Week in Review: WPP Media Announces a Video Buying Agent, Netflix Eyes Up Broadcaster Partnerships, and WBD Lays Agentic Trading Groundwork

In this week’s Week in Review: WPP announces a buyer agent for video, Netflix’s TF1 integration goes live, and Warner Bros. Discovery rebuilds its advertising architecture.

The Week in Tech

UK Government Announces Under-16s Social Media Ban

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced on Monday that the government will impose a ban on under-16s accessing social media sites from next year, following in the footsteps of legislation in Australia. However, media regulator Ofcom has warned that measures in use in Australia to block access to social media services have not been shown to be effective. UK ministers are now considering steps to enforce the rules, according to the FT, including putting age limits on virtual private networks (VPNs) to stop children circumventing the ban.

Electronic Arts Launches Ads Business EA Advertising

Gaming company Electronic Arts has announced the launch of EA Advertising, enabling brands to integrate directly into gameplay through real-time placements. The offering includes ad units in 3D sports simulations (including digital ad boards and scoreboards), targeting and measurement capabilities, and the EA SPORTS Partner Program for official partners to co-create fan experiences. “Players come to EA’s games and live experiences every day to play, watch, create and connect,” said David Tinson, Chief Experiences Officer at Electronic Arts. “That gives brands a meaningful opportunity to show up in ways that add value and respect the player experience, while maintaining authenticity in the worlds our teams are building.”

Instagram’s Adam Mosseri Pulls Out of Cannes After Ian Russell Calls for Meeting

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has dropped out of a headline appearance at Cannes next week, according to Campaign, after online safety advocate Ian Russell called for a meeting with Meta to discuss concerns around harmful content on Instagram. Mosseri was billed to deliver a headline session in the Palais, but has reportedly pulled out citing a scheduling conflict. VP of Instagram Tessa Lyons and contemporary artist Daniel Arsham will deliver the session instead.

AUDIENCES Launches Snowflake Native App for Activating First-Party Audiences

Ad tech business AUDIENCES has launched its Snowflake Native App on Snowflake Marketplace, a cloud-based data platform, enabling customers to activate first-party audiences securely without moving or duplicating customer data outside their cloud environment. Built directly within the Snowflake environment, the Native App removes the need for external agency partners, according to AUDIENCES, helping maintain data sovereignty for data owners. “Given that many of our existing customers already use Snowflake to organise their data, placing our technology within their system was the natural next step,” said Rob McLaughlin, Founder and CEO at AUDIENCES.

Amazon Could Face Civil Penalties for Allegedly Misleading Advertisers in FTC Probe

Amazon may face a US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit that could result ‌in civil penalties, over allegations that the tech giant misled advertisers, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The FTC is seeking details about Amazon’s ad ⁠auctions and whether it disclosed “reserve pricing” for some search ads. People familiar with the situation said the investigation could result in a lawsuit or settlement as soon as this summer.

Nexxen Provides Remote Access to Agentic Capabilities

Nexxen, an ad tech company, has announced new interoperability capabilities for its nexAI platform, enabling external AI agents to connect to its platform via open protocols such as Model Context Protocol (MC) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A). This means Nexxen customers can remotely access Nexxen’s advanced agentic capabilities through any MCP-compatible assistant, according to the company, allowing them to integrate Nexxen’s data, planning and activation capabilities into their own tools and AI workflows. “This latest phase of nexAI reflects a major industry shift from AI experimentation to an open, agentic full-funnel AI layer that has only partially been addressed so far by platforms,” said Nexxen CPO Karim Rayes.

IAS and Spotify Bring Episode-Level Pre-Bid Controls to Podcast Inventory

Integral Ad Science (IAS), a media quality specialist, has partnered with Spotify to launch a new episode-level pre-bid optimisation solution for programmatic podcast audio and video. Starting this month, advertisers can apply episode-level contextual controls in The Trade Desk before a bid is placed, according to the company. “Programmatic audio has always allowed brands to reach a large and growing audience, and now, with this launch, it also allows for greater control,” said IAS CEO Lisa Utzschneider. “By launching episode-level pre-bid optimisation for programmatic audio for Spotify, via The Trade Desk, we are enhancing brands’ ability to confidently drive their podcast ad spend, aligned to their own brand suitability profiles.”

Azerion Launches Self-Service Platform for SMBs

Ad tech firm Azerion has unveiled a new self-service platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across Europe. The platform combines omnichannel inventory (including digital out-of-home, radio, CTV, in-game, and mobile placements) with a conversational campaign assistant, AI tools for ad creation, and instant campaign launch via an integration with payment system Stripe. “We wanted to make digital advertising as easy and exciting as it should be,” said Mickael Ferreira, Chief Business Officer at Azerion. “We believe every business, no matter the size, deserves to be seen and heard.”

Twitch Announces Creator Sponsorship Certification Programme

Twitch, the Amazon-owned live streaming platform, has announced a Creator Sponsorship Certification programme through its Twitch Creator Camp. Creators who complete the programme will earn a “Creator Sponsorship Certified” badge on their Twitch profile. The certification will offer creators a way to showcase their understanding of sponsorship requirements and increase visibility for future brand opportunities, according to the company, while giving brands an additional indicator when evaluating potential partners.

Nielsen Loses Patent Trial Against TVision

A Delaware federal jury has found that TVision did not infringe a patent held by measurement rival Nielsen, covering tech for creating digital signatures used to identify audio content. The ruling follows the dismissal of two patent suits that Nielsen brought against another measurement company, VideoAmp. “The jury’s verdict confirms what we have always believed: the technology at issue simply does not infringe Nielsen’s patent,” said TVision CEO Yan Liu.

The Week in TV

Fox to Acquire Roku in $22 Billion Deal

Fox Corporation has announced it will acquire Roku in a deal valuing the US-based smart TV and streaming company at $22 billion. The transaction combines Fox’s sports, news and entertainment content, as well as the Tubi streaming service, with Roku’s CTV platform and device business. Roku announced it surpassed 100 million streaming households worldwide in April 2026. The companies said the combined entity will become the third-largest player in US TV by share of viewing, on a pro forma basis, creating “broad and diversified reach that benefits viewers, partners and advertisers.”

“Over the past two decades, we’ve built Roku into the leading TV streaming platform, reaching more than 100 million households globally and reshaping how people discover and enjoy entertainment,” said Anthony Wood, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Roku. “I’m incredibly proud of what our team has built, and the combination with FOX is an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate our vision, scale faster and innovate more aggressively for viewers, partners and advertisers.” Read more on VideoWeek.

DOJ Approves Paramount’s $111 Billion WBD Acquisition

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has approved Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) after months of review. The DOJ found that the merger was “not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers” in regards to SVOD services, linear TV, or studio development, production and film distribution. There are still hurdles for the deal however, including an ongoing review by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), while European regulators are investigating the funding behind the merger, with three sovereign-wealth funds in the Gulf committing a combined $24 billion to the deal.

BBC Announces 550 Job Losses in First Wave of Cutbacks

The BBC has announced 550 job cuts in news, nations and TV and radio content, as part of the first stage in its plan to save £500 million across the corporation over the next two years. The FT reported that departments across the corporation have been ordered to cut 10 percent of their costs, under wider plans expected to result in around 2,000 job losses. The BBC said the proposals also include a review of broadcast TV channels and radio network portfolio as audiences move online, and a reduction of 100-150 hours of originated programmes across all commissioning genres by the end of the 2027-28 financial year.

DAZN Restructures Business to Explore New Equity or IPO

DAZN, a sports streaming company, is restructuring its business, the FT reported on Friday, to make it easier for the organisation to raise new money and explore a possible public listing. A new Cayman Islands holding company will be established for the DAZN Group, according to an executive familiar with the situation, with control held by Access Industries, the investment company founded by DAZN’s billionaire owner Sir Leonard Blavatnik. The executive said the move was “intended to optimise the group’s corporate structure and enhance its flexibility to pursue future strategic and financing opportunities, including potential capital raises and a possible public listing.” They added that no decision has been made on an IPO or its timeline.

FranceTV Publicité and FreeWheel Extend Longstanding Monetisation Partnership

FranceTV Publicité, the ad sales house of French public broadcaster France Télévisions, has extended its nine-year partnership with FreeWheel, the Comcast-owned ad tech business. Under the expanded partnership, the companies will pilot an automated, co-viewing adjusted monetisation model, incorporating Médiamétrie data. FranceTV Publicité is also piloting FreeWheel’s new AI-powered contextual offering, Context Engine, which uses AI to analyse video programming at scale to generate content contextual signals for advertisers.

ITV Announces Lead Gen Pause Ads for Performance Advertisers

ITV has unveiled a Lead Gen Pause Ads product that allows viewers to pause content and receive follow up communications or special offers from a brand via their remote control. The announcement sees the UK broadcaster ramp up its “precision targeting” offer, allowing performance brands to generate leads with TV audiences without having video assets. A limited number of advertisers will be invited to take part in a beta trial this autumn, according to ITV.

NBCU Launches Shoppable Vertical Bravo Series with Target

NBCUniversal has announced the launch of Shop What Happens, a shoppable Bravo digital series sponsored exclusively by Target. On the Peacock mobile app and TikTok, content is optimised in a vertical video format with QR codes enabling direct shopping functionality.

“By combining trend-forward curation, entertaining content and seamless shopping, we’re making it easier than ever for guests to discover products and trends in a way that feels fun, inspiring and uniquely Target,” said Michelle Mesenburg, Chief Brand Officer at Target.

The Week for Publishers

Penske Media Buys Remaining Vox Media Assets

Penske Media, the publishing group which owns titles including Rolling Stone, Deadline, and Variety, has agreed a deal to acquire the remaining Vox Media assets which weren’t sold off to James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems last month. This includes The Verge, Thrillist, Eater, SB Nation, Popsugar and The Dodo. Penske Media already owned a stake in Vox Media, and now will take full control of these remaining assets. “I am very proud to welcome this tremendous team and leading brands to Penske Media,” said Penske Media founder and CEO Jay Penske. The deal also includes Vox Media’s ad marketplace Concert and its first-party data platform Forte.

MOW Launches Contract to Help Publishers Charge for AI Scraping

Movement for an Open Web, a group advocating for open web standards and competitive digital marketplaces, this week launched the ‘search only contract’ (SOC), a set of website usage terms to help website owners charge for AI data harvesting. The contract limits indexing to non-commercial search and human use, stating that other access attempts will require a deal or incur a fee. Website owners can then invoice any companies which have accessed their content, and enforce payment through the court system if necessary. The SOC is already being used by Trusted Reviews, CaughtOffside and FootballItalia among others, and has support from the AOP, Thinkbox, the PPA, Impress, and The Football Writers’ Association.

More Viewers Watch Online Video News Than Broadcast TV News, Finds Reuters Institute

The shift to online video for news consumption has reached a tipping point, according to the latest Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, with more people now watching online news video than broadcast TV news in 45 markets covered by the study. Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands are the only three countries tracked by the report where TV news viewing is equal to or has the lead over online video. While the report notes that actual minutes viewed may still be higher for TV news, it nonetheless reflects a challenging situation for news broadcasters and publishers, with social media playing a growing role in news distribution. The study reports a rising global share of consumers who use Facebook (43 percent), YouTube (34 percent), Instagram (26 percent) and TikTok (20 percent) for news. At the same time, mainstream news organisations have seen video consumption on their own sites and apps decline by an average five percent this year. Read more on VideoWeek.

New York Post Launches First FAST Channel with VideoElephant

New York Post Media, which owns The New York Post as well as The California Post, Decider, and other titles, is launching its first free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel, ramping up its video offering. The New York Post FAST channel will draw on video content produced across its publisher brands, including its existing shows Post Presents, Page Six Radio, and Schein Time. The channel has been launched in collaboration with video solutions provider VideoElephant. “We’ve been producing video at scale for years and our new FAST Channel puts that expertise front and centre, with data,” said the Post’s head of audio and video Warren Cohen. “This channel translates the Post’s essence into programming our audience already loves.”

LBG Media Buys Creative Agency Uncovered

LBG Media, the digital media business which owns LADbible, this morning announced it has acquired a 75 percent stake in social-first creative agency Uncovered for £26.8 million. Uncovered, founded in 2017, has worked with brands including Tesco, KFC, and Nationwide, and offers services including strategy, creative development, production, creator partnerships, and social media management. LBG Media CEO Solly Solomou says that combining his company’s audience with Uncovered’s creative offering will create “an even stronger proposition for the world’s biggest brands looking to earn attention, build cultural relevance with youth audiences, and win in a social-first world”.

Mirror Launches Premium Paywall

UK newspaper the Mirror has launched an online paywall, Press Gazette reported this week, which gives access to selected premium content and a lower ad load. Parent company Reach has been testing paywalls across a number of its titles, including fellow national news brands the Daily Record, Daily Star, and Express.

The Week for Brands & Agencies

Publicis Restores The Trade Desk Recommendation Following Dispute

Earlier this year, it was revealed that French agency group Publicis was no longer recommending demand-side platform The Trade Desk to its clients, reportedly due to a lack of clarity in The Trade Desk’s fee structure uncovered in an audit. However that dispute has now been laid to rest, Ad Age has reported, as the two companies announced in a joint statement that Publicis is once again recommending The Trade Desk to the brands it works with. The two businesses say that the issues raised by the audit have now been addressed, and that they are now “focused on moving forward”, and maintain a mutual commitment to “delivering measurable outcomes for advertisers”.

WPP Media Forecasts 8.9 Percent Global Ad Revenue Growth This Year

WPP Media launched its midyear This Year Next Year forecast this week, predicting that global ad revenues will grow 8.9 percent across 2026 to reach $1.3 trillion. This marks an upward revision from its previous forecast of 7.1 percent back in December, which is impressive when considering the macroeconomic turmoil which has marked the start of the year. The report expects ad revenue to reach its highest share of GDP since 1999. Unsurprisingly, revenues are still highly concentrated within the three largest companies, as Alphabet, Meta and Amazon are expected to account for 57.6 percent of the market outside of China.

Publicis Calls Out AI Deception in Agency Pitches

Publicis says it is using this year’s Cannes Lions festival to call out the practice of making misleading AI-related promises in agency pitches. AI, according to Publicis, has “widened the gap between what is promised in pitches and what can actually be achieved”, which in turn has contributed to the commoditisation of agency work and contributed to an overall race to the bottom in the agency world. “The compound effect of overpromising on AI and unsustainable commercial offers in pitches to generate headlines is leading to massive jobs cuts in our industry,” said Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun. “Collectively, we have to stop this race to the bottom and reaffirm our unique ability to deliver what clients really want: love for their brands, growth they can see, success they can measure. That’s why Publicis’ sessions in Cannes will demonstrate that the only pitch promise that counts is business results.” Read more on VideoWeek.

Omnicom Research Finds Home Screen Ads Perform Best When Paired with Video Ads

Home screen ads within CTV operating systems’ user interfaces perform best when paired with video ads, according to new research from Omnicom’s research arm Omnicom Media Intelligence released this week. Omnicom’s tests found that while home screen ads were effective on their own at driving brand metrics, established brands which combined home screen and video ads saw 61 percent higher recall than brands using a single ad format. The study also found that the order ads are shown in makes a significant difference, as new brands were able to drive 6x higher purchase intent just by showing a video ad after a home screen placement.

HP Switches Media Duties from Omnicom to Publicis

Technology business HP has picked Publicis Media to run its global media account, Adweek reported this week, following a closed pitch process also contested by incumbent Omnicom Media. The decision brings to an end a 17 -year-long relationship between HP and Omnicom Media, which first started handling HP’s traditional media activity via its PHD sub-brand back in 2009.

Publicis Chairman Calls for European AI Fund

Maurice Lévy, chairman of Publicis Groupe, has called for the development of a €100 billion pan-European AI fund, to protect against the risk of US AI providers cutting off access to advanced AI models for European businesses, Reuters reported this week. Speaking at the VivaTech event in Paris, Lévy told the crowd that “there is a need to create a fund at a European scale” since at present, “it’s a bit like having someone with an on/off switch who can flip it at will”. The call follows the US government’s move last week to cut off global access to Anthropic’s most powerful models.

Dutch Government Considers Near Blanket Ban on Gambling Ads

The Dutch government has announced it is considering imposing a blanket ban on gambling ads across the country, as part of a package of measures designed to protect citizens against gambling harms. Gambling ads are already heavily restricted in the Netherlands, as gambling firms must ensure that at least 95 percent of the ads they put out reach people over 24 years old. But the State Secretary for Justice and Security Claudia van Bruggen has proposed new measures to ban gambling advertising completely.

Short-Termism and Risk Aversion Hold Back Creative Excellence

While over half of multinational marketers say they value creative excellence, just three in ten say their teams consistently work to deliver it, according to new research from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and LIONS. Short-termism (68 percent), risk aversion (45 percent) and securing sufficient investment for creative development (37 percent) were the most commonly identified barriers to delivering creative excellence. Meanwhile when it comes to deploying AI, only 35 percent of respondents said they’re using AI to drive better creative results beyond simple efficiencies.

Hires of the Week

WPP Names Baiju Shah as Group CSO

WPP has appointed Baiju Shah as group Chief Strategy Officer. Baiju will help to accelerate delivery of the company’s long-term strategy and unlock corporate development opportunities across WPP, according to the holding company. He will also continue to serve as CEO of AKQA, a role he has held since July 2025, when he joined the agency from Accenture Song.

Omnicom Media Announces New Initiative Leadership

Omnicom Media has named Susanne Grundman as Global Brand President of Initiative, and Rob DiGiovanni as US CEO. Formerly holding both titles, Stacy DeRiso moves to the newly created role of General Manager US at Omnicom Media. Grundmann previously served as CEO of PHD EMEA, while DiGiovanni spent four years as President, Global Business Lead at Initiative.