Industry News
NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE MEDIA INDUSTRY
The Big Get Bigger, the Formats Shift: Two Charts That Explain the Last 5 Years of Digital Advertising
Even as digital advertising in the U.S. has increased 12% per year from 2021 to 2025, the industry is consolidating and the popularity of rich media is where advertisers are spending their dollars. Two charts from the PWC/IAB report, Internet Advertising Revenue Report, Full-year 2025 results, concisely shows these trends.
“The Internet revenue concentration” chart sketches out the marked increased of industry concentration, since “The Top 10” grow from 81% of the total revenue in 2024 to 84% in 2025. Clearly, advertisers are migrating away from independent publishers and smaller ad networks to the big guys because of the ease of use in advertising on them; and the results must be better, or they wouldn't be there. They are also the keeper of the keys for AI. IAB states that AI has transitioned from an optional feature into the "infrastructure layer through which discovery, commerce, and media execution operate."
Although, the report does not explicitly name individual corporations, the tech giants take up 6 of those spots:
- Alphabet (Google & YouTube)
- Meta (Facebook & Instagram):
- Amazon (their commerce network for both search, display and video)
- Microsoft (including LinkedIn & Bing)
- ByteDance (TikTok):
- Apple
“The Advertising format by share” chart tracks the structural evolution of digital layouts, showing a steady reallocation of spending away from static text-based formats of Search and Display towards rich, dynamic media of Video and Audio. Although Search maintains the largest absolute share of the ecosystem, its growth momentum has decelerated.
Read the full report.
#digitaladvertising #managementconsulting #digitalmarketing
What in the world is AI reading? And does it let you know?
The Generative Pulse, published by Muckrack, examined over 25 million links from AI prompts to compile which sources were cited and for which industries and products. Published in May 2026, Generative Pulse compared the prompt results from the three AI providers: ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), and Gemini (Google.) Although the report warns that the behaviors observed will shift as the models are retrained, the differences in this snapshot are pronounced and makes you think. The information is meant to give some guidance to companies in a variety of industries looking to impact consumers.
Top Take-aways in the study:
- “Journalism and earned media remain the foundation of AI citations." About 99% of links cited by AI come from non-paid sources. Journalism accounts for about 27% of all citations.
- “AI providers have distinct citation habits.” ChatGPT cites sources in 96% of responses, averaging 5 citations per response; Claude note specific citations in 55% of responses, averaging 13 citations. Gemini cites sources in 82% of responses with an average of 8 citations.
- “Some industries lean on journalistic content more than others.” Media/Entertainment leads all sectors with 36% of queries citing journalism and manufacturing at 19% the lowest.
Read the study. #mediaconsulting #managementconsulting #contentstrategy #AICitations
Digital audio has moved past the experimental phase into market maturity for content producers in 2026
The Infinite Dial 2026 by Edison Research, the longest-running longitudinal survey of U.S. digital media consumer behavior, released its findings for the 28th year. The time series shows how audio listening reach has grown from 6% in 1998 to an estimated 81% in 2026. Other highlights:
- Growth has come from the 55+ demographic reaching 70%; while younger groups (12–34) remain at near-saturation of 88%. While media brands often obsess over Gen Z, the data shows that there is growth real opportunity for the oldies, but goodies
- 76% of Americans (219 million) consume online audio at least weekly; this high frequency may be the beginning of customer captivity for some shows and could be the beginning of a competitive moat
- Spotify remains the market leader in monthly usage at 36%, followed by YouTube Music at 34%; Pandora is next highest at 21%
- Podcasting is a dual-format medium: 57% of Americans have both listened to and watched a podcast; in other word, video is no longer optional for audio-centric content
Read the full report from Edison. #managementconsulting #mediaconsulting #customercaptivity
