Ellison pitches Skydance as a content spender bigger than Netflix or Disney
The Ankler reports that David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz opened the Paramount lot to pitch Skydance as a studio that will outspend Netflix and Disney, producing roughly 190 series and 30 movies a year.
Media buyers shift Meta spend to “Q5" as ad prices climb
Marketing Brew’s Jasmine Sheena reports that Meta’s price per ad rose 12% year over year in both Q1 and Q2, pushing some media buyers to shift client budgets into the “Q5" window from late December into January.
Amazon’s new AI ad agent steers spend, worrying some buyers
Adweek’s Lauren Johnson reports that at Amazon’s UnBoxed event, the retailer unveiled Amazon Ads Agent, a chat-based AI overhaul of its ad platform.
Netflix renews The Hunting Wives for third season
C21Media reports that Netflix has renewed The Hunting Wives for a third season ahead of season two’s November 26 premiere.
Prime Day pushes Amazon ad spend further up the funnel into DSP
Digiday’s Sam Bradley reports that client spending on Amazon Ads ahead of October’s Prime Big Deal Days is up 15-40% year over year, per five media buyers, with growth expected to reach a third by year end.
Walmart Connect extends shopper-data targeting to linear TV via WBD
ExchangeWire reports that Walmart Connect has partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery to let advertisers apply Walmart shopper audiences to addressable targeting on live linear TV, bought through Walmart DSP via a private marketplace powered by FreeWheel.
Skydance co-CEOs defend $80 billion debt load as manageable
Deadline’s Jill Goldsmith reports that Skydance co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz pushed back on fears that nearly $80 billion in debt will force cuts to content spending, pointing to plans for $30 billion-$40 billion in annual production budgets.
Walmart Connect pitches streaming ads to non-Walmart advertisers
Adweek’s Mitchell Parton reports that Walmart Connect is pitching non-endemic advertisers on streaming ads, built on its Vizio and Vibe.co acquisitions.
Why Skydance will sell CBS stations, but not all of them
TVREV’s Tim Hanlon reports that Skydance, carrying roughly $80 billion in net debt after closing the Warner Bros. Discovery deal, is positioned to become a net seller of CBS’s local stations while protecting major-market O&Os and profitable duopolies like Los Angeles’s KCBS-KCAL.
Agencies push agentic media while easing client fears of rogue AI
Digiday’s Michael Bürgi reports that Dentsu’s Carat, Tinuiti and Stagwell all unveiled agentic media systems during Advertising Week, with Carat partnering NBCUniversal, Freewheel and Newton on a planning and buying agent already used by one luxury retail client.
Adweek debuts Creator Economy Power List for industry executives
Adweek is launching its inaugural Creator Economy Power List, open for entries honoring executives, dealmakers, platform builders and technologists behind the creator economy rather than the creators themselves.
Walmart links Spotify audio ads to in-store and online purchases
Inside Radio reports that Walmart is adding Spotify inventory to its demand-side platform, letting brands target Spotify listeners with Walmart’s customer data and measure whether those audio campaigns drive sales at its stores or website.
Erin Andrews, Charissa Thompson move ‘Calm Down’ podcast to The Volume
Variety’s Todd Spangler reports that Erin Andrews and Charissa Thompson are moving their “Calm Down” podcast to Colin Cowherd’s The Volume for ad sales, production and distribution.
Skydance bonds sink, stock whipsaws as JB Perrette resets top lieutenants
The Ankler’s Sean McNulty reports that Skydance’s bonds slumped after last week’s $41 billion merger-debt offering, triggering a trader sell-off this week that has since partly rebounded.
Agencies race to monetize AI as creators reshape media budgets
Modern Retail’s Catherine Wolf reports that agencies are adapting to a media landscape reshaped by AI search and creator marketing, per new Modern Retail+ Research.
Ellison: Paramount-WBD merger is Hollywood’s answer to Big Tech
Deadline’s Jill Goldsmith reports that Skydance CEO David Ellison told CNBC the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger fixes Hollywood’s failure to pivot when big tech entered media a decade ago.
Paramount Skydance’s WBD takeover officially closes, rebranded as Skydance
Puck’s William D. Cohan reports that Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery has closed for $111 billion, plus roughly $3 billion more in legal costs, M&A fees and a Netflix breakup fee, with the combined company now named Skydance.
Paramount’s untested chiefs now inherit Warner Bros. too
The Ankler’s Matthew Frank reports that Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, 14 months into running Paramount, now also control Warner Bros., overseeing nine labels, three animation divisions and more than 30 films a year under a mandate to cut deeply amid Skydance’s debt load.
Skydance execs outline $30B content spend, slow streamer merger at kickoff event
TheWrap reports that Skydance co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz used their first press event since closing the $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger to pledge over $30 billion in content spend, keep two separate film slates, and merge Paramount+ and HBO Max only gradually.
Circana-Best Buy study finds retail media halo reaches rival retailers
Circana is reporting, with Best Buy Ads, findings from a marketing mix modeling study showing Best Buy Ads delivered 79% higher ROAS than other media based on total U.S. Best Buy sales.
Radisson’s ChatGPT plugin converts 1.5x better than organic search
OpenAI is reporting that Radisson Hotel Group, built with Accenture Song in six weeks, converts visits to bookings at roughly 1.5 times its organic search rate, with over half of checkout events attributed to sponsored ad views in ChatGPT.