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Research and explainers on programmatic, connected TV and the ad-tech supply chain. Named sources, dated claims.

The State of Digital Media 2026 report cover
Flagship research · 2026
The State of Digital Media 2026

Where audiences went, where the money followed, and what it means for the year ahead. Forty-plus named sources, every claim dated and cited.

  • Why digital crossed two-thirds of the American media day, and what most budgets still get wrong.
  • How search split into four discovery ecosystems, and where the ad money follows.
  • What the supply chain actually returns now, measured against the 2023 baseline.
  • The planning frame for 2026: measurement-first, orchestration-led, identity-anchored.
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Explainers for the fundamentals. Analysis for what changed this year. Everything cited to a named source.

01 Reference Programmatic advertising statistics for 2026 Updated August 2026 · Reviewed quarterly The numbers we plan against, in one page: ad spend, supply-chain waste, CTV, retail media and measurement reliability. Every figure cited and dated. 02 Analysis Agentic buying got its infrastructure layer August 2026 · 5 min read AI agents moved real client budget before the rules existed. AAMP 2.3, the Ad Context Protocol, and what an agency should hold a vendor to. 03 Analysis CTV reporting reached the show level August 2026 · 5 min read FreeWheel switched on show-level reporting across seven publishers, and content IDs cover the rest. The genre-level streaming plan is on its way out. 04 From the report Digital stopped being a channel July 2026 · 4 min read Digital crossed two-thirds of US adult media time and $294.6B in revenue. Most budgets still plan against last year’s mix. 05 From the report AI broke search into four ecosystems July 2026 · 5 min read Discovery split into four ecosystems: AI answers, vertical search, social and voice. The ad money is starting to follow. 06 From the report MMM is the cross-channel anchor again July 2026 · 5 min read Identity fragmentation ended last-touch attribution. Marketing mix modeling is the cross-channel anchor again, for the first time since 2008. 07 From the report The channel walls came down July 2026 · 5 min read CTV sells like retail media, social watches like television, and the 2022 channel map no longer describes what anyone is buying. 08 Vertical Finance advertising grows fastest where first-party data is richest July 2026 · 6 min read Finance is a top-three digital advertiser under the tightest targeting rules in media. The winning plan rebuilds precision from permitted signals. 09 Vertical Healthcare media outgrew its buying stack July 2026 · 5 min read Three audiences, five compliance gates, one measurement spine: how healthcare media gets bought when PHI can never touch targeting. 10 Explainer What is programmatic advertising? July 2026 · 7 min read The auction, the machinery, the five ways to buy, and where the money actually goes. The whole system, in plain language. 11 Analysis Who owns the identity layer? July 2026 · 5 min read The cookie survived, the rebuild happened anyway. Who controls the identity rails your buys run on, and what that costs. 12 Research Retail media grew up July 2026 · 8 min read Commerce media passed television in 2025 while trust in its reported numbers stayed low. The consolidation era, read for buyers. 13 Reference Programmatic & ad tech glossary July 2026 · Reference DSP, SSP, header bidding, MFA, incrementality: the working vocabulary of programmatic media, defined in plain sentences.
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