Media

The case for and against agentic media buying

Agentic media buying promises a reinvention of the programmatic ecosystem, but experts are divided on whether it could help – or hinder – accountability.

Mega creators find that their personalities alone aren’t scalable as standalone businesses

Successful creators like Alex Cooper or MrBeast are creating media companies, to varying degrees of success and struggle.

Media Briefing: Publishers cautiously count AI licensing as notable revenue amid programmatic strain, in Q1 earnings

Amid declining referral traffic and programmatic ads, publishers are beginning to see meaningful revenue from AI licensing deals.

Marketing

Digiday+ Research: Marketers optimize GEO strategies amid the effects of zero-click search

While AI-generated search results are still relatively new compared to traditional search results, marketers are deeply feeling the effects.

Future of Marketing Briefing: Memes used to be a joke. Now they’re a strategy

Last month, a U.S. Special Forces soldier was indicted for insider trading — not on stocks, but on a prediction market. He had detailed knowledge of a military operation. He bet on it. The platform where he placed those bets responded to the indictment with something close to a shrug. That shrug tells you everything […]

Digiday+ Research: Marketers’ AI use rises, but tech skills stall

Marketers’ adoption of AI technology has risen significantly in recent years, but training employees on using these tools lags behind overall adoption.

Future of TV

Future of TV Briefing: The upfront glossary, 2026 edition

This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at the terms on the tips of ad buyers’ and sellers’ tongues when talking about the upfront market.

graphic image of a television (TV) with bills of money flying out of it, representing CTV advertising being an effective form of advertising for brands, publishers and consumers.

Future of TV Briefing: Ad tech’s pod bidding push moves CTV toward advancing the live sports ad model in 2026

This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how ad tech companies including Comcast’s FreeWheel, Index Exchange and The Trade Desk are preparing CTV’s programmatic supply chain for upgraded auction dynamics amid an influx of live sports ad inventory.

Pinterest debuts audience extension offering on CTV

Advertisers can now purchase Pinterest audiences on third-party properties via its TV Scientific offering.

Media Buying

Media Buying Briefing: Takeshi Sano is making the rounds for Dentsu — is it enough?

Dentsu just retained Heineken’s global business, and apparently the new CEO was involved. Should he take the heat for losing Microsoft? Most say no.

‘There’s a big shift’: Amazon is turning the upfront into a pitch for its ad tech, not just primetime

The upfront is no longer just a shop window for content Amazon owns, it’s now one for its ad tech too.

WTF is a unified ad platform?

Ad tech’s shift from an industry littered with point solutions to one built around integrated stacks has been underway for a while.


Upfronts

As upfront negotiations near, buyers chart path through complex sports market

The DOJ’s NFL probe highlights how sports rights complexity can be ‘good for pricing, but hard on strategy’ for brands and buyers.

Media Buying Briefing: What buyers got out of the NewFronts and expect to happen in the upfronts

As the Newfronts try to show off better tools, content and measurement, the broader upfront market is trying to stay the course in the face of economic uncertainty.

Why live streaming is the borderless $4 billion global opportunity publishers can’t ignore

Shane Peros, managing director of Global Media, Entertainment & Distribution, Google Forget the old appointment TV model. Live events have officially migrated from traditional cable to streaming platforms, giving viewers the freedom to watch what they want, where they want, on any device. This isn’t just a lifestyle change; it’s a fundamental shift that’s changing […]