In this week’s Week in Review: Paramount is set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery after Netflix drops its bid, the Premier League announces plans for a streaming service in Singapore, and ad tech companies report continued CTV growth.
Top Stories
Netflix Drops WBD Bid, Paving Way for Paramount Takeover
Netflix has walked away from its $83 billion bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) studio and streaming business, clearing the path for Paramount Skydance to acquire WBD. On Tuesday, Paramount upped its offer to $111 billion ($31 per share) for the whole company, which the WBD board deemed a “superior proposal” to the Netflix agreement.
Netflix initially agreed a deal with WBD back in December, but Paramount has spent the last few weeks upping its hostile bid to shareholders, and on Thursday the streaming giant announced the price point had stretched beyond what Netflix was willing to pay.
“We’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid,” Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a statement.
Paramount, whose bid is bankrolled by Oracle billionaire and Donald Trump donor Larry Ellison, still requires regulatory approval to complete the takeover. But last week the company said its deal had complied with the US Department of Justice’s second request review process, removing a critical roadblock to approval, and signalling approval from the Trump administration.
Premier League Announces Streaming Service, Naming Singapore as First Market
The Premier League, England’s top-tier domestic football league, has announced plans to launch its own streaming service called Premier League Plus, which will launch in Singapore next season. The service will air all 380 Premier League games across a season to subscribers in Singapore, marking the first time the league has directly distributed its own content. While Singapore is the only market planned so far, Premier League CEO Richard Masters said the organisation will be looking to see how the model “might be replicable around the world”.
Speaking at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit, as reported by The Guardian, Masters described the launch as a “learning opportunity” for the league. There’s been plenty of speculation over the years that the Premier League might look to launch its own direct-to-consumer service domestically, cutting out current rights holders including Sky and TNT Sports, and while there are seemingly no firm plans to do so, this week’s announcement is a step in that direction.
Several other European football leagues have already taken the plunge and launched domestic streaming services, including Ligue 1 in France and La Liga in Spain (though the La Liga app broadcasts second-tier games, rather than top flight football).
CTV Fuels Growth in Ad Tech Earnings
The Trade Desk, Magnite, and PubMatic all reported this full year earnings this week, and growth in CTV was a common theme across the board.
Magnite, which reported on Wednesday, said it had seen “a significant inflection in the growth of the programmatic CTV market” in the previous quarter, which helped drive overall revenue growth of six percent across 2025. CEO Michal Barratt said the company is seeing advertisers shift budget from other channels into CV. PubMatic similarly posted a strong year for CTV overall, with CTV revenues up 50 percent year-on-year excluding political ad spend. Total revenues were down slightly for PubMatic, but gross profits were up, and CEO Rajeev Goel said that underlying results show the company is on the right path. Both companies saw their stock climb by over ten percent following the results.
CTV was also high on the agenda for The Trade Desk. Total revenues in the fourth quarter were up 14 percent year-on-year, beating expectations, and CEO Jeff Green highlighted CTV as one of the company’s fastest growing channels. But the company’s stock fell by over 17 percent following the announcement, as investors were seemingly disappointed in the company’s expectations for 2026.
The Week in Tech
The Trade Desk’s Ventura OS Makes an Ecosystem Pivot
On Wednesday, The Trade Desk unveiled ‘the Ventura Ecosystem’, a collaborative venture which it says will bring “global TV operating systems and streaming platforms together to create a more transparent and revenue-optimised marketplace”. While hardware partnerships for the ad tech company’s CTV OS have been thin on the ground, the Ventura Ecosystem will see third-party partners use Ventura’s CTV ad tech, while also collaborating on industry standards. The Trade Desk already has a couple of partners lined up: V (previously VIDAA TV OS), which is used on over 50 million devices globally including TVs made by Hisense and Toshiba, and fellow ad tech outfit Nexxen, which works with V. Read more on VideoWeek.
ICO Fines Reddit £14.47 Million for Children’s Data Violations
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined Reddit £14.47 million after finding the social sharing company failed to use children’s personal information lawfully. The investigation found that Reddit failed to apply robust age assurance mechanisms and therefore did not have a lawful basis for processing the personal information of children under the age of 13. “Relying on users to declare their age themselves is not enough when children may be at risk and we are focusing now on companies that are primarily using this method,” said John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner. “I therefore strongly encourage industry to take note, reflect on their practices and urgently make any necessary improvements to their platforms.”
Molly Rose Foundation Criticises Instagram’s New Child Supervision Feature
Instagram has introduced a child supervision feature that will send alerts to parents who are enrolled in Instagram’s parental supervision program if their teen repeatedly searches for suicide or self-harm related terms. But suicide prevention charity the Molly Rose Foundation has criticised the measures, arguing that the “flimsy notifications” could leave parents panicked. “This clumsy announcement is fraught with risk and we are concerned that forced disclosures could do more harm than good,” said Andy Burrows, CEO of the Molly Rose Foundation.
Samsung Ads Launches Carousel Home Screen Ad Unit
Samsung Ads has launched an Immersive Carousel ad unit for Samsung TV home screens, which can be used to promote multiple products or content items within a single ad placement. The format displays ads with up to five separate tiles, auto-rotating every five seconds, or manually via the remote control. “The home screen Immersive Carousel delivers the rich storytelling capabilities that advertisers are looking for, while also enabling them to promote multiple products, or multiple aspects of the same product, in a single ad unit,” said Alex Hole, SVP and General Manager at Samsung Europe and MENA.
Kantar Media Rebrands as Fifty5Blue
Kantar Media has rebranded as Fifty5Blue, the audience measurement firm announced on Wednesday. The rebrand follows the company’s separation from Kantar Group and its acquisition by H.I.G. Capital last year. “In a world full of noise, with no shortage of data, we believe clarity is the real differentiator,” said Patrick Béhar, Global CEO at Fifty5Blue. “Our role is to remove unnecessary complexity, provide the right data with the most rigorous methods and help our clients gain the clarity to make better decisions.”
Bedrock Platform Launches Agentic Planning and Buying Module for CTV
Bedrock Platform, a demand-side platform (DSP), has announced the beta release of Pathfinder, an agentic LLM-powered planning and buying module for CTV. Pathfinder unifies fragmented supply into a single activation workflow, according to the DSP, using semantic and contextual signals to understand environments, audiences and moments. “Agentic AI absorbs the heavy lifting of deduplication and signal reconciling, and shifts the industry beyond the chaos of fragmentation, allowing human buyers to get back to what they do best: high-level strategy and storytelling,” said Manuel Ponce De Leon, Agentic Product Lead at Bedrock Platform.
AudienceProject Provides Measurement and Targeting for The Trade Desk Campaigns
AudienceProject, an audience targeting and measurement provider, has partnered with The Trade Desk to directly integrate audience measurement of the demand-side platform’s (DSP) campaigns in AudienceProject’s SaaS platform. The partnership also makes AudienceProject’s socio-demographic audiences available for targeting in The Trade Desk’s Data Marketplace. Measurement enabled by the integration will initially be available in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, with more countries to follow.
Adform Becomes First DSP to Join ISBA’s Partner Programme
Adform has become the first demand-side platform (DSP) to join ISBA’s Partner Programme, the representative body for British advertisers, the company announced on Tuesday. Adform has also solidified its commitment to a diverse media landscape by supporting the Alliance of Media Independents, according to the ad tech firm. “Advertisers need partners who don’t just talk about transparency and accountability but deliver it,” said Stephen Chester, Director of Media at ISBA. “Adform’s willingness to work with advertisers on these terms makes them a valued partner to ISBA as we seek to empower advertisers with a greater understanding of the media landscape, and how to make it accountable to advertiser objectives.”
TheViewPoint Becomes Upstream in Shift Away From SSP Model
Infra.tv, a TV ad tech firm, has rebranded its subsidiary TheViewPoint as Upstream. The rebrand marks a shift from legacy sell-side platform (SSP) technology to direct sales automation solutions for CTV publishers, according to the business. “TheViewPoint was acquired by Infra.tv in 2022 as a traditional SSP,” the company said in an announcement. “Since then, the company has deprecated its commodity SSP offerings to focus exclusively on solving automation challenges that CTV publishers face with direct sales – a higher-value problem that existing ad tech infrastructure fails to address. The rebrand to Upstream reflects this evolution: moving beyond table-stakes supply-side infrastructure to deliver technology that addresses what publishers actually need to grow their most valuable revenue stream.”
The Week in TV
UK Government Moves to Place Streaming Services Under Ofcom Regulation
The UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on Tuesday announced it is working on secondary legislation to implement the Media Act 2024, working to bring the more popular streaming services in the UK under Ofcom’s regulation remit. The move will extend existing requirements around accessibility and content, which are currently directed at linear TV channels, to cover the on-demand market as well. The DCMS says that any service with more than 500,000 users in the UK will be categorised as a ‘Tier 1’ service, and will need to adhere to the new VOD (video on-demand) standards code. Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+ will therefore be affected, as will broadcaster video on-demand (BVOD) services like Channel 4 and ITVX. Read more on VideoWeek.
Paramount+ Helps Fuel Revenue Growth in Q4
Paramount reported revenues of $8.14 billion in Q4 2025, up 2 percent YoY, as the company prepares to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Revenue at Paramount+ rose 17 percent to reach $1.8 billion, with Paramount+ now hitting 78.9 million subscribers, offsetting a 5 percent fall in the TV media segment. Paramount also forecast Q1 2026 revenues to fall by 1-2 percent YoY, led by declines in the TV media and studios businesses.
WBD Posts $252 Million Loss and Ad Revenue Drop for Q4
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) posted a $252 million loss in Q4 2025, the quarter that kicked off a bidding war for the company. Total quarterly revenues were $9.46 billion, down 6 percent YoY, driven by a 9 percent fall in ad revenues. But streaming subscriptions rose by 3.5 million during the quarter, as WBD rolled out the HBO Max streaming service in international markets.
Atresmedia Reports Flat Revenues in 2025 Despite Declining Ad Sales
Spanish broadcasting group Atresmedia announced that 2025 revenues came in at €1 billion, broadly flat compared with 2024, defying ongoing contraction in Spain’s TV ad market. Ad revenues were down by 6 percent YoY, but were offset by growth in the content production and distribution business. “These elements have helped offset the weakness of the advertising market in Audiovisual Content, particularly given the demanding comparison with the previous financial year,” the broadcaster said in a statement.
ITV to Broadcast BRIT Awards on YouTube
The BRIT Awards will be broadcast on ITV’s YouTube channel for the first time on Saturday, under a global partnership between ITV and YouTube. The show will also be available on ITV1 and ITVX, as well as The BRITs’ YouTube channel. The move sees the UK broadcaster lean further into YouTube to distribute full episodes of new content, having also released the first episode of the new series of Britain’s Got Talent on the video-sharing service.
Switzerland to Vote on Funding Cuts for State Broadcaster SRG
Next month will see Switzerland vote on a proposal to slash funding for its state broadcaster SRG, a move that opponents of the policy say reflects mounting right-wing pressure on public media companies. The initiative would cut the annual licence fee from 335 Swiss francs to 200 francs. The right-wing Swiss People’s Party argues that young people rarely use SRG’s services, and accuse the broadcaster of left-wing bias. Reuters notes that SRG rejects this characterisation, based on a University of Zurich study that found it does not skew left or right.
ITV Brings Hulu Shows to Linear TV in Expanded Disney Deal
ITV and Disney have expanded their content-sharing agreement in the UK, bringing two Hulu Original series from Disney+ to ITV1. Building on their partnership to distribute each other’s content on their respective streaming services, the agreement now sees ITV bring Disney shows to linear TV, broadcast under the brand “Disney+ presents a Hulu Original”. The two Hulu series are psychological drama The Stolen Girl and true-crime drama The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.
Sky Media Demonstrates Addressable TV Advertising Effectiveness in New Study
Sky Media, the UK broadcaster’s sales house, has released a study demonstrating the effectiveness of addressable TV advertising. The study, ‘The Addressable Advantage’, uses Sky Media’s effectiveness databank ‘Norman’ to analyse outcomes from 2,400 campaigns across 535 advertisers between 2020 and 2025. The results found that compared with linear TV alone, addressable campaigns deliver 2.1x uplift in awareness, and 3x uplift in incremental web traffic. “The Addressable Advantage is an important addition to the industry’s effectiveness research, filling a key knowledge gap on the efficacy of addressable TV for SMEs through to major household brands,” said Matt Hill, Director of Insight & Effectiveness at Sky Media.
ITV Studios’ Zoo55 Launches Brand Partnership Unit Studio 55
Zoo55, a digital entertainment unit owned by ITV Studios, has launched Studio 55, a global brand partnership studio designed to offer brands, marketing agencies and content creators access to ITV Studios’ portfolio of IP. The studio will establish licensing deals, global IP collaborations, and digital-first formats, according to ITV Studios, launching with a Tinder-sponsored dating podcast called It Started With a Kiss. “With the launch of Studio 55 and Zoo 55, I feel we are truly set up for the future of entertainment,” said Ruth Berry, President Global Partnerships and Zoo 55 at ITV Studios. “We have expanded our infrastructure to allow us to broaden our range of partners to brands, agencies and creators, as well as licensees. It’s all driven by the desire to meet the fandoms of our franchises where they are, on every platform.”
The Week for Publishers
UK Publishers Team Up on Publisher AI Rights
The BBC, the Financial Times, The Guardian, Telegraph Media Group and Sky News this week announced the launch of Spur, the Standards for Publisher Usage and Rights coalition, a new initiative which will establish technical standards for how publisher content is used by AI businesses and promote sustainable licensing frameworks. The founding members, in an open letter, have invited global leaders across publishing, broadcasting, media, and news to join the project. “Spur’s mission is clear: to establish shared technical standards and responsible licensing frameworks that ensure AI developers can access high-quality, reliable journalism in legitimate, responsible and convenient ways, while guaranteeing that publishers retain practical control of their content and receive fair value when it is used,” the companies’ various chief executives said in the open letter.
The Guardian Deepens Video Push with Studio Launch
UK newspaper The Guardian this week announced the launch of Guardian Studios, a new unit headed up by Leah Green which the publisher says will serve as a “creative hub for video-first, personality-led journalism”. Green will work alongside The Guardian’s wider team to transform the newspaper’s journalism into new visual formats, while also fostering on-screen talent. “There is a powerful sense of energy across the organisation towards imagining the next era of video content at a time when the landscape is changing rapidly,” said Green. “I want Guardian Studios to be at the forefront of creating a new generation of Guardian fans by delivering smart, innovative and fun content that people seek out week by week.”
Efune-Led Group Keeps Up Pursuit of The Telegraph
A consortium led by Dovid Efune, owner of the New York Sun, is keeping up its pursuit of UK newspaper the Telegraph, in an effort to beat out rival bidder the Daily Mail & General Trust, which has already agreed a takeover deal. The Financial Times reported this week that European publishing giant Axel Springer joined Efune’s group, which is also said to be willing to increase its offer. The consortium believes its takeover efforts would have an easier route to regulatory clearance, since DMGT already owns another of the UK’s largest right-wing newspapers in the Daily Mail.
Ozone Joins Microsoft’s Media Marketplace
UK publisher sales house Ozone this week announced it has joined the Microsoft Media Marketplace, a deal which it says will allow buyers to see category-based deals, such as Sports and Travel, available to activate across over 30 DSP partners. “At Ozone, our mission has always been to provide a credible, premium alternative to the major digital platforms, and making it easy for brands to activate trusted audiences at scale has been key to our success,” said Craig Tuck, Ozone’s global chief revenue officer. “Whether through our Managed Service, Premium Deals, or Connect offerings, we’ve focused on working with our customers in the way that works best for them – and making Ozone’s audience deals available in Microsoft Media Marketplace creates even more flexibility for clients.”
Dow Jones Prioritises Direct Deals to Drive Revenue
Dow Jones, the News Corp subsidiary which owns the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and MarketWatch, continues to prioritise direct deals to drive revenue, AdExchanger reported this week, a strategy designed to prioritise those publications’ relationships with their audiences. Jennifer Castillo, executive director of ad operations at Dow Jones, told AdExchanger that the company has invested heavily in first-party data products, but doesn’t use its most valuable first-party data assets in open programmatic marketplaces. “PMPs and PGs are where we can layer on our first‑party data, and those are signals we’re only passing in the private space,” she said.
The Week for Brands & Agencies
WPP Rejects HoldCo Label in New AI-Driven Strategy
Following a tumultuous year and a change of leadership for WPP, on Thursday the UK agency giant unveiled its new strategy for the next three years, in efforts to simplify and integrate client proposition, restore growth, and drive long-term value for clients, talent and shareholders. The multi-year plan, named ‘Elevate28’, aims to transform WPP’s structure from a holding company into a single business, according to the firm. The company will comprise four core operating units: WPP Media, WPP Creative, WPP Production and WPP Enterprise Solutions. The agency group is positioning AI at the heart of this new strategy, delivering “fully integrated, AI-enabled solutions” for its clients across North America, Latin America, EMEA and APAC. Read more on VideoWeek.
Proprietary Media Data Surfaces in WPP Court Case
Internal documents from WPP released as part of a court case filed against it by former employee Richard Foster have given a window into ad spend from some of the agency’s top clients, Digiday reported this week, as well as some notable figures relating to WPP’s proprietary media business. The data suggests that while WPP Media (or GroupM, as it was at the time the documents were created) used large amounts of spending from some of its biggest clients to trigger rebates within its proprietary media structure, very little of these same clients’ spend was actually spent on proprietary media. For example, among GroupM’s top ten US clients, 62 percent of spend went through non-proprietary channels, and 91.9 percent of their proprietary inventory went unused, according to Digiday.
Spain Seeks Caps on Media Earnings from Public Sector Advertising
The Spanish government is working to introduce caps on the ad revenues media companies can earn from public sector advertising, setting a limit of 35 percent of total revenues, Bloomberg reported this week. The move is described as an effort to curb the spread of fake news and disinformation, by preventing public sector spenders from effectively buying influence over media brands. “Public sector advertising plays an essential role, but it must never become a means of buying off the media,” Spain’s digital transformation minister Óscar López said, as reported by Bloomberg. “A private news outlet that receives 50, 60, or 70 percent of its funding from the public sector is not really a news outlet — it’s something else.”
Publicis UK Issues Four Day Per Week In-Office Mandate
Publicis UK is mandating that staff work from an office for at least four days per week, Campaign reported this week, an increase from the previous minimum of three (which remains the rule in other markets). An internal memo seen by Campaign cited the need to “come together more than ever in a pivotal year for the industry to collaborate, innovate, create and learn”. Monday will remain an in-office day, while individual teams will be able to choose which other three days are mandatory.
ISBA Releases Framework for Responsible AI Content Creation
British advertiser trade group ISBA this week launched the ‘Marketers Framework for AI-Enabled Content Creation’, a set of guidelines developed in partnership with Responsible Marketing Advisory aimed at addressing advertisers’ AI content concerns. ISBA says the framework sets out a clear and practical approach to using AI across the consumer journey, while keeping appropriate guardrails in place. “Consumers are encountering more AI shaped content than ever, yet their expectations differ widely by category, context, and the relationship they already have with the brand,” said Nick Louisson, ISBA’s director of agency services. “That’s why the challenge isn’t whether to use AI, but how to ensure its use feels authentic, appropriate, and aligned with what audiences expect.”
WPP Wins Estée Lauder Global Media Account
Beauty business Estée Lauder, which owns brands including MAC, The Ordinary, and Jo Malone, has chosen WPP as its global media agency, Campaign reported this week, an account worth around £500 million. The account was previously split amongst a number of media partners across different markets, according to Ad Age — Monks handles the North America business, Brainlabs ran the UK and Ireland, and Stagwell worked across Europe and India, while WPP was the incumbent in China.
WFA Launches Guide to Inclusive Insights
The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has launched a new guide outlining an inclusive approach to consumer insights, designed to help marketers reduce blind spots, improve strategic accuracy and strengthen brand relevance with inclusive research design. “Nuanced and intersectional identities are not new,” said Susan Akkad, senior VP of local and cultural platforms and corporate innovation for The Estée Lauder Companies. “However, consumers now have higher expectations of brands understanding them. Deeper understanding of identities and culture can only be achieved by designing inclusive insights learning plans up front.”
Hires of the Week
Comcast Promotes James Borow to General Manager of Universal Ads
Comcast Advertising has promoted James Borow to General Manager of Universal Ads, the company’s self-serve advertising business. Borow will lead strategy, operations and execution of the self-service ad buying platform as it continues to evolve and scale. He previously served as Vice President of Product Management and Engineering for Universal Ads, where he worked on developing and launching the product.
Dentsu Appoints Amy Robinson as Chief Growth and Marketing Officer
Dentsu UK&I has appointed Amy Robinson as Chief Growth and Marketing Officer. In the newly created role, Robinson will identify new market opportunities to drive growth for the agency group. She previously spent eight years at Publicis, most recently serving as UK Group Brand Growth Director.
Digital Remedy Names Viant’s Salil Joshi as SVP Technology
Ad tech firm Digital Remedy has announced Salil Joshi as Senior Vice President, Technology. Joshi will lead the evolution of Digital Remedy’s technology foundation, overseeing platform unification, infrastructure modernisation, and AI-driven innovation. He previously spent three years as VP of Engineering at ad tech business Viant.
IPA Adds to Leadership and Media Research Teams
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) has named Sue Benson as IPA Chair for England and Wales. Benson has served as IPA City Head for Manchester and the North West since 2023. Gemma Longfellow, Chief People Officer at Open Partners, has been appointed as her successor. The IPA has also appointed Dan Flynn and Graeme Griffiths as joint Directors of Media Research, succeeding Denise Turner in the role. Flynn and Griffiths previously served as IPA Deputy Research Director and Associate Director of Research, respectively.
This Week on VideoWeek
Thinkbox Publishers Have Substantial Reach on YouTube, and That Has Big Implications for Buyers
UK Government Moves to Place Streaming Services Under Ofcom Regulation
The Trade Desk’s Ventura OS Makes an Ecosystem Pivot
WPP Rejects HoldCo Label in New AI-Driven Strategy
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