News
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ITVX Crosses 400 Million Monthly Streams for the First Time
ITVX Crosses 400 Million Monthly Streams for the First Time ITV's streaming platform recorded 468 million streams and 21 million users in June, its strongest month on record and an increase of 173 million streams year-on-year. The World Cup drove 16 of ITVX's 20 most-streamed audiences of the year, while Love Island's share of total viewing climbed to 64%, up from 53% a year earlier. Key takeaway: ITVX hit its record month just as ITV agreed to sell the platform to Sky, underscoring how much streaming momentum is changing hands in that deal. Source: https://www.advanced-television.com/2026/07/02/itvx-delivers-record-month-driven-by-world-cup/
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CTV Ad Buyers Get Real Show-Level Performance Data for the First Time
CTV Ad Buyers Get Real Show-Level Performance Data for the First Time InterMedia Advertising tested a Peer39-Pontiac Intelligence integration that uses anonymized publisher content IDs to deliver show-level performance reporting for 94% of CTV impressions bought via open auction, versus the 10-15% norm to date, lifting add-to-cart conversions 64% in a test campaign. Rival demand-side platforms including Viant, IRIS.tv and Beeswax are building similar frameworks. Key takeaway: Show-level attribution has long been the missing link in CTV measurement — as it becomes commercially viable, ad-supported VaaS platforms will face pressure to match this level of reporting in their own monetization stacks. Source: https://www.adexchanger.com/tv/ctv-buyers-are-getting-the-show-level-performance-optimization-theyve-always-wanted/
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FIFA Splits Its World Cup Video Game Strategy Across Netflix, Roblox and Football Manager
FIFA Splits Its World Cup Video Game Strategy Across Netflix, Roblox and Football Manager Four years after ending its exclusive deal with EA Sports, FIFA built its 2026 World Cup video game with Delphi Interactive and distributed it exclusively through Netflix on mobile and CTV rather than console or PC, alongside a Roblox hub that has drawn more than 1.1 billion visits and a licensed World Cup mode in Football Manager. EA's own unlicensed in-game tribute mode in EA Sports FC 26 was widely panned as a pale imitation. Key takeaway: Major rights holders are fragmenting game licensing across streaming, mobile and user-generated platforms instead of betting on one console title, a shift rights-management-minded VaaS customers should watch. Source: https://www.sportspro.com/analysis/esports-and-digital-sport/netflix-roblox-football-manager-video-game-strategy-fifa/
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RTVE Partners With Professor Octopus AI Lab on Foundational Audiovisual AI Models
RTVE Partners With Professor Octopus AI Lab on Foundational Audiovisual AI Models Spanish public broadcaster RTVE signed a collaboration agreement with Navarre-based Professor Octopus AI Lab to co-develop foundational AI models for image and video alongside tools to detect deepfakes and other fraudulent content. The deal covers AI across production, creation and distribution, extending RTVE's AI push beyond its earlier AI-generated newscast experiment into infrastructure-level model development. Key takeaway: Public broadcasters are starting to build proprietary AI capability rather than license third-party tools, a shift from experimentation to infrastructure investment that raises the bar for smaller players relying on vendor AI features. Source: https://www.audiovisual451.com/rtve-firma-un-convenio-de-colaboracion-con-professor-octopus-para-investigar-y-desarrollar-proyectos-de-ia/
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Live-Streaming Data Shows "Just Chatting" Content Now Beats Games for Watch Time
Live-Streaming Data Shows "Just Chatting" Content Now Beats Games for Watch Time A Q1 2026 Streamlabs/Stream Hatchet report shows "Just Chatting" overtook gaming as the most-watched category across major live-streaming platforms, with total watch hours up roughly 2.9% year-over-year to 21.49 billion. Twitch holds 51.3% of watch-hours despite streaming 76% of all hours, while Kick over-indexes on watch-time relative to hours streamed. Key takeaway: Creator-led, personality-driven content — not games or scripted programming — is now the primary demand driver in live streaming, a signal for any VaaS platform weighing creator or user-generated content integrations. Source: https://digiday.com/media/in-graphic-detail-the-state-of-streaming-highlights-the-power-of-creators/
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"The Bear" Season 5 Extends Disney's Streak of Sold-Out Ad Sponsorships
"The Bear" Season 5 Extends Disney's Streak of Sold-Out Ad Sponsorships Disney Advertising says "The Bear" Season 5, which debuted on Hulu and Disney+ on June 25, sold out its ad sponsorships again, continuing a pattern of rising ad revenue for the show every season since 2022. The show remains one of Disney's most reliable premium ad vehicles even as the broader streaming ad market stays volatile. Key takeaway: A single hit series can still anchor sold-out premium ad demand on a streaming platform, showing content quality remains a more reliable monetization lever than scale alone. Source: https://www.adweek.com/convergent-tv/how-the-bear-helped-cook-up-new-ad-interest-in-disney-shows/
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England's World Cup Win Delivers BBC's Biggest Live Audience of 2026
England's World Cup Win Delivers BBC's Biggest Live Audience of 2026 BBC One and iPlayer drew a peak of 16.3 million viewers (14 million average) for England's win over DR Congo, with 10.4 million streams across iPlayer, the Sport site and app. The match also set a new BBC UHD concurrent-stream record of 1.36 million. Key takeaway: Major live sport keeps proving the single strongest lever for streaming engagement spikes, even for broadcasters without dedicated sports subscription tiers. Source: https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/englands-world-cup-knockout-win-delivers-bbcs-biggest-live-tv-audience-of-2026-as-digital-engagement-surges/
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Bending Spoons Shares Cool From Debut Highs in First Week as a Public Company
Bending Spoons Shares Cool From Debut Highs in First Week as a Public Company Bending Spoons — the Italian roll-up whose portfolio includes Bedrock rival Brightcove and Vimeo — priced its Nasdaq IPO at $29 on July 1 and surged as much as 40% on its debut before pulling back. Shares have since settled in the mid-$30s by July 6, still well above the IPO price but off their first-week highs, as investors work out how to value an acquisition-heavy VaaS roll-up with a stated pipeline of roughly 1,000 further targets. Key takeaway: Public markets are still pricing in integration risk for Bending Spoons' roll-up model — the pullback from debut highs signals investors want more proof points before sustaining the initial pop. Source: https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/bsp/
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Vodafone, Orange and Deutsche Telekom Unit Launch European Media Marketplace to Rival US Ad Giants
Vodafone, Orange and Deutsche Telekom Unit Launch European Media Marketplace to Rival US Ad Giants A coalition of ten major European telcos, retailers and ad-tech firms — including Vodafone, Orange Advertising, T Advertising Solutions (Deutsche Telekom), Virgin Media O2, Experian and Equativ — launched the European Media Marketplace on July 7, giving advertisers a single access point to buy CTV, video, display and retail-media inventory across their combined datasets. The marketplace launches first in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, with initial campaigns going live in September, positioning itself explicitly as a sovereign European alternative to US-based ad platforms. Key takeaway: Ten of Europe's largest telcos, retailers and ad-tech firms pooling their audience data into a single marketplace is a direct structural challenge to the Google/Meta ad duopoly, and a sign that "European digital sovereignty" is moving from policy rhetoric into commercial ad-tech infrastructure. Source: https://videoweek.com/2026/07/07/european-telcos-retailers-and-ad-tech-companies-form-european-media-marketplace/
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RTL Deutschland's "Company Day One" Surfaces Open Questions on Three-Brand Streaming Strategy
RTL Deutschland's "Company Day One" Surfaces Open Questions on Three-Brand Streaming Strategy On Company Day One with Sky Deutschland, RTL Deutschland CEO Stephan Schmitter confirmed the merged company will run RTL+, Sky and Wow as three separate pay-streaming brands at the outset, while press pressed on unresolved questions: whether Sky Stream's broadband business gets sold to partner Deutsche Telekom, and what added value high-paying Sky subscribers get from the merger. The event marked the formal start of joint operations following Legal Day One on July 1. Key takeaway: Running three separate pay-streaming brands simultaneously is an unusual structure for a newly merged company, and RTL Deutschland's inability to yet answer the Sky-subscriber-value question shows the integration playbook is still being written in real time. Source: https://www.dwdl.de/meinungen/107084/company_day_one_rtl_deutschland_sky_und_offene_fragen/
