MediaPost.com: MediaDailyNews

Justice Department Proves Networks Over White House Pool Cutoff

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 20:44:08 -0400

The Justice Department has launched a probe into whether ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News violated federal antitrust laws when they suspended their pool coverage of President Trump after the White House banned CNN, MS NBC and Politico, The New York Times reports. “Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act,” wrote Emily Covington, a spokesperson for the department. But William E. Kovacic, a former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, commented, “The critical ingredient in successful antitrust cases is to demonstrate that there is unmistakably a commercial motive and that the commercial motive predominates. And I don’t think they would ever be able to do that here.”

Netflix Is Laying Off 5% Of its Staff: Report

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 20:40:07 -0400

Netflix is planning to lay off about 5% of its staff, Variety reports, quoting Puck News. The story, which is based on anonymous sources, says the layoff is part of a restructuring that could be announced as early as next week. Netflix had roughly 16,000 full-time employees at the end of last year, and a 5% reduction would mean 800 jobs are being eliminated.

Coalition Challenges FCC On Repeal Of Media Consolidation Rule

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 20:37:10 -0400

A coalition of labor unions and nonprofit groups have filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission, challenging the FCC’s recent repeal of its long-time rule that limited consolidation among television broadcasters, Common Dreams reports. With this new rule, can seize more control over local news stations, the petition argues. It adds that the repeal us “plainly contrary to law and violates core administrative law principles,” and that only Congress can make such a change.

Creator Network Offers A Low CPM To Brands, But There's No Rate Card

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 20:33:41 -0400

FindClout, a New York-based creator network, provides lower pricing than other networks and ad platforms., according to an analysis by Good Day Media. But it does so without a rate card or reach number. Brands are provided with a ceiling and a guaranteed floor of views. According to the analysis, CPMs on typically run from eight cents to two dollars per thousand views depending on format. Findclout claims it runs campaigns across all major sports, finance, trading and news page in the US.

Grok Sued Over Biometric Privacy

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 17:05:10 -0400

An Illinois resident is suing SpaceXAI's chatbot Grok for allegedly collecting and retaining faceprints without first obtaining written consent.

X Asks Flagged Accounts To Prove Their 'Liveness'

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 16:37:21 -0400

X is expanding its ongoing effort to crack down on the prevalence of spam bots by requiring flagged accounts complete a test designed to prove that the user is a real person.

Apple Must Face Suit Over YouTube Scraping

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 15:36:36 -0400

Content creators can proceed with a claim that Apple scraped their YouTube videos in order to train generative AI models that convert text to videos.

When You're A STAR, Nielsen Lets You Synthesize Your Audience

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:59:05 -0400

"We are creating a synthetic panel," Nielsen's David Kurzynski told a roomful of ad industry researchers earlier this year. He went on to pitch a new methodology synthetically fusing its ratings panel with first-party data from streaming platforms.

Google, Spirit Face Congressional Pushback Over Data Sale

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:35:37 -0400

The court hearing scheduled for Oct. 14 will determine the outcome of the proposed $10 million sale of Spirit Airlines' internal data to Google to train its AI systems.

R.I.P., Albert Winninghoff -- And Why You May Want To Ignore Your Agency's AI

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 12:13:28 -0400

Thinking about my mentor's death led to reflections on the "sea of sameness" danger of the AI race in our industry.

NFL Viewers Up 4% Season-To-Date

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 11:53:23 -0400

NBC's "Sunday Night Football" is highest at 23.2 million viewers, followed by CBS Sunday games at 20.5 million and ABC/ESPN's "Monday Night Football" at 19.3 million. Fox's Sunday afternoon games are averaging 17.9 million, with Prime Video games at 17.4 million.

Microdramas Are Hooking Viewers For Hours, Advertisers Want Role In Soap Opera

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 10:40:34 -0400

Audiences worlwide don't seem to mind commercial interruptions or product placements in microdramas.

Google Pilots In-Store Retail Attribution From Click To Wallet

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 10:36:34 -0400

Google has tied its in-store coupon project to Google Ads, brings consumers searching for specific products to checkout.

Apple, Amazon, Meta At A Standoff Blocking Ads, AI Agents

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0400

ByteDance is the latest company banned from buying ads on a rival's platform, as providers escalate rivalries by blocking competitors from gaining market share.

CNN Declares Independence From Skydance -- For How Long?

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0400

Skydance management is vowing never to interfere with CNN, but look what happened at CBS News.

FCC's Station Cap Decision: TV Jobs Vs. Cable Bills?

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0400

Proponents of the move say it would give the biggest TV station groups massive control - perhaps to compete with local digital media and social media and gain more control of local ad markets.

USA Today Files $250M Copyright Lawsuit Against OpenAI

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 20:33:43 -0400

USA Today Co. has joined the long roster of media organizations suing OpenAI for alleged copyright infringement, Forbes reports. The complaint accuses OpenAI of illegally copying hundreds of thousands of articles from 19 publications with the purpose of training its models and repackage these journalistic efforts for ChatGPT users, USA Today asserts.

Radio Sees Election-Year Ad Gain, Sales Projected To Decline In 2027

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 20:27:09 -0400

Local radio will benefit from an election-year surge in political advertising, capturing $271.1 million of the total $9.7 billion spend, according to BIA Advisory Services, Inside Radio reports. In total, local radio will hit $12.2 billion, a 1.5% gain over 2025. This includes $9.7 billion in over-the-air revenue and $2.4 from digital. However, radio revenue will decline to $11.4 billion in 2027 because there will be no election then. The local advertising market is expected to reach $186 billion in 2026, BIA reports.

X Launches AI Setup To Help Advertisers Build Campaigns

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 20:23:54 -0400

X introduced a set of AI tools called X Lift inside X during Advertising Week New York, Net Influencer reports. The new tools will allow first-time advertisers on X to turn a website URL into a finished ad campaign, eliminating manual tasks that advertisers enter their website address, and X Lift will generate ad images and copy and then build the campaign. X says this will be especially helpful to small businesses.

Spotify Renews Ad Sales, Streaming Deal With Podcast Star Joe Rogan

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 20:06:29 -0400

Spotify has renewed its connection with podcaster Joe Rogan, signing a multi-year deal for licensing rights and ad sales, The Wall Street Journal reports. The new agreement is similar to Rogan’s prior deal, which provided an estimated earnout of $250 million for distribution rights to “The Joe Rogan Experience.” That podcast has topped Edison Research’s list of the most listened-to podcasts in the U.S. since tracking began in 2019, and has over 18 million followers on Spotify and 21+ million on YouTube.

X Expands 'Gametime' Hub With MLB Partnership

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 17:52:36 -0400

X is expanding its Gametime live updates hub from the NFL to Major League Baseball and potentially "all professional sports" year round, according to a presentation at Advertising Week New York,

Florida Seeks New Restrictions On Meta Teen Accounts

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 16:54:06 -0400

Florida is asking a judge to prohibit Meta from displaying 'third-party' ads to teens under 18, and to restrict 'addictive' features.

Are Influencer Platforms Just Impression Factories?

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 16:38:07 -0400

My sense is that the vast majority of a multihundred-thousand army of influencers are only saying what they say for money, not passion, preference or principle.

Pinterest Invites Brands To Boost Any Eligible Creator Content

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 16:18:34 -0400

Pinterest is devising new ways for brands to tap into creator-made content on the platform, inviting businesses to sponsor creator Pins while expanding the app's content monetization opportunities for users.

Google Unveils AI Agent For Enterprise Workflow

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 15:40:28 -0400

Google Cloud outlined its vision for work that starts in a prompt window, where a Gemini agent routes each task to the appropriate model to get it done while keeping costs under control.

Funny Ads Get Attention, But Showing Products Might Actually Sell Something

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 15:29:48 -0400

Some of the industry's favorite creative techniques are excellent at attracting attention while doing remarkably little to persuade consumers.

Google Gives Advertisers 30-Second Automated Ad Previews

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 15:20:55 -0400

Advertisers can now preview AI-generated headlines and descriptions before pushing them live in AI Max campaigns.

Pennsylvania Passes Bill Requiring Disclosure Of Misleading AI In Ads

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:55:19 -0400

The proposed law would mandate disclosure when material generated or modified by AI misleads consumers about the "nature, origin or authenticity of the goods or services being advertised."

Stagwell's C&T Finds Poor 'Orchestration' Is Impeding AI Transformation

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:16:30 -0400

Ironically, the Code and Theory report finds it's because organizations and their AI tech aren't in sync, execution happens more slowly, the opposite of why many firms embrace AI to begin with.

U.S. Ad Outlook Improves On WARC Update

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 10:34:04 -0400

U.S. ad spending was revised upward for this year but downgraded slightly for next, according to WARC's revisions, which include its first projection for 2028: +7.9%.

As Studios Pour Billions Into Content, How Will We Watch?

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0400

Companies like Netflix and Walt Disney still spend around $20 billion on TV and film production per year, with others spending at least $15 billion.

Emmy Migration To Streaming Is No Loss For Network TV

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0400

The Primetime Emmy Awards are migrating to Amazon Prime, but is this necessarily a bad thing for legacy networks?

Why Microsoft Ditched The Cloud To Put AI On Its Laptop

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0400

Microsoft's 'Surface Laptop Ultra' will support creative work, image and video generation and local inference. The shift toward AI-driven interfaces threatens the core business models of Google, Meta, and Amazon by altering the ways consumers discover information, products, and services.

Global Ad Composite Rises On WARC Upgrade

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 03:00:00 -0400

For the second time in less than a year, WARC revised its outlook upward for global ad growth this year and next, and posted its first estimate for 2028.

Disney+ To Stream Super Bowl, 'Monday Night Football'

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 23:40:26 -0400

The Disney-owned platform will air the Super Bowl simulcast with ABC and ESPN on Feb. 14. Fox Television Network and Tubi aired the Super Bowl in 2025.

Omnicom Adds AI Placement Into Ad Plans With Rembrand

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 22:45:31 -0400

Omnicom Media is using Rembrand’s VISTA technology in an effort to make in-content advertising easier to plan and buy, Content Grip reports. VISTA uses AI to identify scenes where brands can be inserted, although a show has already been produced. Omnicom uses its identity tool, RealID, and streamer viewership data to find the shows that over-index. Rembrand then maps those shows against scenes that can support in-content ad placement.

Best Buy Ads Forms Partnership With LG Ad Solutions For CTV

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 22:37:02 -0400

Best Buy Ads is expanding its advertising reach through a partnership with LG Ad Solutions, Trading View reports. The arrangement will provide advertisers with access to LG’s connected TV inventory, including its Home Screen, in the U.S. This inventory will be available programmatically through Magnite. In addition, Best Buy will offer closed-loop measurement that links advertising exposure to sales outcomes.

PubX Acquires Compliant, Media Quality-Compliance Firm

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 22:30:19 -0400

PubX -- a firm that provides agent-to-agent infrastructure for advertising -- has acquired Compliant, a firm focused on media quality and governance, Dealroom reports. The company has also raised $5 million in Series A funding. Compliant will keep its name and operate as a pubX company. And its chief executive officer Jamie Barnard will serve as president, global demand growth at pubX, responsible for growth across agencies, advertisers, and the broader buy side.

Pennsylvania Sets Rules For AI Transparency In Advertising

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 22:26:25 -0400

Pennsylvania has joined a small number of states that have passed bills containing AI disclosure requirements for advertisers, the state’s Pasenate site reports. The bipartisan legislation authored by State Senator Nick Pisciottano (D-Allegheny) establishes transparency rules that are deemed essential as AI increases its presence in consumer advertising. The bill is expected to be signed by Governor Josh Shapiro. “This legislation sets a commonsense transparency standard so Pennsylvanians can make informed decisions about what they are buying, while still allowing businesses to take advantage of this technology,” Pisciottano said.

Meta: We're Using AI To Fight Child Sex Abuse Ads

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 19:27:08 -0400

Meta is using a new LLM trained to detect "seemingly benign ad content that is strongly suspected of covertly directing people to illegal content or harmful activity."