The WIR: UK Marketers Cut Budgets, European Broadcasters Fight Back Against Disinformation, and Facebook’s FTC Trial Begins

April 17, 2025

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In this week’s Week in Review: the IPA releases its latest Bellwether Report, the EBU launches an initiative to counter disinformation, and Zuckerberg takes to the stand in FTC trial.

The Week in Tech

Barb Launches Overnight Commercial Reporting in Beta

Barb, the UK’s primary TV measurement body, on Monday announced the launch of overnight commercial spot ratings in beta, enabling advertisers to get a preliminary measure of their ads’ performance the day after they air. While Barb already reports on linear commercial spot audiences eight days after airing, the measurement body says advertisers’ expectations around reporting speed have increased, given their ability to monitor digital campaigns in real time. The launch of overnight commercial reporting will help close this gap, giving advertisers a quicker understanding of how campaigns are performing, and enabling them to work with broadcasters more rapidly to ensure their goals are achieved. Read more on VideoWeek.

DoubleVerify to Sue Check My Ads for Defamation

DoubleVerify has told Check My Ads, an advertising watchdog, to prepare for litigation concerning alleged “defamatory statements” it made about the ad tech firm, according to Adweek. The statements in question were made after an Adalytics report in March accused DoubleVerify, IAS and Human Security of failing to detect bot traffic. DoubleVerify’s legal representative, Brad Bondi of Paul Hastings LLP, said the statements (which were unspecified) constitute “defamation, tortious interference, and injurious falsehood.”

StackAdapt Upgrades CTV Tools to Boost Transparency

StackAdapt, a Canadian ad tech firm, has announced upgrades to its CTV capabilities, including the introduction of CTV Properties, a new framework that provides clarity into where ads run by simplifying the categorisation of supply. The company also announced a ‘creative transcoding’ solution, which simplifies the process of producing multiple variations of a single creative for CTV campaigns. “As advertisers continue shifting budgets into CTV, the need for transparency and precise measurement has never been greater,” said Greg Joseph, VP of Inventory Development at StackAdapt. “Introducing new capabilities like CTV Properties and creative transcoding, we are equipping advertisers with the tools they need to confidently scale their CTV investments globally.”

Vevo Partners with Experian for UK Targeting

Music video network Vevo has announced a new partnership with Experian, a global data business, to enhance audience targeting across YouTube and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services, such as Samsung TV Plus and Rakuten. Vevo will use Experian’s Mosaic UK segments, which groups together audiences by a shared demographic, lifestyle or behaviour, down to geographic level for campaign targeting. “In today’s video-first landscape, Vevo offers advertisers access to premium inventory to reach highly engaged audiences,” said Colin Grieve, Managing Director of Experian Marketing Services at Experian UK&I. “Now, with the utilisation of our Mosaic UK segments, advertisers can target their audiences with even greater precision, driving more impactful and effective campaign results.”

C-Screens to Display Football Scores in Sky Partnership

C-Screens, a TV Out-of-Home (TVOOH) company, has partnered with Sky to bring live football updates to retail and service station locations across the UK. Live scores from the top four divisions of English football, as well as the WSL and SPFL, will appear across C-Screens’ digital screen retail network. “Through this partnership, we are bringing the best of Sky’s football coverage to audiences wherever they are, ensuring fans stay connected to the latest action,” said Bhavesh Patel, Director of Media at Sky. “By combining C-Screens’ extensive reach with Sky’s leading sports content, we are creating an innovative and dynamic way to reach and engage football fans beyond the traditional home viewing experience.”

OpenAP Launches ID Solution to Resolve Identity Across Platforms

OpenAP, a US broadcaster-backed ad tech company, has launched Open Identity, a new data infrastructure designed to provide interoperability across ID solutions. An evolution of the OpenID identifier, Open Identity aims to increase on-target reach of streaming and cross-platform campaigns by consistently resolving ID across identity spaces. “The advertising industry is on the precipice of a renaissance where more scalable access to big data is driving increased ROI for advertisers across premium video,” said OpenAP CEO David Levy. “But this renaissance is dependent on privacy safe ways to both standardise identity and provide access to rich campaign data for planning and measurement. The workflow of the future for streaming video must be interoperable and data must connect seamlessly across all data providers, publishers, platforms and currencies. Open Identity’s vision is to unlock this future potential.”

TikTok Announces SME Council for UK Businesses

TikTok has announced the organisation of an SME Council for TikTok-focused small businesses in the UK, which aims to “amplify entrepreneurs’ voices to policymakers and help them shape policies that boost growth.” The SME Council is made up of 20 small businesses that use TikTok to reach new customers and sell products, including Birmingham-based Hair Anatomy UK and Manchester-based pillow and mattress brand Levitex. “TikTok gives small businesses the opportunity to be discovered by new communities, the creative tools to engage authentically and, ultimately, the chance to put their products in the hands of an ever-growing number of UK consumers,” said Ali Law, Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs at TikTok UK. “It’s why SMEs across the country come to TikTok every day to share their passions, reach new customers and grow their businesses. By launching our new SME Council, we’re taking our support of these businesses beyond the TikTok app, giving them a platform to call for policies that will unlock the next phase of their growth.”

Google Faces £5 Billion Class Action Over Search Dominance

Google is facing a fresh class action lawsuit in the UK, accusing the tech giant of abusing its dominant market position in online search. The claim, filed by competition law expert Or Brook on behalf of thousands of businesses, seeks damages of up to £5 billion, alleging that Google has shut out competition through exclusive contracts with device manufacturers, enabling the search giant to inflate ad prices. The lawsuit follows a federal case in the US in which many of the same practices were deemed to be illegal.

The Week in TV

Netflix Targets $1 Trillion Market Cap

Netflix aims to achieve a $1 trillion market capitalisation and double its revenue by 2030, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing attendees at the streaming giant’s annual business review meeting last month. The report suggests the company is targeting around $9 billion in global ad sales by 2030, up from eMarketer forecasts of $2.15 billion by the end of this year. Netflix’s first quarter earnings are due at market close on Thursday.

Sky Media Launches PMP for Live Sport with The Trade Desk

Sky Media is enabling advertisers to buy TV and streaming ads through a private marketplace (PMP) for the first time, in partnership with demand-side platform (DSP) The Trade Desk. The PMP includes biddable content, covering entertainment and live sport, across Sky Sports and TNT Sports. The company said the launch reduces cost barriers through geotargeting, allowing advertisers to target fans of a particular football club using a local geographic segment of the streaming audience.

TF1+ Introduces Low-Carbon Campaigns

TF1 PUB, the French broadcaster’s sales house, has launched SOLOw, a sustainable advertising offering that enables advertisers on TF1+ to optimise their campaigns’ carbon emissions. SOLOw offers the only pre-roll slot on TF1+ to low-carbon campaigns, based on certain media planning criteria, including device selection and the type of internet connection used by the viewer. TF1 said the low-carbon campaigns reduce emissions by 37 to 51 percent, and are open to all advertisers at no additional cost.

WBD to Retain Ownership of Polish Broadcaster TVN

Warner Bros Discovery has decided against selling Polish broadcaster TVN, the US media company said on Monday. Reuters reported that one suitor dropped its bid for TVN due to geopolitical risks stemming from Donald Trump’s tariff policies, while pan-European holding company MFE dropped its bid in February. WBD told staff that after consideration, it had concluded that “the best path forward is retaining ownership of TVN, continuing to support our business, our strategy and the incredible journalistic work of our team.”

ProSieben Takes Full Ownership of Voucher Company Jochen Schweizer Mydays

ProSiebenSat.1 has taken full ownership of the Jochen Schweizer mydays Group, an experience voucher company, after acquiring the remaining 10.1 percent of shares held by founder Jochen Schweizer. The German media group initially took a stake in the company in 2017. “The complete takeover now enables us to position Jochen Schweizer mydays perfectly for the future and, at the same time, to further simplify the shareholder structure of our majority shareholdings and to organise our portfolio even more clearly,” said ProSieben CFO Martin Mildner.

Switzerland Considers Cutting TV5 Funding

The Swiss government could withdraw funding from French public TV channel TV5 Monde, as part of budget relief proposals currently under consideration. According to a report in Le Temps, the measures include cuts to the Swiss public broadcaster’s services intended for abroad. It currently contributes 5.7 million Swiss francs per year to TV5.

Netflix Tests AI Search Engine for Recommendations

Netflix is testing an AI search engine for recommending titles to users based on natural language searches, using queries such as “mood”, Bloomberg reported on Friday. The tool is powered by OpenAI, and is currently available to limited subscribers using iOS devices in Australia and New Zealand. Netflix plans to extend the test to the US and other countries in the near future, according to the report.

The Week for Publishers

Global News Brand Ad Spend Falls to $32.3 Billion

Total global news brand ad spend is forecast to fall to $32.3 billion this year, according to new data from WARC Media released this week, down by just under a third since 2019. For magazine brands meanwhile, spend is expected to drop to $3.7 billion this year, a 38.6 percent fall since 2019.

There are a number of factors driving this trend, according to WARC. News brands still regularly see their content deemed unfit for ads by blunt brand safety filtering. Advertising spend continues to flow into the mass scale, data-powered tech platforms. And advertisers are increasingly investing their ad money in user-generated content. GroupM data cited by WARC predicts that UGC ad spend will overtake professionally produced media ad spend next year.

German Publisher Files EU Antitrust Complaint Against Google Over Spam Policy

German media company ActMeraki has filed an antitrust complaint with EU regulators against Google, relating to one of its anti-spam search policies, Reuters reported this week. The policy in question penalises websites that publish third-party pages on their sites, which Google says is commonly done as a way of manipulating SEO rankings. But ActMeraki says Google’s “non-transparent” and “inconsistent” rules hurt traffic and revenues for legitimate publishers. “Google continues to unilaterally set the rules of doing business online in its own favour, preferencing its own commercial offerings and depriving competing service providers of any visibility,” said Dr. Thomas Höppner, ActMeraki’s lawyer.

RedBird Mulls Telegraph Takeover

Investment group RedBird Capital Partners is considering putting together a deal to take over UK newspaper The Telegraph itself, in an effort to bring its drawn-out sale saga to an end. RedBird originally agreed a deal to buy The Telegraph alongside Abu Dhabi-based IMI several years back, but the UK government passed a law to prevent the two groups from taking control of the newspaper, due to concerns over foreign ownership of UK media. Now RedBird is looking at deals which would reduce IMI’s stake, and is looking for new potential partners, the Financial Times reported this week.

Reach’s Mantis Adds Attention Metrics Tool

Contextual ad solution Mantis, which is owned by UK publisher group Reach, this week announced the launch of Mantis Attention, an attention metric tool powered by Adnami. Mantis says publishers using Mantis Attention will be able to track how effectively their campaigns capture audience attention, with metrics such as placement, share of page, time in view, and overall engagement. This in turn will enable advertisers to optimise campaigns based on ‘Attention Per Mille’ and ‘Effective Attention Per Mille’.

Quartz Cuts Majority of Staff as G/O Media CEO Talks Up “Bright Future”

The CEO of digital news group G/O Media Jim Spanfeller believes the future is “extremely bright” for business news publisher Quartz, which G/O Media sold to Canadian software company Redbrick last week, according to an interview with Press Gazette. G/O Media has been accused of running Quartz into the ground, but Spanfeller said the situation for Quartz was “rather dire” when G/O Media bought it back in 2022.

This “bright future”, however, has gotten off to a dubious start, as the majority of Quartz’s editorial staff have been let go, according to The Wrap. Only editor-in-chief Dan Hirschhorn and executive editor Sarah Douglass have been kept, The Wrap reported, with around ten other writers let go.

Business Insider Founder Launches News Publication ‘Regenerator’

Henry Blodget, the founder of Business Insider, has launched a new publication called ‘Regenerator’, Adweek reported this week. At launch, Regenerator exists as a solo operation on Substack, but Blodget has plans to add staff and introduce a freemium model in the future. Blodget says Regenerator will offer “rolling analysis of timely questions and refine our conclusions as events unfold,” covering tech, business, markets, policy, culture, and ideas.

LinkedIn’s Video Ad Metrics Earn MRC Accreditation

Professional social platform LinkedIn has received accreditation from the Media Ratings Council (MRC) for its video ad metrics, the company announced this week, amid a general video push across the platform. The video ad metrics accredited by the MRC are gross impressions, net impressions, gross clicks, and net clicks. LinkedIn says video watch time is up 36 percent year-on-year, and is “an integral part of how professionals are engaging on the platform”.

The Week for Brands & Agencies

Publicis Posts 4.9 Percent Organic Growth in Q1, and Strongly Reaffirms Full Year Guidance

French agency holding group Publicis Groupe released its Q1 financial results on Tuesday, reporting 4.9 percent organic growth year-on-year, and reported net revenue growth of 9.4 percent year-on-year. The company also strongly reaffirmed its full year guidance of organic growth between four and five percent, a show of confidence given the turbulent macroeconomic conditions facing businesses across the globe. But Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun said that his company’s expected performance isn’t reflective of the wider agency market. Rather, it comes down to Publicis’s investments in identity graphs and connected media, which encourage clients to keep spending even when times are tough. Read more on VideoWeek.

Omnicom Warns of Tariff Impact on Advertising Spending

Omnicom also posted its Q1 results on Tuesday, reporting organic growth of 3.4 percent in Q1 2025, compared with the same quarter last year. Omnicom CFO Phil Angelastro said the company’s “geographic diversification” is expected to help it weather the global trade uncertainty, with Q1 growth driven by Latin America (+14.8 percent) and Asia Pacific (+6 percent). He noted that the US accounts for approximately half the group’s revenue, while China made up just 2 percent of revenue in 2024. However the company has lowered its full-year guidance for 2025 to 2.5-4.5 percent organic growth, from a previous estimate of 3.5-4.5 percent, citing potential client caution relating to the tariffs.

Junk Food Ads Rise in UK Ahead of Restrictions

Big brands are spending more money on ads for unhealthy foods in the UK, the Observer reported this week, ahead of new restrictions coming into force later this year. The new laws will completely ban ads featuring unhealthy foods online, and restrict them to a post-9pm watershed on TV. Data from WARC cited by the Observer found that food companies’ ad spend in 2024 was up 26 percent year-on-year, a rise which coincided with increased consumer spending on chocolate, cakes, and crisps from major brands.

Shein and Temu Slash US Ad Spend

Chinese retailers Shein and Temu have both slashed their US ad spend, according to data from Sensor Tower as reported by Reuters, with US tariffs on Chinese goods causing costs for these companies to rise rapidly. Sensor Tower’s data found that Temu’s average daily US ad spend on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snap, X and YouTube was down by 31 percent across the first two weeks of April, compared with the previous 30 days. Shein’s spend on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest was down 19 percent over the same period.

Bolloré Forecasts ‘Year of Acceleration’ in 2025

Yannick Bolloré, CEO and chairman of French agency group Havas, says 2025 is a year of acceleration for his business, as it leans into its ‘Converged’ structure and strategy. And while competitors Omnicom and Interpublic Group are set to merge, likely creating the largest agency group in the world, Bolloré says Havas’s smaller size can work in its favour. “Our position as a challenger brings both significant responsibility and immense potential,” he said. “We are well-equipped to achieve our ambitions, backed by solid fundamentals that empower Havas to swiftly adapt to an ever-changing environment, while consistently delivering exceptional service to our clients.”

Publicis’s Spark Foundry Retains Asda Media Account

UK supermarket Asda announced this week that Publicis media agency Spark Foundry has been picked as its media agency following a pitch process, alongside Lucky Generals which will be its creative partner. Spark Foundry has worked with Asda for the past eight years, according to the supermarket.

Hires of the Week

GroupM Picks Jacinta Brennan as UK Chief People Officer

GroupM UK has hired Jacinta Brennan as its new UK chief people officer, effective immediately. The hire is part of GroupM’s “continued drive to increase collaboration and build a shared culture across the business,” according to the agency. Brennan has over 25 years of experience in senior HR roles, and has held leadership positions at Kantar and BBH London.

Bloom UK Announces President and Vice President

Bloom UK, a professional network for women working in the communications industry, has named Sophie O’Brien as President, and Kelly Badal as Vice-President. O’Brien serves as Client Services Director at Toucan, a global Amazon and TikTok agency. Badal is Strategy Director at TMW Unlimited, an integrated creative agency owned by Accenture Song.

Madhive Appoints CPO and Chief of Staff

Madhive, a US ad tech business specialising in local media, has appointed Michael Kim as Chief Product Officer, and Laura Colona as Chief of Staff. Kim has spent 25 years in programmatic advertising and TV, most recently serving as SVP of Product at Samba TV. Colona joins from OOH agency Talon, where she served as SVP Marketing.

Mail Metro Media Promotes Ryan Uhl

Mail Metro Media this week announced it has promoted Ryan Uhl to the newly created role of managing director, revenue strategy and implementation. Uhl, who was previously chief brand strategy officer, will be tasked with “turning strategy into action, developing and implementing initiatives, setting clear advertising objectives, and coordinating high-impact projects that align with senior leadership priorities,” according to Mail Metro Media.

Azerion Makes Three Commercial Hires in the UK

Digital advertising platform Azerion UK has made three new commercial hires as it expands its business operations, the company has announced. Marco Perin, who joins from Nano Interactive, has been taken on as growth and strategy director. Meanwhile Genevieve Fitzhenry and Susana Yanez have joined as account directors — Fitzhenry has previously held senior positions at Ogury, Seedtag, and Azerion-owned Hawk, while Yanez joins from Mumsnet.