The WIR: ProSieben and FreeWheel Partner for Cross-Media Campaigns, ITV Emphasises Outcomes with New Offerings, and US Senators Propose Drug Ad Ban

June 14, 2025

0 Views 0

SaveSavedRemoved 0

In this week’s Week in Review: ProSieben and FreeWheel announce a new partnership, ITV launches new outcome-focused offerings, and US senators propose a ban on direct-to-consumer ads for pharmaceutical companies.

The Week in Tech

Equativ and Sharethrough Finalise Merger Under Equativ Name

French ad tech firm Equativ has announced the completion of its merger with Sharethrough, a Canadian supply-side platform (SSP), unifying the companies under a single brand. The new Equativ offers planning, curation, activation, ad enhancement and optimisation capabilities, according to the business, all within its ‘Maestro by Equativ’ platform. “This is more than a rebrand—it’s the culmination of a common vision to build a more dynamic, innovative, and more outcomes-driven alternative to today’s fragmented ad tech landscape,” said Equativ CMO Ben Skinazi. “Together, we’ve built a global platform that’s designed for interoperability, intelligence, and results across the entire media journey.”

Ofcom Investigates 4chan and File-Sharing Services Under Online Safety Act

Ofcom has launched investigations into seven file-sharing services, 4chan and pornography site First Time Videos under the Online Safety Act, the UK communications watchdog announced on Tuesday. The regulator is checking whether the sites comply with the law that ensures online services that publish pornography are taking action to protect their UK users, especially children. “We have received complaints about the potential for illegal content and activity on 4chan, and possible sharing of child sexual abuse material on the file-sharing services,” said Ofcom. If the companies fail to take appropriate steps, the regulator can impose fines of up to £18 million or 10 percent of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater.

TikTok to Add 500 UK Jobs and New Barbican Office

TikTok is planning to add 500 UK jobs this year, the short-form video business announced on Monday, bringing its UK workforce to 3,000 staff. The company is also investing in a new 135,000 sq ft office in Barbican, London, set to open in early 2026. The announcement comes as TikTok’s UK usership crosses 30 million monthly users. “Whether through direct investment in jobs and innovation, or the wider economic contribution from millions of British businesses on TikTok, we’re pleased to be increasing our investment and presence here in the UK, an important hub for TikTok,” said Adam Presser, Director of TikTok UK and Global Head of Operations and Trust and Safety.

Uber Advertising Makes Journey Ads Available Programmatically in Europe

Uber Advertising, the transport company’s ads sales business, announced that its premium Journey Ads inventory can now be purchased programmatically across European markets. Through Google’s Display & Video 360 and The Trade Desk, brands in ten markets (including Spain, France and the UK) will have access to Programmatic Guaranteed deals on the Uber Rides app, according to the company, with e.l.f. Beauty in the UK and Kérastase in France already on board. “In a recent study from Uber Advertising and Lumen Research, we found that ads on Uber generate almost seven times higher attentive seconds than online video, social in-feed, and mobile display formats,” said Paul Wright, Head of EMEA Sales at Uber Advertising. “Uber Advertising is committed to meeting our clients’ needs through their preferred buying method, so it’s exciting to see this opportunity rolling out to programmatic buyers across Europe.”

ShowHeroes Rolls Out Retail Ads to Direct CTV Viewers to Stores

ShowHeroes, a video and CTV ad tech business, has launched Retail Ads for CTV, a new format designed to extend retail and store activation campaigns across its global publisher network. The ads combine editorial video produced by ShowHeroes Studios, or video from the advertiser, with an animated QR code enhanced by a store-finder, directing viewers to the closest store’s webpage via geolocation. “This is an exciting moment for brands and retailers,” said Sarah Lewis, Global Director CTV at ShowHeroes. “This isn’t just a new format, it’s a strategic innovation. As the appetite for CTV soars, Retail Ads provide the perfect way to combine the highly engaging CTV screen with the dynamic store-finder. This means shoppers can locate their nearest store, turning CTV viewership into real-life foot traffic.”

The Trade Desk Launches AI-Driven Deal Management Tool

The Trade Desk, a demand-side platform (DSP), has upgraded its AI platform Kokai with ‘Deal Desk’, a new tool allowing advertisers to manage their one-to-one deals and upfront commitments with publishers. Deal Desk uses AI to help advertisers and publishers understand deal performance, so they can address campaign optimisation, while helping advertisers consider premium internet alternatives in the open market or in premium marketplaces. “The Trade Desk is committed to improving the supply chain for digital advertising on the open internet, and improving deal performance is a vital element of this work,” said Will Doherty, SVP, Inventory Development at The Trade Desk. “Deals have not kept pace with advances in AI and transparency that savvy media buyers and sellers have come to expect. Deal Desk represents a long overdue innovation for our industry and will help advance the strategic relationships between advertisers and their premium publisher partners.”

DoubleVerify Launches New AI-Powered Solution ‘DV Authentic AdVantage’

Media quality verification business DoubleVerify this week announced the launch of ‘DV Authentic AdVantage’, a new solution which combines DV’s media quality controls with DV Scibids AI, the bid optimisation technology it acquired back in 2023. The solution will initially launch across proprietary video platforms, according to DV, and will enable advertisers to enhance performance while safeguarding brand equity. “Marketers have long faced a tradeoff when trying to advertise across premium video content from top creators without driving up CPMs, forcing a choice between reach and media quality,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify. “DV Authentic AdVantage eliminates that compromise by uniting media quality protection and campaign performance optimisation in a single, streamlined solution.”

Azerion and DAIVID Research Outlines Keys for CTV Ad Effectiveness

New research commissioned by omnichannel ad platform Azerion and run by creative data provider DAIVID released this week outlines insights into how advertisers can ensure CTV ad creative delivers on their objectives. DAIVID’s AI-powered creative testing technology compared assets for a selection of Azerion-run CTV campaigns, measuring attention, emotional response, brand recall and consumer intent to determine the overall effectiveness of the ads when creatives were enhanced with overlays. Creative enhancements that generated high scores had the following attributes:

Content alignment: subtle placement, along with consistent colour schemes and messaging that feels integrated with the original ad, keep the brand present without disruption.
Relevant timing: appearing in sync with key scenes reinforces intent, rather than distracting attention.
Consistent messaging: echoing key visuals or slogans reinforces the creative and enhances recall without feeling forced.

Adverity Adds AI Interface to Access Data Insights From Natural Language Queries

Adverity, a marketing intelligence data company, has rolled out an AI interface called Data Conversations, designed to convert data into insights at speed. Data Conversations enables teams to query, visualise and act on data in real time using natural language queries, which the company says unlocks insights up to 60 percent faster. “We’re not just giving users another way to access data – we’re giving them the power to lead with it,” said Adverity CEO Alexander Igelsböck. “Data Conversations breaks the mould. It transforms data analytics from a siloed, technical function into a company-wide dialogue that accelerates decisions, increasing agility, and unlocking the full potential of every team.”

TripleLift Announces New Partnerships and Formats in Cannes Programme

TripleLift, a supply-side platform (SSP), has unveiled its lineup of events and announcements for the 2025 Cannes Lions, including developments across CTV, retail media and creative formats. The announcements include the beta version of programmatic pause ads within DirectTV, an in-show ad format partnership with TelevisaUnivision, and ‘Enhanced Spots’ on CTV. “Creative technology is the most powerful lever for driving advertising performance, with studies showing that 86 percent of a brand’s sales lift from advertising is attributed to creative quality,” said TripleLift CEO Dave Helmreich. “As the Creative SSP, we’re dedicated to placing creativity at the core of digital advertising while delivering measurable outcomes that benefit publishers, advertisers, and consumers alike.” TripleLift’s event lineup can be found here.

The Week in TV

Warner Bros. Discovery Announces Plans to Separate TV Networks from Streaming and Studios

Global media business Warner Bros. Discovery announced on Monday that it plans to separate itself into two publicly traded companies. The split is framed as a separation of WBD’s traditional TV networks from its TV and film studios and streaming assets, though this isn’t exactly how the company is set to be carved up.

The ‘Streaming & Studios’ company (as it’s been labelled by Warner Bros. Discovery) will seemingly take control of all of WBD’s studios — namely Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, and DC Studios. On the streaming side, it will also take charge of the recently rebranded HBO Max. HBO itself will also be part of the ‘Streaming & Studios’ company, despite being a traditional pay TV business. The Discovery+ streaming platform meanwhile finds itself on the other side of the draw, bundled in with WBD’s entertainment, sport, and news TV brands inside a ‘Global Networks’ company. CNN, TNT Sports, and Discovery’s global channels will all sit within this business, as will sports publication Bleacher Report. Read more on VideoWeek.

Freely’s Reach Continues to Creep Up with New Roku Deal

Freely, the free streaming service launched by the UK’s public service broadcasters (PSBs), announced on Wednesday that it has signed a new distribution agreement with streaming platform owner Roku, which will see Freely made available on new smart TVs powered by the Roku operating systems. In the UK, Roku’s operating system runs on some Sharp, JVC, METZ, and Polaroid TVs. From June, these Roku-powered models will begin using Freely as the default TV guide, meaning it will be presented as the primary means of streaming live TV. Read more on VideoWeek.

Netflix Commits €1 Billion to Spanish Production

Netflix is to invest over €1 billion in Spanish production between 2025 and 2028, CEO Ted Sarandos announced on Tuesday. The announcement came at an event celebrating the streaming service’s 10 years of activity in Spain, attended by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. “We have filmed in over 200 cities and towns across every autonomous community in Spain — and we still haven’t run out of beautiful places to film,” said Sarandos. “This has brought to the screen all the different sides of Spain. It has led to real economic benefits in communities across the country. And it has helped support more than 20,000 jobs in the Spanish audiovisual sector.”

Paramount to Reduce US Headcount by Further 3.5 Percent

Paramount plans to reduce its US headcount by 3.5 percent, the media company announced on Tuesday, following a 15 percent reduction last year. “As we navigate the continued industry-wide linear declines and dynamic macro-economic environment, while prioritising investments in our growing streaming business, we are taking the hard, but necessary steps to further streamline our organisation starting this week,” the Paramount co-CEOs wrote in a memo seen by Deadline. The report noted that Paramount’s merger with Skydance appears unlikely to close in the first half of the year as the companies had projected, due to an ongoing dispute with the Trump administration.

Disney and Universal Sue Midjourney for Copyright Infringement

Disney and Comcast’s Universal are suing Midjourney, an AI startup, for alleged copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, calls Midjourney’s AI image generator a “bottomless pit of plagiarism”, claiming it has pirated the libraries of the two Hollywood studios, using characters from franchises such as Frozen, Star Wars and Despicable Me without permission. “We are bullish on the promise of AI technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity, but piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing,” said Horacio Gutierrez, Senior Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Disney.

Universal Ads Brings in Measurement Partners for New-to-TV Advertisers

Universal Ads, a self-serve buying platform launched by Comcast earlier this year, has introduced a ‘TV Business Partner Program’ that provides advertisers with creative and measurement tools to assist with TV buys. The solution allows new-to-TV brands to build, test and launch TV ads while linking their campaigns to measurable business outcomes, according to Universal Ads, with Canva, Fairing, Haus, INCRMNTAL, Measured, Prescient AI, Spaceback, Triple Whale, Waymark and WorkMagic signed up as launch partners. “We’ve repeatedly said Universal Ads is about making TV advertising as easy as social media advertising,” said Greg Lieber, Head of Product Partnerships at Universal Ads. “In order to do so, we are giving brands, including those that are emerging and/or new to TV, access to what they need to succeed across the Universal Ads platform.”

Amazon Prime Video Reportedly Doubles Ad Load

Amazon Prime Video has increased its ad load over the past 18 months, Adweek reported on Wednesday. At launch the ad tier aimed to have meaningfully fewer ads than rival streaming services, but that load has doubled to “four to six minutes per hour”, according to an Amazon representative. The report suggests Amazon notified investors of the increase but has not communicated this to consumers, while programmatic agencies have noticed “more avails in the system.” Doug Paladino, Programmatic Director at digital agency PMG, said the move brings “equilibrium” to the streaming service that initially looked to make the ad load more palatable. “They have more subscribers than any other ad-supported streamer, but many weren’t watching enough for that to matter,” he told Adweek. “More ad load helps bring that back into balance.”

Disney to Pay Comcast Additional $439 Million for Full Control of Hulu

Disney has agreed to pay Comcast an additional $439 million for full control of the Hulu streaming service, according to a securities filing on Monday, ending an 18-month dispute over the takeover. Disney had already paid $8.6 billion in 2023 for Comcast’s 33 percent stake, but Comcast argued that Disney owed another $5 billion, leading to the companies bringing in a third-party appraiser. The deal, which is expected to close by 24th July, will allow for “a deeper and more seamless integration of Hulu’s general entertainment content with Disney+”, according to Disney CEO Bob Iger, and for bundled sales with the upcoming ESPN streaming service.

RTL Deutschland and Deutsche Telekom Partner for Personalised Ads on Linear TV

RTL Deutschland is integrating its ad server into Deutsche Telekom’s advertising platform, MagentaAdSolution, in efforts to facilitate personalised advertising on linear TV. Due to launch this year, the partnership allows RTL Deutschland to expand its reach for addressable TV by delivering personalised ads in conjunction with programmatic advertising. “Our partnership with Deutsche Telekom is an important building block of our technological growth strategy,” said Andre Prahl, Chief Distribution Officer at RTL Deutschland. “Together, we are laying the foundation for innovative, personalised advertising experiences on linear TV.”

The Week for Publishers

TechCrunch says it’s Not Leaving Europe, Attracting Scepticism

Tech and business publisher TechCrunch is not pulling out of Europe, according to Michael Reinstein, chief executive of the outlet’s new private equity owner Regent, despite having laid off all of its European and UK staff. Reinstein, in an article published on TechCrunch, said the layoffs are “not about retreat […] they are about realignment and reinforcement”. Reinstein said TechCrunch will partner closely with Foundry, another publisher owned by Regent which runs titles including PCWorld, Macworld, and TechAdvisor, and which has staff in Europe.

Press Gazette meanwhile reported that former TechCrunch staff and other tech journalists remain sceptical, with one describing Reinstein’s article as “hollow corporate doublespeak”.

Axel Springer Plans Four Day Back-to-Office Mandate

European media giant Axel Springer’s CEO Mathias Döpfner told the Sunday Times this week that he is planning to order all Axel Springer staff back to the office for at least four days per week. Döpfner claimed that during the COVID pandemic, flexible working “got out of control because it became just an alibi to not work at all or isolate yourself at home and get paranoid”.

AI Startup ProRata Claims Over 500 Publisher Partnerships

ProRata, an AI-powered search engine which only draws on content it has a licence to use, and which shares revenues back with publisher partners, has announced it now has over 500 publisher partnerships. Recent partnerships signed by ProRata include Fast Company, Boston Globe Media, New York Magazine, Frommer’s, Reader’s Digest, The Nation, Newsday, The New Republic, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Future, owner of specialist media sites such as Tom’s Guide, Who What Wear, and Homes & Gardens.

Reach Doubles Down on Substack Strategy

UK news publisher Reach is launching a number of new topic-specific free newsletters on Substack, Press Gazette reported this week, as part of an effort to reach audiences who don’t already visit Reach websites. Reach launched a number of paid newsletters on Substack in 2023 as an experiment, some of which worked, and some of which didn’t, according to Reach’s audience and content director for secure audiences Jenna Thompson. Now it’s expanding its Substack offering, but offering newsletters for free instead, targeting niche interests.

The Guardian Unifies Programmatic Teams

UK newspaper The Guardian announced today it is unifying its programmatic advertising capabilities under one global team which will operate across The Guardian’s main markets: the UK, US, and Australia. The Guardian says the reorganisation is part of a strategy to become more global and more digital, and will better leverage the newspaper’s position “as one of the biggest sources of quality inventory on the open web,” according to the announcement.

Immediate Launches £200,000 Sustainable Advertising Competition

Specialist media publisher Immediate, owner of Good Food, Radio Times, and BBC Gardeners’ World among other titles, has launched a competition offering ad placements worth up to £200,000 for advertisers making “tangible progress on environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals”. “We want to spotlight brands that are not just talking about purpose, but delivering it,” said Beth Shirazi, partnerships director at Immediate. “We invite all brands looking to make a difference in ESG goals to enter for a chance to win access to Immediate’s market-leading brand inventory.”

The Week for Brands & Agencies

WPP CEO Mark Read Will Step Down at the End of the Year

Mark Read, CEO of agency holding group WPP, announced on Monday that he is stepping down from his position after nearly seven years in the role. Read will remain in the role until the end of this year, and will help WPP’s Board of Directors appoint his successor. Read took over the top job in 2018, after previous CEO Sir Martin Sorrell resigned from the role amid allegations of personal misconduct and misuse of company assets — claims which Sorrell denies. During his tenure as CEO, Read has driven significant simplification of the group’s internal structure, merging or sunsetting some of its major agency brands and selling a majority stake in market research business Kantar. Read has also pushed WPP’s heavy investment in AI, committing the company to spending £300 million annually on AI tools and technologies. Read more on VideoWeek.

FTC Considers Barring Post-Merger Omnicom and IPG from Political Ad Boycotts

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is considering imposing a condition on the pending merger of Omnicom and Interpublic Group which would prevent them from boycotting ads on specific platforms due to political content which is housed on those platforms, Reuters reported this week. The news comes as various groups and brands are being investigated in America for allegedly illegally coordinating boycotts of advertising on Elon Musk’s social platform X — the groups and brands themselves say they were simply protecting their brands by avoiding advertising next to harmful and dangerous content. Stories also surfaced earlier this year that executives at X had implied to IPG and Omnicom that their merger might be blocked if they didn’t start spending more on X.

Publicis Wins Mars’ Media Business from WPP

Publicis Groupe came out on top in Mars’s review of its global media account, Adweek reported this week, winning the account from incumbent WPP. Publicis will handle media, production, commerce, paid social, and influencer marketing for Mars across more than 70 markets, while Interpublic Group’s has been handed Mars’s PR duties.

WPP Media Downgrades Global Ad Revenue Forecast for 2025

WPP’s media arm WPP Media has lowered its forecast for global ad revenue growth in 2025 to 6.0 percent in its latest ‘This Year Next Year’ report, its biannual report laying out the trends impacting advertising revenues in the coming years. The revision, down from a prediction of 7.7 percent in December’s forecast, is primarily due to continued disruptions to global trade caused in large part by policies from the current US government. The latest report predicts 6.1 percent growth in 2026, and a compound annual growth rate of 5.4 percent between 2025 and 2030 — which again represents a downgrade in expectations. WPP Media had previously projected a 6.4 percent compound annual growth rate between 2024-2029. Read more on VideoWeek.

Publicis Dismisses WPP Audit of Epsilon Supply Quality

Publicis hit back at claims made in a WPP ‘intelligence report’ distributed to WPP clients, which questioned the quality of supply available through the Conversant supply-side platform, which sits within Publicis-owned data business Epsilon. As Ad Age reported, WPP says it ran an audit of Epsilon’s inventory quality and found that over a quarter of impressions bought during the test ended up on made for advertising (MFA) sites. Publicis meanwhile says it has identified the buy used by WPP during the audit, and claims that WPP must have disabled several protective tools and purposefully bought cheap inventory in order to generate the result it claims.

Multinational Marketing Budgets Come Under Increased Scrutiny from Executives

Multinational marketing budgets are facing increased scrutiny from brands’ CEOs, board members, and other internal stakeholders according to research from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) this week. A survey from the WFA found that 82 percent of global marketers and senior policy leads agree that marketing budgets are under more scrutiny than they were a year ago. As a result, half of those surveyed say they are now spending more time focusing on short-term objectives and risk management at the expense of long-term strategic planning.

Dentsu Signs MiQ Sigma as Intelligence Partner

Holding group Dentsu has announced a strategic partnership with MiQ which will see it integrate MiQ’s newly announced AI-driven platform Sigma at the centre of its own media practice. Dentsu will use MiQ Sigma to draw together insights from Sigma’s various data feeds, and the two will work together to build a new ‘Large Media Model’ proof of concept, designed to help understand brand impact.

Publicis to Open AI Centre of Excellence in NVIDIA Partnership

Publicis Groupe has announced it is creating a ‘Centre of Excellence for Enterprise AI Transformation’ with computer hardware and software maker NVIDIA. The Centre of Excellence will focus on supporting clients in their adoption of AI-powered business software and architecture. Publicis’ digital transformation arm Publicis Sapient will also use NVIDIA’s AI software to create bespoke AI models and services for its clients.

Hires of the Week

Naveen Chopra Departs Paramount for Roblox as Andrew Warren Steps in as CFO

Paramount Global has announced that Andrew Warren will become interim Chief Financial Officer following the departure of Naveen Chopra, who is leaving the company to become CFO at Roblox. Warren takes on the interim position in addition to his role as Strategic Advisor to the Office of the CEO.

Jake Thomas to Lead UK Business at Snap

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, has named Jake Thomas as Senior Commercial Director for the UK. Reporting to Ronan Harris, President of EMEA, Thomas will be responsible for the development and implementation of Snap’s business and commercial strategy for the region. Thomas joined Snap in 2017, becoming Head of UAE Operations in 2020.

Immediate Hires Amazon’s Laura Cushing as Product Director

Immediate, the UK publishing group whose brands include Good Food, Radio Times and BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, has appointed Laura Cushing as Product Director. In her new role, Cushing will lead product development at Immediate’s portfolio of websites, digital products and apps. Cushing joins from Amazon, serving most recently as Head of Product Management.

Pubmatic Appoints Andy Jones and Matt Salmon to EMEA Leadership

Ad tech firm PubMatic has appointed Andy Jones as Vice President, Broadcast & CTV, EMEA, and Matt Salmon as Vice President of Sales, EMEA. Jones was previously Head of Agency Development at Samsung, while Salmon was Commercial Director at Snap. Pubmatic said the appointments help strengthen the company’s ability to serve the shifting needs of the market and accelerate growth across the EMEA region.

Azerion Promotes Dean Nagib to UK Country Manager

Omnichannel advertising platform Azerion has promoted Dean Nagib to the role of UK country manager, the company announced this week. Nagib was previously commercial director at Azerion UK, and has previously headed up commercial and sales teams at Cedara, MiQ, Oath, and AOL. Azerion says Nagib will be responsible for ensuring that Azerion’s solutions meet the needs of UK advertisers and publishers.