August 3, 2026

Fox Advertising has extended its measurement partnership with iSpot, building on a relationship that started in 2015 when Fox first adopted iSpot's real-time TV ad measurement across its portfolio. The expanded deal centers on Fox AdStudio, Fox's unified data and technology platform, which now delivers always-on attribution and outcomes measurement across linear and streaming. Over the past year, the companies say the partnership has shown strong performance across multiple categories and campaigns throughout Fox's portfolio. Kym Frank, Fox's senior vice president of research, said the partnership has helped Fox "prove how connecting with Fox's engaged fandoms drives measurable business outcomes across every screen." Stuart Schwartzapfel of iSpot said the goal is to help advertisers move past assumptions and see exactly how campaigns perform. The expanded capabilities link ad exposures directly to consumer actions, giving advertisers a view of campaign effectiveness beyond standard reach and frequency metrics.

Comcast-owned FreeWheel is rolling out show-level reporting for advertisers buying through its Buyer Cloud platform, formerly known as Beeswax. The new Video Content Report lists the titles an advertiser's ads ran in, available free of charge roughly two hours after impressions deliver. Seven publishers have opted in so far: A+E Global Media, Fuse, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Spectrum Reach, Warner Bros. Discovery and Xumo. Publishers control how much detail to share, including impression counts, date and time, device type and spend. A+E Global Media plans to include impression counts, letting an advertiser see, for example, how many impressions ran during "The First 48 Hours" versus "Duck Dynasty." FreeWheel delivers the data through post-delivery reports, keeping show titles out of the programmatic bid stream to avoid conflicts with the Video Privacy Protection Act. "Contextual in streaming is much superior," said Mike Treon, head of CTV and video strategy at PMG.

UK ad investment reached £11.7 billion in the first quarter of 2026, a 9.3 percent increase year on year, according to the Advertising Association and WARC's latest Expenditure Report. Retail media grew 17.9 percent, social media 17.7 percent and out-of-home 15 percent, while search remained the largest category at £4.6 billion. TV advertising rose 0.8 percent overall, as a 15.5 percent jump in addressable TV spend offset continued declines in linear TV sales. Cinema spend fell 17.6 percent and published media dropped 5.9 percent. The Advertising Association and WARC raised their full-year forecasts on the back of the Q1 figures, now projecting UK ad spend to climb 8.2 percent to £50.5 billion in 2026 and 5.9 percent to £53.5 billion in 2027, with TV spend expected to grow 3.7 percent this year, helped by the FIFA World Cup.

DoubleVerify recorded a 39% year-over-year increase in CTV impression volume in the UK during 2025, part of a broader 35% rise in CTV impression volume across the EMEA region. The figures come from DV's 2026 Global Insights report, Must-CTV: Streaming's Shift From Promise to Performance, drawn from measurement data spanning billions of impressions across DV-protected campaigns worldwide. Collette Spagnolo, VP of marketing, integrated marketing and analytics at DoubleVerify, said CTV is becoming an increasingly important part of the video advertising mix alongside desktop, mobile app and mobile web. The same report found that CTV fraud schemes and variants increased 140% globally in Q1 2026 compared with Q1 2025. DV said maintaining media quality and transparency remains important for advertisers as streaming adoption and ad investment continue rising in the UK and across EMEA.

FIFA built a hydration break into the 22nd minute of each half across all 104 World Cup games this summer, opening a broadcast cutaway of just over two minutes per match. Streaming placements for World Cup coverage were forecast at $60 to $120 per thousand impressions, with the hydration break commanding the top of that range. Numerator's May 2026 survey put purchase intent among tournament viewers at 89 percent, ahead of the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, with consumer spending projected at $7.5 billion across the 39-day tournament. Fox, Telemundo, Peacock, Tubi and YouTube TV carried matches simultaneously, each generating separate data streams, and the IAB found 41 percent of buy-side leaders believe their measurement misses CTV impressions entirely. Jason Hicks of Kochava for Advertisers argues marketing mix modelling and incrementality testing together are what connect that inventory to results advertisers can measure.

Starbucks CEO Brian Nicol used the coffee chain's second-quarter earnings call to credit CMO Tressie Lieberman for how she manages its $190 million ad budget, saying, "I love the way they're using the dollars." Procter & Gamble CEO Shailesh Jejurikar said the company has gotten better at finding the right mix of spending over the past year, and CFO Andre Schulten said P&G still has room to grow its media effectiveness. Kraft Heinz CEO Steve Cahillane said a shift to fewer, more effective media partners lifted the company's global return on ad spend by 8%. Reckitt Benckiser CFO Shannon Eisenhardt referenced the company's rising ad spend on its own call, and Canada Goose pointed to a more disciplined approach to brand building. A Gain Theory survey found 49% of marketers lack confidence their data could defend marketing decisions to a CFO, per Digiday.

New UK rules restricting advertising for less healthy food and drink cut around £20 million from ITV's first-half revenues, the broadcaster said in its H1 earnings update. Total revenue still climbed 2% year on year, with digital ad revenue up 13%, as advertiser demand for the FIFA World Cup covered the shortfall. ITV CEO Carolyn McCall reaffirmed confidence that the broadcaster's sale of its media and entertainment arm to Sky will close, despite an ongoing Competition and Markets Authority review. She said a Secretary of State intervention notice is expected given the deal counts as a media merger, and that a phase two CMA review would push completion into the second half of 2027. The results land alongside a broader UK TV ad recovery: WARC and the Advertising Association lifted their 2026 growth forecast to 3.7%, with addressable TV spend up 15.5% in the first quarter.

Omnicom's stock climbed to a one-year high on Wednesday morning as investors weighed its progress selling off parts of IPG and absorbing the rest. The holding company reported Q2 total revenue of $6.6 billion, close to Omnicom and IPG's combined revenue from a year earlier, and net income rose to $585 million from $258 million. CFO Phil Angelastro told investors that advertising revenue fell by low single digits in the quarter. Integrated media, health, PR and experiential all grew, the last lifted by World Cup activity. Omnicom is roughly halfway through cutting lower-growth IPG agencies and closing overlapping offices to free up margin. CEO John Wren called the combined company 'more of an operating company than a holding company,' coordinating agency segments from a single center. Executives also pointed to principal media, buying inventory directly and reselling it to clients at a markup, as a growing and permanent part of the business.