The Guardian·2026-03-29
HBO Max pins hopes on Friends and Harry Potter to win UK streaming warThe launch of HBO Max into the increasingly crowded UK television market last week has prompted deals for consumers as former rivals team up amid a slowdown in subscriber growth. The Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) streaming service hopes a competitive price for direct sign-ups and deals bundling the service through Sky will make it a must-have and not an also-ran, in a British TV ecosystem upended by Netflix 14 years ago. In a media landscape where new and exclusive content is essential to winning and keeping customers, WBD is banking on a vast library of established hits and much-hyped new shows to secure a regular spot on screens. The service will feature Warner Bros films including the entire DC superhero franchise, Harry Potter, Sinners and One Battle After Another, as well as shows from
The Guardian·2026-03-29
First sugar-free Easter on UK TV as chocolate ads are pushed past 9pmThe UK will have its first Easter without the traditional barrage of TV ads for chocolate eggs and hot cross buns as the ban on junk food advertising makes the sweetest tradition of the year a sugar-free viewing experience. New regulations, which came into force at the beginning of the year, prohibit products high in fat, sugar and salt from appearing in TV ads before 9pm, as part of efforts to tackle rising childhood obesity. This means that this year the Cadbury Creme Egg – more than 200m of which are eaten in the “season” post-Christmas until the end of Easter – will not be appearing in TV ads before 9pm. The UK advertising industry voluntarily chose to start adhering to the new rules from October, making for TV’s first-ever “healthy” Christmas TV ads, and the impact on broadcasters’ ad
Adweek·2026-03-28
These 9 Shoptalk Conversations Are Shaping Commerce’s FutureThree frenetic days at Shoptalk revealed tons of anxieties about the future of commerce—from uncertainty around what it will look like, big questions at companies like Home Depot and Stratacache, and big plays from powerhouses like Google and Meta.
Adweek·2026-03-27
Ticker: Versant Looking to Acquire Vox’s Podcast Division, According to ReportRahel Solomon departs CNN, and Scott MacFarlane has a new home.
Adweek·2026-03-27
Bob Schmetterer, Former Chairman and CEO of the Company That Became Havas Worldwide, DiesBob Schmetterer, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Euro RSCG and a founding partner of Messner Vetere Berger Carey Schmetterer (MVBCS), has died at 82. Tributes are pouring [ ]
Digiday·2026-03-27
Genius Sports opens up real-time live sports targeting to brandsFinancial services and food delivery advertisers are adapting their approach to programmatic sports buys using tech built for betting brands. Genius Sports launched partnerships with DirecTV Advertising, Equativ, FreeWheel, Index Exchange, Magnite, OpenX, PubMatic and The Weather Company at the IAB NewFronts this week, allowing advertisers to use its ‘Moment Engine’ to direct advertising spend thr
Digiday·2026-03-27
In graphic detail: The numbers making the case for what holdcos could beFew execs in advertising have a taller in-tray than the CEOs of the big agency groups. AI, talent, platforms, regulators, investors, billionaires – the pressures are real and multiplying. But trace most of them back far enough and they have the same root cause: somewhere along the way, these businesses stopped being about making CMOs look good. The data suggests they have a chance to change that.
Digiday·2026-03-27
Inside The Daily Mail’s creator-led content playbookDaily Mail publisher DMG Media has hired more than two dozen creators onto its payroll since it launched its creator-led social channels in October 2025. Between them, these creators produce 10 to 20 original long and short-form videos daily , across topics ranging from football fandom to the issues young people face in the U.K., which are posted on the publisher’s social channels. So far, creator
Digiday·2026-03-27
‘The processes are continuing forward’: Advertising’s dealmakers press on with M&A despite Iran uncertaintyAdvertising s dealmakers are watching Iran. So far, they re still dealing. Though four weeks of false dawns and sudden escalations have a way of making so far feel fragile. The longer the turmoil runs – the threats, counter-threats and the strikes – the greater the chance that the reverberations reach M A. If it gets to that point, frozen dealbooks will be the least of marketers’ worries. But it w
Adweek·2026-03-27
State Street CMO John Brockelman’s Unconventional Playbook for Financial Marketing SuccessThe man behind “Fearless Girl” shares how finance can inspire creativity.
Nieman Lab·2026-03-26
News Diaries: How a Minnesota mom and minister “blew past” her screen time limits when ICE came to her cityTo say that the staff of Nieman Lab consume more news than the average American would be an understatement. And if you re a Nieman Lab reader, chances are you re a news junkie like us. Most of the people that most news organizations are trying to reach, however, are not news junkies. Nieman Lab founder Josh Benton likes to remind us that the average American received zero push notifications from a
Nieman Lab·2026-03-26
Meta’s Oversight Board warns that “Community Notes” aren’t a proper substitute for fact-checking globallyOn Thursday, Meta’s Oversight Board , a quasi-independent body that reviews the social media giant’s moderation practices, ruled that “Community Notes” are not a proper substitute for its fact-checking program. In a new “ policy advisory opinion , the Board expressed concerns about how effective Community Notes would be in a litany of circumstances, “including in repressive human rights regimes, i
Nieman Lab·2026-03-25
“I was surprised how upset some people got”: A conversation with the creator of TomWikiAssist, the bot that edited WikipediaBehind the scenes at Wikipedia, some editors were alarmed recently when they saw a flurry of edits and new articles by a contributor known as TomWikiAssist . It turned out that Tom was a bot and was making edits and creating articles that the bot believed were interesting. The editors then blocked Tom from doing any more editing or writing. The more the editors looked into Tom, the more alarmed th
Nieman Lab·2026-03-25
The BBC’s new director general is former Google executive Matt BrittinToday the BBC announced it had selected a new director general: Matt Brittin, the former president of Google s operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. One might see this news and wonder about Brittin s editorial experience. He has very little but, as both the Guardian and the Telegraph took pains to point out, he is a Doctor Who fan, which I guess means he does at least like one BBC pro
Reuters·2026-03-11T07:06:55Z
Canal+ taps Google's AI for video production, content recommendationFrench media group Canal+ on Wednesday said it had struck a multi-year partnership with Alphabet's Google Cloud to deploy generative artificial intelligence across its production operations and streaming platform.
Mechanicsburg Patriot News·2026-03-09T19:04:48Z
Will HBO Max shut down? Merger raises questions about streaming futureA prominent media analyst believes the streaming platform will essentially be shut down after Warner Bros. Discovery merges with Paramount, though HBO content may continue.
Digiday·2026-03-04
Why one brand reimbursed $10,000 to customers who paid its ‘Trump Tariff Surcharge’ last yearThis story was originally published on sister site, Modern Retail. Dame is refunding customers who paid its “Trump Tariff Surcharge” last year, becoming one of the first brands to proactively return money tied to President Donald Trump’s now-invalidated tariffs. The sexual wellness company began adding a visible $5 line-item fee at checkout in 2025 as the Trump administration’s trade war pushed up
Digiday·2026-03-04
How creator talent agencies are evolving into multi-platform operatorsThe legacy agency model, long overdue for a reckoning, is finally being rebuilt from the ground up — with creators at the center. The old agency model — brokering deals, manually sourcing talent and running slow, service-heavy operations that treated creators like traditional talent — came of age in a fragmented market. But that model is giving way to something faster, more scalable, and built aro
Adweek·2026-03-04
Havas Bets on AI Veteran Sharona Sankar-King to Lead Proprietary Tech PushHavas Media Network North America has hired data and AI veteran Sharona Sankar-King as chief data and product officer to lead its Converged.AI platform.
Digiday·2026-03-04
Future of TV Briefing: How Paramount’s and Warner Bros. Discovery’s ad tech stacks stack upThis week’s Future of TV Briefing breaks down Paramount’s and Warner Bros. Discovery’s ad tech stacks now that the companies seem set (finally) to combine. Streaming stacks Netflix’s exit, WBD’s town hall, CNN’s future and more Streaming stacks Paramount plans to combine its and Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming services after Paramount+’s owner completes its acquisition of HBO Max’s parent. But
Digiday·2026-03-04
‘The conversation has shifted’: The CFO moved upstream. Now agencies have to as wellCFOs are demanding more from marketing — and not in the usual way. The familiar playbook of squeezing costs and investing in performance spend is still in motion, driven by an uncertain economy and an unpredictable geopolitical backdrop. But CFOs now are asking harder questions driven by a better grasp of how marketing actually works, and a sharper instinct for where it doesn t. For example, Vayne
Adweek·2026-03-04
Ad Agencies Are Embracing ‘Vibe Coding’ to Build GEO Products for ClientsFrom two-hour builds to full SaaS platforms, agencies are using Anthropic's Claude to create custom tools that track how brands show up in AI-generated answers.
Adweek·2026-03-04
Netflix Taps Amazon’s Shopping Data to Sharpen Ad TargetingThe move pairs Amazon’s shopping signals with Netflix’s new Conversion API as the streamer courts performance budgets.
Adweek·2026-03-04
A+E Turns Brands Into Lifetime Movies as It Looks to Compete in Upfront PitchA+E Global Media announces new content and brand creative studio.
Nieman Lab·2026-03-04
AI-powered search is fueling a wave of Epstein Files transparency projectsThe Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) requires that the millions of documents collected by the Department of Justice (DOJ) about Jeffrey Epstein be shared with the public in a searchable and downloadable format. In practice, though, the searchability of the DOJ releases has been crude at best. Keywords may turn up individual links to PDFs, but users have reported major search malfunctions and
Nieman Lab·2026-03-03
X will demonetize users who post AI-generated videos of war (but not other kinds of disinformation)On Tuesday Nikita Bier , head of product at X, announced that users who post AI-generated videos of an armed conflict without disclosing they were AI-generated will suspended from the site s revenue-sharing program for 90 days, with repeated offenses leading to a permanent suspension from the program: Today we are revising our Creator Revenue Sharing policies to maintain authenticity of content on
Nieman Lab·2026-03-03
Newsonomics: Will national news shrink even faster than local news did?Anderson Cooper may be running out of lily pads. Just two weeks ago, he announced his decision to leave CBS’s 60 Minutes, after almost 20 years of multitasking. Over time, he arrived at the pinnacle of the TV news profession as a CNN anchor, growing his gravitas as a cascade of crises consumed our world while contributing to the most storied newsmagazine of the entire TV era. He’d seen enough of t
Nieman Lab·2026-03-02
New York Times runs in-house ad asking listeners to “support any news organization dedicated to original reporting”The New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger has voiced a new ad encouraging listeners to support any news organization dedicated to original reporting — even if it s not the Times. It s Sulzberger s first-ever advertisement, the Times confirmed, and it ran for the first time on Monday. A New York Times spokesperson said the publisher wanted to call attention to the shrinking of the news industry.
