Week in Review: Netflix Agrees $83 Billion Warner Bros. Deal, RTL Deutschland Plans Restructure, and Titan OS Raises €50 Million

In this week’s Week in Review: Netflix agrees a massive deal to buy WBD’s streaming and studios assets, RTL Deutschland announces job cuts, and Titan OS raises €50 million.

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Netflix Agrees $83 Billion Deal to Acquire Warner Bros. Streaming and Studios Divisions

Netflix today announced it has agreed a deal to buy the studios and streaming divisions of fellow media giant Warner Bros. Discovery, following the planned spin-off of its TV networks division next year. Netflix says the deal implies a total enterprise value of WBD’s assets of $82.7 billion, including debt. Excluding debt, the price paid by Netflix sits at $72 billion. While a deal has been agreed, it may well have a tough time passing antitrust clearance, with multiple politicians and industry players sounding the alarm over a Netflix/WBD deal even before today’s announcement.

The deal will add a large volume of valuable IP to Netflix’s library, should it complete, while also strengthening Netflix’s own in-house studio capabilities. It will also give Netflix ownership of linear TV channels through HBO, which WBD chose to keep with the streaming and studios part of the business. “This acquisition will improve our offering and accelerate our business for decades to come,” continued Greg Peters, co-CEO of Netflix. “With our global reach and proven business model, we can introduce a broader audience to the worlds they create — giving our members more options, attracting more fans to our best-in-class streaming service, strengthening the entire entertainment industry and creating more value for shareholders.”

It’s a massive move for Netflix, a company which has historically done very little in the way of M&A. But with the global media market consolidating, and rival media titans Paramount and Comcast also making bids for WBD, Netflix clearly sees this deal as a way to maintain its streaming lead over its competitors.

However, the antitrust hurdle will likely be tough to clear. A deal of this size would naturally attract the attention of competition regulators anyway, but there’s speculation in the industry and in political circles that US president Donald Trump would have favoured Paramount to have won the bidding war. Trump has close ties with Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, father of Paramount Skydance owner David Ellison, and prominent Republicans have already begun speaking out against Netflix’s bid.

RTL Deutschland Plans Restructure and Job Cuts to Focus on Streaming Business

RTL Deutschland is restructuring its company and cost structure to focus on streaming, the German media company announced on Tuesday, in a move that will cut around 600 jobs across the business. RTL said the reorganisation will help it compete with the US streaming giants, as it seeks to prioritise its own streaming service, RTL+, alongside its planned acquisition of Sky Deutschland.

The announcement comes amid challenging economic conditions for the wider media business. In its latest earnings update, RTL Group said revenues had fallen 2.2 percent YoY during the first nine months of 2025, largely due to declining TV ad revenues. But the company’s streaming business is growing, with RTL+ now hosting 6.6 million subscribers, and remaining on track to become profitable next year.

The RTL Deutschland leadership said the company has “a strong foundation for future success”, but requires far-reaching measures to remain competitive in the long term.

“To create the necessary structures and resources, we have developed a program together with the works councils that aims to make the necessary staff reductions as fair and responsible as possible – with great respect and gratitude towards all affected colleagues,” said RTL Deutschland CEO Stephan Schmitter. “These measures are far-reaching, but absolutely necessary, and will sustainably strengthen RTL Deutschland’s position in the face of structural and economic challenges.”

Titan OS Raises €50 Million in Series A Funding

Titan OS, a CTV ad tech business which runs a CTV operating system, has raised €50 million in a Series A funding round led by Highland Europe, with participation from Mangrove Capital Partners and others.

Founded in 2023, Titan OS has made strides in the European CTV space. In the two years since launch, the company has agreed deals licensing its technology to major TV brands including Philips, Sony, JVC, and Vestel, and now claims to reach over 18 million active users. More recently, it expanded its ad sales offering through a deal to become Tubi’s exclusive sales partner in the UK.

“Our growth over the past two years is only the beginning – we plan to raise further capital next year to accelerate expansion and continue empowering our partners and users worldwide,” said Timothy Edwards, COO and Co-Founder of Titan OS. With the new round of funding, Titan says it will pursue further OEM partnerships while also investing in product innovation and further ad tech development.

The Week in Tech

Irish Media Watchdog Probes TikTok and LinkedIn’s Content Reporting Mechanisms

Ireland’s media regulator has opened investigations into TikTok and LinkedIn over potential flaws in their content reporting mechanisms, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The watchdog, which has jurisdiction over the tech companies in the EU due to the location of their European headquarters, is reviewing whether the firms meet EU rules enabling users to report suspected illegal content. The investigation follows last month’s news that the regulator has launched a probe into Elon Musk’s X over alleged failure to remove content that users report as illegal.

IAB Tech Lab Launches New API to Tackle Programmatic Deal Inefficiencies

IAB Tech Lab, a non-profit consortium which creates technologies and standards for the digital media ecosystem, on Thursday announced the release of new API which it says will streamline and automate programmatic deal synchronisation between supply-side platforms (SSP) and demand-side platforms (DSPs). The Deals API, whose first version is now open for public comment, should help tackle some of the key inefficiencies which tend to arise with programmatic deals, which can cost revenue and dent advertisers confidence in using programmatic deals. The public comment period will remain open until January 31st next year. Read more on VideoWeek.

Gracenote Provides Access to Program-Level Metadata with Gracenote Content Connect

Gracenote, Nielsen’s content data division, has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new platform designed to give agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-side platforms (DSPs) easy access to Gracenote’s standardised program-level metadata. By ensuring ad buyers and sellers are using a common language in relation to programming, Gracenote said the platform facilitates precise program-level ad targeting and transparent post-campaign reporting.

German Regulator Assesses Apple’s ATTF Proposals

Germany’s competition watchdog (the Bundeskartellamt) is reviewing Apple’s proposed changes to its App Tracking Transparency Framework (ATTF). The adjustments come in response to competition concerns raised by the Bundeskartellamt back in February, and aim to resolve an imbalance in consent prompts between apps provided by Apple itself or by third-party providers. In the regulator’s preliminary view, Apple’s proposals to more closely align the prompts “may potentially resolve the competition issues and are therefore subjected to a market test.”

Brightcove Releases Universal Translator and Vertical Video Product

Brightcove, a streaming tech business, has released new features designed to improve audience engagement and enhance live-streaming quality. The new features include a Universal Translator, Auto-Captions, Metadata Optimiser and Vertical Videos. The firm has also updated its NextGen Live product to support 4K UHD streaming and low-latency delivery, while unifying live streaming, server-side ad insertion and digital rights management into a single workflow.

Samba TV Brings Behavioural and Contextual Signals to Index Exchange

Samba TV, a media intelligence company, has partnered with Index Exchange, to bring Samba TV’s behavioural and contextual signals to the supply-side platform (SSP). The partnership comes as advertisers transform their programmatic workflows in light of AI innovations, according to the companies, embedding the data signals with full support for agentic ad platforms. “We’re making premium signals seamlessly available to buyers while setting a higher standard of transparency and sustainability for data providers,” said Index CEO Andrew Casale.

The Week in TV

The Rest Is Football Signs Netflix Deal

TV presenter Gary Lineker has signed a multi-million pound deal with Netflix to present his podcast, The Rest Is Football, at the World Cup in North America next year. Reports suggest the contract will dwarf the £1.35 million salary Lineker earned for hosting Match of the Day on the BBC. The deal continues Netflix’s push into podcast territory, with plans to launch more than 50 shows in early 2026.

Joyn Launches AI Assistant ‘Joyce’ for Content Discovery

Joyn, the ProSieben-owned streaming service, has introduced an AI-based assistant designed to help viewers find content. ‘Joyce’ will provide recommendations and adapt to individual user preferences over time, according to the German media company. The assistant is built on Google’s Gemini technology, and can be operated using text prompts or voice commands.

MFE-Owned Companies Sue Perplexity for Copyright Infringement

Two companies owned by MFE-MediaForEurope have filed a lawsuit against Perplexity, accusing the AI firm of scraping their content without permission. RTI and Medusa Film said the US company has breached copyright by using their video materials to train its AI models. The MFE-owned companies are seeking damages, daily penalties for future violations, and a court order to prevent further use of their content.

Paramount Ad Chief John Halley to Step Down in Ad Sales Shakeup

Paramount ad chief John Halley will step down in March, according to Variety, following the appointment of a new Chief Revenue Officer who has been given direct supervision of outreach to Madison Avenue. Halley has been part of Paramount Skydance and its predecessors for 18 years, becoming President of Advertising in 2022. He will take up an advisory position alongside new CRO Jay Askinasi, whose role is focused solely on overseeing the ads business.

Sinclair Makes Bid for E.W. Scripps

US telco Sinclair has made an offer to buy broadcaster E.W. Scripps, in a cash-and-stock deal that values Scripps at $622 million. Sinclair holds an 8.2 percent stake in its smaller rival, which is reviewing the proposal. Shares of Scripps rose 6.5 percent following the news, while those of Sinclair fell nearly 2 percent.

US Linear TV Ad Revenues to Fall 7 Percent for Next Two Years

US linear TV ad revenues will continue to decline by 6 to 8 percent over the next two years, according to research from MoffettNathanson. The analysts forecast linear TV revenues to fall 7 percent to $55.2 billion this year, $51.6 billion next year, and $47.9 billion in 2027. Ad-supported streaming revenues will increase by 15 percent however, reaching $16.1 billion in 2025.

The Week for Publishers

Future Touts Revenue Diversification After Revenue Fall

UK specialist publishing group Future plc this week reported its full year results (with its financial year running from October 1st-September 30th), revealing that revenues were down by six percent year-on-year, and organic revenues fell by three percent. CEO Kevin Li Ying said that these results were in line with expectations, and that the company has seen green shoots recently from a number of efforts to drive growth going forward. “These span areas including monetisation through content creators, an evolution of our ecommerce proposition, and driving even more direct engagement with audiences,” he said.

OpenAI Ordered to Hand Over Chat Logs in Publisher Lawsuit

A US judge has ordered OpenAI to hand over millions of anonymised chat logs from its ChatGPT service to the New York Times and other publishers who are suing the AI company. The publishers have said they need to see the logs in order to properly be able to determine whether their content was used without their consent. OpenAI meanwhile has protested that doing so would compromise user privacy. Judge Ona Wang however ruled that there is a sufficient level of protection over those chat logs, and that the publishers have a good enough cause to want to access them.

The Economist Reports Four Percent Revenue Growth

Business magazine The Economist saw four percent year-on-year revenue growth in the six months up to September 30 this year, Press Gazette reported this week, with operating profits up 23 percent compared to the same period in the year prior. The publisher said that performance was driven by strong performance in revenues for its enterprise subscriptions business, while its interim financial report referenced strong performance in the digital ad market.

ICO Claims Progress on Website Cookie Compliance

The UK’s data regulator the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) says its push to ensure UK websites’ cookie consent mechanisms are compliant with privacy law has had a big impact, as 95 percent of the top 1,000 websites in the UK were found to be compliant during tests. “We set ourselves the goal of giving people more meaningful control over how they were tracked online by the end of 2025. I can confidently say that we have delivered on that promise,” said Tim Capel, the ICO’s interim executive director of regulatory supervision. “Our work does not stop here. We want to ensure that websites that we have brought into compliance with the cookie rules do not simply revert to their previously unlawful practices because they think it will go under the radar.”

The New York Times Sues Pentagon Over Restrictions on Press Access

The New York Times is suing the Pentagon and US defence secretary Pete Hegseth over new restrictions to press access, claiming that these restrictions infringe on journalists’ first amendment rights. The Pentagon’s new rules, which came into force in October, sets limits on standard journalistic practices including making tip requests and enquiries to sources, according to the NYT. The newspaper said these rules represent “exactly the type of speech- and press-restrictive scheme that the Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit have recognised violates the First Amendment”.

Ringier Romania Partners with Caroda for Mobile Video Ad Monetisation

European publishing group Ringier Romania has partnered with Czech ad tech company Caroda, in a deal which will see Caroda’s monetisation solutions rolled out across Ringier Romania’s network of sites. This will include the use of Caroda’s ‘Multiformat Carousel’, a floating ad format that supports multiple media types which is designed specifically for the mobile web. Ringier says the launch is part of a wider strategy to boost video ad performance while maintaining user experience.

NA Journalist Guild Launches ‘News Not Slop’ Campaign

The NewsGuild-CWA, a North American journalists’ guild with over 27,000 members, this week launched a campaign protesting the growing role of AI in journalism. Titled ‘News Not Slop’, the campaign criticises the way AI tools are being rolled out at some newspapers, with a reduction in human staff leading to an uptick in AI-originated errors and a decline in the overall quality of content. The campaign calls for news businesses to ensure AI assists journalists rather than replacing them, and also highlights the need for greater IP protection over journalists’ work.

The Week for Brands & Agencies

Omnicom Announces Job Cuts and Agency Sunsets Following Merger Completion

Holding group Omnicom is set to lay off around 4,000 staff following the completion of its merger with Interpublic Group, the Financial Times reported this week, with cuts mostly targeting administrative roles, though some leadership positions will also be affected. The group is also axing creative agency brands DDB, MullenLowe, and FCB, which have a combined age of around 272 years between them. Alongside the restructure, Omnicom announced a number of leadership positions in the new combined company. Florian Adamski will stay as CEO of Omnicom Media (which appears to be the new name for Omnicom Media Group), while Troy Ruhanen will take charge of the creative division, Omnicom Advertising.

ASA Issues Guidance for LHF Ads

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) this week released its final guidance for advertisers and agencies on the UK’s upcoming restrictions on ads for less healthy foods (LHF) ads. The new rules, which come into effect on January 5th, will prevent companies from advertising identifiable LHF foods online, or on TV before a 9pm watershed. The guidance outlines how the ASA will assess whether an identifiable LHF product is shown in an ad, once it takes responsibility for enforcing the rules next year.

Dentsu Forecasts 5.1 Percent Global Ad Growth Next Year

Japanese holding group Dentsu has released its forecast for the global ad industry, predicting that global ad spend will grow by 5.1 percent next year, bringing total ad spend past $1 trillion for the first time (though some other forecasts say total ad spend has already passed that mark). Retail media is expected to be the fastest growing digital channel with 14.1 percent projected growth, while online video is expected to grow by 11.5 percent.

Publicis Leads COMvergence New Business Rankings for First Three Quarters of 2025

Publicis Media led the rankings for both total new business and net new business across all of the major media agencies in the first three quarters of 2025, according to agency benchmark provider COMvergence. Publicis Media brought in around $7.7 billion worth of net new billings in the first three quarters of the year, when taking into account new business wins, retentions, and client losses. IPG Mediabrands came second, with a net gain of $2.5 billion. WPP Media sat at the other end of the table, with a net loss of $2.6 billion between January and September.

Havas Acquires Data Consulting Firm Unnest

French agency group Havas on Monday announced it is acquiring Unnest, a French data consulting and engineering firm, for an undisclosed fee. Havas says Unnest has “deep end-to-end expertise in designing, building, and deploying data platforms”, which it says will strengthen Havas Media Network’s existing data, technology, and analytics arm CSA. “[Unnest’s] technological expertise will be a valuable addition to the acceleration of our Converged.AI strategy,” said Havas CEO and chairman Yannick Bolloré. “They will help drive the adoption of AI solutions across our client base, addressing strategic and operational challenges while maintaining the highest standards of excellence.”

Serviceplan Launches House of Communication Agency Model in UK

Serviceplan, the European agency group that owns Mediaplus UK, is launching House of Communication (HoC) UK, a new entity combining its media, creative and tech capabilities under one roof. Led by Mediaplus UK CEO Thomas Laranjo, HoC will give UK clients access to an integrated, full-service agency model, which is already active across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and US.

WPP Drops Out of FTSE 100

After last week’s reports that WPP was on the brink of dropping out of the FTSE 100, the British agency group did fall out of the UK stock listing this week. The change reflects the fall in WPP’s valuation in recent years, as the FTSE 100 lists the largest publicly traded companies in the UK. WPP has been part of the index since 1998.

ASA Bans Nike, Lacoste, and Superdry Ads

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) this week banned a selection of ads from Nike, Lacoste, and Superdry, stating that they contained misleading environmental claims, the Financial Times reported this week. The ad monitoring body said that the ads in question made unsubstantiated claims about the sustainability credentials of the products shown. Each ad described products made by the brand as ‘sustainable’, containing ‘sustainable materials’, or otherwise referencing sustainability, without giving justification for those labels.

Hires of the Week

Jonas Karlén Rejoins Viaplay as CEO for Sweden

Viaplay, a Nordic streaming business, has hired Jonas Karlén as Executive Vice President and CEO of Viaplay Group Sweden. Former Co-CEOs Johan Johansson and Christian Albeck will now focus on their respective roles; EVP and Group CFO, and EVP Content Acquisition, respectively. Karlén previously served as CEO of Viaplay AB and Viasat AB, before departing the company in 2017.

Condé Nast Names Vasanth Williams as Chief Product and Technology Officer

Condé Nast, an international publishing company, has announced Vasanth Williams as its new Chief Product and Technology Officer. The appointment will see Williams help advance the firm’s use of AI to deepen direct relationships with audiences. He previously spent six years as EVP, Chief Product Officer & Engineering at Major League Baseball (MLB).

Kara Osborne Gladwell and Tia Castagno Return to Dentsu

Dentsu has named Kara Osborne Gladwell as Global Product Architect Officer, Media; and Tia Castagno as Global Innovation President. Both are newly created roles, with both appointees returning to the company. Osborne Gladwell re-joins Dentsu following a two-year stint as CEO of UM London, while Castagno spent four years running her own innovation consultancy.

VideoAmp Expands Board of Directors

VideoAmp, a US-based measurement provider, has appointed Jonathan Gear and Sari Granat to its Board of Directors. Gear previously worked as CEO of Clarivate, a global information and analytics business, while Granat most recently served as President and COO of Chainalysis, a blockchain data and analytics company.