MadTech Daily: European Parliament Urges a Social Media Ban for Under-16s; The Observer Debuts a New Digital Subscription Service

In this episode of the MadTech podcast, Anna Bager, CEO of the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), joins ExchangeWire head of marketing Grainne Reid and COO Lindsay Rowntree to discuss key shifts in programmatic out-of-home and industry consolidation. They look at the OAAA’s Programmatic OOH Transparency Pledge, the growth of the global out-of-home advertising market, and the European Commission’s unconditional approval of the Omnicon-IPG acquisition.

In today’s MadTech Daily, we look at the European Parliament urging a social media ban for under-16s, the Observer debuting a new digital subscription service, and news ad performance leading the industry.

In today’s MadTech Daily, we cover Walmart exploring ads for its Sparky AI shopping agent, Warner Music Group settling with an AI music firm and launching a joint venture, and YouTube trialing new feed control features.

In today’s MadTech Daily, we look at US senators pushing a probe into Facebook and Instagram scam ads, ChatGPT adding a new shopping research tool, and Alibaba topping revenue forecasts driven by instant retail and AI.

In today’s MadTech Daily, we cover the EU greenlighting Omnicom’s IPG acquisition without conditions, YouTube usage reaching 84% of adults, and Alibaba’s Qwen topping 10 million downloads.

In today’s MadTech Daily, we cover Warner Bros. Discovery drawing bids from Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix, UK Champions League rights targeted by Paramount, as well as Google fighting an ad business breakup. We also discuss ChatGPT Rolling out Group Chats worldwide

In this episode of the MadTech Podcast, Nicole Pruess, freelance presenter and educator at U of Digital, joins ExchangeWire editor Aimee Newell Tarín and COO Lindsay Rowntree.  They discuss Meta profiting from fraudulent ads on its platforms, TikTok’s and Netflix’s podcasting push, and transparency in CTV advertising.

In today’s MadTech Daily we cover Perplexity launching a tool to simplify online shopping, a Spanish court ordering Meta to pay $550m to digital media firms, and new EU probes into Meta.

In today’s MadTech Daily, we cover shifts for advertisers in 2026 media budgets, ChatGPT offering target shopping via OpenAI, and OpenAI striking a deal with Intuit for personal finance integration. We also discuss Meta being cleared of monopoly claims over Instagram and WhatsApp.

In today’s MadTech Daily, we look at Channel 4 launching an AI ad tool for SMEs, Jack Dorsey backing diVine, a Vine reboot featuring its video archive, as well as Jeff Bezos becoming co-CEO of Project Prometheus.