Bill Murray

Thrilled to announce NCM’s new partnership with TransUnion, bringing cinema exposure data into cross-channel attribution for the first time. This unlocks measurable outcomes, clearer performance insights and real proof of how the big screen drives results across the full media mix. Today’s marketers need clarity, accountability and innovation. NCM is meeting that challenge head on by redefining cinema as a modern, data-driven channel that delivers both brand impact and measurable performance. #DemocratizingCinemaData https://lnkd.in/eQuBshHe

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CBS is moving its Atlanta affiliation from Gray Media WANF to its owned WUPA, promising to also launch a 24/7 local news channel. Gray pledges more news, sports and entertainment for the station and says the move will allow gray to reduce levrage and improve its balance sheet and financial leverage. #media #local #broadcasting https://lnkd.in/eVjVqDf2

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#Walmart is stepping confidently into the TV advertising arena, presenting a powerful new opportunity for marketers. Since closing its $2.3 billion acquisition of #Vizio in December, Walmart has begun testing the integration of its robust shopper data with Vizio’s smart TV platform—and showing promise. For advertisers, the pairing of America’s largest retailer with a leading smart TV manufacturer signals a bold new frontier for precision targeting and performance at scale. The potential to reach audiences in the living room, backed by real-world purchase behavior, is quickly turning heads across the industry. #AVOD #SVOD #CTV #videostreaming #newfront

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New data from Nielsen shows that nearly 30% of all ad-supported TV viewing is driven by sports marketing dollars. That's a huge number when you consider the fragmentation of today's media world. https://lnkd.in/em_Udwf9 #Marketing #SportsMarketing #Advertising #MediaStrategy #Streaming

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Until recently, channels like Roku, Paramount, Pandora, or iHeartMedia were reserved for enterprise-scale advertisers with advanced programmatic infrastructures. For emerging and mid-sized CPGs, these platforms were too complex, too fragmented, or too expensive to navigate. Some recent announcements from Kroger Precision Marketing have changed that. Service-Led Activation Model: KPM provides a managed-service approach - handling all the technical complexity of programmatic buying on behalf of the brand. This removes the barrier of entry for brands lacking in-house programmatic expertise. Data-Powered Precision: Campaigns are entirely fueled by Kroger’s massive first-party data set (over 60 million households), ensuring that ads on CTV or audio platforms are precisely targeted to verified, high-value shoppers. Closed-Loop Accountability: KPM is not just selling reach; it’s selling a measurable outcome. The managed service is tied directly to Kroger’s sales data, allowing brands to prove that an ad seen on a streaming platform led directly to a product purchase in a physical or digital store. #RetailMedia #CommerceMedia #CPGMarketing #AdTech #KrogerPrecisionMarketing #ConnectedTV

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Google has officially entered the retail media ecosystem! Advertisers can now target retail media audiences from brands like Costco and United Airlines directly in DV360, including on YouTube and other premium video platforms. And this isn't just something Google is investing in. The entire retail media category is expanding off-site from Walmart's programmatic network and Amazon's Brand+. Retail data is moving beyond retailer websites and into high-impact, upper-funnel channels like CTV and video. These integrations turn upper funnel media from a branding tool into a performance driver. Does it seem like everyone has a retail media integration now? That's because that's where the dollars are headed. In Nielsen's annual marketing report, 74% of marketers say they expect retail media networks (RMNs) to play a larger role in their spending this year. Expect more RMN integrations, shoppable features, and commerce enablements from Google this year.

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Comcast is launching a streaming app store ten years too late. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos is considering buying CNBC, NBCU is launching a sports channel, and linear ads still dominate. https://lnkd.in/grdBv2kb

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Another week and another article in the media industry trade press exposing the same old story: opaque incremental deals, principal media, and holding groups monetising volume instead of value. https://lnkd.in/eaSmgxpu And let’s be honest — none of this is new. The ANA has been crystal clear: principal media thrives because legacy agencies act as principals, not agents, restricting transparency and prioritising their own margins and bundles over client outcomes . What is hard to understand is that the industry is still pretending to be surprised. 👉 Why are auditors, and pitch consultants still rewarding volume as if it were a proxy for quality? 👉 Why do they measure mainly new business wins and scale instead of the capability to activate innovation before. Volume is the raw material of arbitrage. It’s the fuel of intermediation. It’s the mechanism that allows dark deals and principal trading to flourish. If you value volume, you implicitly value the business model that produces these behaviours. So maybe the industry’s problem isn’t just the deals — it’s the metrics that keep validating them. When will we shift from measuring “how big” to measuring “how good”? When will we start valuing the capabilities that actually matter to advertisers — strategic talent, data maturity, ethical use of technology, real performance — instead of how much media an agency can push through its pipes? Until that happens, don’t expect change, expect demise, because the incentives are still pointed in the wrong direction.

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Game on. Sports video creation just got the AI Treatment. Minute Media, powerhouse behind sites like Sports Illustrated and The Players’ Tribune, just closed its biggest deal ever, acquiring VideoVerse, the AI engine behind Magnifi. Magnifi’s AI, built on computer vision, NLP, and machine learning, instantly turns games into short-form video gold: think multilingual subtitles, auto thumbnails, metadata, and digestible clips. It’s basically automatic highlights at scale. Minute Media is also integrating creation, distribution, and monetization, powering everything from league rights holders to publisher partners around the globe. And with Magnifi, Minute Media is enhancing its STN Video platform, making it faster to launch TikTok-style highlight reels, hyper-personalized by team, player, or fan behavior. Yes, Minute Media is positioning themselves as a platform operator and not just a storyteller. Distribution + monetization across 1,000+ sites and millions of fans. Platforms that own the tech, the content, and the flywheel will own the audience and their wallets. Huge move by Minute Media, a laser focus on owning video’s value stream without the fluff. #SportsMedia #AIinVideo #MinuteMedia #VideoTech #StreamingStrategy #ContentTech https://lnkd.in/gCxs284i

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The future of TV measurement is here! As the industry gears up for the Upfronts, Nielsen's transition from its legacy panel data to the new Big Data + Panel product is set to be a game-changer. This shift is poised to redefine how we understand audience insights and drive media decisions. For those wanting a deeper dive into what this means, AdAge has an excellent breakdown. Check it out! #TVMeasurement #BigData #MediaInsights #Upfronts2025

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🖥️✅ Shields / Substack (3/12): “CTV is in a weird spot. On the one hand, consumers are flocking to streaming, and ad dollars are moving over from linear TV at a solid pace (if not as fast as many had hoped). On the other hand, you could ask the question as to whether traditional TV companies are getting in their own way. This was a question I found myself asking over the past few weeks during a series of sessions at the excellent Marketecture Live conference in New York. For starters, does TV have a story problem? During a panel on Tuesday, Tatari CEO Philip Inghelbrecht talked about how the TV market is basically controlled by 10-12 companies, and most deals are still done directly- despite everyone preaching “programmatic.” Yet during the same session, Bill Murray, Head of Growth and Performance at Warner Bros. Discovery, said “all of our inventory is available biddable and direct….very few brands only buy one way.” That seems - contradictory? Or is it just a matter of semantics? During a later session, Brendan Garrone, Vice President, Programmatic Sales & Partnerships at NBCUniversal, talked up just how many new advertisers had come on board for the recent Winter Olympics, an event historically dominated by the biggest of brands. Yet at the same time, Garrone talked about the current CTV ad market having a “glut of supply,” which was coming to resemble the display world, where there is a “divide in the market” between longer-tail inventory (i.e. FAST channels) and premium. For sure, there is a lot more ad inventory in CTV compared to a few years ago, thanks to Amazon making ad-supported Prime Video the default, along with hundreds of FASTs. Which all sort of screams for a programmatic, more automated, yield-managed strategy. Yet the CTV ad market is still mostly directly-sold - unless it isn’t?” ⬇️ #avod #ctv #programmatic #waterfall #adCP #vmvpd #ott https://lnkd.in/etRwEhHN

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A recent report from Nielsen trumpeted new data showing that Streaming TV viewership surpassed linear broadcast and cable combined for the first time, with streaming accounting for 44.8% of viewing while linear made up 44.2%. There's no doubt that this is big news for streaming, which has been on a continual growth trend since its inception. But sometimes the headlines can skew our sense of reality. You can't lose sight of the 44.2% of unique viewership that can only be reached through Linear TV. Anyone ready to ignore 44.2% of your potential audience? Despite what the headlines may say, Linear TV is far from dead. In fact, when used strategically, it remains a powerful tool for broad reach and brand storytelling. Audience behaviors are evolving, but linear still delivers scale, trust, and premium inventory that’s hard to replicate elsewhere. The key is knowing when and how to leverage it based on your campaign objectives. Check out The Ward Group's latest blog post to learn why Linear TV still has a seat at the table:  

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📺 Don’t overlook TV in 2026. If your PSA plan isn’t leveraging TV, you’re missing a key driver of attention and impact. The landscape keeps evolving, but TV remains a core backbone for broad awareness that digital alone can’t fully replace. TV may not be the “shiny new thing,” but this Adweek article shows why it has to be part of 2026 media plans. https://lnkd.in/g_SM8jxw A few points that jumped out at me: • 83% of advertisers say they’re confident TV will deliver strong outcomes in 2026. • 77% plan to increase their TV budgets next year. • 92% cite incremental reach and 92% cite measurable performance as the biggest benefits of TV. TV is now being held to the same accountability standards as digital. For PSAs, that’s huge. TV isn’t just “brand awareness” anymore. When it’s planned with digital, it can: 👉 Reach people who will never see your social or search ads 👉 Make your message feel familiar so other channels perform better 👉 Blend linear scale with streaming’s targeting and measurement so donated or paid impressions work harder So as you look at 2026 PSA plans, the question isn’t “TV or digital?” It’s: How do we get TV and digital working together so every spot, impression, and donated placement pushes in the same direction? I’m curious how others are approaching this: Are you leaning more into streaming, keeping linear in the mix, or re-introducing TV after focusing mostly on digital the last few years? If you’re thinking how TV and CTV fit into your PSA strategy, I’m always happy share what we’re seeing across campaigns—feel free to connect or DM me. #TVAdvertising #PSA #MediaPlanning #Streaming #LinearTV #MarketingStrategy #2026Planning #Connect360Multimedia

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Sports Scoop Sunday Rundown on State of Streaming 🆘 - The E.W. Scripps Company brings PWHL into 95% of U.S. homes 📺 - Linear and IP still control the eyeballs per Josh Matthews, MMC 🍨 - How Amy Scheer has built a career of launching sports leagues 🏒 Get the Sunday edition here --> https://lnkd.in/evwUn3j5

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“Ramsey McGrory, newly appointed President of Prisma at Mediaocean, joins Ari Paparo to discuss how the company is evolving its platform across linear and digital media. They unpack the implications of Mediaocean’s acquisitions, including Innovid and Protected by Mediaocean, and what it means to consolidate media planning, buying, and verification in an increasingly fragmented ecosystem.” https://lnkd.in/gb3WgMes

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Happy to help our partners at Amazon with this measurement initiative. Proof that real purchase data, not modeled proxies, is what closes the gap between streaming exposure and verified sales outcomes.

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Straight from Nielsen, "New platform best for The Roku Channel, which increased its growth streak and reported 2.5% of TV." Also, historic milestone in that, "Streaming represented 44.8% of TV viewership in May 2025, its largest share of viewing to date, while broadcast (20.1%) and cable (24.1%) combined to represent 44.2% of TV."

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DraftKings Inc. is making headlines with a splashy NBCUniversal deal—but here’s what regional casino marketers shouldn’t overlook: Strategic media partnerships are powerful, but so is traditional media when it’s used with intention. While we shift spend toward digital, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that TV, radio, and print still move the needle—especially when they’re aligned with the guest journey and grounded in local market behavior. This article is a great reminder that it’s not about “either/or.” It’s about integrated strategies that make sense for your market. #casinomarketing #casinoadvertising https://lnkd.in/gKtu9Gyz

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