News in brief: European Industry Committees Create Audience Measurement Coalition; Sky to Overhaul Newsroom in Favour of Paid Content; Amazon Launches CTV Audience Tool 

European Industry Committees Create Audience Measurement Coalition

Several European joint industry committees, media owner committees, and professional research companies have collaborated to create the Audience Measurement Coalition (AMC). The new body’s objective is to establish and uphold professional measurement standards. The AMC will also serve as a voice to European regulators regarding policy related to audience measurement. The body’s official formation reflects the European Media Freedom Act – passed last year – which sets out to boost transparency in audience measurement for the media and ad industries. 

Sky to Overhaul Newsroom in Favour of Paid Content

Sky News has announced plans to overhaul its programming and newsroom with the goal of creating more premium paid content to protect its future amidst the decline of linear TV. Through a new strategy named Sky News 2030, the broadcaster aims to reshape its digital-focused service over the next five years to attract consumers who are willing to pay for news, reports the FT. According to David Rhodes, Sky’s executive chair, its business streams are “largely stagnant”. He reportedly emphasised the need for new income streams centered around project hubs which will offer paid products ranging from podcasts to live events. He said this would mean less time and fewer resources dedicated to breaking and live news content on TV. He estimated that currently, around 30% of Sky News can be categorised as premium journalism rather than live and breaking TV; he wants this figure to increase to 70% by 2030.

Amazon Launches CTV Audience Tool 

Amazon has launched Brand+, a new ad targeting tool for CTV, in its demand-side platform (DSP). The tool harnesses artificial intelligence to target audiences who are most likely to buy an advertiser’s product. Brand+ combines advertisers’ own conversion signals with data from its own ecosystem to build and optimise audiences across TV and video campaigns. With Amazon’s enormous trove of data across shopping, browsing, and streaming, it has the insight into which consumers should be targeted in line with specific searches they have made, what they have purchased, and what they have streamed. The move can be seen as an effort to win over advertisers who allocate a large ad spend figure on TV.