Advertisers Turning Away from Linear TV Quicker than Viewers; Australia to Further Regulate AI; Supreme Court Rejects Epic vs Apple Antitrust Case

by Aimee Newell Tarín on 18th Jan 2024 in News

On today’s ExchangeWire digest: Advertisers Turning Away from Linear TV Quicker than Viewers; Australia to Further Regulate AI; Supreme Court Rejects Epic vs Apple Antitrust Case…

Advertisers are turning away from linear TV quicker than viewers are, shows WARC’s latest research report The Future of Media. Linear TV consumption has certainly been declining over the past decade, among younger audiences in particular. According to WARC’s data, time spent consuming linear TV decreased by 2.7% in 2023 (only three minutes daily on average) – meanwhile, global linear TV ad spend decreased by double that, at 5.4%. Just under 40% of marketers plan to withdraw spend on the channel. However, the figures predict that next year people are likely to spend more time consuming linear TV than streaming video, streaming music, or listening to podcasts.

As the use of AI becomes increasingly relevant to our everyday lives, Australia is the latest country to announce further measures to mitigate the risks associated with it. Australia was among the first countries to regulate AI, through a voluntary ethics framework release in 2018. Fast-forward to Wednesday, the government announced it would be setting up an advisory board and working alongside industry bodies to establish guidelines to further regulate the AI industry. These guidelines will still be voluntary however, unlike those set in other regions such as the EU.

Also on Wednesday, China’s industry ministry issued draft guidelines for standardising the AI industry. The draft proposes forming over 50 national and industry-wide standards for AI by 2026, as well as forming more than 20 international standards for the industry by that time.

In the antitrust ambit, the Supreme Court has rejected Epic’s case against Apple. It rejected two petitions (one from each party) on Tuesday morning, leaving the case largely a win for Apple. Currently, Epic remains unsuccessful in getting Apple to allow it back onto the App Store or let developers distribute apps via sideloading or third party stores.