02/09/26: Cynopsis Media Tech Update

Monday February 9, 2026

   TOP MEDIA TECH NEWS

Anthropic and ChatGPT went toe-to-toe in this year’s Super Bowl with commercials meant to position their popular large-language models as the most superior and user-friendly. Anthropic launched an ad for the Big Game showcasing Claude AI – and it’s a not-so-thinly veiled jab at OpenAI’s intention to introduce ads to ChatGPT. After the ad launched, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted a rebuttal on X, calling the commercial “funny” but “so clearly dishonest.”

What’s happening? – In Anthropic’s ad, a man asks a therapist for advice on how to better communicate with his mother. The therapist, representing a chatbot with ads, gives some helpful pointers before suddenly recommending that the man tries a dating site where he can find older women – a sudden breach of propriety that could happen when AI misunderstands pieces of the context surrounding the conversation it’s happening. The commercial ends with text reading, “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”
So what? – AI companies are jumping into the Super Bowl to position their services as trustworthy as consumer distrust of AI spreads. The need to establish AI as trustworthy to viewers is table-stakes for these companies’ survival – as is convincing viewers that their product is better than that of their rivals.
Now what? – Many advertisers rely on Super Bowl spots to change or solidify the perceptions that people have about their brands. After the Big Game is over, AI companies will need to continue trying to win consumer trust off of the field.

Google parent company Alphabet’s 2025 fiscal earnings highlighted YouTube’s annual revenue individually – apparently for the first time since acquiring the video platform in 2006. YouTube reported 9% year-over-year growth last quarter – which lags other ad channels, as an investor pointed out during Alphabet’s earnings call – and that growth comes from a mix of subscription and advertising revenue.

What’s happening? – YouTube is increasingly seeking ad dollars from TV and video media buyers as the streaming landscape gets more competitive. That competitive pressure is intensifying, especially as Netflix prepares to acquire Warner Bros. Studios and HBO Max.
So what? – YouTube faces an uphill battle to convince marketers that its platform belongs in the same premium category of other TV programmers. That struggle is only partly because of heightened concerns around “AI slop,” or low-quality AI-generated content.
Now what? – Upfront planning is already in full swing, and YouTube will need to make a convincing argument to advertisers this year about why its platform is a better investment than other streaming platforms.

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Super Bowl commercials cost millions of dollars no matter how you buy them, but streaming creates a way for marketers with fewer dollars to play in the Big Game. While NBCU was charging between $7 million and $10 million for a typical 30-second ad spot, it reportedly only charged $3 million for its Peacock-only placements. That being said, streaming-only advertisers can’t expect to reach quite the same audience scale as marketers showing up during the official telecast.

Speaking of digital technology making sports accessible for marketers: Programmatic buying options are attracting more marketers to this year’s Winter Olympics. NBCU started making Olympics ad inventory available programmatically during the Paris games in 2024. While most of this inventory is bought directly (as is the case with most live tentpole sporting events), more advertisers with smaller marketing budgets will tap private marketplace deals to get into the Olympics.

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According to Nielsen’s January Gauge report, YouTube tops the charts with 12.7% of total TV viewing hours in the US – beating Netflix, which wins second place at 9%. Notably, it’s the main YouTube app that boasts the winning percentage of viewing hours. YouTube TV, the live distribution service that’s mainly viewed on the living room screen, didn’t make the top ten in Nielsen’s list – and could be part of the reason why marketers still perceive YouTube as a hub for user-generated content.

Diving a little deeper, marketers’ budgets also reflect their perceptions of YouTube. Because so many of YouTube’s viewing hours are attributable to UGC, advertisers still treat YouTube as a social or online video investment rather than premium TV programming. A major reason is because TV commercial production reportedly still costs four to five times more than most YouTube campaigns on average.

Coming full circle, YouTube is using the Super Bowl from which to convince brands that YouTube is TV. YouTube is helping advertisers work with creators on content surrounding the Super Bowl. The effort is one way to remind marketers that its platform has unparalleled reach and scale – and a unique, high-value audience that’s exclusive to the platform. YouTube cites a Comscore AdBlitz Media Analysis stat to hopefully prove the magnitude of incremental reach it represents to media buyers.

Hollywood is losing audiences to AI fatigue, as audiences prove increasingly hostile to content that is created by, altered with, or even about AI. It appears that for viewers, the novelty of AI has worn off, and consumers seek original, relatable content that depicts humanity in all its imperfections.

Fox’s overall revenue last quarter was nearly flat at 2% year-over-year growth, with advertising revenue rising just 1%. But Tubi, its free ad-supported TV (FAST) platform it acquired in 2020, is behind a sizable amount of that growth. As FAST viewership and ad dollars continue growing, Fox has an advantage with Tubi, which just saw its second profitable quarter and highest viewership to date, according to the company. Fox News also garnered roughly a third of Fox One, the streaming platform Fox launched last summer.

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ADVERTISER PERCEPTIONS/NEW YORK, NY: Drive direct sales of the platform offering, focusing heavily on new client acquisition. Reporting to and working closely with the GM of the Ad Insights Hub, this individual contributor will partner cross-functionally with Sales, Business Intelligence, Operations, and Client Services teams to build awareness and engagement with new clients. Full info HERE

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