Welcome to The TV Room. Your weekly digest of television, streaming, and digital media insights that matter.

This week we're covering:

• 🏀 Disney Opens Ad Auctions

• 📊 AI Meets Ad Measurement

• 🎥 Creative Spotlight: McDonalds - “McValue Anthem”

• 🚫 RXBar Blocks the BS

Disney Makes Real-Time Move Into Sports Ad Bidding

Disney just threw open the gates to live sports advertising in a way we've never seen before. In a major shift announced this weekend, the entertainment giant is letting advertisers bid on live sports inventory in real-time through partnerships with Google, The Trade Desk, and Yahoo.

This is a big deal for performance marketers who've been itching to get into live sports streaming but found the traditional buy-ahead model too rigid. Now, if a college football game goes into overtime, advertisers can jump in on that golden opportunity right then and there.

Here's the breakdown:

• Real-time bidding: Advertisers can bid on ad space during live events, reacting to what's happening in the moment.

• More flexibility: Brands aren't locked into guaranteed positions, giving them more control over their ad spend.

• Automation is key: Disney is aiming to automate 75% of its ad business by 2027, and they're already at 50%. This includes both real-time bidding and programmatic guaranteed deals.

Disney isn't alone in this race. NBCUniversal tested similar waters during last year's Olympics, while Amazon, YouTube, and Netflix are all pushing into live sports streaming. But Disney's move represents the biggest shift yet toward bringing real-time programmatic bidding to premium live sports content.

For performance marketers, this opens up a whole new world of opportunities to reach engaged audiences at just the right moment. The days of having to lock in sports ad spots months in advance might finally be coming to an end.

Read More:

• Disney opens live sports ad inventory to real-time programmatic buys with Google, The Trade Desk, Yahoo - Adage

[Webinar] TV Advertising, Reimagined

Welcome to the future of TV advertising! As digital transformation and streaming shift consumer behavior, traditional TV has become costly and harder to measure, leading many brands to redirect ad budgets to digital channels with clearer, outcome-based metrics.

When:
Tuesday, January 14th, 10:00 AM PST | 1:00 PM EST

Webinar:
TV 2.0–Drive Better Outcomes with the Next Evolution in TV Advertising

Why Attend?

• Leverage TV 2.0’s advanced capabilities to precisely target audiences and measure success.

• Activate campaigns with a platform that uses AI-driven optimization for improved ROI.

• Maximize both top and bottom-of-funnel results through non-skippable, in-view ads reaching 100M U.S. households.

• Prepare for the future of TV advertising and gain a competitive edge by learning from early adopters

🎙️ Jason Fairchild on Performance TV

In this episode, Jason Fairchild, CEO and co-founder of tvScientific, talks about lessons from OpenX, creating the performance TV category, and whether big players like The Trade Desk and AppLovin might enter the space.

Jason shares how CTV can shift ad dollars from search and social by focusing on transparency and measurable outcomes, while exploring the challenges of building a new adtech category and the future of CTV advertising.

What You’ll Learn:

• 📊 Shifting Ad Dollars: How tvScientific is moving budgets from search and social to CTV.

• 🖥️ Transparent Results: Why advanced attribution tools matter for advertisers.

• 📈 The Future of CTV: How brand and performance advertising are converging on CTV.

TV Industry Updates

• Stagwell's strategic move: Stagwell agreed to acquire Dubai-based Create Group, expanding its Code and Theory Network in the Middle East.

• AI meets ad measurement: Integral Ad Science launched a new AI-powered tool that connects media quality with campaign outcomes.

• Retail media evolution: Albertsons Media Collective's new API with TransUnion delivers near real-time ad performance data.

• Emotion metrics: Mediaprobe's tool tracks audience emotions via galvanic skin response for second-by-second insights.

• TV buying simplified: Comcast's Universal Ads platform unites top media brands to simplify premium ad purchases.

Stay up to date on the latest in TV advertising by joining our Slack community!

Creative Spotlight: McDonalds - “McValue Anthem”

McDonald’s kicked off 2025 with John Cena in a quirky Mr. Rogers-inspired role, blending wrestling nostalgia, motivational charm, and a touch of humor to spotlight the new McValue platform.

The Details:

• The TV spot featured Cena in a mustard yellow sweater, explaining the Buy One, Add One for $1 deal before an inspirational monologue on life's possibilities.

• Launched during New Year’s resolution season, the campaign aligned with Cena’s WWE farewell tour for cultural impact.

• McDonald’s expanded the campaign via YouTube, social media, and partnerships with Roku and Tinder, offering $3 million in deals.

What We Loved: The brilliant fusion of Cena's signature wrestling persona with the wholesome Mr. Rogers aesthetic created entertainment gold, complete with his iconic "you can't see me" disappearing act and a touch of unexpected charm.

Marketing Mix

• Albertsons' measurement milestone: Albertsons Media Collective unveiled an API with TransUnion to improve campaign tracking.

• No BS January: RXBar's "B.S. Blocker Truck" toured NYC, blocking toxic New Year’s ads reported by consumers via text.

• Pizza emergency: Domino's Emergency Pizza program partnered with Stefon Diggs to donate $1 million in free pizzas to disappointed fantasy football owners.

• Zero pressure: Heineken revealed that 21% of Gen Z face stigma for choosing alcohol-free drinks and launched "0.0 Reasons Needed" to change that.

• Fitness flex: Chipotle expanded its Strava partnership globally, offering free Lifestyle Bowls for a year to the most active participants across 25 cities.

The TV Room is your go-to source for staying ahead in the world of television and digital media. Want to chat about these stories with other industry pros? Join our Slack channel to continue the conversation.