In this week’s Week in Charts, Roku’s DSP strategy, AI’s impact on UK agency headcount, and AppLovin’s stock price decline.
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AI-Driven Ad Spend to Make Up Almost Half Social Media Ad Revenues by 2030
Twenty-six percent of total ad revenues are expected to come from AI-driven ad spend by 2030, according to forecasts from Madison and Wall, driven by spending on social media and search. The analysts expect AI-driven ad spend to make up 48 percent of social media ad revenues in 2030, with Meta platforms driving this shift, and 37 percent of search ad revenues, driven by Google’s Performance Max. But other channels are expected to be slower to adapt to AI-based trading, as “TV buying still relies on upfront deals and relationship-based sales.”
Netflix Ad Tier Reaches 48 Percent of US Subscriber Base
Almost half (48 percent) of US Netflix subscribers are now on the streaming service’s ad tier, according to research from Parks Associates, having introduced its ad-supported plan back in 2022. But the SVOD services that offered at tiers at launch, such as Peacock and Hulu, show the highest proportion of users on their ad-supported plans. Meanwhile Amazon’s Prime Video “is benefiting from migrating its entire user base to its ad-supported tier when it launched and requiring subscribers to upgrade to the premium tier if they don’t want ads,” said the report.
TF1 Ad Revenues Continue to Decline as Linear TV Market Faces Ongoing Pressure
TF1’s ad revenues took a four percent YoY drop last year, according to the French broadcaster’s full-year results, reaching €1.57 billion in 2025. The results continue to show declines in TF1’s ad revenues over the past five years (with the exception of 2024), due to continued softness in the linear TV ad market. But the company’s efforts to boost its digital sales are paying off, with ad revenues for its TF1+ streaming service jumping 36 percent YoY in 2025.
AppLovin CEO Brushes Off Meta Threat in Face of Declining Stock Price
AppLovin’s market cap has fallen by around 40 percent since the start of the year, due to fears of increased competition in the gaming ad space, particularly from Meta. But CEO Adam Foroughi remains bullish on the company’s prospects, off the back of a strong 2025 that saw revenues jump 70 percent YoY, stating “there is no world where Meta is going to end up becoming kind of a dominant player in the face of this competition.”
The Week in Stocks
Agencies
Publicis and Havas shares continue their steep declines amid the threat of new AI tools expected to supplant agency-owned tech models.
TV
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Roku withstood broader declines in TV stocks last week, as the takeover battle for WBD heats up, and Roku posted a 15 percent YoY revenue jump in 2025.
Publishers
Future’s share price took a 13 percent hit owing to ongoing pressures over revenue and profitability for the UK publishing group.
Ad Tech
Shares in Teads shot up after the omnichannel ad tech firm announced a new partnersip with Google TV to expand its CTV home screen inventory.
Tech
On Friday the tech-heavy Nasdaq booked a fifth consecutive weekly drop, making its longest losing streak since 2022, reflecting continuing anxiety around AI spending by tech companies.
