Discord is preparing for its IPO; its youthful, highly engaged communities signal rising advertiser interest in participatory platforms as alternatives to feed-driven social media.
The ad industry kept busy during the holiday season, so we rounded up the biggest stories from the last two weeks you need to know about.
Starbucks is sponsoring the second season of Amazon Prime’s reality competition “Beast Games: Strong vs. Smart” to try to reignite brand buzz.
Wall-sized TVs, smart rings, and humanoid robots make once-futuristic ideas ready for your living room.
CTV ad clarity gets a boost: DoubleVerify’s new tool streamlines planning and reporting to fix performance blind spots in streaming. Read online
AI will reshape premium video buying—and NBCUniversal’s proof-of-concept shows agentic systems can unify planning and optimization across linear and streaming in seconds.
Netflix’s 2026 ad plans revolve around WBD: The mega-merger would give the burgeoning ad business a major boost for years to come.
Disney will fully fold Hulu content into Disney+ by 2026, transforming Disney+ into a broader streaming portal spanning family programming, general entertainment, news, and sports. Hulu’s brand will remain intact inside the app, but its slowing revenue trajectory—expected to reach nearly $12 billion by 2027—has accelerated the logic for consolidation. The strategy becomes more important as Netflix pursues its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, potentially creating the most powerful premium-content library in streaming. Disney must keep viewers inside its ecosystem longer, reduce churn, and strengthen its ad-supported tiers. Success depends on balancing Hulu’s adult content with Disney+’s family identity while expanding perceived value.
Asia-Pacific ad growth will remain steady in 2026 as momentum shifts to digital, retail media, and CTV. Rising demand for premium video contrasts with uneven expansion across fast-growing and mature markets.
Our analysts (or “bakers”) will compete in a Great British Bake Off–style episode, discussing how new standards will unlock agentic ad buying and selling, and how (and why) YouTube will benefit most from the surge in video podcasts. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Senior Analyst Ross Benes and Principal Analyst Yory Wurmser. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
At CES, Amazon is repositioning Amazon Ads as a full advertising ecosystem rather than a commerce-adjacent channel, emphasizing unified reach across TV, streaming, live sports, audio, and programmatic partners.
With 95% of gamers active weekly, brands that balance ad quality and compliance can gain lasting recall.
Rapid shifts in platforms, pricing, and viewer behavior raise the stakes for metadata-driven, future-ready planning.
Most viewers pause for 1 to 5 minutes, offering extended periods for non-intrusive ads likely to drive action.
On today’s special podcast episode, we discuss the major headlines we expect to see and some significant milestones in the coming year—and bundle it all into a giant quiz. What happens to YouTube in 2026? What will shoppers start letting AI agents do for them? And much, much more. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Vice Presidents of Content Suzy Davidkhanian and Paul Verna, and Senior Analyst Blake Droesch. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
With surging TV screen time and a 15% YoY ad boost, YouTube is pulling ahead of Netflix in the streaming race.
Second-screening is now the norm, collapsing ad-to-purchase journeys into seconds on mobile
Healthcare leaders are betting on digital and virtual technologies powered by AI to improve patient engagement, satisfaction, and health outcomes.