Executive Briefing: Wednesday 7 October

The media landscape is undergoing significant consolidation with a major merger, while regional broadcasters face viability challenges. Marketers must adjust to earlier holiday shopping patterns amidst tighter consumer budgets. Australian ad spend saw a slight dip in August, though year-to-date figures remain positive, with outdoor and pure play video leading growth. Meanwhile, AI is increasingly disrupting search visibility and demanding new measurement strategies for e-commerce platforms. Major media landscape reshuffle The global media industry is witnessing significant consolidation, with Paramount completing a $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, forming a new entity called Skydance. This merger unites legacy film studios, TV networks, streaming services and news organisations to compete with giants like Netflix and Disney, reshaping content production and distribution. Simultaneously, challenges persist in regional broadcasting, as WIN Television is ceasing Network 10 broadcasts in several Australian regional areas due to high transmission costs, digital disruption, and declining audiences and advertising revenue. These shifts highlight a fragmenting media consumption environment and ongoing financial pressures, compelling marketers to rethink audience reach strategies across diverse platforms. Early holiday shopping requires strategic timing Consumers are starting their holiday shopping earlier than ever, with 49% of respondents in a Sprout Social Q3 2026 Pulse Survey indicating they are more likely to buy from campaigns launched as early as August. This trend, especially pronounced among Gen Z (66%), comes amidst tighter consumer budgets, intensifying competition for every dollar. Brands should adopt a nuanced approach: leveraging August and September to build awareness and consideration through gift ideas and seasonal inspiration, then escalating full holiday messaging in October and November. This strategy allows for early engagement and testing of what resonates, optimising campaign effectiveness before peak shopping periods. Australian ad spend shows mixed signals After three consecutive months of growth, Australian ad spend, as measured by media agency bookings, experienced a 3.4% decline in August. Despite this monthly dip, total ad spend for the first eight months of the year remains up 0.7% compared to the same period in 2025. Performance varied across channels, with traditional media largely stable; outdoor advertising notably grew by 10.7% in August, and pure play video increased by 13.8%. Conversely, digital ad spend is tracking 7.1% behind, with content sites, search, and social media all trailing previous year's levels. Government advertising surged 44.4% year-on-year, and wealth management ad spend rose 28.6%. AI disrupts search rankings and e-commerce visibility Google’s ongoing September 2026 spam update continues to cause significant volatility in search results, leading to user complaints about increased spam and some sites reporting substantial revenue drops. This instability coincides with the growing prominence of AI in consumer research, with 94% of business buyers and 42% of consumers now utilising AI search, as reported by Forrester and NielsenIQ. Despite challenges in direct attribution, brands must prioritise AI readiness, especially in e-commerce where Australian brands lag in areas like product descriptions for AI shopping assistants. Measuring AI search ROI remains complex, requiring tracking indirect signals and conversion rates from AI-influenced interactions to estimate its true value.