Live sports represent the last mass TV audience, driving a surge in sports TV ad spending. But ad prices are climbing as demand intensifies, forcing advertisers to face rising costs and limited inventory.

NBCU courts performance skeptics: An updated Performance Insights Hub and AI agents target cleaner TV metrics and tighter cross-channel tracking.

Comcast rides sports lift: Super Bowl and Olympics drove 135% ad jump, masking modest core gains and proving live events anchor CTV dollars.

NBCU accused the ratings firm of undercounting TV after a delayed update favored streaming and rattled marketers.

AI agents are set to reshape media buying, but it’s still early days. This year will be about building the infrastructure they’ll need for broad adoption. Early tests suggest they’ll lower costs, improve outcomes, and shake up the ad ecosystem.

YouTube tops global media with $62 billion in revenues and over $40 billion in ads, putting it ahead of Disney and legacy TV combined.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss advertising around the 2026 Winter Olympics: how marketers tackled fragmentation across media channels, how creators were used by Olympic broadcaster NBCUniversal, and which campaign was the best — and why. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Senior Analyst and Editor Peter Allen Clark and Senior Director of Content Jeremy Goldman. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

AWS' new AI tool reformats live broadcasts for TikTok and Reels in seconds, unlocking scalable ad inventory.

Milano Cortina delivered the strongest Winter Olympics viewership in over a decade across streaming and linear TV, proving the value of live sports.

For the Winter Olympics, NBCUniversal paired broadcast scale with streaming, CTV, and creator integrations to drive monetization in a major way.

On Jan. 25, Netflix livestreamed climber Alex Honnold scaling Taipei 101, one of the world's tallest buildings, without ropes or safety gear. The event brought in over 6 million viewers, and continued the streaming giant's investment into live, tentpole events that could change how marketers approach streaming campaigns.

Live football still concentrates attention at scale: Super Bowl LX delivered historic reach across platforms despite a modest YoY decline.

Streaming video growth is shifting. Price hikes are slowing subscription revenue gains while ad-supported tiers take on a bigger role. Services must balance consumer fatigue with funding content and unlocking new ad revenues.

Live sports command major leverage; NBCUniversal is using scale and bundling to defend pricing power as sports rights costs surge and distribution fragments.

The Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games will begin on February 6 with an opening ceremony that will also kick off advertisers looking to make the most of the global event.

This FAQ covers the fundamentals of programmatic advertising and the trends shaping the market in 2026.

AI was everywhere at CES 2026, from robots to toilets and toys. The race to define the next computing interface is on, agentic ad tech is emerging, and health wearables are pushing further into physiological data. Best in show: Lego’s Smart Brick.