The news: Walmart announced an agreement to acquire Vibe.co, a self-serve CTV advertising platform, allowing integration of Vibe.co’s technology into Walmart Connect, the retailer’s commerce media business. This move expands streaming TV advertising access to small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), mid-market brands, and Walmart’s third-party marketplace sellers. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of fiscal year 2027.

This builds directly on Walmart Connect's recent CTV expansions, including the acquisition of VIZIO and existing partnerships with Magnite, Yahoo DSP, and Google DV360. Walmart will continue operating an open advertising ecosystem, keeping its current relationships with external broadcasters, publishers, supply-side platforms (SSPs), and measurement providers intact.

Why it matters: 34% of CTV and OTT advertisers cite complexity in campaign planning and budget constraints (28%) among the top barriers to achieving scale, per Advertiser Perceptions.

While CTV advertising offers massive reach—EMARKETER forecasts 71.7% of the US population will be CTV viewers in 2026 and 75.5% by 2030—it has traditionally been complex and expensive, making it difficult for smaller brands to enter the space. Walmart is solving this fragmentation by blending Vibe.co’s self-serve platform with its own first-party commerce audiences and closed-loop measurement capabilities. By combining these tools with its growing media infrastructure, Walmart is building an accessible, full-funnel solution that directly ties streaming media investments to concrete commerce outcomes.

"Vibe.co was built as the self-serve platform for performance and ecommerce marketers to run streaming TV the way they run paid social: measurable, fast to launch, and optimized for better outcomes," said Arthur Querou, co-founder and CEO of Vibe.co in a press release. "Joining Walmart gives us the opportunity to accelerate that mission and bring performance TV advertising to one of the most powerful commerce media ecosystems in the market."

Implications for marketers: Marketers will gain the ability to deploy streaming TV campaigns with agility, speed, and accountability, giving advertisers of all sizes access to performance-driven TV advertising backed by powerful commerce data, allowing them to easily measure how their ad spend translates into actual sales.