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The news: Audioboom agreed to acquire Adelicious, potentially creating the UK鈥檚 largest homegrown podcast network with 125 million monthly downloads, per Podnews. The deal will cement Audioboom鈥檚 expansion and amplify its global reach through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other major platforms. Our take: As podcasting shifts from a fragmented space to a few dominant networks, smaller creators risk losing ad revenue and visibility. Advertisers that balance buys across major platforms and independent shows will stretch their budgets further鈥攁nd stay closer to engaged, loyal audiences.

The news: Magnite and Dentsu are expanding their partnership in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region to streamline video and connected TV (CTV) capabilities, per a press release. The agreement will use Magnite鈥檚 SpringServe video platform across markets like the UK and Spain to support Dentsu鈥檚 programmatic CTV offering, Total TV. Our take: Magnite and Dentsu鈥檚 partnership marks a critical expansion, giving advertisers a better opportunity to deliver impactful, precise, and measurable video and CTV experiences at scale across key markets.

This is the first installment of our 鈥淯碍 Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

Western European countries like the UK and Germany already have significant retail media markets, and Canada is also starting to embrace the channel. Retail media accounts for well over a fifth of worldwide digital ad spending, but that figure is not representative of most countries.

This report analyzes how digital adoption and evolving consumer habits are reshaping South Korea鈥檚 retail, media, and payments landscape.

In the UK, the biggest broadcasters are starting to utilize YouTube as an additional platform for their broadcast content. Channel 4 reported that views of full episodes of its programs on YouTube were up 169% YoY, surpassing 110 million organic views, as of February 2025. YouTube is also looking to 鈥減remiumize鈥� its CTV service.

The digital ad channel is hugely dominant in the UK, so there is increasingly less room for growth. But in the broader digital category, retail media is the main driver.

In most major markets鈥擟anada, the US, the UK, and Germany鈥攎obile鈥檚 share of programmatic display ad spending will be slightly larger than its share of total digital spending. That is due primarily to social media鈥檚 influence and is true of our worldwide numbers as well. Out of the markets we track, mobile鈥檚 share of programmatic ad spending will be highest in China this year.

Click here to view our full forecast for digital ad spending penetration by country and region. India will lead in digital ad spending growth for many years to come, but a surprising number of advanced economies are also on the high-growth list.