Performance, data and Amazon DSP define IAB NewFronts 2026 pitches

The connected television advertising market arrived at this year’s IAB NewFronts with a consistent message: streaming is no longer just a branding channel.

Across presentations from platforms including Tubi, Comcast Advertising, Samsung and Xumo, the recurring theme was measurement – specifically, the ability to link a viewer seeing an ad on a TV screen to a downstream action, whether a purchase, a store visit or a website conversion.

The shift reflects growing pressure from advertisers who have historically applied stricter return-on-investment standards to digital media than to traditional television.

“Streaming advertising has entered a new era where brands expect both impact and accountability,” said Vikrant Mathur, co-founder of Future Today. “CTV is no longer just a branding channel, it’s a performance medium.”

That framing appeared in nearly every presentation across the week.

Amazon DSP emerges as a connective layer

One of the more notable structural developments across this year’s NewFronts was the number of CTV platforms announcing integrations with Amazon’s demand-side platform.

Samsung unveiled a partnership with Amazon Ads that brings interactive, shoppable video capabilities to Samsung TV Plus, with the integration set to launch in July. The company said Samsung TV Plus is the first external CTV platform to support Amazon’s interactive video ad technology through Amazon DSP.

Tubi expanded its existing partnership with Amazon DSP to extend reach across streaming inventory, adding a new offering called Tubi Priority Access supported by Amazon Ads’ Authenticated Graph.

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Comcast Advertising announced a partnership with Amazon Ads that gives local and small-to-medium-sized advertisers access to Prime Video inventory, using Amazon DSP for programmatic buying and geographic targeting.

The pattern suggests Amazon DSP is becoming a common distribution layer for CTV inventory, allowing platforms to extend reach to advertisers already operating within Amazon’s ecosystem.

AI tools move from buzzword to product feature

Artificial intelligence appeared across nearly every presentation, though largely in the context of specific product functions rather than broad capability claims.

YouTube launched “Reimagine,” a feature built on Google’s Veo video model that allows users to transform a single frame from a YouTube Short into a new eight-second clip. The platform also said it uses its Gemini model to help advertisers identify creators from more than 3 million channels in its partner program.

Comcast Advertising introduced an AI-powered proposal assistant for campaign planning, an audience discovery engine called LENS and Blockgraph On Demand, a self-service data matching platform. The company also announced Outcomes+, a targeting and attribution solution drawing on first-party data from more than 30 million Comcast households.

LG Ad Solutions launched Anoki ContextIQ for Live News, a contextual targeting tool designed to identify brand-safe ad opportunities in live news environments using real-time signals.

Genius Sports formally unveiled its Moment Engine product, which combines licensed sports and fan data with AI models to trigger targeted ads within broadcasts and digital platforms based on in-game moments. The company said it now has supply-side integrations covering 90% of the programmatic advertising supply chain.

Sports content as a programming and advertising anchor

Live sports remained a central selling point for multiple platforms, with the 2026 FIFA World Cup and NFL programming appearing in numerous presentations as premium inventory opportunities.

LG Ad Solutions outlined an expanded sports lineup across LG Channels, including new Formula 1 programming and the debut of the LG Sports Playbook app, set to launch alongside the FIFA World Cup. Xumo highlighted branded destinations and in-game ad units tied to the World Cup, NFL, NBA and college sports. Tubi said it will support Fox’s World Cup coverage and launch a dedicated hub with free 4K simulcasts of the opening ceremony and select matches.

Genius Sports recently reached an agreement with Univision to deploy its augmented advertising technology for Liga MX games — the same format previously used by FanDuel Sports Network and NBC Sports regional sports networks for NBA broadcasts. 

Shoppable TV takes a step closer to the checkout

Commerce-enabled advertising drew significant attention, particularly around the Samsung-Amazon partnership.

Viewers watching Samsung TV Plus will be able to add products to an Amazon cart, send information to a mobile device or sign up for offers using their remote control. Brands selling through Amazon can offer “add to cart” functionality directly from the TV screen.

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“Shoppable innovation is no longer a future concept, it’s the standard,” said Courtney Howell, head of agency development at Samsung Ads. “We’re transforming the biggest screen in the home into a fully shoppable, performance-driven platform where inspiration, engagement, and purchase happen in the same moment.”

Walmart and Vizio outlined a unified account login for Vizio OS TVs and onn devices, allowing users to access smart TV features using Walmart credentials. The integration is designed to connect viewing behavior with retail purchasing through closed-loop measurement. Campaign data shared by the companies indicated that 65% of surveyed Walmart customers discovered new products through CTV advertising, though the companies did not disclose the methodology or sample size for that figure.

Tubi introduced Connected Conversions, linking CTV ad exposure to mobile actions through QR codes, push notifications and email. Its Interactive Pause Ads add carousels, polls and trivia to the pause screen, while Scene Sense overlays contextual information — cast details, soundtrack data and trivia — using scene-level signals.

TiVo made a similar move earlier this year, adding full-screen video ads and shoppable QR codes to its home screen user interface solution, which spans more than 100 TV brands and more than 5.3 million monthly active users.

A look at who presented

TikTok introduced several new ad formats, including Logo Takeover, Prime Time and TopReach, along with additions to its Pulse suite aimed at aligning brands with trending content and live events.

YouTube rebranded its BrandConnect platform as YouTube Creator Partnerships and reported that more than 500 million unique viewers watched over 20 billion minutes of Olympics content during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games, with more than 70% of that watch time on connected TVs.

Xumo reported 60 million monthly active users and a 64% year-over-year increase in viewing hours, emphasizing data capabilities and cross-format ad placements as differentiators in a fragmented streaming market.

LG Ad Solutions introduced a new measurement framework called Own the Outcome and launched Anoki ContextIQ for Live News, a contextual targeting tool for live news environments. LG Channels announced a slate of new FAST programming, including the All Chewed Up channel and LG Channels World Pup, a global exclusive tied to the FIFA World Cup.

Walmart and Vizio outlined a unified account login connecting Vizio OS TVs to Walmart credentials, positioning the integration as a bridge between viewing behavior and retail purchasing.

Comcast Advertising launched Outcomes+, a targeting and attribution platform drawing on data from more than 30 million Comcast households, and announced a partnership with Amazon Ads giving smaller advertisers access to Prime Video inventory via Amazon DSP.

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Samsung unveiled a partnership with Amazon Ads to bring shoppable video capabilities to Samsung TV Plus and introduced AI-driven targeting and audience segmentation tools.

Tubi introduced Scene Sense, Interactive Pause Ads and Connected Conversions, and expanded its partnership with Amazon DSP through a new offering called Tubi Priority Access.

TiVo reported its TiVo One platform reached 5.3 million monthly active users by year-end 2025, exceeding its stated goal, and announced advertising reseller partnerships with Titan Ads, OpenGlass and Anoki.

Future Today said its Fawesome and HappyKids platforms now reach more than 75 million U.S. households and introduced Audience Advantage, a targeting and measurement platform integrating data from partners including MRI-Simmons, Circana and LiveRamp.

Genius Sports formally unveiled Moment Engine and announced supply-side integrations covering what it described as 90% of the programmatic advertising supply chain, adding DIRECTV Advertising, FreeWheel, PubMatic and others to its partner roster.

Meta focused its presentation on expanded Reels Trending Ads, a redesigned Partnership Ads Hub and generative AI tools for advertisers, presenting against a backdrop of two jury verdicts and a round of company layoffs announced the same week.