FAST’s data gap is a measurement problem, not a fraud problem
An AdExchanger opinion piece argues FAST viewing is real and growing, but platforms withhold audience data from channel operators and buyers. Revenue per viewing hour has fallen from 18 cents to eight cents as CPMs near single digits.
Molson Coors overhauls creator workflow, says engagement quadrupled
Molson Coors is replacing its TV-style approval process with faster, looser creator briefs, working with agency Movers+Shakers since March. The company says engagement with creator content has quadrupled but won’t share commercial results.
Former Hard Fork hosts in talks for seven-figure podcast deal
Casey Newton and Kevin Roose, who exited the New York Times’ Hard Fork, are negotiating a new podcast deal worth seven figures, according to Bloomberg’s Soundbite newsletter.
GTA VI preview drove 100,000 Netflix sign-ups in six hours
A six-hour exclusive window for Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look drove more than 100,000 US Netflix sign-ups on August 27th, per Ampere Analysis.
World Cup and streaming push TV usage up in Nielsen’s usually slow July
Nielsen’s July Gauge shows total TV usage rose 2.2% versus a typical summer decline, as the World Cup final and Peacock’s Love Island USA drove streaming to 49.0% of TV and YouTube to a record 14.2%.
Amazon’s Reacher tops streaming chart for fourth straight week
Prime Video’s “Reacher” Season 4 held No. 1 on the Samba Weekly Wrap Report for a fourth consecutive week, fending off Netflix’s “The Whisper Man” and HBO Max’s “Lanterns.”
Fintech brands need multi-category reach to win AI answer visibility
NP Digital’s FinTech AI Visibility Index analyzed 68,334 AI-generated answers to 250 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude.
Netflix to publicly report box office grosses for upcoming theatrical slate
Netflix will begin reporting grosses for six upcoming theatrical releases, including Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew and The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth.
NBC drops blended ratings, lets Nielsen measure Peacock streaming
NBC will have Nielsen measure Peacock streaming for NFL and MLB Wild Card games, replacing its Adobe Analytics-based Total Audience Delivery metric with a single Nielsen number.
CNN’s demo ratings buck August slump as rivals slide
Fox News and MS NOW posted total-viewer and demo declines in August, but CNN grew in the Adults 25-54 demo during primetime and total day. CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip led the network’s demo gains.
New creator agency Everywhere bets on cross-platform, not single-channel, deals
Everywhere, founded by Andy Goldsmith, Craig Eastwood and Mike Wooller, launched last week as a commercial partner representing creators across YouTube, TikTok, podcasts, newsletters and live events rather than one platform.
NP Digital: Apple, SoFi top new AI visibility index for fintech brands
NP Digital’s FinTech AI Visibility Index scored brands on frequency, position and coverage across 68,334 AI answers to 250 prompts.
YouTube adds guesstimated TV co-viewing metric for creator brand pitches
YouTube launched Views (Co-Viewed), a creator-private metric estimating how many people watch together on one TV screen, so a family of three counts as three viewers.
GumGum turns sports sponsorship exposure into addressable ad audiences
GumGum launched GumGum Sports Media, a suite that uses Relo Metrics to detect when a brand’s sponsorship appears during a live broadcast and VideoAmp’s household viewership data to identify who actually saw it.
MoffettNathanson cuts Q2 TV ad forecasts again as streaming picks up slack
Analyst Robert Fishman now expects Q2 cable ad revenue to fall 12.3% to $4.48 billion and broadcast to drop 8.3% to $2.47 billion, both steeper than his earlier estimates.
Telly opens home screen ads to programmatic buying, pushes for standards
Telly, the startup that gives away free smart TVs in exchange for data and ad exposure, is making its second-screen home ads available for programmatic buying via Magnite’s SpringServe, with demand from The Trade Desk and Teads.
Survey: Roku remains the most popular streaming platform
A new survey finds Roku holds its position as the most popular streaming platform among consumers. The finding comes as competition among streaming device and smart TV operating system makers continues to intensify.
Gracenote adds Sports MCP server, entertainment SLM to AI roadmap
Nielsen’s Gracenote unveiled the next phase of its AI product roadmap, adding a Sports MCP Server, an entertainment-focused small language model and task-oriented agents alongside its existing Video MCP Server.
NBC drops Adobe-Nielsen blend for pure Nielsen streaming data on NFL
NBC Sports will use Nielsen, not its Adobe-blended Total Audience Delivery metric, to measure streaming for NFL games and MLB Wild Card telecasts this season.
Netflix still drives most streaming bingeing, Luminate finds
Luminate Intelligence found 62% of streaming releases through H1 2026 were full-season bingeable drops, down from 64% the prior two years. Strip out Netflix, and non-Netflix bingeing capability falls further, to 38% from 43% two years earlier.
iSpot’s SAGE breaks down why GEICO’s Gecko ads win on likeability
iSpot’s agentic AI platform SAGE analyzed GEICO’s top three 2026 ads by likeability, all scoring 662 to 687.