Madhive, a connected TV advertising platform, has raised $300M in additional funding from investors that include Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Madhive was founded by Adam Helfgott, Stacy Huggins, and Tom Bollich in 2016.

Madhive, $300M, adtech: Advertising software companies rarely make it this high on the list, but that fact didn’t stop Madhive. The New York-based firm raised $300 million from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which valued the company at $1 billion, per Axios.

The first episode of "Tucker on Twitter," a roughly 10-minute monologue in which Carlson asserted without evidence that Ukrainian forces attacked a dam in Russian-controlled territory, netted roughly 26 million video views, according to statistics shared by Tubular Labs, a third-party media analytics firm that has access to the platform’s developer tools and contracts with other major internet platforms, including Facebook and YouTube.

The news confirms that Maximum Effort Channel will be widely available through free platforms, and on a variety of different devices, including Hisense, LG and Vizio smart TVs.

Plus, in terms of individual households, LG claims to have an almost exclusive audience. Most households with an LG TV likely don’t also have TV sets from other manufacturers, such as Samsung or Vizio.

Every weekday we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new commercials tracked by TV measurement company iSpot.tv.

Chevrolet commercials take first and fifth place on iSpot.tv’s latest ranking of the most-seen auto TV ads. At No. 1, with 245.8 million national TV ad impressions, is “Stay Connected, Safe and Charged,” promoting the ’24 Trax and its various available features, including an 11-in.

The partnership with Goldman Sachs will enable Madhive to accelerate the growth and adoption of its connected TV platform, in particular within the local advertising market, as well as expand new channels such as direct-to-consumer advertisers and retail media networks, according to a statement. …

Influencer marketing has become a mainstay for the advertising industry because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up connecting brands directly to consumers. CreatorIQ just put out a study that revealed the tremendous growth rate that this sector has seen over the course of the past year, and it suggested that influencer marketing budgets have become a lot higher than might have been the case otherwise.

If you have a Vizio TV and have access to their WatchFree+ app you can watch various Peacock Original titles for free on the Peacock Preview Channel(channel #196). It is just select episodes so you can’t binge a whole season but it does give you a taste of what the actual Peacock streaming service has.

Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort Channel, a partnership with Fubo, will also be distributed on several other streaming platforms when it launches on June 20.

The ISA has three working groups:Measurement: working with third-party measurement providers and aggregating viewership; iSpot.tv has been selected as audience and ad measurement partner

Chevrolet appears twice on iSpot.tv's latest ranking of most-seen auto TV ads, with commercials in first and fifth place. The first-place ad promotes the '24 Trax and received 245.8 million national TV ad impressions, many of those driven by sports programming. Meanwhile, the Silverado takes the spotlight in the No. 5 ad. Per iSpot's Creative Assessment survey data this commercial had an 89% brand match (the percentage of survey respondents who remembered it was a Chevrolet ad after watching it), above the recent automaker industry norm of 76%.

A group of companies from the ad-supported streaming sector have formed the Independent Streaming Alliance (ISA). The industry forum aims to proactively engage with consumers, platforms, regulators and media. The founding members (including Vevo, Scripps and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment) offer over 2,200 independent streaming touchpoints, according to the ISA.

The Independent Streaming Alliance was announced at the StreamTV Show. The founding group of companies includes Allen Media Group, Chicken Soup for Soul Entertainment, Cineverse, and Revry. Philippe Guelton, chief revenue officer at Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, explained why the independent streamers are coming together:

Tubular Labs released their findings around de-duplicated, unique viewership and minutes-watched on YouTube and Facebook for U.S. audiences in April 2023, revealing top categories and creators.

A new study from creator marketing platform CreatorIQ finds that brands are shifting investment away from digital advertising budgets and moving them to creator-led marketing initiatives instead.

He noted that in the years since the Digital Advertising Alliance first issued its code, a number of states have passed their own privacy statutes, and the Federal Trade Commission has brought an enforcement action against smart TV manufacturer Vizio over data collection.

Global performance marketing company Wunderkind's findings solidify that the online world is the key to the success of any luxury label’s goods.

Alan Wolk, the co-founder and lead analyst at streaming website TVREV, had yet another reason for Max to stay out of this — again, for now. “With HBO, there’s still a lot of confusion around people switching to Max from their cable subscription,” he told us, “so they probably won’t do any sort of crackdown right away.”