Week in Review: Bertelsmann Eyes Up Further M&A, DAZN Deal Brings Premier League to YouTube in Portugal, and Netflix Reveals New Ad Formats

August 29, 2026

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In this week’s Week in Review: Thomas Rabe says Bertelsmann is working on further M&A, Netflix debuts new ad formats, and more live sports come to YouTube in Portugal.

The Week in Tech

Meta Conditionally Agrees $18 Billion Settlement in US Lawsuit Over Harms to Children

Meta has agreed to pay $18 billion to settle a US lawsuit claiming that Facebook and Instagram harmed children, and that the social media giant misrepresented the extent of mental health harms caused by its apps. Meta said the states involved in the lawsuit will receive 70 percent of the total settlement payment over the next 10 years. However, Meta will only pay the remaining 30 percent if YouTube and TikTok pay an equivalent sum, and implement certain app changes, including daily time limits for young users, age-assurance measures, and a “night mode.”

TikTok to Pay $400 Million in US Child Privacy Case

TikTok has been ordered to pay $400 million to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), in order to end a lawsuit alleging the short-form video app violated children‘s privacy. The deal stems from a 2024 lawsuit brought by the DOJ, accusing parent company ByteDance of collecting “vast amounts of data” on users under the age of 13. US Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. called the settlement “a major victory for American children and parents.”

Nexxen Standardises Home Screen Inventory Buys Across OEMs

Nexxen has announced its standardisation of Smart TV home screen inventory specifications across original equipment manufacturers (OEM), enabling advertisers to “bypass the complexity” of managing different formats and requirements. By activating campaigns through Nexxen TV Home Screen, demand-side platforms (DSP) and buyers can bid on home screen inventory using a standardised request structure. “From the beginning, our goal with Nexxen TV Home Screen has been to transform the home screen from a fragmented media environment into a scalable, performance-driven channel for the industry,” said Kara Puccinelli, Chief Commercial Officer at Nexxen. “By standardising these formats across OEMs, it’s another major step toward a more streamlined cross-platform ecosystem that better enables buyers, DSPs, and brands alike.”

The Trade Desk Builds Agentic Network for Media Buyers

The Trade Desk is building an AI conversational interface that will route media buyers towards specialised agents, Adweek reported on Wednesday. ‘Ask Koa’ is being built alongside Kokai Zuma, the AI assistant that the ad tech firm unveiled this week. The agents will handle different parts of the programmatic workflow, according to the company’s product roadmap, including audience building, campaign creation, insights and troubleshooting.

KERV.ai Brings Interactive Formats to LG Ad Solutions

KERV.ai, a video analysis, performance and monetisation business, has expanded its partnership with LG Ad Solutions, bringing its interactive and commerce-enabled CTV products to LG’s streaming inventory in Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The announcement follows the companies’ collaboration in the US, allowing advertisers in the new markets to deliver “outcomes-driven advertising experiences” across LG’s video inventory. “Together with KERV.ai, we are bringing innovative, premium CTV experiences to more brands and viewers around the world, while creating solutions that reflect the needs and opportunities of each market,” said Esther Maguire, Head of Product Marketing & Strategy at LG Ad Solutions.

Broadpeak Launches Add-to-Cart Feature for Streaming Ads

Broadpeak, a streaming monetisation business, has launched Click2Cart, an interactive ad solution that allows viewers to add products to their online shopping cart using their TV remote during a streaming ad. The company said the product helps enable measurable performance advertising for broadcasters and streaming services. “For too long, delivering true shoppability and performance advertising has only been feasible for a handful of top digital platforms,” said Jacques Le Mancq, President and CEO at Broadpeak. “We’re giving streaming companies and broadcasters the tools to compete for performance advertising on a level playing field.”

Tracer Adds Real-Time Analytics to Comcast’s Universal Ads

Tracer, a collaborative analytics business, has partnered with Universal Ads, Comcast’s self-serve advertising platform, to unify operational and revenue data across systems. The partnership creates a “centralised operational layer that gives teams real-time visibility into campaign delivery, advertiser investment, forecasting, and revenue operations,” according to the companies. “Universal Ads is built to make TV advertising as accessible and easy to buy as social — giving more brands a simpler way to create, buy, and measure campaigns across premium TV,” said Daniel Druger, Vice President of Product at Universal Ads. “Tracer has helped us build the connected data foundation we need to deliver on that vision at scale and continue moving quickly to bring new capabilities to market.”

The Week in TV

Channel 4 Extends Audience Targeting to YouTube Channels

Channel 4 is extending its audience targeting proposition to YouTube channels, the UK broadcaster announced last week. The extension enables advertisers to use the broadcaster’s data segments to buy audiences across select YouTube creators. The move forms part of Channel 4’s ‘Fast Forward’ strategy, as it aims for 50 percent of its total revenues to come from digital advertising by 2030.

Paramount Could be Required to Divest Cable Channels Ahead of WBD Acquisition

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is expected to ask Paramount to sell select cable channels before he signs off on its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), the WSJ reported on Sunday. Bonta will also seek commitments from Paramount to keep its movie studio separate from WBD, according to people familiar with the matter. The commitments were reportedly expected to be discussed at a meeting between Bonta and Paramount CEO David Ellison on Monday, but Bonta said the meeting was called off at the last minute. “Not only did Paramount leak the alleged substance of settlement discussions, but they misrepresented these discussions, demonstrating a lack of good faith,” Bonta said in a statement. “As soon as Paramount stops playing games and engages sincerely, my office is happy to meet again.”

Amazon Prime Video Announces $2 Billion Investment in Latin America

Amazon Prime Video plans to invest more than $2 billion in Latin America between 2027 and 2030, the streaming business announced at a Prime Video showcase event in Mexico City. The investment will span original programming, locally produced and acquired content, as well as live sports rights across Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Chile. The company will also aim to double the number of local originals produced across the markets compared to 2026.

Netflix’s UK Revenues Surpass ITV’s M&E Business

Netflix’s UK revenues reached £2.06 billion in 2025, according to a Companies House filing reported by Broadband TV News, putting the streaming giant ahead of the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, ITV. The 2025 figure surpasses the £1.9 billion generated by ITV’s media and entertainment division in its latest full‑year results. However, the overall ITV business, including ITV Studios, posted £4.12 billion in revenues last year.

US Court Blocks Political TV Ad Discount Extension

The US Court of Appeals has blocked a move to extend TV advertising discounts to political party and joint fundraising committees, ahead of the midterm elections in November. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had moved to allow the committees to get the same heavily discounted ad rates as political candidates, but four Democratic candidates and officeholders challenged the extension, which was expected to hand Republicans an advantage at the midterms. Republicans reportedly plan to appeal the decision.

The Week for Publishers

USA Today Optimises Content for AI Licensing Deals

US publishing group USA Today is formatting its website and its content to be easier for AI tools to access and understand, Digiday reported this week, in order to help the company negotiate licensing deals with the big AI companies. Kara Chiles, USA Today’s SVP of product management, told Digiday that reworking content formats and templates will make it easier for the group’s content to be surfaced in AI engines — a factor which will be particularly significant for any deals which remunerate the publisher based on how often its content is cited.

Media Startup Puck Eyes $250 Million Valuation with Potential RedBird Investment

Investment firm RedBird Capital is in advanced talks to acquire a stake in digital media startup Puck, in a deal which would value Puck at $250 million according to the Financial Times. Puck, launched in 2021, centres its coverage on eight editorial strands: Washington D.C., Wall Street, AI, Hollywood, media, fashion, sports, and art, and the new investment would enable it to expand its coverage further. The FT reports that Puck’s growth has been powered in part by its willingness to spend significant sums on adding well-known reporters to its roster.

Axel Springer Reorganises its German Ad Sales Operations

European media business Axel Springer is reorganising its ad sales operations for its German media brands, the company announced on Thursday, as it seeks to offer faster and more targeted solutions to its advertising partners. Ad sales will be split into two structures. Axel Springer’s primary sales house Media Impact will be fully integrated into BILD Group by the end of this year, while the PREMIUM-GRUPPE, which comprises WELT POLITICO Germany, BUSINESS INSIDER Germany, and ICON, will consolidate advertising sales in the luxury and events segments.

Mirror Reorganisation Makes Room for Further Video Focus

Reach-owned UK newspaper the Mirror is opening up a new base in its parent company’s Manchester Hub called Mirror North, as part of a move to better reflect the paper’s northern readership. As part of the restructure, Liverpool Echo editor-in-chief Maria Breslin is joining as editorial director, taking responsibility for the Mirror’s online publishing team. As a result, Reach says the Mirror’s executive editor Lizzie Smith will put her whole focus on the Mirror’s video strategy, which includes the launch of a new bi-weekly YouTube show in September.

WikiHow Sues OpenAI Over Content Misuse

How-to website wikiHow has become the latest publisher to sue OpenAI, Reuters reported this week, stating that the ChatGPT maker has illegally scraped over 11,000 of its articles in order to train its AI tools. “Having ingested wikiHow’s articles, those models now produce competing how-to content on the same subjects, at a fraction of the time, effort, ⁠and cost of researching, writing, and editing a wikiHow article,” said wikiHow’s lawsuit, as reported by Reuters. “The substitution cuts wikiHow’s revenue and, over time, its reason to keep producing the articles at all.”

BuzzFeed Makes Further Cuts to HuffPost’s National Desk

Digital news business HuffPost’s National desk has been cut to just three staff, The Wrap reported this week, the latest round of cuts within HuffPost’s embattled parent company BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed announced earlier in the year it would lay off around 180 positions across its media brands as part of a company-wide restructure.

MSN Abruptly Cuts Publishers from Syndication Platform

Microsoft’s MSN has removed several independent publishers from its syndication platform without giving them any notice, Press Gazette reported this week. Microsoft confirmed to Press Gazette that it regularly adjusts which publishers appear on the platform based on a range of “business, quality, and operational considerations”.

The Week for Brands & Agencies

Dentsu Reports Intensifying Competition in Pitches

Japanese agency group Dentsu’s quarterly earnings earlier this month showed low organic revenue growth across the first half of the year, at just 0.3 percent. And a management plan update from new CEO Takeshi Sano, as reported by Campaign, labels intensifying competition in pitches across the Americas and EMEA as a factor for Dentsu’s poor performance in those markets. In EMEA, Sano plans to focus on offering integrated, media-led propositions while also focusing investment in priority markets and consolidating its operations. In the Americas meanwhile, Dentsu will work to strengthen its consultative selling, expand its capabilities in high-growth areas, and scale its AI transformation business.

WPP Fires Back at Ex-Employee’s “Salacious” Claims

A filing in a wrongful termination court case between British holding company WPP and its ex-employee Richard Foster claimed that Sony, a client of WPP, had conducted an investigation of the agency group and identified illegal practices. Foster says he was fired by WPP after raising concerns internally relating to the company’s principal media operations, and argues the Sony investigation backs up his claim. Now WPP has asked that this filing be sealed from the public docket, stating it contains confidential information which is not in the public interest. WPP’s own filing meanwhile describes Foster as “nothing more than a disgruntled employee’s naked attempt to leverage an exorbitant payout”, according to Business Insider.

Dentsu Signs EU AI Transparency Code

Dentsu has announced it has signed the European Union’s Code of Practice on Transparency of AI Generated Content, claiming to be the first global marketing group to do so. Dentsu says the move reinforces its commitment to responsible AI adoption, and helps establish a new standard for transparency across the ad industry. “AI is creating extraordinary new opportunities for brands, but real value can only be realised when it is built on trust,” said Will Swayne, global practice president, media and integrated solutions at Dentsu. “By signing the EU Code of Practice on Transparency of AI Generated Content, we are helping clients navigate a rapidly evolving landscape with greater confidence, providing clear frameworks, governance and transparency around how AI generated content is created and used.”

Omnicom Offloads Omni Architects to Third-Party Contractor

US agency group Omnicom has transferred hundreds of staff who helped build its flagship AI-powered “operating system” Omni to IT firm Endava, according to Adweek. At least 468 staff across the US, UK, India, and Malaysia have been moved across to Endava, Adweek reports, while a further 50 US workers from the Omni Platforms Product & Engineering Division have been laid off.

ASA Cracks Down on Testosterone-Related Social Ads

The UK’s ads watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) this week banned four separate social media ads for products targeted at men with low testosterone levels, Campaign reported this week. The four ads were run on Facebook by two separate healthcare brands, BioID Health and Numan. For BioID’s ads, the ASA said the posts made claims inferring its own tests are more effective than GP assessment, without providing evidence. Numan’s ads meanwhile presented stats around the diagnosis and prevalence of low testosterone, which the ASA said weren’t accurate based on the sources provided.

Hires of the Week

AUDIENCES Adds Nikhil Dixit to Advisory Board

AUDIENCES, a first-party data activation business, has appointed Nikhil Dixit to its Strategic Advisory Board. Following four years at Google, Dixit co-founded data platform Arbor, which was acquired by LiveRamp in 2016. His appointment comes as AUDIENCES continues to scale its independent activation infrastructure, according to the company.