Is TTD the new Goliath?; Amazon is adding more ads

Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?

The US antitrust case against Google has ended, but the drama is not over. And the next main character could only be The Trade Desk.

TTD has long been the David of the industry and the Goliath of Google.

“Not anymore, though,” said Lotame CEO Andy Monfried published on X last week. “They became what they preached against,” he wrote, “and more importantly, once they got big enough, they became the new ‘tyrant’ of the industry.”

Viant’s chief operating officer, Chris Vanderhook, expressed a similar sentiment in a recent LinkedIn profile post creating The Trade Desk as the new Google.

And Therran Oliphant, currently vice president of advertising technology and agency partnerships at Flashtalking, sent in the summer in X that “TTD is becoming a real hedge. Let’s see if they’re stepping up and controlling access to your performance data.

But not everyone likes TTD. David Danziger, director of LiveRamp (through the Habu acquisition) and previously long-time head of data partnerships at The Trade Desk, has Reply on LinkedIn it can be summed up as, “I mean, please, come on.” His post is titled: “Monopolistic… Bullying… Trading office? Say it isn’t (and that it isn’t).”

According to Danziger, Google, Amazon and Microsoft need to be dealt with, and you say this standalone DSP is the new main villain? NO.

We’ll see.

Primed

Amazon Prime took a heterodox approach when it started running ads in January.

Unlike Netflix, Disney+ and most other ad-free services that launched an ad layer, Prime Video started showing ads to everyone by default. Other streamers started using ad-free users, but were able to switch to the cheaper ad-supported option. But Amazon forced the ads and asked subscribers to pay more to avoid them.

As a result, Amazon has a disproportionately larger supply than other ad-supported streaming services that receive similarly high attention. Amazon will soon increase its Prime Video inventory again, i.e Financial Times. reports.

Prime Video began with a “soft entry into the advertising space that exceeded customer expectations,” Kelly Day, vice president of Amazon Prime Video International, tells the FT.

Because people are so excited about it, Prime Video’s ad volume “will increase slightly in 2025.”

Viewers may become frustrated with the increased number of ads and point to Amazon’s reputation for always putting the customer first. But advertisers are actually Amazon’s more important customers in this equation.

Charter a new course

Speaking of ad-supported TV streaming, Charter just struck a deal with NBCUniversal for free access to ad-supported Peacock for subscribers of Charter’s Spectrum TV Select, Bloomberg reports.

For a linear and cable TV provider like Charter, this is an important victory in eliminating access to content. Many subscribers are frustrated with paying twice for live programming and/or sports also available on the Peacock app.

This year, Charter signed similar deals with Warner Bros. Discovery to include ad-supported versions of Max (formerly HBO), Paramount+ and Disney+.

Streamers benefit from additional scale. They are very concerned about the number of subscribers. Investors support companies with the most subscribers, even if advertising revenues are currently not very high. Disney is a $170 billion company. Netflix’s market capitalization is $305 billion.

So Charter granting free access is one way for the streaming service to increase its total account count. An increased supply of advertising won’t hurt either.

Charter says its subscribers now receive an amount of $65 just for the streaming services it offers.

Guess the new slim online package is really making a comeback to the cable package.

But wait, there’s more!

Roblox is starting to take programmatic advertising more seriously. (Digiday)

Nike has exited many retailers and gone DTC. Now it’s fighting to regain that shelf space. (WSJ)

Someone integrated facial recognition technology into Meta’s smart glasses to instantly attack strangers. It kind of works. (404 Media)