The MadTech Podcast

In today’s MadTech Daily, we discuss The Trade Desk laying off 15% of its workforce as its CEO frames the cuts as a strategic reset, VodafoneThree launching a TV service and premium mobile tier in a UK market push, and DAZN Media+ unveiling an AI-powered Sales Agent to streamline video ad buying.

In this episode of The MadTech Podcast, Brian Yamada, chief innovation officer at VML, joins ExchangeWire CEO Rachel Smith and Grainne Reid, head of marketing, to discuss Meta's child safety settlement, California vs. Paramount, and OpenAI's ad business.

The first story this week is Meta's $18bn settlement over claims that its social media platforms harmed children. The conversation explores if we will finally start to see a change in online safety standards, and how this might affect things from a product and user perspective. The second covers California's lawsuit to block Paramount Skydance's acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, and how much leverage the state holds in this case.
Finally, OpenAI's ad business has hit $1bn in annualised revenue run rate. What does ChatGPT Ads' success mean for advertisers and consumers, and does this justify OpenAI's $852bn valuation?
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0:00 Get your tickets to ATS London!
0:25 Introduction
1:15 Meta agrees to $18bn child safety settlement
12:35 California cancels talks with Paramount over Warner Bros deal
19:23 OpenAI’s ad business hits $1bn annualised revenue run rate

In today’s MadTech Daily, we look at DOJ losing bid to break up Google’s ad tech business, Havas naming Patrick Affleck to lead its newly unified UK & Ireland Village, and the EU court rejecting Opera’s challenge over Microsoft Edge’s DMA exemption.

In today’s MadTech Daily, we discuss Bailey flagging the risk of an AI slowdown for global markets, OpenAI denying Apple’s trade secret theft claims and calling the lawsuit “a mess of Apple’s own making,” and Anthropic signing a USD$35bn cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda for a Texas data center.