On this week's MadTech Podcast, ITV's director of advanced advertising Rhys McLachlan joins John Still and Lindsay Rowntree to discuss News Corp's legal action against Perplexity, Bountiful Cow's challenge to overzealous brand safety measures, and Netflix's subscriber growth.

News Corp sues Perplexity (FT)

News Corp subsidiaries Dow Jones (The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s) and NYP Holdings (the New York Post) are suing generative AI platform Perplexity over the alleged use of its copyright material. The lawsuit alleges that Perplexity has comprehensively scraped News Corp’s publications without permission, and then presents outputs such as full article text without remuneration.

• Can News Corp’s action be a tipping point between AI and publishers?
• Is ‘license or litigate’ a big theme for 2025?

Bountiful Cow launches tool for “brand unsafe” inventory (LBB)

Independent media agency Bountiful Cow has announced the launch of a programmatic tool designed to buy quality inventory previously classified as brand unsafe. The tool, “Relative Advantage: Unblocked”, was developed in partnership with publisher alliance Ozone, and was built to solve for occurrences where brand safety technology penalises quality publishers by overzealously blocking their content.

• Are brand safety precautions overzealous?
• What can brands do to align themselves with quality publishers?

Netflix to double profits after adding millions of subscribers (Guardian)

Netflix expects to double its profits this quarter after the world’s largest streaming service added more than 5 million new subscribers this summer.

After cracking down on password sharing, introducing adverts to its service and investing billions in live TV, the group declared it had “delivered” on plans to shore up its business.

• How strong a pull is the ad funded model for streaming platforms?
• As Neflix has dropped its AAA gaming studio, had it overextended?