Fox announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Roku in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately $22 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Roku shareholders will own approximately 26% of the combined company following closing, which is expected in early 2027.
Read:
- Fox Corporation to Acquire Roku, Inc. (June 15) – Fox
- Fox to Acquire Roku in $22 Billion Deal (June 15) – The Hollywood Reporter
Investors appeared to have mixed views on the deal. Fox shares fell roughly 15% following the announcement while Roku shares were little changed after surging on Friday.
From tipsheet: This deal looks less like a media acquisition and more like a distribution acquisition. Roku gives Fox a direct connection to viewers, not just programming. As television becomes software-driven, the companies that control distribution may ultimately wield more power than the companies that create programming.
LLMs & CHATBOTS
Developments
- General-purpose large language models (LLMs) outperform specialized clinical AI tools on medical benchmarks (June 12) – Nature
- “Introducing the OpenAI Partner Network” (June 15) – Denise Holland Dresser, CRO, OpenAI on LinkedIn
- Anthropic’s Safety Superpower (June 15) – Analyst Ben Thompson on Stratechery (subscription)
CONNECTED TV
Reaction to Fox-Roku: Could Meta bid?
The Fox-Roku transaction is not expected to close until early 2027, leaving a lengthy window for competing offers to emerge.
In the wake of yesterday’s news, New Street Research analyst Dan Salmon argues that Meta could have strategic interest in Roku:
“Moreover, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been focused on and speaking publicly from time to time about making his company more vertically integrated (current focus on emerging markets in AR and VR, but this is driven by the disruptions Meta has faced distributing its mobile apps primarily through the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, most notably, AAPL’s App Tracking Transparency framework, which rolled out in 2021). As such, we think Roku would be an ideal acquisition for Meta if it wanted to rapidly accelerate its CTV ambitions and tap into a TAM it has largely ignored until now.
Would a deal survive antitrust scrutiny? Few companies have as much of a bipartisan attention in DC and state capitals today as Meta (not to mention European legislatures and policy bodies), largely owing to the growing tide of attention being paid to the risks of social media use to teens. However, with no material competitive position in CTV, we think Meta could make an interesting case, even if the deal pads its #2 position in digital advertising. Afterall, the deal would make Meta a much more formidable competitor versus YouTube, especially as Meta has explicitly said it aims to grow long-form content from creators, YouTube’s traditional base of strength. And as this weekend’s events on the lawn of the White House reminded us, CEO Zuckerberg and President Trump seem to have a flourishing relationship…”
Salmon also thinks TikTok USA could have strategic interest in Roku for similar reasons to Meta.
Related: “Fox acquires Roku; why Amazon didn’t” (June 15) – Eric Seufert on Mobile Dev Memo (subscription)
From tipsheet: Whether Meta or another bidder ultimately enters the process or not, the argument highlights why Roku may be attracting interest. The company is increasingly viewed not as a streaming hardware maker but as a distribution asset: an OS, advertising platform and direct connection to more than 100 million households.
RETAIL MEDIA
Data is the asset
Uber
- Uber Aims to Juice Its $2B Ad Business With Google and Meta (June 15) – Adweek
- Uber Advertising Introduces New Solutions to Connect Brands with Consumers—On and Off Uber (June 15) – Uber blog
Electronic Arts
- Electronic Arts launches EA Advertising, a new way for brands to advertise ‘directly into gameplay’ (June 15) – CNBC
- Electronic Arts Introduces EA Advertising, Launching Brands Directly Into Gameplay and Live Experiences (June 15) – EA
DATA
Hightouch unveils ‘Agentic CDP’
In announcing the next iteration of the Hightouch customer data platform, CEO Tejas Manohar teased on LinkedIn:
“The future of CDP is still composable, but it’s also proactive. It understands your marketing, investigates what’s happening across the business, and surfaces the most valuable opportunities before anyone asks.”
Read more. (June 15)
Where do the agents fit in?
Read: “The next chapter: Agentic CDP” – Hightouch
“The Agentic CDP now builds on that foundation with agents that understand your data, campaigns, goals, creative, and brand rules. The agents know what matters, what campaigns are already in flight, and where new campaigns or improvements could have the greatest impact.”
From tipsheet: The CDP category started as customer data infrastructure. Hightouch’s Agentic CDP points toward a different future: systems that don’t just activate data but continuously identify opportunities and recommend actions. It’s another “take” on an OS – this one focused on marketing decisions.
LLMs & CHATBOTS
From targetability to recommendability
Previewing his participation in a Campaign article, Dentsu UK Chief Media Officer Toby Benjamin says he’s pleased to have his agency as a partner in the recent launch of ChatGPT ads in the UK.
He explains the wider implications on LinkedIn:
Whilst much of the conversation has understandably focused on the ad product itself, I think the bigger story is what it signals about where digital advertising may be heading.
For years, digital advertising rewarded brands that were easiest to target. The next phase may reward brands that are easiest to trust.
My view is that we could be moving towards a world where recommendation becomes just as important as visibility, and where trust, expertise and usefulness become increasingly valuable assets for brands.”
Read more. (June 15)
More: “Why OpenAI advertising matters – and how it could change the advertising industry” (June 15) – Campaign UK (subscription)
From tipsheet: Search rewarded visibility. AI assistants may reward recommendability.
You don’t just need consumers to trust your brand. You need AI systems to recommend it.
MEASUREMENT
Opinion: When every ad is different
AI makes it possible to generate and deploy virtually unlimited creative variations. But what happens to measurement when no two consumers see the same ad?
In a new AdExchanger op-ed, consultant Erez Levin argues that hyper-personalization can work, but only within strict limits. He explains:
“This is the exact terrain where “black box” solutions like Google’s Performance Max or Meta’s Advantage+ thrive. They are highly efficient engines for harvesting existing demand. But the existential danger arises when enterprise brands mistake these bottom-funnel harvesting tools for holistic marketing strategies.”
Levin’s alternative: “The goal shouldn’t be the right ad for the right person at the right time. It should be the right messages for the right population over time.”
Read: “The Paradox Of Personalization: Billions Of AI-Tailored Ads Creates A Measurement Mess” (June 15) – AdExchanger
SEARCH
Meta brings AI Mode to Facebook
Meta is bringing its own version of “AI Mode” to Facebook as the company opens an enhanced search capability driven by user data and a core model developed by Meta’s Superintelligence Lab.
From yesterday’s announcement:
“AI Mode is a new way to get answers to your questions right on Facebook thanks to Meta AI. From exploring your Feed to searching for something specific, AI Mode uses Meta AI to give you answers grounded in what people are saying publicly across our apps like in Groups and Reels, so you get real perspectives and experiences rather than a generic list of search results.
It’s another way Meta AI, powered by Muse Spark, is showing up for you in the experiences you already use. Whether you’re searching or diving deeper into content, Meta AI is right there, ready to help.”
This follows the company’s launch of the Forum app in late May that pulls from content within Facebook Groups and creates a potential competitor to Reddit.
Read: New AI Tools to Help You Make Things Happen on Facebook (June 15) – Meta
Also in the announcement: AI creative tools for making photos and videos.
More: Meta’s new ‘AI Mode’ on Facebook pulls from public info across its platforms (June 15) – TechCrunch
From tipsheet: The surface area for ads keeps increasing at Meta. The “AI Mode” name alone signals that Meta wants to be compared directly with Google. As AI search becomes a category, competitors appear to be converging on the same language, just as advertising platforms converged around concepts like Performance Max and Advantage+.
PLATFORMS
Google Ads expands bidding tools
On LinkedIn, Google Ads Product Liaison Ginny Marvin breaks down a 3-part update on bidding and budgeting with Google ads: Smart Bidding Exploration (SBE) expansion, Promotion mode (Beta) and Bidding target optimization update (coming Aug 17). Read more.
Read: Bidding and Budgeting Updates to Scale Your Growth – Accelerate with Google
From tipsheet: Digital advertising continues to move from campaign configuration toward system supervision. Advertisers increasingly tell Google their objectives, constraints and budgets while Google’s models decide where to find the next conversion opportunity. The question becomes less “How should I run this campaign?” and more “What should I ask the machine to optimize for?”
PLATFORMS
MiQ expands Sigma with planning agent
Programmatic media company MiQ announced new agentic capabilities for its Sigma platform last week, including natural language prompts.
In a press release, the company explained:
- “Sigma Planning Agent: Helps marketers turn a single conversational prompt into a media plan in minutes, with audience, channel, and tactical recommendations ready to be actioned. Planners can now spend less time stitching together inputs and more time shaping ready-to-launch strategy. The Planning agent joins the Trading Agent launched last year to give marketers end-to-end activation capabilities.”
- “Sigma Total Measurement: Helps marketers optimize the full consumer journey to drive long-term sales growth, not just short-term media KPIs. Sigma users can now see how channels work together, identify where investment is compounding, and reinvest with greater confidence.”
Read: MiQ Sigma Expands with New Data Capabilities and Ways to Activate
From tipsheet: Workflow remains one of the advertising industry’s favorite uses of AI agents thus far. MiQ’s Planning Agent turns media planning into a conversational workflow and extends Sigma’s role further upstream in campaign decision-making. The larger opportunity may be owning a feedback loop that connects planning decisions to outcomes.
MORE
- Where CMOs are finding AI success and what gaps remain (June 15) – Ad Age (subscription)
- As AI reshapes search, TikTok turns discovery into a performance pitch (June 15) – Digiday
- Podcast: “Walmart Connect’s Ryan Mayward on Their Big CTV Move: Yahoo, Magnite and Vizio Explained” (June 15) – Marketecture Podcast