Future of TV Briefing: How Paramount’s and Warner Bros. Discovery’s ad tech stacks stack up

Paramount plans to combine its and Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming services after Paramount+’s owner completes its acquisition of HBO Max’s parent. But what about the companies’ other technologies? By that, I mean their respective ad tech stacks.

“If there’s a differentiator that’s a bit unique to this, it’s the technology differentiator,” said Seth Shafer, principal analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan. “Paramount’s got it and seems serious about going on that pathway of leaning into AI, Big Tech and approaching a media business with that as a kind of core pillar of ‘We can really kind of double down on technology and magnify that flywheel effect of all these parts the sum of them truly being greater than the parts with that technology element.’”

But what are those parts?

In recent years, both Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have been beefing up their respective ad tech stacks. After introducing advanced audience targeting tool Vantage during its Viacom days, this decade the company has added a streaming and digital video ad sales platform with EyeQ and a programmatic inventory management tool with Conduit. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery has rolled out a first-party data platform (Olli), a self-serve ad buying tool (NEO) and a unified inventory platform (StreamX).

Now how do those parts map together? The companies’ own ad product descriptions don’t do anyone any favors in trying to figure that out. But here’s my read on the matter:

• Ad marketplaces: Paramount’s EyeQ and WBD’s NEO
• Audience targeting tools: Paramount’s Vantage and WBD’s Olli
• Inventory management tools: Paramount’s Conduit and WBD’s StreamX

These are imperfect product mappings. Paramount bills EyeQ as an ad sales platform, not a buying platform, whereas WBD describes NEO as an ad buying platform. But the two are inseparable sides of an ad marketplace. Meanwhile, Paramount’s Conduit is specifically focused on managing EyeQ’s inventory when sold programmatically through third-party supply-side platforms, whereas WBD’s StreamX is a means of pooling together the company’s TV, streaming and digital video inventory. So both get the inventory management designation.

Mapping the two companies’ ad tech stacks only really matters in the sense that they’re likely to be consolidated, just as Paramount has announced its intention to consolidate the two companies’ respective streaming services into a single streamer. That consolidation could help the combined company’s streaming ad sales pitch.

“Their combined rank in the overall among sellers of advertising is much higher if you don’t narrow down to streaming. They’re pretty far behind in the streaming hierarchy. I do think that’s an area where they have the most opportunity for growth and synergy,” said Andrew Frank, advertising analyst at Gartner.

The most impactful growth would come from increasing their combined ad-supported streaming audience. 

“Paramount has a bigger [streaming ad business] because they had [Paramount+’s predecessor CBS All-Access]. They had Pluto [TV]. So in that sense, for streaming it’s bigger, whereas Warner is just starting to get off the ground,” said Alan Wolk, co-founder and lead analyst at TVREV.

According to estimates from market data platform Antenna, Paramount+ has 13.5 million U.S. ad-supported subscribers, and HBO Max has 12.3 million U.S. ad-supported subscribers. For an imperfect comparison, Netflix has told agency executives this year that its ad-supported tier has reached 57 million monthly active viewers in the U.S., though that count includes people estimated to be in the room in addition to the actual subscribers.

Nonetheless, in merging the companies’ streaming services, Paramount-WBD will need to merge its ad tech stack. Fortunately for the company, there are already significant areas in which the two already share ad tech.

Both Paramount and WBD work closely with Magnite’s supply-side platform. Both companies have deals with VideoAmp for alternative measurement. And maybe most importantly, both companies rely on the same ad server: Comcast-owned FreeWheel.

That said, don’t be surprised if Paramount-WBD ends up building – or buying – a proprietary ad server. That has become part of the streaming ad playbook for major services. Comcast-owned NBCUniversal benefits from being corporate siblings with FreeWheel. Meanwhile, Disney’s acquisition of Hulu brought with it Hulu’s ad server, which has been renamed the Disney Ad Server. And Fox’s acquisition of Tubi similarly brought with it Tubi’s ad server, which Fox is using to power its Fox One streaming service as well.

After all, Paramount CEO David Ellison – whose bank account seems to have no shortage of commas – has already been vocal about the importance of the company investing in its ad tech stack.

“Another critical area of investment is our ad sales technology. By modernizing our platform and leveraging advanced data analytics, we can deliver more precise targeting, better measurement, and more engaging ad experiences for both viewers and advertisers,” said Ellison in a letter to shareholders tied to the company’s latest quarterly earnings report.

What we’ve heard

“YouTube is now a ranking asset in AI discovery, and you can lose share even if website traffic looks stable.”

— Optise’s Ómar Thor Ómarsson

Numbers to know

$111 billion: How much Paramount will pay to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.

131.6 million: How many subscribers HBO Max had at the end of 2025.

79 million: How many subscribers Paramount+ had at the end of 2025.

17.6 million: How many subscribers Starz had at the end of 2025.

-9%: Versant’s percentage year-over-year decline in advertising revenue in 2025.

32%: Magnite’s percentage increase year over year in CTV ad revenue.

What we’ve covered

Why more brands are rethinking influencer marketing with gamified micro-creator programs:

• Sephora, American Eagle, Express and Urban Outfitters have reach rolled out creator programs to reward smaller creators for consistent content.
• American Eagle had 643 signups to its AE Creator Community within 24 hours, and after just 24 days they’ve gotten close to 4,000 applications.

Read more about gamified micro-creator programs here.

Urban Outfitters shifts its influencer strategy from reach to participation:

• The retailer has launched a platform for creators with fewer than 10,000 followers that invites them to respond to weekly prompts in exchange for affiliate revenue and access to exclusive content.
• The move marks a structural shift in the retail brand’s creator strategy, and sees it join a growing group of brands that are moving away from curated, one-off partnerships toward broad, recurring, points-for-rewards systems that encourage consistent content creation.

Read more about Urban Outfitters’ creator program here.

Why YouTube has become important for brand GEO strategies:

• YouTube is now a top source for LLMs and is leant on by the likes of Gemini and ChatGPT more frequently than Reddit.
• A recent audit carried out by Brainlabs for an unnamed enterprise client found YouTube cited as a primary source almost 60% of the time in AI Overviews.

Read more about YouTube here.

What we’re reading

Netflix’s exit from WBD bidding war:

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos got really candid — a mix of salty and spicy — in this interview with Bloomberg about walking away from buying WBD (with $2.8 billion in the bag).

WBD’s tense town hall amid Paramount deal:

In a 20-minute Zoom meeting, WBD chief David Zaslav tried to sell employees on the sale to Paramount, but they don’t seem to be buying it, according to Deadline.

CNN’s uncertain future under Paramount:

Considering the recent changes made to CBS News, CNN staffers would seem to have every reason to be concerned about becoming part of Paramount, according to The New York Times.

Paramount’s Amazon ad sales hire:

Paramount has snagged Danielle Carney, one of Amazon’s top ad sales execs, to lead U.S. sales just in time for this year’s upfront negotiations, according to Variety.