2026 Themes
Convincing CFOs they need (more) TV
We explore the Chief Finance Officer’s relationship with marketing, media and their CMO, and ask what it takes to get their backing for TV and premium video investments. Can the TV industry align itself and its measurement to short-term incentives and KPIs, and deliver against business outcomes, speaking the language of the boardroom? And how do we help CMOs fight for brand-building? This event reviews the latest thinking in effectiveness, and ways to predict long-term effects more accurately and more quickly.
The outcomes battle: TV vs global platforms
How TV measures its impact on business outcomes and demonstrates its incremental value to advertisers during timeframes measured in hours, days, weeks or months. Can the TV industry harness exposure and outcomes data to build predictive outcomes models capable of competing with global platforms, and what could agency planners do with them? How do we build these capabilities in practice? This event explores the opportunity to win new budget from performance-focused advertisers thanks to better outcomes measurement.
Taking SMB budgets from Google and Meta
How do we convince the founder of a digital start-up, which is just starting to scale, to invest Google and Meta performance budget into TV instead? We explore the marketing rationale and the practicalities of execution. How does TV compete on ease of planning and buying, cost, targeting capabilities, production, short-term impact and proof of outcomes? We explore efforts to win budget from small-medium businesses (SMB).
Creators, Gen Z and fit-for-TV
Is the ‘creator economy’ a competitive and existential threat to TV, or another media we can co-exist with, like print and music? This event reviews audience and revenue flows. We want to know how TV can grow Gen Z viewing time: what content is working globally, and who wants short-form and vertical viewing within mainstream TV services? We review the fit-for-TV ‘market’: where and how buyers find TV-like content across walled gardens and the open web. We also make sense of the ongoing ‘big TV’ spin-offs, mergers and acquisitions.
Creating demand through fame and cultural salience
We turn our attention to television’s undisputed superpower: helping brands achieve fame and cultural salience through brand memory and broad reach – creating rather than simply capturing demand. We showcase the latest thinking and tactics when building brands on TV and premium video, especially around live, including sport. Do [occasionally] compressed purchase journeys and AI answer engines – not to mention consumer price inflation – make brand more important?
Driving full-funnel, omnichannel effects
We explore the role of TV and premium video as an anchor channel in omnichannel, full-funnel (‘brandformance’) campaigns, and highlight planning and measurement innovations that drive and prove TV-inspired short- and mid-term activations. You will hear about the consumer signals and data enablement that underpin better targeting, including retail partnerships. We also consider the potential when a platform like Pinterest (visual search/discovery) or maybe one day Meta (social) brings interest and intent signals to CTV planning.
Busting the linear-streaming silos
We have the latest thinking on how to unify cross-platform TV audiences, inventory, sales, ad operations, measurement and even trading, breaking down the linear-digital silos. We highlight best-practice when combining linear, CTV and other digital video (including fit-for-TV on video sharing platforms) within the same campaign, with a focus on achieving incremental reach. We are interested in how linear inventory can be exposed to digital buyers and how fragmentation is made invisible to clients.
Streamlining the streaming tech stack
We consider the digital tech stack innovations that reduce costs associated with selling and buying premium video while also improving effectiveness. Our primary focus is programmatic, so expect discussions around supply path optimisation and its potential to increase working media. What impact can better content signals, more transparency, performance indicators, and supply-side decisioning have on media outcomes? There are high hopes for AI/agentic in programmatic, so we ask what this brings to the party.
How AI agents can grow TV and media
How do we increase brand love, advertiser market share and media owner profits by harnessing agentic advertising across planning, execution, measurement and more? How do we scale agentic advertising affordably, and make sure different agents understand each other? How do we ensure transparency and explainable media decisioning? This event considers the opportunity for media agencies to become AI-powered marketing partners to their clients, and how they demonstrate the value-add from AI.
Agentic TV advertising: Global best practice
We showcase innovations across agentic advertising in TV, with a special focus on how media owners and agencies are driving better media planning. We want to know whether AI orchestration can help unify cross-platform inventory, audiences, measurement, sales, and buying experiences, and take us closer to true linear-digital convergence. TV industry objectives for agentic advertising are articulated, whether that is more personalisation, better forecasting or always-on optimisation, etc.
The future of audience measurement
This event explores the road towards greater comparability between linear, BVOD, SVOD, CTV and other digital video. We explore the characteristics of a usable cross-platform currency – including metrics, methodology and governance – and how to make this a reality. Joint industry measurement is under the spotlight: do we really need collective efforts (and compromises) to establish a single version of the truth? Hear the latest thinking on how attention, brand equity and outcomes (like price elasticity and incremental sales) interact.
The TV advertising innovation showcase
We are shortlisting some of the most notable innovations in the global TV advertising industry, but what will make the final cut? Shared buying platforms, lead generation pause ads, server guided ad insertion, fit-for-TV planning, social-first brand partnerships, real-time terrestrial TV audience measurement? There are TED-style talks on hot issues, like the reasons global tech is growing so fast, and whether the agentic era brings a structural reset for digital advertising (and what that means for TV and premium video).
Making sense of the TV distribution landscape
What macro business trends explain global sports streamer DAZN acquiring the Australian Pay TV operator Foxtel, the broadcaster RTL Group acquiring Sky Deutschland (the DACH-region Pay TV platform), Warner Bros. Discovery splitting its studio-streaming business from its global TV networks, Comcast spinning off its cable networks but keeping NBCUniversal (including Peacock), and Netflix hosting TF1 linear channels (and on-demand content) on its French service? After a year of landmark announcements, we investigate the rationale driving M&A and partnerships. While we make sense of the fast-changing TV distribution landscape, we also review the market for sports rights.
Connected TV as the engine for growth
We explore innovations across BVOD, SVOD ad-tiers, AVOD, Smart TV OS platforms and FAST as buyers look for effective reach across an increasingly heterogenous premium video landscape. Expect the latest thinking on how to use live events and especially sport to power marketing objectives. How can sport be harnessed to meet performance objectives, and will programmatic open up premium sport to smaller advertisers? We consider the role of video sharing platforms as homes for premium and brand-safe video, and review strategies for success when broadcasters distribute long-form content on YouTube, supported by their own ad sales.
The next chapter in programmatic TV
The growth in premium streaming supply increases the pressure to ensure programmatic demand reaches all suitable and effective inventory, so we explore the barriers that may prevent this. We consider ways to ensure buyers have the transparency and signals needed to optimise against media provider, content, environment and performance. How do we ensure media owners who invest in the best content are rewarded with higher CPMs and budget allocations? Some broadcasters fear their inventory could be homogenised in bundled pools of non-comparable video inventory, or that intermediaries will reduce their control, so what does great programmatic look like for them?
TV as a performance and full-funnel powerhouse
How TV can marry its brand-building superpower with a turbo-charged performance offer – and what best practice full-funnel TV campaigns look like. We are interested in how TV delivers against short-term KPIs and explore the behavioural, exposure and outcomes signals that make this possible. What is the potential for TV commerce, and what data collaboration ecosystems will ensure any media owner can compete with companies that boast content, audience, DSP and retail under the same roof? There is a focus on how data-poor brands get invited to the data-driven television party.
How TV nails the SMB advertiser opportunity
How TV can take meaningful market share in the small medium business (SMB) advertiser segment, with a look at the technology and processes that make this possible. The ‘fat end of the long-tail’ of advertisers have smaller budgets than traditional TV buyers so this event explores the creative, planning, buying and execution efficiencies needed. Expect discussions on self-serve and shared buying platforms. How many SMBs are looking for alternatives to the global tech platforms – and how much budget could be unlocked? How do we maintain TV standards of creative, but at low cost? You will hear use-cases and success stories from SMBs on television.
The road to outcomes-based TV measurement
This event considers the possibility that TV moves to outcomes measurement as the primary indicator of its value, and asks what that journey would look like – including the data, measurement and currency innovations required. Can we ever achieve a position where reach and frequency metrics no longer matter? Starting today, how do we accurately credit each TV provider for its contribution to a final business outcome in a complex omnichannel world? What innovations in ‘classic’ cross-platform TV measurement will contribute to better outcomes attribution in 2026-27? How do we forecast business outcomes? We look for solid, practical answers.
Coping with rejection
TV is the undisputed No.1 profit-generating medium, so there is a tendency to dismiss its rejection as irrational unless there is an affordability hurdle. We explore the reasons why CMOs and media buyers do reject the medium, considering the KPIs and incentives that can lead to alternative media choices. Can TV influence corporate cultures that focus on shorter-term outcomes? Will TV’s improved performance capabilities change the conversation? Would a better TV buying experience make a difference? We hear views on which media are under-invested and which are over-invested, based on effectiveness.
How agencies and clients grow market share
We explore best practice in finding new customers for brands, getting existing users to spend more, expanding market share and reducing price elasticity. We review how media buyers are improving their ability to plan, execute and measure, and where agencies can differentiate from rivals. Expect discussions about the role and impact of AI (including agentic AI) across insights, creative and planning. Are we on the cusp of a generational leap in planning efficiency and effectiveness, and what are the implications if buyers can achieve their objectives with less effort and budget?
Going global with cross-media measurement
As Origin moves to ‘expanded availability’ in the UK and the U.S. looks towards an early 2026 launch for Aquila, we consider the potential for WFA North Star inspired cross-media measurement to revolutionise measurement and planning in other global markets including Western Europe. What buyer use cases stood out during the UK’s Origin beta trials, which ended in July? What efficiency and effectiveness lifts were recorded for cross-media total campaigns – and where could saved budget be re-invested? We review UK broadcaster and streamer attitudes to collaboration with Origin. We ask European broadcasters and media buyers for their views on potential WFA-inspired or other cross-media measurement frameworks in their markets.
Making sense of the TV distribution landscape
What macro business trends explain global sports streamer DAZN acquiring the Australian Pay TV operator Foxtel, the broadcaster RTL Group acquiring Sky Deutschland (the DACH-region Pay TV platform), Warner Bros. Discovery splitting its studio-streaming business from its global TV networks, Comcast spinning off its cable networks but keeping NBCUniversal (including Peacock), and Netflix hosting TF1 linear channels (and on-demand content) on its French service? After a year of landmark announcements, we investigate the rationale driving M&A and partnerships. While we make sense of the fast-changing TV distribution landscape, we also review the market for sports rights.
Connected TV as the engine for growth
We explore innovations across BVOD, SVOD ad-tiers, AVOD, Smart TV OS platforms and FAST as buyers look for effective reach across an increasingly heterogenous premium video landscape. Expect the latest thinking on how to use live events and especially sport to power marketing objectives. How can sport be harnessed to meet performance objectives, and will programmatic open up premium sport to smaller advertisers? We consider the role of video sharing platforms as homes for premium and brand-safe video, and review strategies for success when broadcasters distribute long-form content on YouTube, supported by their own ad sales.
The next chapter in programmatic TV
The growth in premium streaming supply increases the pressure to ensure programmatic demand reaches all suitable and effective inventory, so we explore the barriers that may prevent this. We consider ways to ensure buyers have the transparency and signals needed to optimise against media provider, content, environment and performance. How do we ensure media owners who invest in the best content are rewarded with higher CPMs and budget allocations? Some broadcasters fear their inventory could be homogenised in bundled pools of non-comparable video inventory, or that intermediaries will reduce their control, so what does great programmatic look like for them?
TV as a performance and full-funnel powerhouse
How TV can marry its brand-building superpower with a turbo-charged performance offer – and what best practice full-funnel TV campaigns look like. We are interested in how TV delivers against short-term KPIs and explore the behavioural, exposure and outcomes signals that make this possible. What is the potential for TV commerce, and what data collaboration ecosystems will ensure any media owner can compete with companies that boast content, audience, DSP and retail under the same roof? There is a focus on how data-poor brands get invited to the data-driven television party.
How TV nails the SMB advertiser opportunity
How TV can take meaningful market share in the small medium business (SMB) advertiser segment, with a look at the technology and processes that make this possible. The ‘fat end of the long-tail’ of advertisers have smaller budgets than traditional TV buyers so this event explores the creative, planning, buying and execution efficiencies needed. Expect discussions on self-serve and shared buying platforms. How many SMBs are looking for alternatives to the global tech platforms – and how much budget could be unlocked? How do we maintain TV standards of creative, but at low cost? You will hear use-cases and success stories from SMBs on television.
The road to outcomes-based TV measurement
This event considers the possibility that TV moves to outcomes measurement as the primary indicator of its value, and asks what that journey would look like – including the data, measurement and currency innovations required. Can we ever achieve a position where reach and frequency metrics no longer matter? Starting today, how do we accurately credit each TV provider for its contribution to a final business outcome in a complex omnichannel world? What innovations in ‘classic’ cross-platform TV measurement will contribute to better outcomes attribution in 2026-27? How do we forecast business outcomes? We look for solid, practical answers.
Coping with rejection
TV is the undisputed No.1 profit-generating medium, so there is a tendency to dismiss its rejection as irrational unless there is an affordability hurdle. We explore the reasons why CMOs and media buyers do reject the medium, considering the KPIs and incentives that can lead to alternative media choices. Can TV influence corporate cultures that focus on shorter-term outcomes? Will TV’s improved performance capabilities change the conversation? Would a better TV buying experience make a difference? We hear views on which media are under-invested and which are over-invested, based on effectiveness.
How agencies and clients grow market share
We explore best practice in finding new customers for brands, getting existing users to spend more, expanding market share and reducing price elasticity. We review how media buyers are improving their ability to plan, execute and measure, and where agencies can differentiate from rivals. Expect discussions about the role and impact of AI (including agentic AI) across insights, creative and planning. Are we on the cusp of a generational leap in planning efficiency and effectiveness, and what are the implications if buyers can achieve their objectives with less effort and budget?
Going global with cross-media measurement
As Origin moves to ‘expanded availability’ in the UK and the U.S. looks towards an early 2026 launch for Aquila, we consider the potential for WFA North Star inspired cross-media measurement to revolutionise measurement and planning in other global markets including Western Europe. What buyer use cases stood out during the UK’s Origin beta trials, which ended in July? What efficiency and effectiveness lifts were recorded for cross-media total campaigns – and where could saved budget be re-invested? We review UK broadcaster and streamer attitudes to collaboration with Origin. We ask European broadcasters and media buyers for their views on potential WFA-inspired or other cross-media measurement frameworks in their markets.