Tom Cibrowksi has been named CBS News president and executive editor, reporting to Wendy McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News and Television Stations and CBS Media Ventures.

In this role, announced today, Cibrowski will oversee CBS News, including newsgathering, all units and shows.

Cibrowski is currently the president and general manager of ABC owned San Francisco station KGO. Chairman of NBC local Valari Staab was gm of KGO before moving to NBC and CBS president Jennifer Mitchell started her career there.

This marks a return to CBS News for Cibrowski, who earlier was a broadcast producer for CBS News’ The Early Show.

“Tom brings a clear vision, fresh perspective and competitive edge that will serve us well here at CBS News,” said McMahon. “From bringing GMA to #1 to his vast international experience, I have no doubt he will lead CBS News to new heights. He will be instrumental in our mission to elevate the quality of our news coverage and strengthen our commitment to excellence.”

“Journalism and storytelling are what CBS News does the best,” Cibrowski said. “There is simply no one better. I’m beyond thrilled to be returning to this iconic and unmatched organization and can’t wait to hit the ground running.”

Cibrowski spent 25 years at ABC News in multiple leadership roles. He served as senior vice president of ABC News Programs, News Gathering and Special Events where he was responsible for global newsgathering, breaking news and content across all ABC News programs and platforms, including Good Morning America, World News Tonight, Nightline and 20/20.

At ABC, he rose through the Good Morning America ranks for over a decade. He served as the senior executive producer of the broadcast when it took over the number one morning show position from Today after 16 years, then described as a “once in a generation change.”

Cibrowski was the broadcast producer for the CBS Early Show with Bryant Gumbel when the program transitioned to a dynamic street side studio. He was also responsible for the morning program’s coverage during the attacks on 9/11.

Warner Bros. Discovery is the latest company to make changes to its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives amid the Trump Administration’s crackdown on the programs.

According to a memo sent to WBD employees on Thursday, the same day as the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report, the company’s “overarching work in this space will now be referred to as Inclusion.” The message, which was obtained by ADWEEK, was sent to all staff from Asif Sadiq, chief inclusion officer, and Jennifer Remling, chief people & culture officer, both of whom lead the company’s head of HR team.

WBD is making the adjustments to ensure it will “continue to comply with the evolving legal landscape in the United States and around the world,” per the memo.

Remling and Sadiq wrote in the memo that renaming the DEI group “better aligns our language with our focus throughout our company, in our industry, and across our content.” The memo continued, saying that the language was being updated to ensure “the intent and impact of our actions are clear; you will see this new approach being updated on wbd.com as well as on our internal channels.”

Along with updating the group’s name, WBD will also have “a uniform and consistent application process across our talent programs,” including internships, mentoring, and other development programs, the memo continued. “All of our programs will be open and welcoming to all applicants, with the goal of cultivating an inclusive home for world-class talent.”

Additionally, WBD will no longer be participating in workplace surveys from third parties, but the company said it will “continue to gather internal data that allows us to understand how our employee base reflects the audience we serve.”

“Telling stories that shape culture and engage people all over the world takes a commitment to diverse voices, perspectives, and experiences,” the two executives wrote in the memo. “Fully representing our audiences is critical to our business, our content, and our culture. We are now, and always will be, committed to ensuring our values underpin how we operate as a company.”

The news comes a day after Paramount announced that it was also updating its DEI initiatives. In a memo sent to staff by co-CEOs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy, and Brian Robbins, the executives noted the company would be rolling back on its programs amid Trump Administration mandates.

Other corporations like Amazon and Disney have also rolled back on DEI efforts recently. The updates come just a month after President Trump ordered federal agencies to remove DEI initiatives and suggested executives at U.S. agencies should “deter DEI programs or principles.”

Sports isn’t going anywhere.

Today, Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, released new research that shows global subscription video-on-demand services (SVODs), including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix, and Paramount+, have significantly grown their sports programming over the last quarter.

According to the Gracenote Data Hub, which provides a snapshot of global SVOD programming to show content trends and changes over time, the five platforms collectively increased their sports programs by more than 72% in the recent quarter, showcasing the demand for sports and live content.

Since the first Data Hub released last October 2024, sporting events like exclusive NFL games, WWE RAW events, U.S. Open tennis tournament matches, and more have been increasingly available across streaming platforms, according to the release.

Four of the five SVOD services tracked by Gracenote have boosted their sports programming, which is led by Disney+ and Netflix, with increases of 471% and nearly 100%, respectively. And though Apple TV+ did not increase its sports content in the recent quarter, that will change with the upcoming period as MLS and MLB seasons air on the platform.

The significant increase in sports programming on Disney+, largely from the addition of the ESPN+ tile, has shifted the distribution of sports programming across the five services.

ESPN+ has more than 30,000 live sports events each year, including MLB, WNBA, college sports, tennis, and golf, Disney noted while launching its ESPN tile on Disney+ in December. With the additional sporting events, Disney+ now accounts for nearly 33% of available sports programming.

Meanwhile, Netflix accounts for over 23% of sports programming, while Amazon Prime Video remains the largest distributor of video content, offering nearly 69% of the available programming, up from 67.8% in Q1 2024.

“Live sports programming continues to be an important driver of user growth, retention, and engagement for streaming services,” Bill Michels, chief product officer at Gracenote, said in a statement. “We are also seeing that relevant metadata, such as synopses, scores, highlights, and imagery, have the power to help streamers build world-class user experiences that keep users engaged beyond the live game.”

Other highlights from the report include an increase in content across global SVOD services, including approximately 3,000 movies, 2,000 TV shows, and 500 sports shows.

Perplexity is moving beyond AI search and into the crowded web browser market.

The $9 billion startup teased its new browser, Comet, on X, calling it an “agentic search” experience. It launched a signup list but offered few details on how the browser will stand out from competitors.

Comet: A Browser for Agentic Search by Perplexity

Coming soon. pic.twitter.com/SwVSwudgtN

— Perplexity (@perplexity_ai) February 24, 2025

“Just like we reinvented search with AI, we’re also reinventing the browser,” a Perplexity spokesperson told ADWEEK, but stopped short on sharing Comet’s key features and whether it will run ads.

Backed by Jeff Bezos, Perplexity has raised over $500 million and fields more than 100 million queries each week. The company has been ramping up monetization through advertising and ecommerce—and now, it’s betting a browser could be its next big play.

It’s an ambitious move in a space dominated by Google Chrome, Safari, and Microsoft Edge—browsers deeply embedded in their respective ecosystems.

While it’s unclear how Comet will differentiate itself, Perplexity’s push into web browsing signals an effort to control more of the search experience. If Perplexity weaves its AI-powered search engine directly into the browsing interface, it could mean users can surface answers without the need to visit traditional search results at all.

“Though the space is crowded with competitors, no one has yet built a robust AI integration into the browser experience in a way that takes off with consumers,” said Damian Rollison, SOCi’s director of market insights. “Many of the agentic tools recently debuted, but still hard to access, from companies like OpenAI would fit well in a browser format. A truly innovative browser could be the angle that helps propel Perplexity into broader market awareness.”

Meanwhile, Perplexity is also grappling with mounting legal challenges from publishers. The New York Times has demanded the startup stop accessing its premium content, while the New York Post and News Corp’s Dow Jones have sued Perplexity for copyright violations.

At the same time, the AI search company is trying to build goodwill with media outlets through its Publisher Program, which shares ad revenue when a publisher’s content appears alongside ads. The program has recently expanded, bringing on a second wave of partners including The Independent, LA Times, and Blavity.

The company has also challenged leaders like OpenAI with an AI research tool, “deep research,” while also launching an AI-powered assistant for Android and an API for AI search.

Burger King chief marketer (CMO) Pat O’Toole has left the QSR and joined Unleashed Brands as its new chief marketing officer, the company revealed on Thursday.

At Unleashed Brands, O’Toole will oversee the marketing efforts of more than 1,300 franchises with a mission to help kids learn, play, and grow.

The youth-enrichment company, which was launched in 2021, includes brands such as Urban Air Adventure Park, The Little Gym, Sylvan Learning, and Water Wings Swim School, among others.

“I am thrilled to join Unleashed Brands and contribute to its mission of building world-class brands that shape the next generation,” O’Toole said in a statement. “Unleashed Brands is making a real difference in the lives of children and families, and I look forward to helping expand that impact and drive meaningful growth across our brands.”

Prior to joining Unleashed Brands, O’Toole was the CMO at Burger King for two years, where he helped grow traffic, accelerate sales growth, and amplify the advancements the company was making to enhance the guest experience as part of its “Reclaim the Flame” strategy.

The initiative, which Burger King announced in September 2023, saw the Whopper maker invest $400 million over two years into the business. 

It dogeared roughly $150 million for advertising, while the remaining $250 million went toward digital investments like restaurant technology, kitchen equipment, building enhancements, and high-quality remodels and relocations.

Before he joined Burger King, O’Toole served as the CMO of PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew brand for just over a year. In total, O’Toole spent nearly 15 years at PepsiCo, starting off as an associate marketing manager in 2008. Before that, he spent time as a marketing manager for General Electric.

“Pat brings a wealth of experience in brand strategy, innovation and franchise marketing leadership, making him a valuable addition to our leadership team,” said Michael Browning, Jr., founder and chief executive of Unleashed Brands. 

“Marketing is at the core of Unleashed Brands’ growth and we have ambitious goals for 2025 that rely on leveraging data-driven insights and innovative strategies to move our brands forward,” he continued.

Cameron Diaz’s return to acting has paid off for her and Netflix, as her action comedy film Back in Action was the No. 1 streamed title for the week of Jan. 13.

According to Nielsen streaming ratings, Netflix had six standalone titles in the top 10 for the overall streamed programs during the week and had another two programs in the top 10 with which it shared streaming distribution rights. 

Interestingly enough, six titles finished above the billion-minute threshold for the week of Jan. 13, with four belonging to Netflix and the other two coming from Disney+ and Paramount+.

Starring Diaz and Jamie Foxx, Back in Action had 1.535 billion minutes of watch time. This is only the 34th time in 264 weeks that a feature film has finished as the top overall title in a given week.

In second place was the Western drama American Primeval, with 1.412 billion minutes viewed, followed by Younger, with 1.347 billion viewing minutes. Global hit Squid Game was the final Netflix title crossing the billion minutes viewed mark with 1.259 billion.

The animated kids’ series Bluey was the first non-Netflix entry to have more than a billion minutes viewed, with 1.087 billion. Rounding out the list is Paramount+’s Landman, which, despite concluding its 10-episode season the week prior, continued to attract eyeballs for the week of Jan 13, with 1.056 billion viewing minutes.

See Nielsen’s Top 10 overall in streaming below:

Content licensing agreements now account for about 10% of Reddit’s total revenue, the company’s CRO Jen Wong told ADWEEK in an exclusive interview Wednesday. 

“It’s a small part of our revenue—I’ll call it 10%. For a business of our size, that’s material, because it’s valuable revenue,” Wong said. 

The social platform—which on Wednesday reported a 71% year-over-year lift in fourth-quarter revenue—has been “very thoughtful” about the AI developers it chooses to work with, Wong said. To date, the company has inked two content licensing deals: one with Google for a reported $60 million, and one with ChatGPT parent OpenAI. 

Reddit has elected to work only with partners who can agree to “specific terms … that are really important to us.” These terms include user privacy protections and conditions regarding “how [Reddit is] represented,” Wong said. 

While licensing agreements with AI firms offer a valuable business opportunity for Reddit, advertising remains the company’s core revenue driver. 

Much of Reddit’s $427.7 million Q4 revenues were generated by the ongoing expansion of its advertising business. And its ad revenue as a whole grew 60% YoY, underscoring the platform’s growing appeal to brands. 

The company, which IPOed last March, has focused on expanding its ads business. In January it debuted AMA Ads and Pro Trends to woo mainstream brands. AMA Ads lets brands host Q&A sessions with built-in RSVP and reminder features, while Pro Trends enables businesses to monitor brand mentions and viral discussions on Reddit. 

Reddit has also invested significant resources into machine learning and AI to enhance ad targeting and user engagement. It acquired Memorable AI in August, a startup that predicts user engagement with ad creative, to bolster ad effectiveness on Reddit. 

The efforts are paying off. The company has doubled its click volume and its conversion volume YoY and recorded significant growth across channels, geographical regions, and verticals in 2024. A particular bright spot has been small- to medium-sized advertisers, which drove “outsized growth” during Q4, according to Wong.

Reddit is focused on logged-in users, and more automation

Helping to accelerate ad revenue growth is Reddit’s rising traffic. While Reddit’s Q4 user growth came in under Wall Street projections, causing shares to dip, its weekly active uniques grew 42% YoY to over 379 million visitors. Average revenue per unique visitor was $4.21 during the quarter, up 23% from the prior year. 

While Google is “nicely reinforcing” Reddit’s growth in traffic, Wong said, she added that the site’s logged-in users, which have grown 27% year-over-year, are “the bedrock of our business.”

In the coming months, Reddit plans to expand its own machine learning and AI capabilities—efforts that Wong believes will help sustain its ads business growth.

“We’re exploring end-to-end automation, especially for performance objectives, that just make it easier to activate on our advertising platform,” she said.

The company is also looking to refine its proprietary tools with the integration of more data signals, or “community intelligence,” as Wong put it. “It’s the corpus of data and thoughts and insights and conversation on our platform that allows [media] planners to strategize where they might find potential customers.”

For the full year, Reddit brought in $1.3 billion in revenue, up 62% YoY, with ad sales contributing $1.2 billion—a 50% leap from 2023. The company’s non-U.S. revenue jumped 76% in Q4 and 55% for the full year. 

However, Reddit still has a lot of work to do to hit profitability. It reported $71 million in net income for Q4, reversing a more modest $18.5 million profit in the prior year, and its full-year net loss deepened to $484.3 million, compared with $90.8 million in 2023.

Nielsen and Graham Media Group have announced a multi-year agreement for Local TV measurement across the station group’s six markets (Detroit, Houston, San Antonio, Orlando, Jacksonville, Roanoke).

The agreement also includes Scarborough, which provides consumer insights that connect the dots between media consumption and local brands, retailers, and consumer behaviors.

New to the agreement is Nielsen’s Local Over the Top (OTT) measurement, which captures incremental impressions to Local TV and reports them with comparable metrics for the benefit of buyers, sellers, and content producers, and Digital Content Ratings (DCR), which Graham Media will use in their Jacksonville market.

“We are excited to continue working with Nielsen as our measurement provider and are encouraged by their commitment to innovation that matches our own,” said Catherine Badalamente, president and CEO at Graham Media Group. “Trusted audience insights are critical to understand our audience across all platforms and equip our advertisers with data to inform their strategies.”

“Nielsen is proud to expand our partnership with Graham Media Group and deliver the most comprehensive view of their Local Linear, Digital, and Streaming audiences,” said Paul LeFort, managing director of Nielsen’s Local TV business. “Our commitment to innovation, including enhanced insights backed by our comprehensive Big Data + Panel Local TV measurement, empowers broadcasters, publishers & advertisers with accurate, representative & cross-platform measurement to drive the Local TV business forward.”

The Eagles blew out the Chiefs, and Fox blew out the ratings record.

Today, Fox reports that Super Bowl 59 reached an average of 126 million viewers. Those numbers come from Fox projections, including Nielsen Fast Nationals and Tubi/NFL first-party analytics.

With the rating, Super Bowl 59 becomes the most-viewed Big Game ever, beating Paramount’s showing of Super Bowl 58, which received 123.7 million viewers last year.

The ratings are inclusive of Fox, Fox Deportes, Tubi, Telemundo, and NFL digital properties, according to the company.

Fox said viewership peaked from 8 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. ET in the second quarter, reaching 135.7 million viewers. The company also said there was record-high streaming viewership, totaling 14.5 million viewers. Meanwhile, Tubi, which streamed the game for free, delivered 13.6 million viewers.

With the numbers, Fox beats its viewership for Super Bowl 57, which was 115.1 million, by more than 10 million viewers.

The massive viewership comes despite a game that wasn’t competitive late due to the Philadelphia Eagles’ decisive win over the Kansas City Chiefs. It also comes amid an unprecedented demand for ad space in 2025.

This year, Fox sold 30-second ads for more than $8 million for the first time, with over 10 ads coming in at that price and a waitlist of advertisers ready to jump in for any availability. Pregame ads were also going for as high as $4.5 million, and post-game ads could reach $4 million.

The company sold out the game months in advance, and ADWEEK previously reported Fox was approaching $700 million from just its national ad sales, which is a new record.

“We’ve seen demand increase where you can aggregate significant scale in one commercial. You can’t do that in other places. Really, live sports is the last bastion of a place to do that,” Mark Evans, head of Fox Sports ad sales, previously told ADWEEK.

With the increased demand, media buyers are already reaching out to NBCUniversal, which holds the rights to next year’s Super Bowl broadcast from Levi’s Stadium (Santa Clara, CA), home of the San Francisco 49ers.

Speaking with ADWEEK back in May 2024, Mark Marshall, the company’s ad sales chief, said preliminary talks had already started in terms of the Super Bowl and other live event opportunities.

“We have people that we have multiyear deals with that go across either entertainment or entertainment and sports, so ongoing conversations as it relates to not only Super Bowl discussion, but Olympics, SNL 50,” Marshall said. “We have a lot of these events that span multiple broadcast seasons. So we’re having discussions with these people.”

See the logo for NBCU’s upcoming Super Bowl, which airs Feb. 8, 2026, on NBC, below:

Party’s at our place next year. 🏆 #SuperBowlLX

📺 NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/hO3HT1xfK2

— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) February 10, 2025

For the latest Super Bowl 59 advertising news, check out ADWEEK’s Super Bowl 2025 Ad Tracker and the rest of our stories here.

With all due respect to the Philadelphia Eagles, there was another big winner at Sunday’s Super Bowl.

The Nike logo was shown onscreen more than any other brand during Sunday’s Big Game between the Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, measurement and technology company Samba TV tells ADWEEK. Nike’s logo appeared 819 times across 521 unique frames of footage, including the brand’s 60-second Super Bowl ad and the logo appearing in-game, according to company data.

“Nike didn’t just show up during the Super Bowl—it dominated the screen,” Samba TV co-founder and CEO Ashwin Navin told ADWEEK in a statement. “Not only did its ‘So Win’ ad win the most-watched ranking and fan-favorite status amongst viewers, its logo was the MVP of the game.”

Samba TV analyzes logo detection as part of its efforts to quantify brand exposure and ROI during major live televised events, including the Super Bowl. According to the company, a total of 37 million U.S. households saw the Nike logo—which the company said was 99% of the Super Bowl’s total audience—at an average frequency of 371 times.

“Nike’s presence was unavoidable,” Navin added. “At an average frequency of 371 views per household, this wasn’t just brand exposure; it was a masterclass in brand visibility.”

In addition to the brand’s in-game presence, Nike’s “So Win” commercial, created by Wieden+Kennedy Portland, was one of the best-reviewed ads of the night among ad industry creatives canvassed by ADWEEK. Additionally, Business Insider reports the commercial helped the brand generate the most social media engagement of any advertiser, per data from social and consumer intelligence company Meltwater.

Between the logo exposure and the social media buzz, the night was a huge success for the company, especially considering the Super Bowl’s extra pricey real estate in 2025. Fox Super Bowl ads topped more than $8 million for 30 seconds this year, a new all-time high.

And with Nike rising to the top in visibility, others fell to the bottom.

A Swift decline

Samba TV told ADWEEK that the Taylor Swift Effect was virtually nonexistent during Super Bowl 59. The star appeared only a small number of times compared to 2024’s Big Game.

Of course, the very fact that there’s a phenomenon called the Swift Effect means the singer will likely shake it off.

Watch Nike’s Super Bowl 59 Ad, “So Win,” below.