Week in Review: BBC and Channel 4 Discuss a Streaming Tie-Up, MFE Creates a Unified Streaming Platform, and IAB Tech Lab Cleans Up Video Definitions

In this week’s Week in Review: the BBC and Channel 4 discuss a streaming deal, MFE combines the streaming technology from its European broadcasters, and IAB Tech Lab proposes a new way to classify video inventory.

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BBC and Channel 4 Discuss Streaming Tie-Up

It’s over fifteen years since Project Kangaroo, a proposed streaming joint venture from UK broadcasters ITV, Channel 4, and the BBC, was struck down by the UK’s competition regulator. But in the years since, the idea of a unified streaming service has continued to periodically pop up, as the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ have grown their share of UK TV viewership. Scale is, after all, the big advantage of the international giants, since they’re able to distribute their programming and leverage their technical investments globally. A streaming tie-up would offer scale of a different kind, giving UK audiences a single home for British broadcaster content.

Matt Brittin, the BBC’s new director general, agrees with this logic, telling a parliamentary committee that UK TV needs a “sovereign platform” to compete with its US rivals, according to the Financial Times. And Brittin said he’s had talks with Channel 4 around the idea, discussing the prospect of combining Channel 4’s streaming platform with its own BBC iPlayer. “One opportunity for them would be in partnership with the BBC, having content on iPlayer, but continuing to be ad-funded,” said Brittin.

The competitive landscape has been undeniably transformed since Project Kangaroo, as evidenced by Sky’s deal to buy ITV’s linear TV and streaming arm. Brittin referenced this merger, noting that a streaming deal between the BBC and Channel 4 would be small in comparison. That may be true, but it’s worth remembering it’s by no means certain the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority will approve of Sky’s acquisition.

MFE Plans Unified Streaming Platform for Europe

European broadcasting group MFE-MediaForEurope says it is planning to launch a single streaming platform across its various European TV businesses, drawing on the various technologies which have been developed within each individual broadcaster, Reuters reported this week.

MFE CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi told a press conference the front end of the unified streaming platform would come from its Italian TV business Mediaset, while the supporting technology would be drawn from ProSiebenSat.1, the German broadcaster it took control of last year.

However on the content front, Berlusconi emphasised the group will continue to have separate strategies for individual markets. European broadcasters have, after all, frequently floated the importance of local knowledge when it comes to commissioning and making shows and films, as a defence against the international streaming giants. “We are not an international fast-food ​chain,” he told the conference, as per Reuters’ reporting. “We cook up live programmes designed for individual countries. We have to do that with products that are born ‌on ⁠television and then move on to digital platforms.”

IAB Tech Lab Seeks to Clean Up Digital Video Definitions

The ‘digital video’ label covers a wide variety of inventory, from premium connected TV ads shown on a big screen to floating video players wedged into the top of a mobile web browser. The current standardised labels which sellers use to define their inventory and help buyers understand what exactly it is that they are buying add some clarity, but are still fairly broad.

IAB Tech Lab, an industry body which develops technical standards and solutions for digital advertising, is seeking to tackle this problem with the launch of the Redefining Media Types (RMT) Standard for public comment. The RMT Standard seeks to create standardised definitions for all varieties of digital video and their associated ad formats, covering connected TV, free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST), online video, social video, video podcasting, and retail video.

The RMT Standard uses a two-layered system to define video. The first considers the viewer’s viewing context: whether that’s lean-back viewing, personal screen viewing, passive or communal viewing. The second tier looks at impression-level signals which give further context for a video ad’s value — these include sound state, skippability, full-screen presentation, addressability, availability of signals, measurability, device, and ad formats.

“Many of the technical systems supporting digital advertising still rely on inconsistent or outdated classifications for video,” said Anthony Katsur, CEO of IAB Tech Lab. “By partnering with IAB on this framework, we can help connect these definitions to the technical standards and infrastructure needed to support adoption across the industry.” Adoption will indeed be key. It’s one thing to give sellers the tools to accurately label their video. It’s another to ensure they use those labels, and use them accurately.

The Week in Tech

European Telcos, Retailers, and Ad Tech Companies Form European Media Marketplace

On Tuesday a coalition of major European telcos, retailers, data businesses and ad tech companies announced the formation of the European Media Marketplace, a new initiative designed to make it easier to buy ads across a number of major media owners using an array of advertiser-friendly datasets. The founding members of the European Media Marketplace are T Advertising Solutions (part of Deutsche Telekom), Equativ, Experian, lastminute.com, leboncoin and Kleinanzeigen (both part of classifieds group Adventia), Orange Advertising, Vinted, Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone. Together, these companies will make their inventory and data available through a single access point, through which advertisers and agencies will be able to activate campaigns across connected TV, video, display, native, and retail media. Read more on VideoWeek.

Indian Government Orders Instagram to Remove Child Sexual Abuse Content 

The Indian government has ordered Meta to remove sexual content involving children from Instagram, and to disable all ads and other content that involves abuse and sexual exploitation of children, Bloomberg reported on Sunday. The revelations follow a BBC report on Friday that suggested Instagram has been running paid ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India. Meta has been ordered to provide a detailed response to the government in the next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

Criteo Approached With Takeover Offer 

Criteo, a French ad tech firm, has been approached with a takeover offer from Vista Equity Partners and Quinti Capital, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The bid valued the company at more than a 50 percent premium to its share price in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the talks. Criteo’s stock price jumped 20 percent following the report.

Almost Five Percent of Inventory Sold as CTV is Mislabelled, Finds 51Degrees 

Almost five percent of inventory sold as CTV is incorrectly labelled, according to analysis from 51Degrees. The data and tech business analysed 11 million OpenRTB ad impressions, and found that 4.92 percent of those that were labelled with the CTV signal were lower-value, non-CTV inventory. “What is CTV? That is the question,” said 51Degrees CEO James Rosewell. “51Degrees believe it is a connected TV with an emphasis on the ‘TV’. Any device that is not a TV is not CTV. Advertisers are paying extra for the attention that content receives when it’s consumed on a TV, not on a phone or a laptop. Any advertiser or their agent that agrees are effectively overpaying for their CTV impressions by up to five percent based on the fact that they’re unknowingly buying a lot of lesser value inventory in their media buys.”

TiVo Brings wedotv FAST Channels on Board

TiVo has announced a partnership with wedotv, bringing the free streaming service’s FAST channels to TiVo-powered CTV and automotive platforms across Europe. The partners said that eight of wedotv’s FAST channels will be available through TiVo Channels, the free streaming service integrated into the TiVo OS interface. The wedotv streaming app will also become available on TiVo smart TVs, streaming devices and in-car entertainment platforms in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Fifty Launches AI Assistant to Ask Audience Questions Before Campaigns Go Live

Fifty, an audience tech and services company, has launched AudienceAI Assistant, enabling  brands and agencies to have “real-time conversations with their custom audiences before campaigns go live.” According to the company, the assistant allows marketers to query their brands’ ‘Tribes’, a proprietary audience layer built from Fifty’s modelled behavioural dataset. “AI makes marketing faster, but without real audience insight, it risks becoming generic,” said Fifty CEO Simon Shaw. “The brands that win will be those that truly know their audiences, not just who they are, but how they think, what they value and what moves them. AudienceAI Assistant puts that understanding to work, allowing marketers to develop marketing strategies and media plans, generate recommendations and apply the same audience intelligence across their entire marketing ecosystem.”

The Week in TV

Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video Challenge French Investment Quotas

Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video have filed legal appeals challenging new investment quotas in France, the streaming companies said on Monday. The new rules require the businesses to allocate 20 percent of their investments in France to animation, documentaries and live performances, as part of the country’s laws supporting the financing of the French production industry. Writing in Le Monde, Pauline Dauvin, VP of Netflix France, said: “These new rules suddenly double our obligation to invest in these genres, target streaming services exclusively and end up dictating our content offerings without taking audience expectations into account.”

BBC Studios Digital Brands Launches Advertising Network for YouTube and TikTok 

BBC Studios Digital Brands, the division that connects advertisers with IP including Bluey, Doctor Who, BBC Earth and Top Gear, has launched a new advertising architecture called Affinity Network. The network spans Family, Our World, Entertainment, Auto, and Food & Travel, bringing each vertical’s brands into a single commercial offering. BBC Studios said that instead of negotiating inventory title by title, advertisers gain access to curated audience ecosystems across YouTube, TikTok and other digital platforms. 

M6 Unlimited Integrates GenAI Campaign Tools From Invibes 

M6 Unlimited, the sales house of French broadcaster M6, has partnered with Invibes, an AI-driven campaign platform, to integrate generative AI into video campaigns on the M6+ streaming service. Invibes’ technology extracts elements from advertisers’ websites and generates creative variations based on different audiences, distribution contexts and campaign objectives, according to the partners. “With this collaboration, M6 Unlimited strengthens video advertising solutions for advertisers: more personalised, simpler to activate and fully adapted to CTV,” M6 Unlimited said in the announcement. 

L’Autorité de la concurrence, France’s antitrust body, has ordered Meta to resume talks and negotiate on payments with French media companies, which claim that the Silicon Valley business has underpaid for use of their content, according to Reuters. Under French law, tech companies must agree payments with media groups for use of their content within their own platforms. But French media associations DVP and APIG say Meta has used its own methodology for calculating payments, without giving them enough information to judge whether these deals are fair or not. As a result, they’ve not received payments since 2025, when their previous deal with Meta expired.

Associated Press Joins SPUR Coalition as Founding Member

The Associated Press has joined the SPUR Coalition, an alliance of publishers set up to help shape the rules and standards for how publisher content is used by AI tools, as its first US-based founding member. The AP joins fellow founding partners — the BBC, Financial Times, Guardian Media Group, Sky News, Telegraph Media Group, and Mediahuis Group — as well as over 30 members. “AP’s experience as a trusted news provider and leading content licensor will strengthen our efforts to create shared standards, greater transparency and a fair value exchange for quality journalism,” said Gert Ysebaert, CEO of Mediahuis Group. “It is encouraging to see publishers on both sides of the Atlantic coming together to shape the future of our industry.”

Nigeria to Investigate Tech Firms Over Unauthorised Use of Publisher Content

A new report from the World Federation of Advertisers and Ebiquity this week outlined the measurement challenges facing multinational markets, many of which say they still face significant issues. Only three percent of the 71 senior leaders interviewed for the study said they are fully confident they can separate short-term performance from long-term brand-building impact, while just 13 percent rated themselves as strong on speed from data to insight. Nonetheless, 75 percent expect more than half of their budget allocation decisions to be measurement-led within three years.

Japanese agency group Dentsu’s UK business has agreed a deal with Meta which will see the tech company’s creator marketing APIs integrated directly into its planning platform, which it says will help clients identify the right creators to work with on Meta’s properties and activate campaigns at scale. Dentsu’s Creator & Trends Studio has been built to integrate Meta’s Creator Marketplace and Partnership Ads APIs, housing creator insights and paid activation within one environment. It will combine Meta’s platform data with Dentsu’s own strategic and performance signals, including its AI-driven recommendations. “The ability to connect trend momentum, creator authenticity and paid activation in one workflow is a real step change for our teams,” said Toby Benjamin, Dentsu UK&I’s chief media officer. “It allows us to move at the speed of culture while maintaining the rigour brands expect around effectiveness and performance.”

Médecins Sans Frontières UK Appoints Medialab as Media Agency Partner

Medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières UK (MSF UK) has appointed independent outfit Medialab as its media agency partner following a competitive review. The brief will cover the full, integrated media scope, including strategy, brand, performance marketing, and digital. “We were very impressed with all the agencies that took part, but Medialab stood out with an ambitious, considered proposition that showed a genuine understanding of where MSF needs to go,” said Alan Gosschalk, director of fundraising at MSF. “Combined with great chemistry, this felt like the right long-term partner for MSF.”