Amazon, Twitter, and HBO Max are all dealing with fraud: Spam and fakery are affecting multiple facets of the digital economy.

Following a few turbulent years, upfront TV ad spending will maintain momentum from last year.

Warner Bros. Discovery will flex power in streaming, film, and measurement: The historic merger is set to be completed soon, reshaping the media industry.

On today's episode, we discuss how connected TV (CTV) advertising will scale and how AI is poised to help TV advertisers. Then for "In Other News," we talk about Google curbing cross-app tracking on Android phones and what to expect from the WarnerMedia/Discovery merger. Tune in to the discussion with chief product officer at MNTN Marwan Soghaier and our analyst Paul Verna.

About two-thirds of the US population are monthly connected TV (CTV) users. Young people are more likely to use CTV than older people. Four in 10 US senior citizens are CTV users—whereas CTV usage is about double that, more than 80%, among those ages 25 to 54.

Connected TV ad spending continues to expand substantially.

Though HBO Max did not come close to reaching 100 million US viewers over the period of our previous forecast, we now project the streaming platform will cross that threshold in 2023.

In September, we raised our forecast for HBO Max viewers. We now believe that HBO Max will have nearly 80 million monthly viewers this year, and that it will surpass 100 million viewers by the end of 2023. Previously, we did not expect HBO Max to break 100 million viewers by the end of our forecast period in 2025.

More video viewers turn to ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) and free streaming options.

Disney's exclusive theatrical runs come back with "Shang-Chi": The Marvel movie will only come to Disney+ after 45 days—and while that's better than straight-to-streaming, it's still an adjustment for theaters used to 90-day runs.

The return of live sports produced a flurry of licensing activity from broadcast networks and streaming services—including digital video, social, and ecommerce platforms. It also reignited concerns about the sustainability of pricing models for sports video and TV.

On today's episode, we discuss who owns everything in the media universe, the formation of Warner Bros. Discovery, and why Amazon bought MGM. We then talk about how people are consuming sports in different ways, CNN's new streaming service, and whether HBO Max with ads can make a big splash. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom.

On today's episode, we discuss how The Walt Disney Co., ViacomCBS, and Roku started the year. We then talk about the new WarnerMedia-Discovery merger, Nielsen's new ratings service for streaming, and NBCUniversal's new ad formats. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom.

Disney delays its theatrical return: Straight-to-streaming releases and shorter theatrical windows are dimming hopes of a full movie industry recovery this year. Worse, some changes may be permanent, further hurting the entertainment industry’s ad spending growth.

For the first time this year, we broke out CTV ad revenues for YouTube, Roku, and Hulu.

Increased political ad spending contributed to a banner year for connected TV.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch, and vice president of content studio at Insider Intelligence Paul Verna discuss whether WarnerMedia just killed movie theaters, why Salesforce is buying Slack, why Facebook's buying Kustomer, the first few cases of Facebook's Oversight Board, Nielsen readies to change its TV ratings, shopping carts on WhatsApp, how much cash can fit in your pocket at once, and more.

eMarketer forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom and principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin discuss what an advertising rebound will actually look like next year. They then talk about how to reach ad-free streamers, new podcast measurement guidelines, and whether WarnerMedia just killed the movies.

During a year where investments in most advertising channels shrunk or stalled, connected TV ad spending is poised to keep growing.

TV ad spending takes a hit as marketers adjust their budgets amid a recession.