The Olympics are here, and brands are looking to compete in new ways.

NBCUniversal has made it clear that the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, which take place July 26 through Aug. 11, won’t be business as usual for the broadcaster. The company is bringing in teams of celebrities, including Jimmy Fallon, Snoop Dogg, Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper and even AI-generated broadcasters, to entice fans to tune in. In addition, the company is rolling out more than 7,000 hours of coverage across every one of the media giant’s linear, digital and streaming platforms.

Of that total, 5,000 hours will show up on Peacock, where the company is bringing advertisers new opportunities as it continues its record-setting ad sales pace.

“We like to raise the bar,” Comcast Corporation president Mike Cavanagh said during a preview of NBCU’s Olympics strategy in June.

Marketers are looking to do the same in 2024, and here are some of the trends shaping the new Olympics landscape:

1. New ways of measurement

How do you measure an Olympics—in daylights, in sunsets, in medal ceremonies or in AI-generated Al Michaels updates?

When it comes to measuring Olympics ratings anyway, NBC Sports is trying something new with the Paris Summer Games, combining two three-hour blocks across linear and streaming to yield one magic primetime viewership number. In this case, “primetime” will be defined as 2-5 p.m. ET, when NBC and Peacock carry evening Olympics events live from Paris, and 8-11 p.m. ET, when Primetime in Paris provides a narrative-driven recap of the day’s big stories.

Speaking with ADWEEK, Jorge De La Rosa, senior vice president of research for NBC Sports, called the revised approach a “benefit to advertisers,” who have already pledged $1.2 billion in commitments to the Paris Olympics. Expect the combined ratings trend to continue at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan thanks to a similarly favorable time zone.

De La Rosa notes that a combined number provides brands with the totality of the Olympics audience they’ll be reaching—those who prefer to watch live and those who wait for the highlights. “We’re representing the way the landscape has changed,” he adds. “People are really excited [for Paris], and we want to capture that energy and not be beholden to old media ways.” — Ethan Alter

2. Bigger conversations around mental health

Mental health and wellness will be a bigger conversation at Paris 2024. After gymnast Simone Biles brought global attention to the issue when she withdrew from the 2020 Tokyo Games, citing stress and burnout, more athletes are opening up about their mental health.

Olympic organizers are responding to this trend. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has launched a mindfulness program giving athletes licenses to the Calm meditation app; a mental fitness helpline; a “mentally fit zone” for athletes to decompress; and support to any competing athlete in more than 70 languages for four years following the games. Organizers said they will use an AI tool to weed out abuse online.

Brands are also finding ways to support athletes’ mental health. Asics launched an initiative to help protect its sponsored athletes against online harassment during competitions.

And Powerade, an Olympics sponsor, showcased Biles’ story in one of its ads for the games. In the Olympic Village, the beverage brand will host an experience for athletes that will provide an environment for recovery, virtual reality visualization practices and safe spaces for conversations about mental health. 

“[Powerade’s] Simone Biles ad reflects society and what people care about now,” said Toan Ravenscroft, managing director of M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment Amsterdam. — Brittaney Kiefer

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3. Smaller find their place in the games

No offense to the athletes, but small brands have already won the Olympics.

In March, NBCUniversal announced it would allow advertisers to buy ads programmatically for the first time for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, allowing more small and mid-market advertisers to showcase campaigns.

“Historically, the minimum spend required to appear in major live sports was very high, which made it untenable for anyone but huge brands,” Ross Benes, senior analyst of TV and streaming at Emarketer, told ADWEEK. “But dicing up the inventory programmatically will allow a greater number of brands, particularly smaller brands, to get in on the action.”

For advertisers who were previously on the outside looking in, the programmatic inventory allows them to showcase ads alongside the Olympics without paying the gold-standard pricing. ADWEEK previously reported on what NBCU is charging for programmatic Olympic advertising, and agencies indicated the lower cost creates more opportunities for clients, especially those without robust TV budgets.

“Because we’re buying it programmatically, we can layer on targeting,” Dom Johnson, associate director, brand media at Collective Measures, told ADWEEK. “It gets that benefit of the highest possible quality inventory and being alongside the Olympics, which sounds cool to everyone.” — Bill Bradley

4. Advertisers are happy to be in the background

Instead of selling soft drinks, financial services, supplements or flights, several Olympic campaigns have promoted the athletes themselves.

Among the highlights, Coca-Cola pushed bottles of its product to the background of its ad, letting Olympic viewers watch South African swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker, her teammate Kaylene Corbett and U.S. competitors Annie Lazor and Lilly King recreate the hug they shared after Schoenmaker’s gold-medal win in 2021.

Plus, Visa’s logo serves only as a diegetic background to the origin stories of Pharrell Williams, Visa-backed tennis star Iga Swiatek, Visa-sponsored Olympic skateboard gold medalist Sky Brown, Visa Cash App RB Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo, chef and entrepreneur Roy Choi and artist and designer Gemma O’Brien. Herbalife, which sponsors more than 50 Olympic athletes, placed only athletes in its “Fueling the Best” social media campaign.

Delta Air Lines, meanwhile, released a series of five ads with Wieden+Kennedy that turned its planes and their interiors into the background for athletes’ journeys to Paris, with one spot reminding them emphatically that, through their hard work, “You Get You There.”

“It’s really the athletes that are the heroes here, and Delta is just a small part of that journey to help them get to the Paris Games and everything in between,” said Delta CMO Alicia Tillman. — Jason Notte

5. The Olympics, but make it fashion

It would be remiss of the city that brought Haute Couture, Coco Chanel and the Hermès Birkin bag into the world not to put its fashion prowess on the Olympic podium.

The tournament has its first-ever official luxury sponsor in French luxury conglomerate LVMH. The design group’s house of brands, including Moët, Lous Vuitton and jeweler Chaumet will be showing up everywhere, from Team France’s official kit to the gold medal ceremonies themselves.

Beyond LVMH’s sponsorship, it’s set to be the trendiest-ever Summer Games. Ralph Lauren and Stella Jean will feature on various athlete uniforms. Elsewhere, Dior has partnered with several athletes, including French Paralympic swimmer Alex Portal and Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah, as brand ambassadors.

We’ve also seen some fun social work from luxe labels including Jacquemus, which has thrown its hat in the Olympic ring with a video series shot in the French countryside that combines visual sporting puns with immaculate outfits.

The worlds of sports and fashion have already collided at events including June’s Vogue World and LVMH’s Paris 2024 launch party, which brought together names like Anna Wintour, Pharrell Williams and Serena Williams.

Keep an eye out for celebrity court-side appearances, invite-only events and planned Paris paparazzi shots that spotlight French Savoir-faire. We also predict interactive experiences from luxury brands on the ground, especially in the Champs-Élysées shopping district.

This Olympics will pay testament to the increasing intersectionality between sports and entertainment, and the smartest brands will capitalize on it. — Rebecca Stewart

Google’s announcement Monday that it won’t kill the third-party cookie in Chrome rocked the ad industry. In the immediate aftermath, it seemed like the sword of Damocles hanging over the ecosystem had been sheathed. Certainly, marketers no longer have to wring their hands over how their digital ads will perform without cookies to power targeting and measurement.

Many advertisers were already on the journey to move away from cookies. Havas Media Network’s global EVP Jamies Seltzer, who oversees consumer analytics, said that 99% of its clients are already working to run cookieless campaigns.

But Google’s decision to keep cookies around will still have an uneven impact across the industry, according to ad industry experts. That’s already becoming apparent in the mixed reception some public adtech companies got on Wall Street.

Criteo’s stock popped 10%, shortly after Google made its announcement, while LiveRamp’s dipped about 5%. After all, many companies have spent the last four years touting technology and business practices that will subsist without the cookie.

Here are the companies that most stand to benefit and those that are most at risk, according to industry analysts and executives.

Google always wins

Google’s Privacy Sandbox tools, which were meant to replace the ad tracking and measurement functions of the cookie, had been buffeted both by government regulators who worried they were anti-competitive, and by adtech companies who claimed they didn’t work. Even marketers were unconvinced, with 69% of B2C marketers skeptical that the Privacy Sandbox was a viable cookie alternative, according to Forrester’s Q2 CMO Pulse Survey this year.

“Privacy and anti-monopoly law are entirely overlapping issues for it,” said Jason Kint, CEO of the publisher trade association Digital Content Next.

Now, Google has taken its ball out of the sandbox and gone home. In doing so it has, for now at least, silenced the persistent thrum of regulators like the U.K.-based Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which published a quarterly audit of Google’s Privacy Sandbox efforts. “Given these developments, we will not publish our planned quarterly update report at the end of this month,” the CMA said after Google announced cookies would be staying.

Google’s next move is too vague to elicit any immediate criticism, and its public statements strike a tone that’s conscientious about concerns consumers have about how their data is used. “We now believe user choice is the best path forward there,” said company CEO Sundar Pichai during Tuesday’s second-quarter earnings call.

In ending its plan to stop passing cookies in Chrome, Google has hit the reset button, taking some of the immediate pressure off itself, while still marching the industry towards cookie deprecation by another means.

The Trade Desk, Criteo, and LiveRamp will suffer short-term setbacks

Adtech companies that spent years investing in their cookieless infrastructure, like The Trade Desk, Criteo, and LiveRamp, will see setbacks as immediate demand for those tools declines, said Dan Salmon, a partner at New Street Research.

The Trade Desk had been brandishing an email-based cookie replacement technology called Unified ID 2.0. But widescale adoption, with third-party cookies remaining, is sluggish. If it caught on, it would have given The Trade Desk a real base of authenticated, logged-in users—the holy grail for companies collecting online audiences. But now there’s less urgency for its use, said Salmon. “They could have won share,” he said.

Likewise, the persistence of cookies is a negative for LiveRamp, which had built a new generation of identity tools without cookies, Salmon said, noting that there’s not going to be a lot of urgency to adopt those toolsets in the near term.

“They are short-term losers,” said John Donahue, partner at programmatic consultancy Up and to the Right. However, he and others believe the identity solutions these companies have been developing, which require consumer consent, will be valuable over time as consumers demand more control over how their data is used.

Tom Triscari, CEO of tech research firm Lemonade Projects, still sees a bright future in companies that offer ID solutions. “I’m a glass half full on them,” he said. “The alternative ID is still the future.”

Publishers that invested in cookieless solutions have already lost time and might lose more money

Publishers that have moved away entirely from relying on third-party cookies to power their ads will see a revenue hit and might have to revert back to cookie solutions, as marketers re-focus spend on cookie-based solutions, said Ilhan Zengin, CEO and founder at publisher adtech firm ShowHeroes.

Those publishers are weary with Google’s repeated pivots, said Joe Root, cofounder at adtech platform Permutive. “Google changing its mind again messes with their strategies and makes it harder to run their business,” said Root. “It creates chaos.”

But like alternative ID solutions, cookieless solutions will still ultimately be the most valuable and sustainable way for publishers to drive revenue in the future.

“No one should take a false sense of security at this news,” said founder of consultancy Messer Media. “The only sure way to lose here is by retreating from your diversification plans.”

User privacy is still a big loser

The cookie had problems—it wasn’t the most accurate, it wasn’t particularly privacy safe, but it definitely helped advertisers buy scaled audiences across the open web. There’s value in that for some advertisers, even if it leads to opacity and bad practices.

The continuation of cookies in Chrome will enable that to continue. Anticipating this, U.K. data watchdog The Information Comissioner’s Office is “disappointed” with Google’s move, encouraging the industry to “not to resort to more opaque forms of tracking.”

Many companies are celebrating that they “can completely retarget and arbitrage, which is not really where our industry should be headed,” said Matt Prohaska, CEO and principal of Prohaska Consulting.

Lauren Johnson, Trishla Ostwal, Catherine Perloff and Lucinda Southern contributed to the reporting.

Apple’s Underdogs, the scrappy but lovable team of coworkers turned entrepreneurs, are back in the fifth installment of a journey that now finds them on their first overseas business trip. 

In “The Underdogs: OOO (Out of Office),” created in-house, the crew is in Thailand, racing against the clock to launch a new product by the deadline. 

If you’ve been following this series, you can predict what happens next: Comedy and mishaps ensue. “He wants half a million boxes in 10 days!” one character cries, capturing the chaotic vibe of the trip.

The film depicts challenges of the modern workplace, as the Underdogs attempt to source a new packaging factory, make last-minute design changes and bridge language gaps, both on the ground and via screen. Apple’s apps and devices come to their aid, because this is ultimately a clever product demonstration, after all. 

“The Underdogs: OOO” will run across social, paid digital and on Apple.com. 

Previous chapters have followed the team as they designed and pitched a new product to a top exec, survived remote working during the pandemic, quit their jobs and even embarked on a rescue mission across New York. 

The series has been widely celebrated, and 2022’s “Escape From the Office” won the Cannes Lions Film Grand Prix. 

The search for an official Olympics Search partner is over.

What’s happening:

Today, Google, Team USA and NBCUniversal announced they’re teaming up for NBCU’s coverage of the 2024 Olympics. With the news, Google becomes the Official Search AI Partner of Team USA, marking the first time that the search giant has partnered with the United States national team.

“We are thrilled to announce Team USA’s partnership with Google,” Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said in a statement. “This collaboration is more than just a sponsorship; it’s a powerful alliance that brings together the best of technology and sports. By working with Google and NBCUniversal, we are ensuring that our athletes’ stories are told in the most dynamic and engaging ways possible.”

Why it’s happening:

With the partnership, NBCU and Google will look to showcase athlete stories through sponsored content formats, including utilizing Google Search and related AI features to explore this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games. Among the features, NBCUniversal will leverage Google’s Search, Maps and Gemini products.

With its “Explain the Games” integration, NBCU will showcase Google Search’s AI Overviews to answer consumer questions and explore the Olympics. This will also extend to social media accounts and be used by NBCU’s production team and commentators during daytime and primetime coverage across all of NBCUniversal’s linear networks and Peacock.

In another integration, “Try it with Google Gemini,” comedian and superfan Leslie Jones will follow the Olympics with the help of Google’s AI Assistant. According to the companies, “Jones will use Gemini to come up with custom moves or learn a new sport while entertaining and sharing knowledge with fans across NBCU’s networks and Peacock.”

With “One Day in Paris,” five Olympians and Paralympians will be featured in social videos and late-night promos as they explore this year’s host city with the help of Google Lens, Circle to Search, Immersive View in Google Maps and Gemini.

Finally, “Enhanced 3D Broadcasts” will feature immersive views of the Olympic venues in Paris thanks to Google Maps Platform’s Photorealistic 3D Tiles.

“We are very excited to be partnering with Google to deliver innovative, highly engaging elements that will enhance the coverage of the Paris Games for our audiences and make every viewer feel as though they are on the ground in Paris,” Dan Lovinger, president of Olympic and Paralympic partnerships, NBCUniversal, said.

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What else to know:

The partnership, which may be an important step for Google in the AI arms race, is NBCU’s latest tech update for the 2024 Olympics, which starts on Friday, July 26.

ADWEEK previously reported the details of the company’s partnership with the Trade Desk to bring the first programmatic inventory to the Paris games. With the partnership, NBCU is offering ad buyers three different private marketplaces for programmatic ads, including an Olympic Trials offering, an All Olympics offering for live coverage and an Olympic Highlights offering.

Beyond technology, the Google partnership helps NBCU highlight the stars of this year’s games. That’s been a priority as the company brings in high-profile talent, including Jimmy Fallon and Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper, to find audiences and keep them watching during its 7,000 hours of coverage across linear and Peacock.

The CW has just pulled off a Haily Mary, scoring Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Belichick for Inside the NFL.

Belichick will waste no time, joining the show to provide expert commentary alongside host Ryan Clark and returning analysts Chad Johnson and Chris Long for the premiere on Friday, Aug. 30.

“Bill Belichick joining Inside the NFL is a true game-changer for this storied franchise and The CW,” Dennis Miller, president of The CW Network, said in a statement. “Not only is he one of the most accomplished coaches in NFL history, but his knowledge and passion for football is truly unmatched. Fans will now get the chance to hear his insights and better understand the nuances of the game from the master himself.”

But the news raises several questions about why and how The CW scored the NFL legend. Did someone fumble an opportunity, or is this a touchdown for all parties?

So … why did this happen?

The CW went through a regime change in 2022 after Nexstar completed its purchase of 75% ownership interest in the network. Ever since then, the network has leaned into sports and unscripted programming, including LIV Golf, WWE NXT, college football on Saturdays and, of course, Inside the NFL.

With Inside the NFL kicking off The CW’s fall programming on Aug. 30, adding Belichick starts the season strong and makes it even more of a draw for advertisers as upfront negotiations—where a large portion of yearly TV budgets are committed early—are still underway.

But why did Belichick go to The CW?

While serving as head coach of the Patriots, Belichick was never too forthcoming with the media, being so notoriously gruff that viewers might even ask questions such as, “Why doesn’t Bill Belichick like reporters?“

However, despite that past, Belichick has landed several media gigs after not securing an NFL coaching job for the upcoming season, including appearing weekly on ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show and being part of the Manningcast alternate telecast of Monday Night Football on ESPN2, according to THR.

Inside the NFL is an opportunity for Belichick to expand his growing media umbrella. It gives him the chance to join a program he’s said he’s always admired and do so in a controlled environment alongside players he’s seen play in the league and even coached.

“I’m thrilled to join my new team at NFL Films and to work on such a historic television franchise,” said Belichick. “I’ve always appreciated Inside The NFL’s depth of analysis, and I hope to bring the same detailed insight to The CW by talking real football with real pros—Ryan, Chris and Chad—this coming season.”

Doesn’t this do more for The CW than Belichick?

Belichick noted that Inside the NFL, which launched in 1977, is a historic franchise. However, the series doesn’t have the prestige it once had since leaving HBO in 2008 and subsequently bouncing around from Showtime to Paramount+ before The CW added it last year. Still, the program remains under NFL Films, giving it legitimacy and access to clips and NFL recaps.

A partnership with Belichick could help raise the show’s profile once again while expanding Belichick’s relationship with NFL Films.

“Over the years, NFL Films and Coach Belichick have enjoyed a long and collaborative relationship,” said Steve Menzel, senior producer and showrunner, NFL Films. “Adding his football mind to an already impressive roster on Inside the NFL presents an incredible creative opportunity.”

Additionally, though the move to add Belichick undoubtedly helps The CW launch its second season of Inside the NFL, it’s worth noting that, in January, Netflix started airing Inside the NFL the day after it aired on The CW, giving the show (and Belichick) an increasingly growing audience.

The show will look to score in the ratings on Friday, Aug. 30, at 9 p.m.

NBC is truly waiting all day for Sunday Night.

The broadcaster is announcing its fall premieres, and it’s so excited about Sunday Night Football that it’s starting coverage on Thursday, Sept. 5, ahead of the program making its Sunday debut on Sept. 8. Meanwhile, college football coverage also kicks off early on Aug. 31 with NBC’s Big Ten Countdown.

For entertainment programming, NBC is starting its Premiere Week on Monday, Sept. 23, with The Voice at 8 p.m., featuring first-time coaches Snoop Dogg and Michael Bublé as well as returning coaches Reba McEntire and Gwen Stefani. Zachary Quinto’s scripted drama Brilliant Minds, which is based on author and physician Oliver Sacks, follows The Voice premiere.

Tuesday, Sept. 24, brings the America’s Got Talent finale, and Wednesday, Sept. 25, is all about the city of Chicago. NBC will roll out new seasons of Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. starting at 8 p.m.

Following the People’s Choice Country Awards, which air live on Thursday, Sept. 26, The Irrational will premiere on Oct. 1 for its second year.

Thursdays will once again belong to Law & Order, with Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU beginning new seasons on Oct. 3. Found kicks off its second season following those series.

The network will debut its fall comedy lineup on Friday, Oct. 18, with Reba McEntire’s Happy’s Place at 8 p.m. and the third season of Lopez vs. Lopez at 8:30 p.m.

St. Denis Medical, which stars Wendi McLendon-Covey, David Alan Grier and Allison Tolman, debuts on Tuesday, Nov. 12, with back-to-back episodes, and Night Court takes over the 8:30 p.m. slot on Nov. 19.

Meanwhile, previously announced midseason and summer shows include The Hunting Party, Deal or No Deal Island, The Americas and Destination X.

NBC previously teased its fall programming at its TV upfront event in New York City, and you can see the notable fall premieres below:

NBC FALL 2024-25 SCHEDULE

(New programs in ALL CAPS; times are ET)

MONDAY
8 p.m. — The Voice (Sept. 23)
10 p.m. — BRILLIANT MINDS (Sept. 23)

TUESDAY
8 p.m. — ST. DENIS MEDICAL (Nov. 12 premiere with back-to-back episodes)
8:30 p.m. — Night Court (Nov. 19)
9 p.m. — The Voice (Oct. 1 starting at 8 p.m.)
10 p.m. — The Irrational (Oct. 1)

WEDNESDAY 
8 p.m. — Chicago Med (Sept. 25)
9 p.m. — Chicago Fire (Sept. 25)
10 p.m. — Chicago P.D. (Sept. 25)

THURSDAY
8 p.m. — Law & Order (Oct. 3)
9 p.m. — Law & Order: SVU (Oct. 3)
10 p.m. — Found (Oct. 3)

FRIDAY 
8 p.m. — HAPPY’S PLACE (Oct. 18)
8:30 p.m. — Lopez vs. Lopez (Oct. 18)
9 p.m. — Dateline NBC (Sept. 27)

SATURDAY
7 p.m. — Big Ten Countdown (Aug. 31)
7:30 p.m. — Big Ten Football (Aug. 31)

SUNDAY 
7 p.m. — Football Night in America (Sept. 8)
8:20 p.m. — NBC Sunday Night Football (Sept. 5 Thursday premiere)

Skydance Media has entered into a definitive agreement with Paramount Global to form “New Paramount,” capping off months of negotiations, bidding wars and public speculation.

The potential move would have a lasting impact on Paramount’s assets, forever changing the company’s TV and streaming portfolio. It would also end the Redstone family’s three-decade ownership of Paramount, with Sumner Redstone acquiring it in 1994 and his daughter, Shari, taking over in 2019.

What to know about the deal:

The merger, which is expected to close in 2025, will take place in two steps.

First, Skydance Media, with financial backing from the private investment firms RedBird Capital and KKR, will pay $2.4 billion for National Amusements Inc., the holding company that owns 77% of Paramount’s Class A shares. Then, Skydance will merge with Paramount in an all-stock transaction that values Skydance at $4.75 billion.

Skydance Media will also invest up to $6 billion in the newly combined operation: $1.5 billion of which is earmarked for paying down Paramount’s debt, while the remaining $4.5 billion can be used to buy out existing Paramount shareholders.

According to the company, Class A stockholders will receive $23 per share, while Class B stockholders will cash out at $15 per share. The total value of the deal is more than $8 billion, an increase from Skydance Media’s May offer of $5 billion.

Skydance Media is owned by David Ellison, the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison. Following the merger, Ellison will serve as the chief executive and chairman of the combined company. Meanwhile, Jeff Shell, who was ousted as NBCUniversal CEO in 2023 after admitting to an “inappropriate relationship” with a colleague—and later joined RedBird Capital—will serve as president of the company.

The tie-up comes after a monthslong bidding war over Paramount, whose assets include the Paramount+ streaming service and networks such as CBS, MTV, BET and Nickelodeon.

What this means for Paramount:

Skydance Media’s acquisition of Paramount will likely result in a paring down of the Paramount portfolio, an expedited path to profitability for Paramount+ and an increased focus on bundling and partnerships, according to analysts.

Paramount is already shopping around several of its assets, including BET and VidCon. Under Skydance Media, those efforts will likely continue as Ellison looks to shed non-core assets.

“Paramount’s assets will probably get broken up,” Ross Benes, eMarketer senior TV and streaming analyst, told ADWEEK. “I doubt Skydance will want to retain everything that Paramount currently owns.”

On a Monday morning call, Shell noted Skydance had identified $2 billion in cuts, which will be delivered “rapidly” and would include slashing Paramount’s linear media operations.

“There’s powerful businesses, but you have to make tough decisions,” Shell said.

Implementing cost savings efforts and shedding elements of the Paramount portfolio will allow Skydance Media to focus its attention on the streaming service Paramount+, which wants to narrow its hundreds of millions in quarterly losses.

“Paramount+ is among the better streaming services from a consumer perspective, but it is losing lots of money,” Benes said. “Skydance will look to reduce losses. Layoffs would not be surprising.”

What this means for the TV and streaming industry:

The heightened interest in acquiring Paramount comes as the streaming ecosystem continues to overtake the linear television industry, forcing companies with legacy assets to seek suitors before the value of holdings falls further.

The acquisition will provide Paramount+ with an injection of capital, strengthening its position in the streaming landscape. Still, to compete with peers like Netflix and Disney, the company will need to take steps to expand its reach, according to Mike Proulx, vp and research director of Forrester.

“This merger is the result of the need for restructuring in order to effectively compete with content scale and financial profitability as the underlying economics of entertainment portend a new playbook,” Proulx said.

Related video

What happens now:

The agreement with Skydance includes a 45-day “go-shop” period during which the Special Committee of Paramount’s Board of Directors, with the assistance of its financial advisors, can evaluate alternative proposals. However, the Skydance deal reportedly includes a $400 million breakup fee if the deal falls apart.

As an additional way to widen its audience, Paramount+ could consider further mergers, such as a potential combination with Warner Bros. Discovery. However, such a tie-up would result in such a debt-laden company that it would have little chance of succeeding, according to Benes.

Instead, a more likely maneuver is for Paramount+ to seek further bundle and partnership agreements, similar to the kinds struck by WBD, Disney, Fox, Netflix and others in recent months.

“We’re squarely in the messy middle of entertainment’s massive shift to an eventual all-streaming future,” Proulx said.

Additional reporting by Bill Bradley.

Roku and the electric racing circuit Formula E have a relationship powered by potential, and it’s accelerating rapidly.

In June 2023, Roku announced its first live sports rights deal and joined Formula E as its streaming partner. Already coupled with CBS for linear broadcasts, Formula E sought a place where fans could find not only its races but also highlights, interviews, its behind-the-scenes show Formula E Unplugged and its women-in-racing initiative Girls on Track.

Meanwhile, Roku launched its Roku Sports vertical two years ago to help viewers on its platform navigate sports streaming fragmentation by pulling content for their favorite teams and sports into one location. It created zones for NFL and NBA content, launched an NBA FAST channel and, most recently, secured exclusive rights to Major League Baseball Sunday Leadoff live games for its Roku Channel to anchor its new MLB Zone.

Roku Sports is built to personalize offerings to fans based on their viewing habits and locations, which Formula E hopes will help like-minded viewers discover the circuit and drive growth. For Roku, meanwhile, live sports and the fan data they provide prove incredibly useful as the platform comes out of NewFronts more willing to share data from its 81 million households with partners, including demand-side platform The Trade Desk and measurement service iSpot.tv. 

“What we’re going to do is a proper deep-dive workshop after the season to see what’s worked, what hasn’t, where can they help us, where can we help them,” said Aarti Dabas, Formula E’s chief media officer. “We said let the season roll out and see what user journeys fans are following, how they are discovering our product and what kind of fans are these.”

The partnership underlines Formula E’s innovative mindset as it heads into the final races of the season in London. Among new changes, Ellie Norman, who spent five years as Formula 1’s CMO and two with the Premier League’s Manchester United as its chief communications officer, will join Formula E as its new CMO at the end of September. That follows the recent announcement that Formula 1 owner Liberty Global would be purchasing a 65% stake in Formula E from cash-strapped Warner Bros. Discovery.

Revving up the partnership

At Formula E’s most recent live event, the Hankook Portland E-Prix in Portland, Oregon, there was little evidence of Roku’s presence beyond myriad cameras and an overhead helicopter. Formula E and Roku are still exploring features, including squeezeback graphics and personalized driver, camera and radio feeds, but the companies haven’t given them the green flag yet. 

Yet in Formula E’s Emotion Club hospitality space on the Portland International Raceway’s infield, both Formula E and Roku officials say Roku’s visibility on the race circuit and the impact of its data and technology are changing at a rapid pace—and leaving its mark on Roku’s approach to sports.

“One of the interesting things about this whole era, and working with Formula E in particular, is how fast they seem to be absorbing data both in terms of the coverage of the sport and the performance of the athletes in the vehicles and then applying that,” said David Eilenberg, head of content at Roku Media. “It’s not on a seasonal basis, on a weekly basis … in interfacing with other sports, you start to look for the same attitude and see who is making the most of what they’re learning.”

Running test laps

Joe Franzetta heads up sports at Roku Media and was responsible for the launch of Roku Sports and the Formula E deal. He also brought The Rich Eisen Show onto The Roku Channel and worked with the NFL, UFC and WWE to create sports programming for Roku Originals.

When a fan visits Roku to watch sports, Franzetta wants “to create a comprehensive sports experience for that viewer.” With Formula E, that means building a complete ecosystem around each race. Fans have access to qualifying sessions, the Unplugged docuseries and the Recharge live show that Roku produces after each event to offer context for U.S. audiences. 

While Franzetta noted that Roku wanted to ensure it spent its first year with Formula E emphasizing the benefits of its free platform and broad availability, he sees a lot more potential for Year 2.

“Our platform is interactive, so going forward, we’re looking at opportunities to do other things with other elements of the production that they bring to the table,” Franzetta said. “They’re capturing different types of videos or capturing cameras from the cars … there’s a lot of things that we’re looking at adding into the experience next year.”

To reserve room for those features, Franzetta and Roku have attempted to keep their platform and live sports broadcasts clear of “intrusive advertising.” For example, Franzetta noted that Roku has a banner ad on its home screen for sponsors that typically allows a viewer to tune into an event. The sponsor can be connected to that event, which makes the ad more useful to the viewer while creating more opportunities for sports partners and advertisers. 

Formula E was the test case, but it’s a formula that Roku’s repeated successfully throughout its sports offerings.

“The most obvious way to see it on the screen is the fact that we’re building these dedicated destinations for specific partners, and we generally have a sense of what works within those experiences, and we’re applying that across multiple partners,” Franzetta said. “And each time we do one, five more calls come inbound, seeking similar experiences for their sports.”

Seeing the finish line

Formula E is in its 10th season and is largely unencumbered by the legacy and traditions that can constrain the presentation of other sports and leagues. Dabas noted that Formula E’s audience is divided nearly evenly between men and women, with half of its fans age 40 or below.

That’s led the circuit to view its partnership with Roku as a blueprint for what’s possible in other territories, but also approach advertisement opportunities within its broadcasts with an open mind. 

“If Roku comes to us saying, ‘We need to create this spot like a squeezeback,’ we as a championship are very flexible because we know that advertising revenue is important to tell a better story,” Dabas said. “As long as it does not interfere with the fan experience and the storytelling, I think brands and advertisers are so critical to helping the sport grow, and we should accommodate them.”

Before joining Formula E, Dabas spent nearly 13 years managing media rights for the International Cricket Council. She noted that the commercialization of cricket in India included creative squeezebacks, replay bugs and other in-game elements because fans would rather tolerate the ads than pay for coverage. Formula E has already researched similar ads, and Dabas said virtual graphics within the race may not be out of the question.

“The fans accepted it, as long as they could watch the sport, the commentary was clear and they didn’t cut to breaks,” Dabas said. “If there is a replay bug or something, it’s in the corner, which is not covering the graphics or the storytelling. I think fans don’t mind.”

The opportunity still available to Formula E, Roku and advertisers during broadcasts is evident trackside at the circuit’s events.

On race day in Portland, the main race finished in less than 40 minutes. Between practice sessions and qualifying rounds, fans ran laps on simulators in a gaming arena, grazed dozens of local food carts, skated with the Rose City Rollers roller derby team, gawked at street performers, skated a half pipe and sat in on a set from pop singer Natalie Jane. 

At an “always on” Roku-era Formula E, those are all extensions of the circuit’s story. The connections to cuisine, gaming, entertainment, culture and other sports are at the track, just waiting to be turned into race-day content.

As Eilenberg noted, all of the above are just some of what new generations of fans expect from their interaction with a sport. At the end of Year 1 of their partnership, Roku and Formula E are starting to see a path through the pack to a clearer road ahead.

“The fact that this is a generation that has known nothing but electric vehicles, so for them it’s completely natural and probably more comfortable that the car should be electric,” he said. “For much younger fans, the live experience is great in some part because of the noise, or lack thereof. Yeah. [Formula E] are successfully positioning themselves not only to capture existing motorsports fans within the core demo but, critically, the next generation of motorsports.”

HBO’s House of the Dragon Season 2 marketing is fueling the fire of discourse, leaving fans questioning everything from their allegiances to their realities.

In partnership with Giant Spoon, RQ and Busterwood, HBO and Max rolled out a global campaign directly involving fans for Season 2 of the Game of Thrones prequel, making them choose a side in the Targaryen civil war between the green banners of King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) or the black banners of Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy).

The campaign kicked off towards the end of March with dueling trailers asking fans to choose a side, with the trailers breaking Max viewership records. Then, it evolved into the message of “Raise Your Banners,” with AI-generated posters, influencers weighing in and even a dragon appearing on top of the Empire State Building.

Plus, banners appeared around the world to claim landmarks for either side. Or did they?

In June, HBO and Max set out to divide New York, claiming the New York Stock Exchange, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Terminal and The Mets’ Citi Field for either the green side or black side with physical banners. Local NYC bars and restaurants also joined in, offering custom food items and exclusive House of the Dragon merch.

However, in addition to the physical activations, 32 institutions worldwide also donned CGI banners that were amplified on social and through various partners and influencers. And the results set the internet ablaze.

“Raise Your Banners” drove over 1.4 billion estimated social impressions the week of the June 16 premiere*, according to data from CreatorIQ provided by HBO and Max. And that’s without counting press.

As an example of the digital activations, the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges raised banners for Team Green and Team Black, respectively, in a viral CGI stunt. Other global landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Sydney Harbor and Al Ula in Saudi Arabia, followed suit.

“What we wanted to do was create a series of stunts around the world that just blurred the lines between physical and digital, and then we started seeing people question, ‘Is that real?’” Pia Barlow, evp of originals marketing at HBO and Max, told ADWEEK. “What’s real? What’s not real? At the end of the day, it didn’t matter. It was all about taking that simple call to action, making it global and to get people talking, which we did.”

Beyond the billions of social impressions, press outlets were also abuzz about the physical—and CGI—banners. AP even sent a reporter to verify if the New York banners were real: “An AP reporter on Monday about 1 p.m. went to the area where each video was filmed and confirmed no banners were hanging from either bridge,” the outlet wrote.

However, not all the House of the Dragon talk was positive. Backlash ran the gamut, including everything from critics complaining about being tricked with CGI to others saying the CGI— often mistakenly called AI—didn’t look real enough.

“There are always going to be some haters. It doesn’t matter,” Barlow said to the criticisms. “It’s just a matter of trying to get everyone talking.”

The campaign takes flight

According to Barlow, the campaign was around an 18-month process during the two years the show was off the air.

The Season 1 campaign was all about reinvigorating life into the Game of Thrones franchise following a hiatus of material after the final season’s mixed reviews. Now, Season 2 was about bringing House of the Dragon to where Game of Thrones used to be among fans, reaching a broad audience and making it the unmissable event of the summer, according to Barlow.

“We’re incredibly fortunate that we have this fandom with lots of love for the show, so how do we leverage this fandom, not just to get them talking about the show, but also the campaign?” Barlow said. “How do we help create brand ambassadors for us? What’s a rallying cry we can create that makes you want to be part of this community or you’re just missing out?”

And nothing creates a community like a rivalry, especially where each side has shades of gray.

Digital, AI-generated character posters, created in partnership with Media.Monks, added to the discourse, allowing fans to put themselves in artwork for their respective side. The posters also gave the series a worldwide push as Max continues expansion around the globe through Europe and Asia.

House of the Dragon’s digital poster generator, which is available globally in 9 languages, has already had more than 2 million posters generated since launching on June 10, according to the company. And it’s live throughout Season 2 in case any fans decide to change sides, which Barlow “fully expects.”

Raise your Baa-nners

Among the other campaign elements around the globe, in New Zealand, DDB Aotearoa and Neon put armor on sheep, dubbed Baattlewear, with different breeds siding with green or black. Plus, a partnership with Snapchat for a dual selfie and world view lens featured a high-fidelity dragon with audio machine learning (ML) capabilities, and HBO/Max has an “Iron Throne Room” on Apple Vision Pro.

The campaign culminated in a 270-foot dragon installation that recently appeared on top of the Empire State Building. ADWEEK previously reported that the installation had to pivot after bad weather delayed it a week. However, Barlow said the adjustment worked in House of the Dragon’s favor, with an inflatable of Vhagar, the biggest dragon in the show, appearing on the day of the premiere, a week after Team Green claimed the Empire State Building.

The House of the Dragon installation, which was done in partnership with the Empire State Building, included photo opportunities with the Iron Throne, early registration for Zynga’s Game of Thrones: Legends mobile game and had tens of thousands of visitors over the 10 days it was live, according to HBO.

Big risk, big reward

The Season 2 premiere drew 7.8 million viewers, which was 22% below the 10 million viewers House of the Dragon got on its Season 1 premiere night in 2022. However, HBO premiere night numbers are only a fraction of an episode’s final viewership, with Season 1 episodes growing to reach around 29 million viewers each.

With millions of participants in activations and billions of impressions, the campaign achieved Barlow’s goal of getting people talking, even if the talk—including fan criticisms and even CGI banners on Chapultepec Castle leading Mexican officials to reportedly threaten legal action—wasn’t all positive.

According to Barlow, the response to date was everything the team discussed: “In success, this is what it would look like.”

“Honestly, it’s like a pinch-me moment to see it play out. Even some of the more controversial like, ‘Ah, that’s clearly AI!’ I’m like, ‘It’s not AI. It’s CGI.’ Let’s make sure people understand the terminology,” Barlow said. “Even the pivot that we had to do with the Empire State Building and Vhagar, all of that. Frankly, I couldn’t have scripted it better myself.”

*Owned & Earned Social Impressions + Ad Value calculated based on a $10 CPM via NetBase, Paid Creator Media Value estimated by CreatorIQ 

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