The Current

One of Netflix’s biggest hits of the year is a preview of a video game. The 27-minute Grand Theft Auto 6 extended look was the streamer’s most-watched title the week it was released, drawing over 31 million views from Aug. 27 through Aug. 30. If you’re thinking that this seems like the kind of thing one might typically find on YouTube, well, it dropped on YouTube hours after it debuted on Netflix.

It’s no secret that the power of AI in advertising relies on quality data. The companies creating that data infrastructure, like Databricks, are setting the course for the future of the industry. The company’s CMO, Rick Schultz, has been at the helm for nearly a decade. He spoke with The Current’s Zac Wang about the early days of Databricks, how real-time data is setting up brands for always-on, continuous campaigns and how AI will impact marketers’ jobs going forward.

Google has now achieved one of the stranger feats in antitrust history: get declared an illegal monopolist, keep the monopoly intact and call it a day. On Wednesday, Judge Leonie Brinkema rejected the Justice Department’s request to force Google to divest AdX, the exchange at the center of its publisher ad tech business. Brinkema had already ruled in April 2025 that Google illegally monopolized the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets.

The following email was shared with employees of The Trade Desk today. Subject: Important TTD team and business focus updates Today we have significantly changed the shape of TTD to make certain our people and resources are focused on our mission and vision. Our mission and vision remain unchanged. Tomorrow, The Trade Desk will be smaller by about 15% of employee count globally. This was a difficult decision that we have not taken lightly.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for advertisers. Of course, we’re referring to a new NFL season, which begins Sept. 9 with a Super Bowl rematch between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. New data released today from EDO shows that the average 2025-26 regular-season NFL ad drove the same impact as 73 ads on prime-time TV, a 15% increase from the 2024-25 season.

In the final phase of the Google ad tech monopoly saga at the district court, Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google does not have to sell its ad exchange, AdX. In an order issued on Wednesday, Brinkema rejected structural remedies, including “the divestiture of AdX, the open-sourcing of DFP’s final auction logic, and the contingent divestiture of DFP Remainder.” Instead, Brinkema accepted “most” of the parties’ proposed behavioral remedies “as modified by this court,” but did not elaborate.

Ad buyers poured more upfront ad dollars into streaming than linear TV for the first time this year, according to a new report, marking a major milestone in the transformation of television advertising. Streaming captured an estimated $17.2 billion in upfront ad spend, a 30% jump, just edging out the $16.6 billion going to linear TV, which fell 9%, per Media Dynamics Inc., a consultancy that tracks ad spend.

Snowflake was only in its fourth year (and second year out of stealth mode) when Denise Persson joined the data powerhouse as CMO. Ten years later, she’s become one of the longest-tenured marketing executives in tech, leading the company into its AI-fueled future. Persson spoke with The Current’s Zac Wang about her early impressions of Snowflake, the data infrastructure needed to actually scale AI and her secrets to success. Take it back to the beginning.

Here’s the deal: The momentum behind women’s sports extends far beyond rising viewership. New research from The Trade Desk Intelligence and GoodQues shows the audience driving that growth stays engaged long after the final buzzer, maintains a diverse media diet and actively seeks out ways to connect with the teams and athletes they love. Data debrief: Women’s sports fans consume sports content at a remarkable rate.

Published August 12 This is the third in a three-part series on how AI is changing the ways consumers interact with the web and how advertisers can reach them across commerce, streaming and search. Read Part 1 and Part 2.