Below is a roundup of last week’s notable industry news, with summaries and our opinions. Pinterest is getting scientific about advertising…

Pinterest acquires CTV startup tvScientific (didn't CTV that coming)
Source: AdExchanger
December 11th, 2025

Summary: Pinterest is buying tvScientific, a connected TV advertising (CTV) platform for performance marketers focused on outcomes-based advertising. This marks Pinterest's first real move into CTV advertising. 

tvScientific uses algorithmic optimization and a cost-per-outcome pricing model that enables advertisers to pay only when campaigns hit their goals.

The move fits Pinterest's shift toward performance marketing. Last year, the company rolled out Performance+, an AI-powered targeting tool that competes with Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage+. Pinterest also launched a test program with Walmart last week that lets users tap on a recipe and have the ingredients added to their Walmart basket for pickup or delivery. 

After the tvScientific sale closes in the first half of 2026, tvScientific will continue operating independently under its own brand. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but some estimate a price tag north of $300M.🔒

Opinion: This deal is about helping Pinterest expand into CTV, expand into open web monetization, expand into the mid-market, and expand into performance advertising. All somewhat new frontiers for Pinterest.

This deal is also about owning the complete customer journey—something few platforms can claim. Here’s the vision:

Discovery: Users come to Pinterest to get inspired, browse, and plan. They're searching for recipes, home renovation ideas, fashion inspiration, or gift ideas. This creates awareness and the initial sparks of intent. 

Consideration: Now Pinterest can turn that initial intent into real consideration by following those same users to their TV screens with performance-driven ads through tvScientific. Unlike traditional TV advertising that's all about brand awareness and reach, tvScientific's cost-per-outcome model means brands only pay when they hit specific goals. 

Conversion: Then the Walmart partnership and similar integrations can close the loop. That recipe you pinned? Add the ingredients to your cart. That home decor idea? Buy it now. Pinterest is turning inspiration directly into transactions.

Many platforms own one, maybe two of these stages. Pinterest is trying to own all three. This matters because Pinterest has always had a performance problem—600M users come for inspiration, but Pinterest has struggled to capture the revenue when those users actually go downstream and buy products elsewhere. Essentially, Pinterest gets "window shopping" money but not “cash register” money. Pinterest wants cash register money.

But marrying a social media platform to a CTV ad network to commerce outcomes, at scale, is hard. Especially since Pinterest still doesn’t own the transaction layer (like Amazon or Walmart). Can they execute on their vision? Unclear…

Disney making $1B investment in OpenAI, will allow characters on Sora AI video generator - Disney is putting $1B into OpenAI and licensing hundreds of Disney, Star Wars, Marvel, and other characters for people to use in its Sora video generation app. This marks a big pivot for Disney, which has been aggressive about suing AI companies—it’s currently suing Midjourney and just sent Google a legal warning about using its copyrighted works. But instead of fighting OpenAI, Disney is betting that controlled partnerships may be smarter than lawsuits. The deal explicitly excludes actor likenesses and voices in the short Sora videos. Disney will also roll out ChatGPT internally for employees to use. Will AI-generated Disney content flood the internet and dilute Disney's brand positioning? Probably. Some Sora users are already creating videos that spoof Disney characters in dark and absurd ways.

Check out the most recent episode of AI Edge Podcast, in which we discuss the AI IP conundrum that Disney and other content creators face.

It’s getting a bit easier to find Amazon shoppers on Samsung TVs - Samsung Ads has integrated with Amazon Publisher Cloud, allowing advertisers who buy Samsung inventory through Amazon DSP to combine both companies' data for targeting and measurement. Marketers can match Amazon's shopping and browsing data with Samsung's 300 proprietary audience segments like reality TV watchers to better reach specific shoppers across Samsung TV devices and Samsung TV Plus FAST channels. The integration uses data clean room tech with hashed emails and IP addresses instead of PII, keeping both companies' data secure while still enabling precise targeting. This follows Amazon's similar partnership with Roku announced over the summer. Amazon continues to strike partnerships with some of its biggest rivals, signaling its dominance. 

Shopify rolls out ad network for millions of merchants🔒- With Shopify's new Product Network, merchants can run ads on each other's websites. For example, if someone searches for a product you don't sell, Shopify can show them another merchant's product instead—and you get a cut of the sale. The ads show up in search results, product collections, and post-purchase thank-you pages. Shopify has over 2M merchants, so the theory is that keeping shoppers in the Shopify ecosystem, even if they bounce between merchants, is better than losing them entirely. The obvious concern is that merchants are inviting rivals onto their turf. Shopify says they won't show direct competitors and merchants can control which other merchants appear on their site.

Instagram for TV: Social Network Launches App to Watch Reels Videos on Big Screen - Meta is bringing Reels to TVs for the first time. The Instagram for TV app will launch on Amazon Fire TV devices in the US, with more platforms coming next year. Instagram says people have been asking to watch Reels on their TVs when hanging out with friends, so they built personalized channels around comedy, sports, music, and lifestyle that autoplay one after another. Users can add up to five accounts on one device. There's no advertising at launch, but Instagram's VP said they'll consider it down the road (spoiler: there will be ads eventually). This is completely different from IGTV, the failed 2018 experiment for longer form videos that got shut down in 2022.

Google preemptively changes Ad Manager in EU as it battles antitrust regulations -

Albertsons’ new ad format tries to solve a major challenge in retail media🔒- The “Add-It” format lets shoppers click on promoted products offsite and add them to a shopping cart from an Albertsons-owned store.

​​Amazon built a $60B ad business using ad tech firms and agencies. Now some say they’re getting squeezed out🔒- Amazon is increasingly working directly with advertisers, charging vendors to use data that was once free, and building tools that can replace those offered by ad tech companies. 

The 3 superpowers of agentic advertising - Former IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg and JourneySpark Consulting CEO Matthew Egol have launched AgenticAdvertising.org, an industry organization that will build open standards for agentic advertising.

Stic raises $10M to put OOH advertising in the driver’s seat🔒- Stic lets rideshare drivers make extra money by turning their vehicles into billboards. 

Meta tolerates rampant ad fraud from China to safeguard billions in revenue🔒- At one point, nearly 20% of Meta's ad business in China was tied to ads for scams, illegal gambling, porn, and other banned content, according to a Reuters investigation.

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