’, a new feature within its Open Measurement SDK, will give a secure way for sellers to signal which device an impression is being shown on, giving buyers more confidence that what they’re buying really is CTV inventory. Read more on VideoWeek.
Meta Earns $16 Billion From Scam Ads, Internal Documents Show
Meta projected last year that it would earn $16 billion (10 percent of its annual revenue) from running ads for scams or banned goods, according to internal documents seen by Reuters. The reports also suggest the social media giant failed to identify or stop an “avalanche of ads” for fraudulent e-commerce and investment schemes, illegal online casinos, and the sale of banned
medical products. One document claims the company shows its users an estimated 15 billion “higher risk” (or clearly fraudulent) scam ads each day. Meta earns around $7 billion in annual revenue from this category of scam ads each year, according to the documents.
AI Investment Drives Pinterest Revenue Growth
Pinterest revenues were up 17 percent YoY in Q3, the social sharing site announced on Tuesday, citing investments in AI and product development. Last week the company launched Pinterest Assistant, an AI tool that provides product recommendations based on conversational prompts. “We’ve become a leader in visual search and have effectively turned our platform into an AI-powered shopping assistant for 600 million consumers,” said Pinterest CEO Bill Ready. “In turn, global advertisers are increasingly counting on Pinterest as a go-to search platform to reach their customers and drive sales.”
Roku Launches CTV Ads API for Developers
Roku, a US-based smart TV and streaming business, has launched a self-serve developer platform for CTV advertising. The Roku Ads API gives developers direct access to Roku’s first-party ad capabilities, according to the company, enabling them to build performance solutions to help advertisers launch, optimise and measure campaigns. Using the API, developers can register applications, obtain credentials, and build integrations without manual approvals. At launch, available endpoints include reporting, audiences, and conversions, with campaign management and creative APIs soon to be rolled out.
IAB Tech Lab Adds LiveRamp’s UCP to Open Standards for Agentic Web
IAB Tech Lab, a non-profit consortium that builds technologies and standards for the digital media ecosystem, has announced the addition of LiveRamp’s User Context Protocol (UCP) to its Open Source Initiative. UCP is an open standard that defines how AI agents in advertising exchange signals that represent consumer intent and responses. IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur called the move “a pivotal moment in the development of open standards for the agentic web”, working to define how intelligent agents exchange data and user context in a trusted and transparent way.
Mantis Brings Brand Safety and Contextual Audience Segments to Index Exchange
Mantis, a contextual advertising business, has partnered with Index Exchange to integrate its brand safety and contextual audience segments into Index’s Data Vendor Ecosystem, allowing media buyers and marketplace partners to activate these across premium publisher inventory. Mantis said the partnership removes the need for advertisers and agencies to request data on a one-to-one basis, thereby reducing unnecessary fees in the supply chain, and providing greater transparency and efficiency across the ecosystem.
Optable Announces Publisher Toolkit to Identify Audiences Across Channels
Optable, a data collaboration and identity platform, has launched Omnichannel Identity Activation, a toolkit for publishers and media owners to identify and activate audiences across channels, including web, mobile, CTV, digital audio, and in-app environments. The solution is designed to break down silos between channels, and increase addressability by unifying client- and server-side workflows into a single platform. “Publishers and media owners need a way to simplify identity across fragmented environments,” said Optable CEO Vlad Stesin. “Our Omnichannel Identity Activation solution makes it possible to unify identity decisioning, accelerate activation, and scale audience reach across every channel including CTV, audio, and in-app.”
DoubleVerify Launches Product for Advertisers to Identify and Avoid AI Slop
DoubleVerify, a media measurement and verification firm, has launched a product for advertisers to identify and manage AI agent interactions. DV AI Verification aims to help advertisers avoid low-quality AI-generated content, and the associated risks around brand suitability and wasted impressions. The company said the solution forms part of a broader investment in AI-focused technologies that aid advertisers in navigating an increasingly complex AI-driven ecosystem.
The Week in TV
Netflix Reportedly Plans WBD Bid
Suggestions that Netflix is planning a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) resurfaced this week, after Reuters reported that the streaming giant has hired Moelis & Co – the investment bank that advised Skydance Media on its Paramount bid – to evaluate an offer. The rumours, which first arose in September, suggest the company would bid for WBD’s studio and streaming business, and not its cable TV networks. In Netflix’s earnings call last month, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the firm had “no interest in owning legacy media networks.”
ITV Forecasts a Q4 Ad Spend Slowdown, but Maintains Digital Growth
UK broadcaster ITV’s total revenues across the first nine months of 2025 were up two percent year-on-year, according to a trading update released this morning, with its production arm and digital ad offering both driving overall growth. Total ad revenues were flat year-on-year in Q3, which was better than ITV had previously forecasted. But a nine percent fall is projected for Q4, as ITV says it’s seeing widespread caution across business sectors ahead of the UK budget, which is set for November 26th. Read more on VideoWeek.
MFE in Talks to Acquire No More Than 33 Percent of Impresa
MFE–MediaForEurope is in talks to buy no more than 33 percent of Impresa, the Portuguese media company said on Wednesday. Last month, Impresa said the Balsemao family’s holding company, which controls more than 50 percent of the business, was in exclusive talks with MFE. This week Impresa announced that negotiations are limited to the purchase of the stake through a capital increase.
TF1 and M6 Bolster Retail Data Capabilities with Amazon Publisher Cloud Partnership
French TV sales houses TF1 PUB and M6 Unlimited have both signed partnerships with Amazon Publisher Cloud (APC), Amazon Ads’ publisher-facing offering, bolstering their ability to use retail data signals to target and measure campaigns run on their inventory. The deal marks Amazon Publisher Cloud’s first step into Europe with a pilot phase in France. TF1 PUB and M6 Unlimited will both be exclusive partners for a limited period, after which Amazon says other French broadcasters will be invited to sign up. Read more on VideoWeek.
WBD Revenues Down 6 Percent on Weak Ad Sales
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) revenues were down 6 percent YoY in Q3, the media company announced on Thursday, driven by a 16 percent fall in ad revenues. WBD said growth in the Streaming and Studios segment was partially offset by a decline in its Global Linear Networks. The company is pursuing its plan to split the two businesses apart, though a potential sale of parts of the company could alter the course of the strategy.
More UK Broadcaster Viewing Takes Place on BVOD Services Than Linear TV Finds TiVo
UK viewers are now watching more broadcaster TV via BVOD services than on linear TV, according to TiVo’s 2025 UK Video Trends Report. The study found that 52 percent of broadcaster TV consumption is through apps, versus 48 percent on linear TV. The report also suggested that use of ad-supported streaming services (including FAST channels) has risen nine percent in the last year, and now reaches 52.5 percent of UK viewers.
YouTube TV Drops Disney Channels in Negotiation Breakdown
Google is dropping Disney-owned channels, including ESPN and ABC, from its YouTube TV subscription service, after failing to reach a carriage agreement with the entertainment company. A YouTube spokesperson said Disney was suspending its content “as a negotiating tactic to force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers.” Disney meanwhile claimed that Google was “using its market dominance to eliminate competition” and undercut industry standard terms. The media company added that it remains committed to working towards a resolution.
News Broadcasters Call on Keir Starmer to Back Trusted Journalism
Leaders from Sky News, the BBC, ITN, and the News Media Association (NMA) have called on UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to take urgent steps to protect the digital ecosystem from “AI-generated slop”. The NMA’s Journalism Matters campaign urges the government to back trusted journalism in the UK by standing up to the tech platforms, warning that AI and synthetic content risks overwhelming the information ecosystem with misinformation and disinformation.
Tubi Dismisses Lawsuit Over Mass Arbitration Claims
Tubi, the Fox-owned AVOD service, is dismissing a lawsuit it brought against law firm Keller Postman for allegedly manufacturing thousands of arbitration claims over Tubi’s advertising practices. According to Reuters, the lawsuit claimed Keller Postman had schemed to induce tens of thousands of Tubi subscribers to lodge arbitration claims against Tubi, under a California law that bans using age and gender to target advertising. The company said it had reached a confidential settlement resolving the underlying arbitration claims, while the law firm said no money had been exchanged.
The Week for Publishers
The New York Times’ Hot Streak Continues with Ad Revenue and Subscription Growth
US news giant The New York Times posted another strong quarter in its Q3 earnings this week, with total revenues up by 9.5 percent year-on-year. Digital ad revenues grew by 20.3 percent year-on-year, helping total ad revenue growth to 11.8 percent, which the company attributed to strong demand from marketers, as well as new supply. Meanwhile it was another strong quarter for the Times’ subscription business, with a net gain of 460,000 digital-only subscribers compared with the end of the second quarter of 2025.
People Inc. Signs Up to Microsoft’s Content Marketplace
US publisher People Inc. revealed this week it has signed a deal with Microsoft to help build its Publisher Content Marketplace, a two-sided marketplace which will aim to compensate partnered publishers when their content is used by AI tools. Maintaining revenues amid the evolution of generative AI tools is a key priority for People Inc. — the group said on its Q3 earnings call this week that it has continued to see a fall in the number of user sessions on its properties, as referrals from Google dry up. Core sessions originating with Google fell from 1.09 billion in Q3 last year to 513 million this year.
RedBird Lines Up £500 Million Telegraph Takeover Funding from Apollo
Investment group RedBird Capital Partners has lined up £150 million in funding support from Apollo, the Financial Times reported this week, to help it complete its pending £500 million takeover of UK newspaper The Telegraph. RedBird has been engaged in a protracted takeover attempt for years. Its first effort, through a joint venture with Abu Dhabi state-owned investor IMI, was blocked by the UK government due to concerns around foreign state ownership of UK media. RedBird’s new takeover effort is still expected to attract antitrust scrutiny, according to the Financial Times.
Daily Star Tops Audience Growth Charts for September
Of the UK’s top 50 most popular news websites, Reach-owned newspaper the Daily Star saw the biggest year-on-year growth in total minutes spent on its content in September, according to Press Gazette’s analysis of Ipsos iris data. Total minutes spent on the Daily Star jumped by 160 percent year-on-year. Of the top ten most popular sites, the New York Times saw the most growth, up 40 percent year-on-year.
Gannett Rebrands as USA Today
US-based media group Gannett, which owns USA Today as well as a number of local and specialist titles, is rebranding as USA Today Co., a move which the company told Adweek is designed to simplify and streamline the business. Fellow US news business Dotdash Meredith made a similar move earlier this year, rebranding under the title of its popular magazine brand People.
Daily Mail Launches New True Crime Hub
The Daily Mail is launching a new true crime destination, ‘The Crime Desk’, which will cover true crime stories through podcasts, newsletters, and YouTube and TikTok videos among other formats. The newspaper says The Crime Desk already has significant reach across platforms, with 1.3 million followers on TikTok specifically, and there will be dedicated opportunities for advertisers aligned with the content category. The Mail’s sales house suggested that entertainment and streaming brands, as well as consumer tech and travel companies, could be a good fit.
The Week for Brands & Agencies
S4 Capital Lowers Full-Year Guidance
UK marketing and technology services group S4 Capital this week lowered its full-year revenue guidance, but maintained its EBITDA outlook, as it reported another revenues fall in Q3 (though a less steep drop than it’s seen in previous quarters). Third quarter net revenues were down by 4.4 percent year-on-year on a like-for-like basis, with marketing services down by 2.8 percent and technology services down by 16.5 percent. The group now expects full-year net revenues to be down by a high single-digit percentage. “Market conditions in the third quarter reflect the continuing impact of volatile global macroeconomic conditions,” said Sir Martin Sorrell, executive chairman of S4 Capital. “As a result, clients remain generally cautious given the uncertainty, with technology clients, which account for almost half our revenue, in particular, continuing to prioritise capital expenditure on expanding AI capacity.”
M&C Saatchi Rejects £50 Million Media Offer from Brave Bison
British ad group M&C Saatchi has rejected an unsolicited £50 million offer for its media arm M&C Performance from marketing and technology company Brave Bison, the company announced this week. A statement released by the agency’s board said that the offer “fundamentally undervalues the division and does not reflect the future prospects for the division which forms a core element of the company’s growth plans”, adding that it is not involved in any ongoing discussions. Brave Bison has been on a buying spree recently, with influencer marketing agency The Fifth and strategy and insights consultancy MTM among its acquisitions this year.
WPP Wins Reckitt’s European Media Account
WPP picked up a much-needed client win this week, with consumer goods business Reckitt handing WPP Media its media planning and buying responsibilities across 21 European markets. The account is valued at around $700 million, according to Campaign. “This decision reflects our ambition to drive greater consistency, efficiency and scale across markets, enabling us to deliver more unified, data-driven campaigns that accelerate growth for our brands,” said Ryan Dullea, chief category growth officer at Reckitt.
PE Firm Epiris Considers Bid for Next 15 Assets
Private equity firm Epiris is in talks to buy a significant portion of UK-based marketing group Next 15, Sky News reported this week. Epiris is reported to be interested in PR firms MHP Communications and Outcast, consumer marketing business M Booth, and B2B demand generation specialist Activate, according to Sky. Next 15 was reported earlier this year to be looking to offload some of its assets, as it’s been hit by a number of issues including disappointing financial performance and revelations of “potentially serious misconduct” at its US-based venture-building firm Mach49.
Newly Spun-Off Magnum Hands Media to Publicis
Publicis Groupe has been picked to run media planning and buying for The Magnum Ice Cream Company, the newly spun-off ice cream business which previously sat within Unilever, Adweek reported this week. Unilever’s ice cream division, which was previously mostly handled by WPP’s Mindshare, is reported to have invested $34 million in media last year. The Magnum Ice Cream company houses major brands including Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s, Cornetto, Carte D’or, and Wall’s.
Coca-Cola Makes AI-Generated Christmas Ad for Second Year Running
For the second year in a row, The Coca-Cola Company has released an AI-generated version of its long-running ‘Holidays Are Coming’ spot. Last year’s version sparked a backlash from some consumers and industry commentators, who criticised some of the visuals and physics as well as the general idea of running an AI-generated spot. This year, the ad just features animals rather than humans (doing away with humans seems to be a theme here), apparently as a means of avoiding an uncanny valley feel. Coca-Cola worked with LA-based AI studio Secret Level to produce the ad.
System1 Launches New Creative Intelligence Platform
Creative effectiveness business System1 this week launched ‘Test Your Ad Competitive Edge’, which it describes as an open creative effectiveness database of over 100,000 ads which gives brands a real-time view of their category, helping them understand how they match up to competitors. The platform uses System1’s emotional response data with ad tracking to help brands measure the effectiveness of their own campaigns, as well as those of rival brands.
Hires of the Week
OpenX Makes Three Leadership Promotions
OpenX, a supply-side platform (SSP), has announced three leadership promotions. Former CRO Matt Sattel is now President, while Joel Meyer moves from SVP of Engineering to Chief Technology Officer. Meanwhile Tyler Romasco, formerly SVP, Global Publisher Development, becomes EVP, Demand Platform & Publisher Partnerships.
Ozone Hires OMG UK’s Tom Harrison
Ozone, a digital advertising business, has named Tom Harrison as Senior Director of Growth. The newly created role will drive strategic partnerships with agency and advertiser clients. Harrison brings 18 years of agency experience, mostly recently serving as Head of Outcomes, UK at Omnicom Media Group UK.
Adform Announces Trio of Appointments
Ad tech firm Adform has appointed Liz Hiscoke and Digby Fordham as Sales Directors, and promoted Kinga Szczerska to Senior Account Director. Hiscoke joins from Cluep, an AI-driven mobile and desktop ad platform, while Fordham previously spent more than three years at THG Ingenuity. Meanwhile Szczerska joined Adform as an Account Director in 2018.
This Week on VideoWeek
The Buy-Side View: Q&A with Arla Foods’ Rob Edwards
Why Time is the Enemy with IP Addresses
IAB Tech Lab Cracks Down on CTV Fraud with Device Attestation
ID5 Acquires TrueData in Consolidation of Identity Vendors
How Rakuten TV Enterprise is Approaching CTV’s Adolescent Years
Women’s Sport Boom Leaves Advertisers Playing Catch-Up
TF1 and M6 Bolster Retail Data Capabilities with Amazon Publisher Cloud Partnership
How Broadcasters Are Merging Direct Sales with Programmatic
TV Will No Longer be a Static Medium
ITV Forecasts a Q4 Ad Spend Slowdown, but Maintains Digital Growth
Broadcasters Must Unify Inventory to Win Back Ad Spend
Ad of the Week
John Lewis, Where Love Lives
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