Week in Review: McLachlan Leaves ITV, European Publishers Seek £550 Million in Damages From Google, and Berenberg Gets Bullish on Holdcos

In this week’s Week in Review: Rhys McLachlan to leave ITV, European publishers seek £550 million in damages from Google, and Berenberg gets bullish on agency holdcos’ AI prospects.

The Week in Tech

Chartered Trading Standards Initiative Calls for Government Action Against Meta’s “Epidemic of Fraud”

The UK’s Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), an influential not-for-profit which supports the UK’s trading standards profession and advocates for consumer protection, this week called on the government to take action in response to what it describes as an “epidemic of fraud” on Meta’s platforms. CTSI says that criminal organisations are capitalising on public trust in Meta’s brands, and using it to exploit consumers. “Meta and its platforms, including Facebook, sit at the top of a pyramid of fraudulent adverts which impact the lives of people in the UK and across the world every day,” said John Herriman, chief executive of CTSI. “The profits they make from criminal activities is eye-watering.” Read more on VideoWeek.

The Trade Desk CRO Leaves After Seven Months in Role

Anders Mortensen, Chief Revenue Officer at The Trade Desk, has left the company after just seven months in the role, Adweek reported on Sunday. The ad tech company has not disclosed the reasons behind his departure. It marks the latest in a string of senior executive exits at The Trade Desk over the last few months, including CFO Alexander Kayyal, CMO Ian Colley, CSO Samantha Jacobson, and communications VP Melinda Zurich.

Samsung Ads Launches Programmatic Home Screen Placements

Samsung Ads has made automated buying of home screen ad placements available on Samsung Smart TVs, powered by Magnite’s SpringServe technology. Advertisers will be able to activate the home screen placements through demand-side platforms (DSP) such as The Trade Desk and Google DV360. “By making this inventory available through the platforms advertisers already use every day, we’re giving brands easier access to premium, non-skippable placements that extend campaign reach and deliver meaningful impact at scale,” said Eldad Persky, SVP Global Product, Engineering & Business Development at Samsung Electronics.

Amazon DSP Adds Adelaide Attention Metrics for Pre-Bid Targeting

Amazon DSP has integrated attention targeting capabilities from Adelaide into the demand-side platform, making pre-bid targeting using Adelaide’s proprietary attention metric ‘AU’ available in the DSP. Amazon DSP is also integrating Adelaide’s AU Quality Floor, which excludes inventory with an AU score in the bottom 10 percent, and defaults to excluding made-for-advertising (MFA) inventory. “Advertisers shouldn’t have to wait until after a campaign runs to know whether their spend went toward high-attention media,” said Marc Guldimann, CEO and Co-Founder of Adelaide.

Magnite Connects Buyer and Seller Agents Through Orchestration Layer

Magnite, a sell-side ad tech business, has launched Magnite Orchestration, a coordination layer enabling buyer agents to connect to Magnite’s seller agent. Dentsu has also integrated its dentsu.Audiences segments into Magnite as part of beta tests, allowing teams to surface relevant proprietary audience data via AI agents. “Magnite’s infrastructure enables us to bring our real-time data, optimisation, and decisioning capabilities closer to activation, creating a more connected and effective media ecosystem,” said Nick Halas, Head of Product Strategy at Dentsu.

Nielsen Expands Cross-Platform Measurement in Italy

Nielsen has expanded its cross-platform measurement capabilities in Italy, the measurement giant announced on Monday, adding deduplicated linear TV audiences to its measurement of YouTube ads across computer, mobile and CTV devices. The move allows advertisers and agencies to compare YouTube and linear TV campaign performance through a unified view of audience reach across four screens. “The addition of linear TV alongside the reporting on YouTube on computer, mobile, and CTV, is a further step on our journey towards Nielsen ONE and true cross-media measurement,” said Inam Mahmood, General Manager EMEA at Nielsen.

PubMatic Announces First Agentic Ad Campaign in Spain

PubMatic has announced its first agentic ad campaign in Spain, developed in partnership with Havas for its telco client Movistar. Starting with a natural language brief in the Claude Large Language Model (LLM), PubMatic’s AgenticOS converted campaign objectives into live programmatic activation. AI agents ingested the campaign brief, autonomously selected CTV inventory, applied frequency controls and brand safety parameters, and optimised bids in real-time. According to PubMatic, campaign setup time was reduced by up to 80 percent, CPM came in 18 percent below target, and impressions exceeded the target by 23 percent.

MiQ Adds Measurement and Browsing Insights to Sigma

MiQ, a programmatic specialist, has announced new capabilities in Sigma, the company’s AI platform, in the UK. Sigma Total Measurement helps users see how channels work together to drive long-term sales growth, while Browsing Intelligence provides insights into omnichannel behavioural, contextual, attention and AI trends. “As consumers move across video, social, commerce, and emerging AI chat platforms, the challenge for marketers has shifted,” said John Goulding, Global Chief Strategy Officer at MiQ. “The gap between those who can and cannot turn signals into real-time decisions is widening fast. Sigma was built to bridge that gap.”

The Week in TV

ITV Set for Record World Cup Ad Revenues

ITV’s World Cup ad revenues are up 30 percent on the last major football tournament, the European Championships in 2024, according to the FT, largely thanks to advertising demand from AI companies. The UK broadcaster is also holding back some of the prime slots around later games, which will be especially valuable if England progress far into the tournament. “This will be the most commercially successful World Cup or major tournament we’ve ever had,” said Kelly Williams, Managing Director, Commercial at ITV.

As well as the expanded number of games in this edition of the tournament, Williams cited an influx of spend from AI companies as driving ad revenues. “We’ve got strong support from Gemini, Copilot, OpenAI, Meta, AWS, Apple and Dell,” he said. “As audiences fragment, tournaments like this become more valuable because getting big shared audiences is much rarer than it has been.”

Paramount Reportedly Open to Divesting Children’s TV Assets for EU Approval

Paramount Skydance is prepared to divest some children’s TV network assets to help win European Union approval of its Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) acquisition, according to sources reported by Bloomberg, though the media company hopes to avoid any sell-offs. The EU has set an initial deadline of 7th July to clear the deal, which would bring together Paramount’s Nickelodeon and WBD’s Cartoon Network. “It’s certainly likely that the commission will scrutinise overlaps between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery in the wholesale supply of children’s television channels,” said Jennifer Rie, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst. “Concerns would be raised if combined market shares exceed 40 percent in any country.”

Former ITV Exec Warns Against Early Freeview Switch-Off

Switching off Freeview in the 2030s would be “an unprecedented gamble”, according to a new report by former ITV executive Christy Swords, who was involved in the UK’s digital TV switchover (DSO). The report, ‘A false comparison: Digital switchover and Freeview switch off’, warns that cutting off the TV platform would be more complex, costly and risky than the DSO, with around 10 million homes still using Freeview. “The Government’s own estimates suggest there will still be 5 million Freeview homes by 2034,” said Swords. “Switching off Freeview would force these homes to buy new equipment, junk existing devices and potentially upgrade their broadband. Unlike switchover, most UK homes will see no benefit, they already have full access to VOD services like iPlayer and Netflix.”

US States Prepare Lawsuit to Block Paramount’s WBD Takeover

California, New York and other US states are preparing a lawsuit to block Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), Reuters reported last week. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has led the charge against the deal, promising a probe into the merger which reportedly remains active. The lawsuit is expected to be filed in the coming weeks, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Paramount Skydance Launches Gaming Studio

Paramount Skydance has unveiled a new gaming studio, as the media giant moves to extract further value from the film studio’s intellectual property. Paramount Games Studio combines Skydance’s two existing game studios, Skydance Interactive and Skydance New Media, with Paramount IP, naming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin as its first project. Tony Driscoll, Paramount’s EVP of Corporate Strategy and Development, will also become President of Paramount Games Studio.

Disney+ Expands Interactive Advertising with Ad Selector Format

Disney has expanded its interactive ad formats on Disney+, driven by its in-house Disney eXperience Composer (DXC) platform. In addition to its Pause Ads, Pause+ and Pause+ Trivia formats, the streaming service launched Ad Selector earlier this year, which allows viewers to choose which ad creative they wish to watch. Disney said the new format drives “the highest engagement rates across any DXC format by putting control in the hands of the audience.”

Channel 4 Sales Announces Winners of Second B Corp Competition

Channel 4 Sales has announced the winners of the second iteration of its B Corp competition for purpose-driven businesses. The winners were SURI, Holy Moly Dips, Klyk, Faith In Nature, and TOTM. Each will win a share of TV advertising airtime worth £600,000, covering primetime linear TV and bespoke ad placements across Channel 4 Streaming.

The Week for Publishers

The Guardian Partners with Adelaide for Attention-Based Ad Packages

UK newspaper the Guardian has partnered with attention tech business Adelaide, ExchangeWire reported this week, enabling it to sell attention-based packages of inventory to advertisers. Adelaide conducted an attention audit of the Guardian’s inventory using its own AU metric, finding that the British news outlet beats market benchmarks. “Adelaide’s AU metric gives us a more transparent way to demonstrate the value of our inventory,” said Sarah Badler, chief advertising officer in North America for the Guardian. “It allows us to bring our top-performing placements together into packages that are easier to buy against, making media quality more actionable for advertisers while giving us a consistent basis for representing that value commercially.”

Hearst Launches AURA IQ to Speed Up RFP Responses

Two years ago, publishing group Hearst Magazines announced the launch of AURA, an in-house tool which ingests a range of contextual, behavioural, and commerce signals to help advertisers find audiences and target ads. This week, the company has announced an evolved version of this product, AURA IQ, which it describes as an “agentic intelligence layer that transforms Hearst’s first-party data, editorial authority, and audience insights into dynamic, scalable media strategy”. The agentic layer takes AURA beyond audience targeting, enabling brands to build custom audiences based on their own unique needs. Hearst Magazines says AURA IQ can take an RFP and build out media strategies and relevant audiences. Read more on VideoWeek.

Global Launches Self-Serve Platform AdPower

British media and entertainment group Global this week announced the launch of AdPower, a new self-serve advertising platform for its audio and outdoor advertising networks. AdPower includes AI-powered design tools to help brands create radio and outdoor ads, which can then be booked and delivered across Global’s inventory. Once campaigns are live, delivery and performance can be tracked by a dashboard. “Until now, premium mass-reach media has often felt too slow, too complex or too confusing for many digitally native businesses,” said Miranda Mathews, director of AdPower. “Today, AdPower changes that. It gives advertisers a simple, fast and direct way to access the scale and impact of outdoor and audio advertising.”

The Times’ Digital Revenues Set to Overtake Print

The Times’ digital revenues are on track to overtake its print revenues, executive vice president and publisher Christopher Longcroft has told Press Gazette, without disclosing the timeframe. The Times has achieved “escape velocity” from its print legacy where growing digital revenue is outweighing newspaper decline, according to Longcroft, as the publisher focuses on converting online readers into paying subscribers. “Everything we do is about engagement,” he added. “Because if we can get that subscriber to engage in our products, we know that if they read a newsletter, play a puzzle, interact with data, read X number of articles a week, we know that their propensity to churn comes down.”

Ozone Partners with Zoopla

Ozone, a UK premium publisher sales house, has announced a new partnership with property website Zoopla, making its audience available via Ozone’s buying platform. “We’re delighted to welcome Zoopla to Ozone’s platform offering,” said Dipti Patel, senior publisher development director at Ozone. “As one of the UK’s most trusted property destinations, Zoopla brings a highly engaged audience that is actively making significant life and financial decisions. This partnership strengthens our ability to connect advertisers with consumers at pivotal moments in their lives, within trusted, brand-safe environments.” Ozone’s other publisher additions over the last few years include CNN, People Inc., FootballCo and The Washington Post.

Reuters and Time Move to Blocking AI Bots by Default

Reuters and Time have recently started blocking all AI bots by default and creating whitelists of approved bots to access content on their sites, Digiday reported on Tuesday, following in the footsteps of People Inc. and The Atlantic. Reuters is blocking bots by default using robots.txt files, according to the publisher’s content licensing chief Alphonse Hardel, noting that this approach relies on voluntary compliance and is often ignored by AI bots. “There’s no perfect solution here, but there is value in every little bit of friction that you have that forces people to have good behaviour,” he added. “This is just one other thing we can do to coerce people to have the right behaviour.”

Daily Mail World Passes Five Million YouTube Subscribers

Daily Mail-owned YouTube channel Daily Mail World has surpassed five million YouTube subscribers, the publisher announced on Tuesday, highlighting the value of original content on the video service. The Mail noted that an episode of its show Crossfire, in which Boris Johnson goes to Ukraine, has been sold to Channel 5. “We launched this YouTube channel 11 years ago with an exclusive piece of content from the US,” said Lisa Snell, Executive Global Head of Video at the Daily Mail. “A decade on, I couldn’t be prouder of the industry-leading original video journalism our Shows team in London delivers.”

The Week for Brands & Agencies

Accenture Song Acquires Whalar for Undisclosed Fee

Accenture’s advertising arm Accenture Song announced a deal this week to buy creator and social agency Whalar for an undisclosed fee. Whalar has run more than $600 million worth of creator campaigns across more than 40 countries, according to Accenture. The consultancy says the deal will significantly expand its influencer marketing capabilities. “Accenture Song exists to help the world’s most ambitious companies grow—and today, growth is inseparable from relevance,” said Ndidi Oteh, CEO of Accenture Song. “Social is where brands are discovered, where modern commerce is happening and where consumer habits tell us what products and services are going to win next. Whalar brings a creator capability that strengthens how we drive meaningful impact and growth for clients.”

ISBA Outlines Business Case for Responsible Media

UK advertiser trade group ISBA this week launched a follow up to its 2025 Responsible Media Guide, outlining the business case for investing in responsible media. In The Business Case for Responsible Media, produced in partnership with Ebiquity, ISBA highlights a number of datapoints showing the business impact of responsible media, including:

Sustainability perceptions alone contribute up to 10% of brand equity
33% lower cost per action through stronger data standards
30-40% improvement in efficiency through governed AI use
Stronger long-term sales and loyalty through more inclusive campaigns
Greater effectiveness with lower brand risk in trusted media environments

EssenceMediacom Wins Just Eat’s Global Media Business

WPP media agency EssenceMediacom has been appointed as global media agency partner of record for food delivery business Just Eat Takeaway, in a partnership covering markets including the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. A dedicated team at sister agency Mindshare will service the brand’s media business in Canada. “We’re pleased to appoint the EssenceMediacom team at WPP Media as our media partner of record,” said Celine Francois, head of global media at Just Eat Takeaway. “WPP’s advanced data and technology capabilities and ability to effectively support our teams with a globally integrated model will be critical as we continue to accelerate our growth and drive relevance across food and delivery.”

Havas Acquires Archrival in North America

Havas on Wednesday announced it has bought a majority stake in North American culture and sports marketing agency Archrival for an undisclosed fee. The French agency group says the deal expands the capabilities of its own culture and entertainment specialist practice Havas Play. Combined with Archrival, Havas Play’s offering will cover sports marketing, creator engagement, experiential activation, branded partnerships, ambassador programs, gaming, and community-led brand building.

M&C Saatchi Says 2026 Trading Remains In Line with Expectations

British marketing group M&C Saatchi issued a trading update at its annual general meeting this week, reporting that trading over the first four months of the year was in line with expectations. While the ad industry continues to be hit by global geopolitical turbulence, the company said that positive growth in its high-margin issues and media specialisms has compensated for an overall tough environment. “Although the global macro and geopolitical situation remains volatile, I am pleased with the progress that the business has made,” said executive chair Dame Heather Rabbatts. “We continue to target net revenue and operating margin growth this year, supported by the momentum in our high-margin specialisms.”

Hires of the Week

UK Government Confirms Sir Ian Cheshire as Ofcom Chair

Sir Ian Cheshire has been formally confirmed as the new Chair of Ofcom, the UK’s media watchdog, following a pre-appointment hearing at the Science, Innovation and Technology select committee. Previously chair of Channel 4, he joins the regulator as its remit expands to enforcing the Online Safety Act.

Independent Media Appoints Chris Anthony as President, North America

Independent Media, publisher of The Independent, has named Chris Anthony as President, North America. Anthony will oversee the publisher’s North American business and drive revenue growth in the region. He joins from VaynerX, where he served as CRO of Gallery Media Group.

Spark Foundry Promotes UK Client Managing Directors

Spark Foundry, a Publicis agency, has promoted Managing Partners Rebecca Dorfman and Kat Broomhead to UK Client Managing Directors. Dorfman and Broomhead will drive client partnerships at the media agency, alongside Genna Trentham, who joined Spark Foundry from Paramount in November.

Steve Simpson Joins DAIVID Board of Advisors

DAIVID, a creative intelligence platform, has appointed Steve Simpson to its Board of Advisors. The industry veteran will work closely with DAIVID’s leadership team in shaping product strategy, industry partnerships and adoption of its AI-powered solutions. Simpson has spent more than 30 years at media agencies, including Publicis, Dentsu and GroupM.

Untold Fable Names Tom Boucher as Senior Editor

Untold Fable, a tech-powered production company, has hired Tom Boucher as Senior Editor. Boucher previously served as Head of Edit at independent creative studio Absolute Post.