TheChek News Flow

Streaming viewers may find their binge-watches filled with ads for brands that have never run on TV before

TV companies are creating AI tools to help small businesses create affordable streaming TV ads, inspired by Meta and Google’s ad platforms.

Connected TV offers consumer-targeting capabilities, letting businesses like Victory Snacks target specific demographics, such as University of Texas fans.

TV companies aim to counter declining traditional ad sales, but proving streaming TV ad effectiveness is crucial for attracting performance marketers.

Television commercials might soon look a lot like the ads in your Instagram and TikTok feeds: scrappy, niche and often obscure.

Media conglomerates like Comcast and hardware makers including Roku are developing artificial-intelligence tools and self-service platforms to make streaming-TV ads affordable for small and midsize businesses.

Their inspirations are tech giants like Meta and Google, whose riches largely flow from millions of small businesses on their ad platforms. If the TV industry can compete with those companies’ massive reach and ability to demonstrate results, they envision enabling a flood of TV commercials from companies that hadn’t considered themselves ready for prime time.

“I don’t think people understand how many more TV ads are about to be created,” said James Borow, vice president of product and engineering for Universal Ads, Comcast’s digital sales platform.

The ad sellers are looking to bring down costs by offering their AI-powered services free of charge. Universal Ads next week will release its AI Video Generator assistant, developed with startup Creatify, that mirrors Meta’s plans to fully automate ad production. And Britain’s Channel 4 this summer introduced a generative AI service that can cut the cost of producing a 30-second commercial by around 90%, according to the organization.

One of Channel 4’s first AI ads promoted a podcast called “The Good, The Bad & The Healthy.”

“This is very much about how we can democratize TV,” said Samantha Hicks, Channel 4’s head of advertiser strategy.

The consumer-targeting capabilities of connected TV are another big part of the small-business pitch.

Victory Snacks, a startup whose campus division collaborates with colleges and universities on themed food items, wanted to branch out beyond its usual social-media and search marketing to promote QB1 Jerky, a new product developed with former University of Texas at Austin Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers, according to Chief Growth Officer Grant Cohen.

Broadcast buys were prohibitively expensive, however, and even ads during Longhorns’ games wouldn’t be efficient since many viewers would be rooting for the opposing team, Cohen said. Victory Snacks ultimately targeted a narrower, connected-TV audience using Universal Ads.

“I want to run an ad that’s only for people in Austin who like the University of Texas,” Cohen said.

Programmers like Channel 4 and Comcast, which owns networks such as NBC and Bravo as well as the Peacock streaming service, hope these tools can counter the steady decline in traditional TV ad sales, while equipment makers like Roku see them as sources of new revenue beyond their core businesses of selling hardware.

Broadcast and cable ad spending in the U.S. will fall 15.5% this year to $49.94 billion, according to research firm eMarketer. U.S. connected-TV ad spending, by comparison, will grow 13.2% to $31.91 billion, and will surpass traditional TV ad spending by 2028, eMarketer said.

Many TV companies are collaborating to better compete with the consumer penetration of Meta, Google and Amazon while simultaneously building their own self-serve platforms. Roku’s ad inventory is available in Comcast’s Universal Ads alongside the likes of Peacock, Paramount+ and HBO Max, for example, but the company also introduced Roku Ads Manager, a proprietary platform for buying ads on its devices and services, late last year.

The goal is to lure habitual social-media advertisers, such as direct-to-consumer brands and makers of apps and mobile games, by touting Roku’s ability to help them target ads using subscriber data, according to Peter Hamilton, the company’s head of ad innovation.

Roku doesn’t have an all-in-one production tool, but its AI upscaler can help lower-quality videos look better on streaming-TV screens by automatically creating more frames, Hamilton said. It also uses the AI startup Spaceback to help buyers turn existing social posts like TikTok videos into commercials that can send texts to viewers who click with their Roku remotes.

Small businesses using Ads Manager contributed to some of the 18% first-quarter growth at Roku’s platforms division, according to executives on its August earnings call.

“It really does bring in hundreds of net new advertisers to TV that we wouldn’t have seen,” said Charlie Collier, president of Roku Media, on the call.

Playing the numbers game

Proving that streaming-TV ads can deliver results may be more important than any new generative tool, however.

The performance marketers in Roku’s sights have been trained to closely measure the cost of every view, click and download, said Hamilton. Banking too much on advances in creative automation may be a mistake, he said.

“Focusing on that versus campaign performance is more of a shiny object than real performance for advertisers, because they can get generative video anywhere and everywhere right now,” said Hamilton.

Streaming TV stands at a disadvantage on this score because the very word “performance” has been co-opted by social-media companies to indicate how many viewers actually clicked on an ad, said James Rooke, president of Comcast Advertising.

“There is so much value that TV drives that is not click-based,” he said, referring to outcomes like sales growth more broadly.

Comcast works with companies that use AI agents to measure campaign results as they happen and connect ads to sales by tracking the behavior of consumers who saw them, according to Rooke.

Ad quality is another challenge, as not everyone believes viewers are ready for small-business ads running on big-budget TV shows and movies alongside blue-chip brands.

LG Ad Solutions, a platform introduced by connected-TV manufacturer LG in 2021, has collaborated with creative AI companies like Spaceback but hasn’t directly courted small-business advertisers, according to Tony Marlow, chief marketing officer for LG Ad Solutions.

Technology can’t yet ensure that low-budget commercials will be good enough, he said.

“You can create an ad. You can put it in front of folks,” said Marlow. “But it’s like having all of the ingredients to a souffle. I’m not a world-class chef. I’m not going to be able to create that souffle.”

Former secretary of state expects America’s ‘deregulatory mindset’ to attract mining listings

Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has called on the Trump administration to move faster to secure the supply chains of critical minerals, warning that shortages could pose a threat to national security.

The comments by Pompeo, who sits on the board of London-listed copper miner ACG Metals and is an adviser to Nasdaq-listed USA Rare Earth, highlight growing concern in the west about China’s stranglehold on minerals that are key to the energy transition and defence systems.

“The Chinese Communist party is watching this, and they can see America’s focus on this, is something they will have to counter,” he told the Financial Times. “Collectively we have to get this right, to do everything we can.”

Pompeo, a former head of the CIA who served as secretary of state during the first Trump administration, said the world was entering “a new geopolitical epoch, not seen since the second world war” and that it was imperative for the US to secure critical minerals from “allied sources”.

During his time in the government, Pompeo was involved in minerals talks with Greenland and a rare earths partnership with Australia.

Since Donald Trump returned to office in January, he has sought to counter China’s dominance in the production and processing of critical minerals such as rare earths, copper, aluminium and niche metals including germanium and tungsten.

The measures include tariffs on imports of some metals, and government support for companies that produce and process minerals domestically — including investing $400mn to become the biggest shareholder in rare earths company MP Materials. 

While Pompeo praised many of Trump’s recent mining initiatives, he stressed the importance of working with allies such as Canada, South Korea and Japan — many of whom have been alienated by Trump’s tariff wars and quick-changing policies.

“This will not be a solely US phenomenon, it will be an ex-China phenomenon,” he said.

“You can see the US government is taking this seriously, you can see these things are so critical to the US industrial base,” he added. “I think you will see expansion opportunities for the operational side of mining and the processing, the smelting, the industrialisation process as well.”

Pompeo, who ran an aerospace manufacturing company before going into politics, said he expected more mining groups to list on US exchanges and raise capital in the country, drawn partly by government support and its “deregulatory mindset”.

London-listed copper producer ACG Metals, where Pompeo is a director, has started trading in the US “over-the-counter” market OTCQX.

“The vision is to create a globally competitive, significantly scaled copper asset, that is delivering copper and its associated metals to the US,” said Pompeo.

ACG, founded by former Rusal executive Artem Volynets, owns a copper mine in Turkey and is seeking to make further acquisitions, according to the company. It has a market capitalisation of £190mn in London.

Retiring plants could be given a new lease of life and help China reach its decarbonisation goals under a bold proposal.

Targeting its overwhelming coal power capacity – enough to run the entire United States – China is investigating plans to convert retiring coal-fired plants into nuclear power stations.

Driven by decarbonisation goals and land scarcity, this “Coal to Nuclear” (C2N) strategy would look to use retiring plants’ grid and water access for compact, meltdown-proof reactors, potentially offering a faster path to clean energy than building nuclear sites from scratch.

And China could be the only country capable of doing this because its high-temperature gas-cooled reactor and molten salt thorium reactor, which can generate much hotter steam than ordinary reactors to power the coal-fired gas turbines with high efficiency, are already up and running.

These fourth-generation reactors could also have a greater chance of meeting site safety requirements and securing public acceptance, according to the researchers involved in the project.

China is home to over 1.19 terawatts of coal-fired power capacity, with roughly 100 gigawatts (GW) of coal capacity expected to reach retirement by 2030.

The C2N initiative, proposed by China Energy Engineering Group Co (CEEC), the nation’s top state-owned energy infrastructure builder, offers a direct path to decarbonisation while preserving valuable infrastructure, especially in the coastal areas.

It is drawing growing interest from policymakers, engineers and environmental analysts amid the country’s dual goals of securing clean energy and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

Globally, coal-fired plants are responsible for 30 per cent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. In China, coal still generates over half of the country’s electricity, making it the single largest source of greenhouse gases.

Nuclear power produces near-zero emissions during operation, with life cycle emissions comparable with wind energy, according to industrial estimates.

China has the world’s largest number of nuclear reactors in use, under construction and planned. Its nuclear industry supply chain has reached a size and completeness unmatched by any other country.

“Given China’s vast coal-fired power capacity and the long construction timeline for nuclear plants, the C2N transition could span several decades,” wrote the project team led by senior engineer Li Xiaoyu with CEEC’s China Power Engineering Consulting Group in a peer-reviewed paper published in the Chinese language journal Southern Energy Construction in July.

“During this period, if breakthroughs occur in nuclear fusion technology, the future transformation of coal plants might shift from converting them into fission reactors to repurposing them for fusion power plants,” added Li and his colleagues.

The idea of C2N is not new. In the United States, the 2022 Chips and Science Act included provisions to support the conversion of retiring coal plants into nuclear sites. The US Department of Energy has identified over 400 potential coal-to-nuclear candidate sites.

TerraPower, a nuclear energy company backed by Bill Gates, is already advancing plans to build a sodium-cooled fast reactor at a retired coal plant in Wyoming.

But the US took decades to build one new reactor, while China is opening seven to eight reactors each year.

With the world’s largest number of coal plants and the fastest-growing nuclear pipeline, the coal-to-nuclear transition is not just feasible for China but strategically logical – especially along the densely populated eastern coast, where electricity demand is high and land is scarce, according to the study.

One major challenge could be compatibility. Traditionally, a commercial nuclear power plant requires stringent safety zoning, including large exclusion zones and access to vast water supplies. Most inland coal plants do not meet these conditions.

That is where advanced reactor designs come in. Published in the same issue, separate research led by senior engineer Song Xiaoyi with East China Electric Power Design Institute suggests that high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) may be ideal for coal plant retrofits.

HTGRs require smaller safety zones, have lower water needs, and their reactor parameters align more closely with existing coal plant steam systems, simplifying integration.

A 600-megawatt HTGR can fit on a coal plant site with minimal land expansion, and its inherent safety features – such as the ability to withstand meltdowns without active cooling – reduce the need for off-site emergency planning, according to Song and her colleagues.

China already operates a demonstration HTGR at the Shidao Bay site, marking a major milestone in fourth-generation nuclear technology.

The molten salt reactor that uses commonly found thorium as fuel could also be a candidate because it requires no water for cooling, making it an optimal choice for inland sites, according to the study.

An experimental thorium reactor is already up and running in the Gobi Desert, while a larger version with electricity generation capacity is under construction.

While the technical case is gaining strength, major hurdles remain. Nuclear power remains capital intensive, with construction costs higher than coal-fired plants. Even with savings from reusing infrastructure, financing such projects requires long-term policy commitment, according to the researchers.

Moreover, public opinion could also be a major issue.

“Social factors have become one of the key influences on infrastructure development in China. Public acceptance of nuclear energy and concerns about its safety directly affect decision-making by governments and enterprises,” wrote Li’s team.

“Establishing transparent communication mechanisms and enhancing public engagement and education to improve societal acceptance of nuclear power would be crucial to C2N,” they added.

There are also policy questions. China’s nuclear sector has long been dominated by a handful of state-owned enterprises, in part due to security concerns.

To scale up the transition, regulators may need to open the market to more players, including traditional power companies that own coal assets, the studies suggest.

The veteran luxury executive, currently Kering's deputy CEO in charge of brand development, would succeed Stefano Cantino, who has been in the role since Jan. 1.

Kering is zeroing in on a contract to make Francesca Bellettini, one of its most high-profile and accomplished executives, the next chief executive officer at Gucci, WWD has learned.

According to multiple industry sources, Bellettini will succeed Stefano Cantino and Cantino will exit the Italian fashion house after only about nine months in the role, during which there has been significant change.

It is understood an announcement could come as early as this week.

Officials at Gucci and Kering did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment over the weekend.

Appointing Bellettini would be one of the first and most crucial decisions made by incoming Kering CEO Luca de Meo, who last week vowed to start implementing his turnaround plan for the ailing French luxury group before the end of this year.

He starts Monday, but has been working intensively behind the scenes since last June, when Kering revealed the Renault Group executive would succeed François-Henri Pinault at a group that also comprises Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Boucheron and other brands. (Pinault is to remain chairman.)

Currently Kering’s deputy CEO in charge of brand development, Bellettini was seated next to Cantino at a press briefing in March when Demna, the Georgian designer who had revved up Balenciaga, was revealed as Gucci’s next creative director, succeeding Sabato De Sarno. He officially started in July and is to present his first designs later this month during Milan Fashion Week. His full-fledged debut won’t be until February 2026.

At the time, Bellettini said Demna was immediately enthusiastic about Gucci and came up with a compelling proposal “to make the brand cool and relevant.” She said he was tasked with “a holistic work around the brand.”

Moving swiftly to get Gucci back on track is one of de Meo’s top priorities. Kering has been dragged down by steep declines at its star brand and a bulging debt load, forcing the group to shutter stores, offload real estate and reduce headcount after a dismal start to the year that saw group net profit plummet 46 percent in the first half.

Sources say chief financial officer Alberto Valente is also expected to exit Gucci.

Bellettini, an investment banker who segued into business development, and later communications and merchandising for fashion houses including Prada, Gucci and Bottega Veneta, helmed the Saint Laurent brand since 2013, initially working with designer Hedi Slimane, who dropped the late founder’s first name, Yves, and in 2016 appointed Anthony Vaccarello creative director.

During her tenure leading the house, she grew the size of the business roughly sixfold, according to market sources.

Since being named a deputy CEO in July 2023, Bellettini, in concert with Pinault, spearheaded decisions that left three Kering houses with new creative directors — Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta — and four with new CEOs, at Gucci, Balenciaga, Brioni and Saint Laurent, where she relinquished the CEO title to manage the workload overseeing a stable of brands that also includes McQueen, Pomellato and Queelin.

Cédric Charbit, CEO of Balenciaga since 2016, succeeded Bellettini as CEO of Saint Laurent, effective Jan. 2 this year, following her promotion.

Cantino joined Gucci in May last year as deputy CEO and was promoted to the corner office effective Jan. 1, succeeding Jean-François Palus at the helm of the brand after his two-year stint.

Cantino has been restructuring his team, navigating the uncertain global scenario, and aiming to rev up desirability at Gucci, which posted another 25 percent decrease in organic sales in the second quarter.

Among his moves, he named Maria Cristina Lomanto, previously executive vice president, brand general manager, to the post of president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa; Marcello Costa was promoted to chief merchandising officer; Valérie Leberichel joined Gucci from Givenchy as senior vice president of global communications, and Christophe Marque joined from DFS Group, a subsidiary of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, as president and CEO of Gucci Americas.

A Louis Vuitton communications executive, Cantino brought to Gucci his vast experience in communications, merchandising and managing relationships with the creative studio.

He joined Vuitton in 2018 as senior vice president of communications, recruited by then-chairman and CEO Michael Burke. Cantino’s scope on communications and events extended to retail touch points.

Before that, Cantino spent much of his 22-year career at Prada in various business development, merchandising and marketing roles, involved in everything from retail to industrial processes, working closely with Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli and designer Miuccia Prada.

Spare change

Incoming new EU rules could add up to €124.2bn in additional compliance costs per year for businesses and public administration, according to an estimate by the Danish presidency of the Council of the EU, writes Paola Tamma.

Context: Brussels has launched a deregulation drive to relieve businesses from compliance costs and boost growth. The European Commission estimates that companies already spend up to €150bn per year to comply with existing legislation, and has promised to reduce the burden through a series of so-called “omnibus” laws to simplify the rules.

Denmark, which chairs the EU council of member states for the second half of this year, has made simplification one of the priorities of its presidency.

“There is no question about the fact that we have way too many burdens on our companies,” Stephanie Lose, Denmark’s economy minister, told the Financial Times.

“The commission is showing that they mean it when they say they want to reduce burdens for companies,” said Lose, but added that “it’s not enough to have this close look looking backward. The future flow of regulation is just as important, maybe even more important.”

Denmark added up estimated costs of EU regulations that are currently being negotiated in different policy areas, based on the commission’s own impact assessments. It found that they could add up to €38.3bn for governments and €85.9bn for businesses per year.

This comes in addition to one-off costs of up to €69.9bn for businesses, and €1.8bn for public administrations. 

The topic will be discussed at a meeting of EU finance ministers later this week.

However, Denmark’s calculation did not take into account potential benefits of the regulations as those “often difficult to monetise,” according to a note circulated ahead of the ministers’ meeting.

Lose hopes that the exercise will help “move this discussion [on simplification] into the top of mind of people”. She suggested that EU finance ministers take regular stock of incoming EU regulation, asking: “Could we minimise the cost of that?”

“You need to be aware that if you don’t do anything about this, then you will end up in a situation where the European continent is the continent of all the rules and the museums and then the companies have moved elsewhere,” Lose said.