The First Taste Is Free
Last week, Netflix’s executive team shot down rumors about launching a free, live TV-style channel, saying they have to be careful about what co-CEO Greg Peters called the “cannibalization of paid tiers.”
Well, looks like other streaming services don’t share those same concerns.
Business Insider reports that Paramount+ is planning to make more of its TV and movie library available without a subscription, referred to internally as a “free front porch.”
However, the “porch” would still require an account log-in, meaning it would be easy to upsell the paid tier – and, more importantly, serve personalized ads.
Paramount+ already has a free, ad-supported option in Pluto TV, but getting viewers hooked on paywalled content like “Landman” or “Dutton Ranch” could be a powerful way to entice new subscribers – much like Apple TV’s free previews of select episodes.
Meanwhile, Disney’s product and tech chief, Adam Smith, hinted earlier this month that the House of Mouse may be considering free content, too, so maybe it’s only a matter of time before Netflix changes its mind and follows suit.
Faire Play
In retail media, even basic terms like “customer” and “merchant” can be slippery. For retail marketers, the “customer” is often the retailer exec who decides what to stock. From the retailer’s point of view, meanwhile, the brands themselves are the merchants.
Which is why it would be interesting to flip the usual script and, rather than targeting and attributing campaigns based on what everyday shoppers buy in stores, to let brands go after the retailer operators who choose what gets stocked.
That’s the idea behind the Promoted Listings product from Faire, which is a wholesaler marketplace for retailers to find new brands (and vice versa). On Thursday, it announced its expansion into Europe.
Right now, Faire only runs Promoted Listings on its own app and website, although CRO Jen Burke tells AdExchanger the team has discussed an off-platform extension. New formats such as video and takeovers are on the roadmap for later this year, she says.
Compared to scouring Google, Meta and the web for the right shopper at the right moment, Burke says targeting wholesalers who regularly and definitively buy in this category can feel like “fishing with dynamite” for shopper marketers.
Losers No More
“No longer perceived as being AI losers.”
That’s how Havas CEO Yannick Bolloré described the agency holdco’s progress on the AI front to investors during its Q2 earnings call on Thursday.
Bolloré says Havas set a goal of becoming an AI-first company in 2023, despite the doom and gloom predictions that AI would render ad agencies obsolete. It laid the groundwork early by developing internal solutions such as its Converged.AI operating system, LLM hub (named AVA) and Vermeer.AI, an image-generation tool.
Havas has now reached “90% AI proficiency” among its agency teams, according to Bolloré, which helped contribute to 2.5% organic growth in Q2 and identical 2.5% growth during the first half of the year. But performance was essentially flat compared to last year. Havas reported 2.6% organic growth in Q2 2025 and 2.3% in H1 2025.
Although the holdco’s AI investments haven’t meaningfully accelerated growth, AI is helping Havas win new US contracts, including with Farmers Insurance and secondhand online marketplace Vinted. Its joint venture with indie agency Horizon Media, called Horizon Global, also recently won the Sketchers media business across 31 markets.
And although Havas lost pharma client Sanofi’s US media business, it extended its health and creative contract with the company for the next two years.
Not bad for one-time “AI losers.”
But Wait! There’s More!
Microsoft is launching a test of its new ad-supported game streaming feature. [Microsoft]
More than half of independent agency owners want to sell, a new report suggests. [Adweek]
Remember last week when Patreon updated its AI policy to block more crawlers? Well, now it’s laid off 20% of its staff. [404 Media]
Amazon is folding its cloud-based streaming service into Prime Video. [TechCrunch]
The House has proposed an “AI Kill Switch Act” which would allow the Department of Homeland Security to slow down – or altogether shut down – AI models that it deems dangerous. [Politico]
Social media poses risks to teens, but when used safely, it can also be beneficial. [Wired]
Internet service providers no longer have to advertise all of their hidden fees as the FCC strikes down a Biden-era rule requiring them to do so. [Ars Technica]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
