“YouTube is the only place where viewers can find everything they want, and we’re always looking for new ways to provide viewers a central destination to more easily find, watch, and share the content that matters most to them," YouTube said in a statement since shared with other media outlets. "We are currently running a small experiment that allows viewers to watch free ad-supported linear channels alongside the wide variety of content we offer on the platform.”

Producing more than $7 billion in revenue the third quarter alone, YouTube is the biggest ad-supported video company in the world, and its entry into the FAST market would be a big deal.

One challenge for advertising on quickly growing free ad-supported streaming TV(FAST) services, as detailed in a recent report by analysts at TVREV, is a lack of transparency. That includes the ability (or lack thereof) to know which programs ads are running against. Another challenge is buying across the vast array of available platforms, which have varying curated channels.

The combined trio of playout, SSAI and a FAST SSP is where KA sees Amagi bringing more value than what comes with any of the three elements separately.

Some of the included drag programming includes Canada’s Drag Race, Drag Race Philippines, RuPauls’s Drag Race UK, Drag Race France and many others. The channel will be free and ad-supported, according to the World of Wonder blog. It’s available now.

“Watch now on Watch Free Plus, VIZIO’s exclusive free streaming service. Just click on the WatchFree+ logo on your VIZIO Smart TV home screen and go to the Drag Race Universe channel (channel 325),” the production company said.

The service also expanded its reach to users of VIZIO SmartCast TVs when it became available on VIZIO’s free ad-supported TV (FAST) and video-on-demand service VIZIO Watchfree+. Canela users now have even more ways to watch quality Spanish-language kids’ programming, thanks to the new Canela Kids mobile app available now.

Every weekday we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. (Scroll down to watch them all.)

A few highlights: H&M says “Let’s move” in a high-energy spot for its H&M Move sportswear line. (Jane Fonda, who has been helping to promote H&M Move since last summer, makes a brief appearance.) Maserati hypes its Grecale SUV. And Kristen Bell, the new mental health ambassador for Hers, talks about ending the stigma surrounding mental health care.

“FAST services today are where cable was 40 years ago,” observes TVREV founder and principal analyst Alan Wolk. FASTs have more available inventory and are “a great reach vehicle,” he says. “The most desirable and hardest-to-reach consumers are spending most of their time on streaming, and the FASTs will be how brands can best reach them.”

Polar Bears in accredited zoos have a life expectancy of 23.4 years according to the Kansas City Zoo.

In the wild they live for an average of between 15 and 18 years, according to Polar Bears International.

Kansas City Zoo said it would make its annual contribution from the conservation fund to Polar Bears International in Berlin's memory.

VIZIO Holding is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is the CEO William Wang with 40% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 7.4% and 5.8% of the stock.

In the near-term, the GroupM experts implied the U.S. marketplace will become increasingly complicated by an array of alternative currency vendors pitching to be used as the primary or secondary basis for advertisers TV, as well as cross-media, advertising buys, which could create marketplace confusion.

Even with its big success, “Avatar” continues to spend well on national TV -- $3.03 million for the most recent two-week period, according to estimates from iSpot.tv.

Now some six months after it aired its first TV commercial, total national TV spend for "Avatar" is now at $34 million from 8,294 commercial airings, resulting in 2.2 billion impressions. The bulk of those impressions -- 436 million -- came from NFL football, college football, and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

HBO "clearly remains the gold standard for original series, but its parent company (Warner Bros. Discovery) is at a crossroads in terms of how much it's willing to spend on projects," said John Cassillo, an analyst with TVREV.

Songtradr, the music licensing and management platform, has been parsing data on brands’ use of music in commercials across 2022, and one of the top takeaways won’t come as a surprise: Apple is really good at deploying exactly the right music at the right time in its commercials.

The other day, global creator commerce company Whalar announced a first-of-its-kind full-funnel measurement solution for the creator economy. The strategic collaboration includes, according to a release, some of today’s most forward-thinking platforms – Element Human, GWI, NetBase Quid, Nielsen, Tubular Labs, and VidMob.

Modern TV advertising technology company, Madhive, hired Kristin Wnuk as its senior vice president of sales. A former Roku and Hulu executive, Wnuk will build on the company’s success powering streaming campaigns for localized broadcasters and advertisers, while also providing an entry point for national brands and adtech companies to utilize Madhive’s technology.

Berlin outlived the average life expectancy of polar bears at zoos, which is 23.4 years, the Kansas City institution said. In the wild, polar bears typically live to 15 to 18 years old, according to Polar Bears International.

In honor of Berlin, the Kansas City Zoo said it will make its annual contribution from its conservation fund to Polar Bears International.

Steven Amstrup, chief scientist at the conservation group Polar Bears International, said the apparent upward curve of the graph shared online reflects "improved knowledge" of the polar population, not an overall rise.

Polar bear numbers are derived from a combination of estimates for well-studied areas and "educated guesses" for less well-known areas. The latter is based in part on knowledge of sea ice and habitats, Amstrup said.

Every weekday we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company.

Every weekday we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company.

CTV ad spending is riding a wave of consumer adoption and platform launches. By 2025, spending will reach $34.49 billion, more than double the 2021 total of $14.44 billion. This means that, as a function of overall digital video ad spending, CTV will approach one-third in 2025 from roughly one-quarter in 2021. This escalation is driven by increased cord-cutting, more time spent on CTV, device companies like Roku and Vizio doubling down on their ad businesses, and the proliferation of ad-supported video platforms despite continued momentum in subscription-based ones

NBCUniversal has tapped iSpot.tv, a company that aims to help advertisers verify the reach and impact of their TV and streaming ads, as it seeks to better quantify how consumers are viewing ads across different mediums.