The Current

Christine Foster, group vice president of commercial strategy and operations at Kroger Precision Marketing, talks about the benefits of grocery data, helping brands see all the way through the marketing funnel, and the scale of its loyalty data set.

Published June 23 Short-form clips excerpting podcasts, television shows, movies and news broadcasts are everywhere. As a recent NPR interview asked, are these clips creating value for audiences and creators — or primarily for the people repackaging and distributing them? This question points to a larger problem: For too long, we’ve been conflating the journalism business with the media business.

Creators are coming to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with a clear north star: how to scale their business sustainably. In unison, marketers are seeking brand partners that can help to unlock growth. Brands and digital stars share the same orbit at the festival. But are their goals always aligned, and how can partnerships bring value that truly benefits both sides? As the creator economy matures and multiplies, it’s redefining how the entire ad industry operates.

Fox announced on Monday that it was buying Roku for $160 per share in a deal that values the streaming technology company at approximately $22 billion. The acquisition will put Roku’s free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) platform, The Roku Channel, under the same umbrella as Fox’s own FAST service, Tubi, potentially reshaping the free streaming TV landscape.

When Tubi, the free streaming service owned by Fox, announced a creator program last June — bringing social video stars into its premium streaming environment — it was just a warm-up to the main event. A year later, Tubi is making content creators a major part of its Word Cup Fox Hub, a destination for complementary programming to the FIFA World Cup, which kicked off last week.

Published June 3 It’s been a records-setting season for the NBA, and the momentum is rolling straight into the finals. The playoffs have drawn its largest audience in 28 years and the regular season delivered the highest viewership in 24 years. The second round of the playoffs drew its largest audience in 29 years. A combination of factors has driven those results.

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On the heels of introducing ads to ChatGPT in the United States, OpenAI is now preparing to launch mid-conversation ad recommendations in the U.K. and other countries. The ChatGPT maker announced earlier this month that “strong interest from businesses looking to reach users in a more conversational, intent-driven environment” had encouraged it to expand the offering. The ads will arrive “in the coming weeks,” OpenAI said.

Once again, live sports was a cornerstone of upfronts presentations. And women’s sports, specifically, have never been bigger. The WNBA’s media rights deal has now ballooned to $3.1 billion, up $900 million from the deal signed in 2024. Upstart leagues like the NWSL are now broadcasted nationally on CBS, ESPN, ION, Paramount+ and ESPN+, and the PWHL aired its first national game earlier this year on ION. This opens up more programming for TV networks and a new entry point for brands.