In this week’s Week in Review: Netflix grows its Upfronts ad commitments, Disney agrees a content deal with The Overlap, and Roku launches an all-AI FAST channel.
Top Stories
Sports Interest is High as Netflix Doubles Upfronts Commitments
While there was plenty of excitement in the industry around Netflix’s ad offering when it first came to market in 2022, it was inevitable that it would take time to reach meaningful scale. To do so, it needed to shift a significant portion of new and existing subscribers onto its ads tier, while also learning the ropes of the TV ad world.
Now, nearly four years on, Netflix says its efforts are continuing to pay off. The streaming platform announced on Monday that it has wrapped up its 2026 Upfronts conversations, closing deals with all of the major agency groups and nearly doubling total ad commitments compared with last year. And the company says its investments in building out its own tech, bringing in live sports, and integrating advanced measurement capabilities have helped spur this growth.
On the sports front, Netflix says there’s been high interest in live streams of the WWE, NFL (where it has expanded its slate of games this year) and MLB (which it picked up rights for starting this year). For next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, meanwhile, all game sponsorships are sold out, as is nearly all of Netflix’s in-game inventory.
Disney Strikes Podcast Content Deal with The Overlap
Disney announced this week it has agreed a multimillion-pound deal with The Overlap, the podcast-focused media business founded by former footballer Gary Neville, which will see the Overlap’s shows hosted on Disney+.
The one-year deal places Disney as the headline sponsorsof The Overlap’s Stick to Football podcast, as well as a new Manchester United-focused show called Stick to United, hosted by Wayne Rooney and Mark Goldbridge. While most episodes of both of these shows will be available on other platforms such as YouTube and Spotify, Disney says it will host 20 episodes of Stick to Football exclusively for a limited time, while a further six special episodes will be made exclusively for Disney+.
The deal looks like a response to Netflix’s investment in podcast content, which has included a partnership with Gary Lineker’s media company Goalhanger to host The Rest is Football. Demand for football podcasts fronted by ex-footballers named Gary appears high. Gary Cahill, if you’re reading this, I suggest you get in touch with Prime Video.
Roku Launches All-AI FAST Channel
While ads generated entirely by AI are starting to pop up on the TV, AI’s role in TV production is generally more limited. Not so on Roku’s new Fairground AI channel, however. The new channel, hosted within Roku’s free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) interface, solely features AI-generated films and shorts.
Fairground AI comes from Fairground Entertainment, a company which distributes content from online AI creators and claims to work with more than 100 creators and 40 studios. Fairground’s website says that its channel will go live on more than five CTV and FAST platforms this month, though these aren’t named. “Fairground AI Creator TV is a genuinely groundbreaking moment for this medium,” says CEO Colin Petrie-Norris. “We are bringing AI Cinema to entirely new audiences, people who have never encountered this art form before, and we’re doing it at scale across the connected TV ecosystem.”
Any creator is able to upload their videos into Fairground Entertainment’s system in the hope of getting them live within the company’s distribution network, according to TechRadar. And anyone whose content is used will be paid, since this content generates ad revenue.
The Week in Tech
VideoAmp Cuts 20 Percent of Staff
US alternative measurement vendor VideoAmp has cut around 20 percent of its workforce, the Wall Street Journal reported last Friday, equating to between 50 and 60 employees. The company’s chief technology officer was among the staff members let go, and will not be replaced, according to the Journal. A statement from CEO Tony Fagan referenced the company’s investment in AI as a reason for the layoffs, though he wasn’t explicit about the extent to which AI is replacing human workers.
Spotify’s New Skip Button Spooks Podcast Producers
Spotify has begun testing a new ‘skip ahead’ button in select markets, which lets users skip between sections, and jump past specific parts of a podcast which they don’t want to listen to. The move has spooked podcast producers, according to Semafor, since the button will make it easier for users to skip past paid promotions (though there’s already a button which lets users jump 15 seconds ahead – the new button simply skips whole sections). The move won’t affect media companies which monetise via Spotify’s own ad tech since ads run through Spotify are unskippable.
Video Accounts for 70 Percent of Programmatic Revenue in Nexxen’s Q2 Results
End-to-end ad tech outfit Nexxen reported 11 percent year-on-year revenue growth in its Q2 earnings on Wednesday. And the results show that both CTV and video more broadly continue to be vital for the company. CTV revenues were up 33 percent year-on-year, accounting for 40 percent of programmatic revenues (which are the vast majority of Nexxen’s earnings). Video meanwhile made up 70 percent of programmatic revenues, up from 68 percent in Q2 last year.
Viant Reports 34 Percent Year-on-Year Revenue Growth in Q2
Buy-side ad tech business Viant reported its Q2 earnings on Monday, with revenues up 34 percent year-on-year, and CTV ad spend specifically up 50 percent. Co-founder and CEO Tim Vanderhook said the company has reached an inflection point in its growth, as it’s increasingly finding success with large US advertisers. Vanderhook and his co-founder (and brother) Chris Vanderhook spoke extensively on the earnings call about the company’s data investments, including its acquisition of TVision earlier this year and IRIS back in 2024, as big points of differentiation compared with rival demand-side platforms.
YouTube Ups Requirements for Partnership Programme
YouTube has increased the requirements for creators to be eligible to monetise their content through the YouTube Partner Programme, the company announced this week. The subscriber count requirement is remaining at 1,000. But now, creators must have either 8,000 qualified watch hours over the past year (up from 4,000 previously), or 20 million qualified Shorts views over the past 90 days (up from 10 million). These new rules, which come into force in February next year, won’t affect existing partnered creators.
Silverpush Launches Contextual Podcast Segments for YouTube
Contextual advertising specialist Silverpush this week announced the release of Silverpush Contextual Podcast Segments, ExchangeWire reported this week, a specialised targeting capability for podcasts on YouTube. The tool looks at signals including genre, hosts, themes, and topics to categorise podcasts, in order to inform ad targeting. The company says its inventory covers around 10,000 podcast channels on YouTube.
The Week in TV
Streaming to Contribute €100 Million to RTL Group This Year as RTL+ Turns Profitable
This week’s earnings update from European media group RTL saw the RTL+ streaming service becoming profitable in H1, and therefore contributing significantly to overall growth at the company. RTL Group’s Adjusted EBITA (excluding the impact from its acquisition of Sky Deutschland) was up by €18 million, “driven by the Group’s profitable streaming business and Fremantle,” according to RTL. On the advertising front, RTL’s H1 results painted a familiar picture for European broadcasters facing the challenges of a soft TV ad market. But RTL’s acquisition of Sky Deutschland, which completed on 1st June, is expected to bolster the business by diversifying the group’s revenue split, according to the earnings report. Read more on VideoWeek.
Weak Ad Sales Hit Zee Entertainment Profits
Indian media conglomerate Zee Entertainment’s latest quarterly earnings (Q1 2027, in its financial year) showed a five percent growth in operating revenue, but a 48 percent drop in profit after tax. Weak advertising revenues were a drag on the company, down 11 percent year-on-year and 17 percent quarter-on-quarter. The company said its ads business was hit by the war in the Middle East. The FIFA Men’s World Cup gave a bit of a boost, but the company only won the rights ten days before the start of the tournament, which executives said impacted the company’s ability to monetise those rights fully.
Disney Signs Global Streaming Deal with Formula E
Disney has agreed a deal with motorsports league Formula E which grants it global streaming rights across 144 countries, starting from the 2026-27 season. Formula E live races will be hosted on Disney+ and ESPN, while Disney will also broadcast behind-the-scenes content and host on-demand replays, according to Reuters. The move comes amid increased enthusiasm from both media companies and advertisers for live sports.
Tubi Partners with Gracenote for Content Discovery and Ad Capabilities
Fox Corp.-owned streaming business Tubi Media Group announced this week it has agreed a new partnership with Gracenote, which will see Gracenote provide advanced content discovery and advertising capabilities on Tubi’s streaming services, including Tubi and FOX One. Tubi will use Gracenote’s content classification technology to enhance its search and discovery capabilities, as well as its recommendation system. It will also test Gracenote IDs in programmatic bid streams.
Narrative Entertainment Partners with Nagravision for Discovery and Personalisation
UK-based media company Narrative Entertainment, which owns the ‘Great!’ and ‘Pop’ branded channel networks, has partnered with Nagravision to support its streaming and CTV operations, the companies announced this week. Narrative will use Nagravision’s OpenTV ENTera platform to power content discovery, personalisation, and service orchestration. “Nagravision’s OpenTV ENTera enables us to unify data, personalisation and ecosystem innovation into a single platform,” said Kate Garland, head of digital at Narrative Entertainment. “This ensures we can strengthen engagement today while creating a scalable foundation for long-term growth and monetisation.”
The Week for Publishers
Business Insider Aims to Start Monetising Off-Site Audiences
Christian Baesler, the newly appointed permanent CEO of Business Insider, says one of his early priorities for the publishing brand will be to start properly monetising its off-site audiences, Press Gazette reported this week. Business Insider has built up a sizeable following on third-party platforms, with more than ten million subscribers on YouTube and one million on LinkedIn, but the company doesn’t currently monetise these properties “in any meaningful way” according to Baesler. Doing so is now more important than ever, though, as Business Insider’s US traffic has more than halved over the past two years.
French Publishers File Complaint with Antitrust Authority Seeking AI Overview Compensation
France’s Alliance de la Presse D’Information Générale (APIG), a trade group representing French newspaper and magazine publishers, has filed a complaint with the national competition authority seeking compensation from Google for the use of publisher content in AI overviews. Under France’s “neighbouring rights” laws, large digital platforms must negotiate with publishers and agree payment terms in exchange for use of their content. But APIG says that Google didn’t consult publishers or agree payments prior to using their content to power its AI tools. Read more on VideoWeek.
Ozone Opens Up Demand and Technology to More UK Publishers Through Content Ignite Partnership
Ozone, the publisher sales house initially formed by an alliance of UK premium publishers, this week announced a new partnership with publisher monetisation platform Content Ignite which will open up Ozone’s demand and monetisation technology to Content Ignite’s own publisher partners. Content Ignite’s publishers will now have access to Ozone’s prebid server capability, which the two say will fuel revenue uplift via Ozone’s proprietary technology. Read more on VideoWeek.
Majority of Major English Language News Sites See Traffic Falls in July
The vast majority of the world’s 50 most popular English language news websites saw year-on-year traffic falls in July, according to Press Gazette’s analysis of Similarweb data. Of the top ten, only the BBC and the Guardian saw traffic growth, of 11 percent and 2 percent respectively. Al Jazeera saw the biggest gain out of the top 50, with a 119 percent bump in traffic. But out of the top 50, only two saw growth compared with July 2025.
Arena Group Rebrands as Paradium.AI in AI Pivot
The Arena Group, a publishing group which owns titles including Parade, The Street, and Men’s Journal, has rebranded to Paradium.AI in — you guessed it — an AI pivot. The Arena Group sparked controversy a few years back for publishing AI-written articles under fake bylines, according to Futurism (it since lost the publishing rights for Sports Illustrated due to a missed payment). Alongside the rebrand, Paradium announced it has acquired InfoSentience, a company which specialises in automated, data-driven natural language generation. This acquisition will enable Paradium to automate data-intensive, repetitive reporting, according to Paradium, enabling human writers to focus on more investigative journalism.
Apple Seeks Publisher Deals to Improve Siri
Apple is holding talks with publishing groups around licensing their content for use within its AI-powered voice assistant Siri, the Wall Street Journal reported this week. According to the Journal, Apple is looking for these deals to scale based on how much a publisher’s content is used, and is carving out a nine-digit budget for these payments. The deals specifically relate to Siri AI, which is expected to launch later this year.
Australia Tweaks Tech News Payment Laws to Support More Publishers Australia is increasing the number of media outlets which major tech companies must strike news licensing agreements with under its media licensing laws, Reuters reported this week, as it seeks to support a wider range of businesses. Digital platforms will be required to strike deals with at least eight media companies under the reworked law, while no single deal will be able to account for more than 25 percent of a digital platform’s levy liability. The government has also committed to giving five percent of funds raised through the levy to the Australian Associated Press.
The Week for Brands & Agencies
WPP More Than Doubles Bonus Pot
UK agency group WPP has more than doubled its staff incentives pool to £130 million across the first half of this year, Campaign reported this week, up from £59 million in the same period last year. WPP is undergoing significant cost cuts at the moment as part of its Elevate28 turnaround plan, but CEO Cindy Rose clearly believes staff bonuses are a key factor in driving results. Rose has also changed the way bonuses are calculated, according to Campaign: half is now tied to the performance of WPP as a whole, while the other half relates to an individual’s own team.
Omnicom Picks Up Novo Nordisk’s US Media Account
Omnicom Media has won Ozempic and Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk’s US media planning and buying account, Adweek reported this week. The competitive pitch process for the account, valued at around $520 million according to Adweek, also included incumbent agency group WPP. Omnicom will take the reins in the final quarter of this year.
NYC Council Investigates Polymarket Over Predatory Marketing
The New York City Council has opened a probe into prediction market Polymarket, Reuters reported this week, investigating whether it has run predatory marketing campaigns targeting young users. Prediction markets, which allow users to essentially bet on real world events, have exploded in popularity in the States over the past few years. They’ve attracted controversy, partly because of how they escape state-level gambling laws thanks to their positioning as financial trading products, rather than gambling sites. The NYC Council is investigating claims that Polymarket worked with marketing firms and social influencers to target young adults, and potentially minors, with misleading ads.
BMW Faces Backlash Over In-Car Spider-Man Ads
Car maker BMW has faced backlash over ads for the new Spider-Man film which played on the dashboard of some of its car models, USA Today reported this week. The ads were part of BMW’s sponsorship of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but attracted complaints from BMW owners who felt they shouldn’t be forced to watch an ad in a vehicle they’ve paid to buy.
Hires of the Week
Nexxen Announces Slate of Executive Appointments
End-to-end ad tech company Nexxen this week announced a slate of new executive appointments, with Chance Johnson appointed president, Kara Puccinelli chief commercial officer, and Kenneth Suh chief business officer. “The Nexxen team has been hard at work developing a unified platform with proprietary data and exclusive media at its core, and we have crossed the threshold where its value only compounds. Now, our focus shifts to scaling what we can deliver for our clients,” said Ofer Druker, Nexxen’s CEO.
PubMatic Appoints Megan Ramm as Global CRO
Publisher-focused tech business PubMatic has appointed Megan Ramm as its new global chief revenue officer. Ramm, who joins from Uber Advertising and has experience at Snap, Google, Forbes, and Reuters, will lead PubMatic’s global revenue strategy and execution across publisher and buyer teams in the Americas, EMEA and APAC.
Medialab Hires Jasleen Carroll as Head of AI & Innovation
UK independent media agency Medialab has announced the appointment of Jasleen Carroll as head of AI and innovation. It’s a new role for the company, and Carroll’s remit will be to fast-track future use cases for AI and turn them into practical solutions which drive outcomes for clients, according to Medialab.
