Streaming ads, DSP margins and Meta’s $25 billion fine

The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that a New Mexico court fined Meta $25 billion after a jury found Meta liable for nearly 44 million violations of the state’s Unfair Practices Act. The Santa Fe New Mexican said the jury cited misleading accounts of personal-data handling and a failure to implement safeguards after the 2016 Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Can streaming services make advertising work?

Digiday reported that investors and equity analysts assessed streaming television on Wednesday at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in New York City. The panel’s verdict was a little bleak.

Eric Menell, J.P. Morgan’s global head of media and communications investment banking, said: “Compared to linear TV, streaming doesn’t serve consumers as well as many had hoped.”

Digiday reported that consumers resist paying for multiple services, especially when they also have to pay to see commercials. Many platforms now consider free, ad-supported tiers as a simple value exchange, according to the report.

The panel’s analysts said services must raise engagement with original content and intellectual property, especially live sports. They also must balance needed ad revenue with a decent viewing experience.

Jessica Reif Ehrlich, managing director of media, entertainment and US equity research at Bank of America Securities, said advertising is “such a high-margin, incremental” source of revenue. Without functional ad businesses, she said, streamers cannot achieve profitability.

Digiday noted that Netflix continues to highlight sign-ups for its advertising tier but supplied no figure. The panel’s takeaway was plain: streaming profitability depends on workable advertising.

Why DSP costs squeeze independents?

Digiday reported that independent media agencies have fallen behind the largest holding companies, partly because those groups acquire standout independents.

A 15-person New York agency clears The Trade Desk’s $100,000 monthly minimum, equal to $1.2 million a year. Yet an executive told Digiday that slim DSP margins make additional spending difficult there.

The agency uses reseller Mogl instead. The executive said Mogl takes 12% of media spend on top of The Trade Desk’s 17%, producing a combined 29% fee. Under that arrangement, the stacked charges absorb nearly 30 cents of every media dollar.

A buyer at a 25-person agency in Washington state told Digiday that Amazon DSP claims no minimum spend threshold. The buyer said committing a specific budget is the easiest way to secure a direct account.

Digiday described an ad-tech payment chain in which DSPs pay upfront but sometimes wait months for an agency or brand to pay for a campaign worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Delays can trigger publisher clawbacks. If a DSP goes bankrupt, SSPs can be left holding unpaid balances, according to the report.

Digiday concluded that small agencies should not expect DSP fees to improve soon. For those agencies, the report leaves little leverage over platform access and payment risk.

Why are publishers pushing writers onto newsletters?

Owen Lewis of Defector reported that legacy publishers are turning to paid newsletters as AI search traffic weakens. Lewis wrote that Defector, a competitor of The Ringer, questioned the Spotify-backed outlet’s developing newsletter strategy.

According to Lewis, popular Ringer writers and podcasters Sean Fennessey, Zach Lowe, Tom Pelissero and Bryan Curtis recently launched Substack newsletters at different subscription price points. Writer Todd McShay publishes his newsletter on Beehiiv.

The Ringer has largely pivoted to video podcasting, Lewis wrote. He said newsletters give creators a route back to writing, while Fennessey told GQ that writing provides more precision for news than podcasting.

Lewis asked why The Ringer does not require more writing for its own website and place that material behind a paywall. He also suggested the wider website-based publishing model is losing favor.

Lewis’s account points to subscription choices moving onto external platforms rather than concentrating on The Ringer’s own site.

What else changed?

• Digiday, citing Comscore, said YouTube led streaming-TV advertising exposure, with Tubi a distant second.
• Modern Retail said consumers may be 30%, or nearly one-third, through their holiday budgets by the end of October.
• Business Insider reported that TikTok was shifting its media budget en masse to YouTube after Meta banned its ads.
• Mashable reported that lockscreen ads were unexpectedly easy to remove from Kindle devices.
• Ars Technica reported two severe security vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language widely used by web and app developers.
• AP reported that Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy planned a $4 million attack ad featuring opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother. Her mother lost custody of Acton when she was 12, and Ramaswamy faced criticism from his own party.
• Search Engine Land said ChatGPT’s disappearing UTM links resulted from a mistake that has now been fixed.
• Ad Age reported that Diageo appointed Sebnem Erim as chief marketing officer for North America.

Streaming’s next test is whether advertising can lift profitability without worsening the viewer experience. For small agencies, cheaper direct DSP access and faster payment terms remain unresolved.