YouTube tops TV rankings: Nielsen’s February data shows YouTube capturing 11.6% of TV viewing, overtaking Disney and redefining the streaming landscape.

This year’s festival highlighted a maturing creator economy, a reality check for AI, and bigger and bolder brand activations and marketing trends.

Substack vies for video content: While video use on the platform is growing, Substack has a long way to go—and risks alienating its core base.

As college sports amateurism dies, marketers are increasingly working with student-athlete influencers.

Major creators will hold event to vie for YouTube ad dollars: The Spotter Showcase will unveil crucial data and content slates to draw marketers away from traditional TV.

Marketers can use this to recognize high growth areas of investment strategies and acknowledge the uncertainty shown in TikTok investments as a potential nudge to diversify their social ad spend.

Influencer marketing spend will grow15% YoY, outpacing digital and social ad spending, and will reach $10.52 billion in 2025, EMARKETER forecasts. Despite its growth, influencer marketing has maintained a core communication issue—no one knows what to call the people who are doing the work.

Everyone from big brands to independent marketers is expected to be comfortable with short-form video creation. But for those who have not worked as creators or have more experience with long-form video, it’s difficult to know where to start.

YouTube to auto-send “yellow icon” videos for manual review: The change aims to improve overall ad suitability.

This week, marketers look beyond Google Search to YouTube, ChatGPT, and Amazon, while dealing with an influx of consumer data. Meanwhile, women’s sports are on the rise as advertisers invest more in leagues, teams, and athletes.

Twitch expands sponsorship opportunities: While the change might attract creators, whether brands will buy in is debatable.

While teens retain digital habits from childhood (such as a strong preference for YouTube), their newfound independence and desire to connect with peers has led them to new habits.

The new Premium Lite tier ditches extras like offline downloads but could lure budget-conscious users—challenging traditional streamers and YouTube’s own Premium model.

Top-line time spent with media will grow very little in the US going forward, making it essential to identify which formats and platforms are winning the newly zero-sum competition for consumer attention.

YouTube strives to make ads less disruptive: The platform is changing its approach to mid-roll ads to appease viewers, creators, and brands alike.

In our exclusive survey with ESW, data from shoppers in 18 countries reveals new twists in the path to purchase, the rising momentum of marketplaces, and the resilience of age-old fundamentals.

A budget-friendly premium tier could pull podcast fans away from Spotify, offering ad-free listening where they already watch—on YouTube, and increasingly, on their TVs.

Latin America’s digital revolution is marching full steam ahead, with consumers spending more than a third of their day online. As social commerce and retail media propel the region’s digital economy to new heights, the runway for growth remains long.​

A lot happens in a week, so every Friday we're going to analyze all the new data and provide you with some of the key takeaways. Welcome to the Friday 5.