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Listening patterns from 2025 show how audio fits into everyday moments differently across markets, from commutes to cooking to winding down at night. Spotify’s Wrapped for Advertisers pulls those signals into a clearer picture for 2026 advertising decisions.
Paramount has taken its $30-per-share WBD offer directly to shareholders, launching a $108.4 billion hostile tender backed by sovereign funds and major banks. The move intensifies its battle with Netflix, whose smaller bid would spin off WBD’s cable networks and merge HBO Max with Netflix’s global platform. Paramount argues that its fully consolidated approach preserves ecosystem value, avoids heavy antitrust scrutiny, and protects theatrical output, while Netflix’s deal would concentrate subscription and premium-video power. For marketers, the stakes are substantial: a Netflix acquisition could limit ad-supported supply and raise prices, while a Paramount deal maintains competition, inventory diversity, and greater planning clarity.
Netflix will officially acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) streaming and studio assets in an $82.7 billion deal, the company announced Friday morning. Netflix stated it has secured $59 billion in financing from a collection of banks to finalize the deal. This is a coup for Netflix. Acquiring Warner Bros. will provide exclusive control over intellectual property such as DC, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and HBO Originals. Ted Sarandos agreed, framing the acquisition as a rare but necessary shift for Netflix to maintain its leadership.
After Netflix announced its plans to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Friday, advertisers were left questioning the future of streaming advertising across two of the industry’s strongest ad-supported platforms. Even amid uncertainty on the deal’s future, the current strategy for advertisers is to prepare for a consolidated streaming market where a select few players command audience attention.
The New York Times filed a lawsuit against AI startup Perplexity on Friday, adding to the more than 40 current court cases between AI companies and copyright holders. Lawsuits like The Times’ underscore how AI is impacting the overall health and future of the digital advertising ecosystem—requiring advertisers to rethink traditional strategies.
Streaming TV advertising is moving toward transparency and accountability as DoubleVerify (DV) brings Open Measurement (OM SDK), a standard in desktop and mobile advertising, to streaming environments. Expanding access to OM SDK and providing standards for transparency in streaming will enable advertisers to plan and measure streaming ad campaigns effectively—marking a major industry shift.
This year’s Spotify Wrapped went out with fewer hitches than its underwhelming 2024 edition, but it now competes directly with recap offerings emerging from rivals like Amazon, YouTube, and Apple. Wrapped-style roundups have become cultural elements—shareable, identity-driven moments that make passive listening a form of social currency. As competitors replicate the format, the concept is shifting from a Spotify differentiator to a baseline expectation. Other brands could enter the space by creating their own Wrapped summaries, turning purchase behavior, sponsored influencer posts, or product usage into shareable moments.
Meta is making a strategic pivot. In a move that indicates a new era of fiscal discipline, the company plans deep cuts to its metaverse unit following a costly, multiyear investment, per Bloomberg. Meta is also bolstering its creative leadership by hiring Apple’s former head of UI design, Alan Dye, to lead a new creative studio merging design, fashion, and technology. Shifting from moonshots to market-ready polish opens the door to better-designed surfaces, more reliable performance, and ad products that feel more premium, integrated, and worth testing early.
LG Ad Solutions and Taboola are attacking connected TV (CTV) advertising’s biggest pain point: proving what premium TV exposure actually does. Their new Performance Enhancer tool connects LG’s audience data with Taboola’s Realize performance engine and open-web inventory, giving advertisers a single, global view of ROI from first impression to conversion, per Yahoo. Advertisers should pilot unified CTV-to-digital measurement now to boost ad inventory opportunities. Use automatic content recognition (ACR) segments to retarget high-intent viewers, and push partners for cross-channel reconciliation, tying ad spend to outcomes—not impressions.
Publicis Groupe’s 100th-anniversary film, “A Lion Never Gives Up,” blends live action with 4,500 AI-generated images to retell the company’s evolution and project its future. With more than half its workforce now in data, engineering, and AI, leadership says the next era will reward companies that fuse creativity with machine-driven operational scale. The film lands as Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG reshapes the competitive field, and Publicis argues its AI maturity gives it an edge in a more concentrated market.
Podcast advertisers are shifting toward brand awareness campaigns, which grew from 52% to 56% of total US podcast ad spending between Q3 2024 and Q3 2025, according to a November 2025 report from Magellan AI. Meanwhile, direct response campaigns dropped 4 percentage points to 41%.
NBC News is introducing an ad-free, subscription-based streaming platform that consolidates its full lineup of content, spanning linear broadcasts, podcasts, live channels from NBC-owned stations, and original exclusive reports, into a single application, per Variety. Multiple platforms appeal to user preferences but cause more difficulties for advertisers who are struggling with an increasingly fragmented TV ecosystem.
Connected TV is becoming a true bridge between branding and performance, pairing big-screen storytelling with the targeting and measurement rigor of digital. With the right setup, user acquisition teams can bring mobile-style discipline—installs, engagement, and value—to the living room screen.
Acast has launched the UK’s biggest integrated podcast marketplace, combining audio and YouTube video inventory through a partnership with Little Dot Studios. The deal gives podcasters access to Little Dot’s 11 billion monthly YouTube views and enables advertisers to buy premium CPM audio alongside dynamic YouTube video ads and sponsorships within one system. This aligns with shifting listener habits: nearly half of UK consumers now prefer watching podcasts, and YouTube will reach over three-quarters of the country by 2029. As podcast video growth steadies, Acast’s unified analytics across audio, YouTube, and social offer marketers a more efficient, accountable way to scale creator-led campaigns.
Disney is moving toward a long-awaited CEO transition, aiming to name Bob Iger’s successor in early 2026 after years of instability. Top internal contenders Josh D’Amaro and Dana Walden have already presented long-range strategies, with the winner set to shadow Iger until his contract ends. The next chief will inherit rising streaming expectations, a $60 billion global parks expansion, and the challenge of reviving major film franchises while managing the decline of linear TV. EMARKETER data shows Disney+ and Hulu subscription revenues will keep rising through 2027, but with slowing growth—raising the stakes for a leader who can execute creatively and operationally.
YouTube and NBCUniversal are doubling down on creator-led Olympic storytelling for Milano Cortina 2026 after Paris proved how strongly younger viewers gravitate toward digital personalities. Top YouTubers will chronicle the journeys of 40 Team USA athletes, with unprecedented access inside trials, training environments, and even the Athlete Village. Nearly half of global sports fans—and 59% of adults ages 18 to 44—follow sports influencers, while YouTube captured 17% of all global Olympic engagement in 2024. For marketers, creators now sit at the center of Olympic discovery, highlights, and cultural relevance, making YouTube indispensable to Games-era planning.
Walmart finalized its Vizio acquisition one year ago, a move that clearly telegraphed its advertising ambitions and positioned it to be a dominant retail media player. Vizio considerably strengthens Walmart’s pitch to advertisers by giving it more opportunities to get in front of engaged audiences and providing more data for better targeting and measurement. Walmart’s newfound CTV capabilities also help establish the retailer as a full-funnel ad solution, increasing its appeal to both endemic and nonendemic brands.