Dan Meier

This week sees a number of tech companies announce their quarterly results, and unsurprisingly, AI has been high on the agenda across earnings calls. Alphabet, Snap and Reddit all posted substantial year-on-year gains on Tuesday, and all cited AI developments as revenue drivers, albeit in different ways.

UK ad spend reached £10 billion during Q2 2024, according to the latest Expenditure Report from the Advertising Association (AA) and WARC. This marks a 13.4 percent increase on Q2 2023, when the market narrowly avoided contraction. While benefitting from these favourable comparisons, the latest quarter also recorded stronger-than-expected digital growth, alongside strong TV contribution driven by the Men’s Euros.

More than 50 percent of Europeans still choose linear TV as their first port of call for connected TV viewing, according to the latest ‘TV Key Facts’ report from RTL AdAlliance, with 53 percent first visiting linear when turning on their TV. The 31st edition of the report emphasises the relatively high consumption of TV in Europe, where daily viewing time averaged 3 hours 13 minutes in 2023. By way of contrast, daily TV viewing time in the US is around 2 hours 30 minutes.

The use of programmatic channels for media investment is falling among advertisers but growing for agencies, according to IAB Europe's latest 'Attitudes to Programmatic Advertising' report. The tenth annual edition of the study surveyed 254 respondents across 31 European countries, suggesting fluctuations in programmatic trading, but seemingly increases in overall programmatic investment.The report does not

UK ad spend is expected to exceed £10 billion over the festive season this year, according to the latest forecast from the Advertising Association (AA) and WARC. The research anticipates ad spend to reach £10.5 billion during Q4, known as the Golden Quarter for consumer spending, representing a 7.8 percent increase on Q4 2023.

Concerns around brand safety have prompted a diversion of ad spend away from news in recent years, leading to an inadvertent defunding of news content. But ad agencies appear to be waking up to the threat to journalism and democracy caused by underinvestment in news, alongside the flourishing of misinformation. Where keyword blocklists previously evaded news topics altogether, advances in technology are increasingly helping advertisers direct spend towards publishers that fund quality journalism, while also improving the perception of their brands.

ProSiebenSat.1 is pursuing the sale of some of its non-TV assets, months after voting against the move under a proposal brought by its main shareholder, MediaForEurope (MFE).

Vivendi is holding a Capital Markets Day for Canal+ today, ahead of next month's shareholder vote on spinning off the TV business from the French holding company.The vote on 9th December will determine the separation of Havas, Louis Hachette Group and Canal+, which would debut on the London Stock Exchange on 16th December. Today's meeting

The distinction between linear and digital TV is becoming increasingly nonsensical from a broadcaster perspective, argues Nick Manning, Founder of Encyclomedia International. Although different TV platforms have different functions, Manning suggests "the trick is to treat it as a single entity."In this

Ad tech giant The Trade Desk today announced it is launching its own CTV operating system (OS) called ‘Ventura’, confirming rumours which surfaced this summer. Starting next year, the OS will be deployed by smart TV original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), as well as streaming TV aggregators.