News from the open internet

The Latest

Cannes Lions: 4 of the biggest advertising trends to watch in 2025

The Cannes Lions 2025 preview, including balancing AI with human creativity, women’s sports marketing and the rise of the creator economy.

Travis Clark

Across the internet

Rising competition

France's Canal+ outlines ambitions to compete with U.S. streamers.

Streaming milestone

In a new Nielsen report, streaming surpassed combined broadcast and cable viewership for the first time in May.

Targeting SMBs

Britain's Channel 4, ITV and Sky join forces to launch a self-serve TV ad marketplace to attract new-to-TV brands.

WhatsAds

WhatsApp will start showing ads in the app for the first time.

X gon' give it to ya (a lawsuit)

WSJ reports Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino are trying to strong-arm advertisers back onto the platform.

Google changes

The tech giant is offering buyouts to employees in its search and ads unit as it faces existential threats.

Disney Hulu deal

Disney to pay Comcast an additional $439 million for Hulu to complete the deal.

New hire

Disney+ poaches Angela Jain from Britain's ITV to lead content for EMEA. The exec previously commissioned Love Island for ITV.

Traffic jam

The Wall Street Journal reports how organic search traffic is sliding for some top news publishers amid Google's pivot to AI.

Streaming expansion

WBD will launch HBO Max in 12 more countries in July, as it approaches 100 markets.

Cannes Lions

The Current’s ultimate guide to this year’s Cannes Lions Festival

For those heading to Cannes or tuning in from afar, our Field Guide highlights key themes and events from the Palais.

The Current: From Radio to Spotify: The evolution of audio.

Video

Damian Fowler

Audio’s big moment is now. Are you listening?

Chris Brooklier

The messy world of TV currency and how competitors are trying to unseat Nielsen

Zac Wang

Programmatic Pioneers 2025: Sorrell, industry leaders predict AI-led shake-up in media buying roles

Travis Clark

Canada’s CTV market is growing fast. One of its biggest broadcasters is making it better.

Tharshini Tharma-Asokan

IAB Australia Video Summit: The biggest opportunity in video isn’t the latest hit show, but unified measurement

Podcast

Opinion|June 11
The open internet is still with us (and so is Paul)
Jeff Green
Culture|May 22
Inside the Golden State Valkyries’ first game — and how they’re building a WNBA team from scratch
Chris Brooklier
The Readout|June 4
71% of streaming subscriber gains in the last 2 years were to ad plans
Travis Clark
Opinion|June 12
The Trade Desk’s Jill Smith on how differentiation will fuel retail media’s next wave
Office Hours|May 27
What the Tech is attribution modeling?
John McDermott
Marketing Strategy|June 3
We analyzed hiring data to predict where advertising is going next
Shawn Lim

The Latest

Cannes Lions: 4 of the biggest advertising trends to watch in 2025

Canada’s CTV market is growing fast. One of its biggest broadcasters is making it better.

The open internet is the premium internet

IAB Australia Video Summit: The biggest opportunity in video isn’t the latest hit show, but unified measurement

The messy world of TV currency and how competitors are trying to unseat Nielsen

The open internet is still with us (and so is Paul)

The Trade Desk’s Jill Smith on how differentiation will fuel retail media’s next wave

Across the internet

Rising competition

Streaming milestone

Targeting SMBs

WhatsAds

X gon' give it to ya (a lawsuit)

Google changes

Disney Hulu deal

New hire

Traffic jam

Streaming expansion

The Current’s ultimate guide to this year’s Cannes Lions Festival

Video

For Context: The evolution of audio

For Context: Evolution of the marketing funnel

Mondelēz International’s Rachel Lawson on brand marketing, retail media and the importance of diversity

For Context: From cable to connected TV: Live sports on screen

Writers

Podcast

Gallo Winery’s Amy Lund on bringing wine to the NFL

CNN International Commercial’s Rob Bradley on evolving a legacy media company

PayPal’s Jenna Griffith on building a media business from transaction data

Chuck E. Cheese’s Melissa McLeanas on becoming a media network for families

Trending

The open internet is still with us (and so is Paul)

Inside the Golden State Valkyries’ first game — and how they’re building a WNBA team from scratch

71% of streaming subscriber gains in the last 2 years were to ad plans

The Trade Desk’s Jill Smith on how differentiation will fuel retail media’s next wave

What the Tech is attribution modeling?

We analyzed hiring data to predict where advertising is going next

Cannes Lions: 4 of the biggest advertising trends to watch in 2025

Canada’s CTV market is growing fast. One of its biggest broadcasters is making it better.

The open internet is the premium internet

IAB Australia Video Summit: The biggest opportunity in video isn’t the latest hit show, but unified measurement

The messy world of TV currency and how competitors are trying to unseat Nielsen

The open internet is still with us (and so is Paul)

The Trade Desk’s Jill Smith on how differentiation will fuel retail media’s next wave

Across the internet

The Current’s ultimate guide to this year’s Cannes Lions Festival

For Context: The evolution of audio

For Context: Evolution of the marketing funnel

Mondelēz International’s Rachel Lawson on brand marketing, retail media and the importance of diversity

For Context: From cable to connected TV: Live sports on screen

Subscribe to The Current

Gallo Winery’s Amy Lund on bringing wine to the NFL

CNN International Commercial’s Rob Bradley on evolving a legacy media company

PayPal’s Jenna Griffith on building a media business from transaction data

Chuck E. Cheese’s Melissa McLeanas on becoming a media network for families

The open internet is still with us (and so is Paul)

Inside the Golden State Valkyries’ first game — and how they’re building a WNBA team from scratch

71% of streaming subscriber gains in the last 2 years were to ad plans

The Trade Desk’s Jill Smith on how differentiation will fuel retail media’s next wave

What the Tech is attribution modeling?

We analyzed hiring data to predict where advertising is going next