Xbox TV … We Guess?

Everything is TV now, whether you like it or not.

Xbox unveiled a new TV and film division this week, aptly named XP, a reference to a video game colloquialism that means “experience points.” Leading XP is Kayleen Walters, head of Xbox-owned Mojang Studios. Maria Angelidou-Smith will take over as CEO of Minecraft and Mojang.

The news comes on the heels of Xbox’s most recent round of layoffs following the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Last month, more than 260 positions were cut from the Halo Studios division.

For Xbox, XP represents several monetization opportunities, according to the memo Xbox CEO Asha Sharma sent around to staff on Thursday. One of those opportunities is “formalizing” sponsorships and brand partnerships as a key investment area for Xbox moving forward.

It was no secret that Xbox has been cooking up plans for an ads biz for quite some time, despite the fact that gamers are notoriously averse to advertising. TV viewers, however, expect (and reluctantly tolerate) ads for the most part.

While it’s still unclear how Xbox would split advertising rev shares with content partners, what is more certain is the fact that advertising creates a high-margin revenue line. Brands will often pay a pretty penny to reach engaged users in TV environments.

For One And All

Meta is currently testing something that looks very different from its traditionally free, ad-supported model in the form of Meta One, a new global subscription bundle.

And now it’s in the early monetization phase of a strategy Meta has been executing for years – turning organic ecosystem privileges into a paid utility. Apparently, external traffic is no longer welcome unless you pay for the privilege.

For example, Meta is juicing additional revenue by requiring nonsubscribed business or professional pages to pay to include more than two external links in their posts. Reports indicate that news pages are exempt from the rule – although that opens a whole other can of worms in terms of deciding who’s a news publisher and who isn’t.

Recently, Meta started tightening the rule further by extending it to comment sections, which, until now, weren’t covered by the link restrictions. For pages that have exceeded the limit, the URLs they post are simply nonclickable text.

The rule has a few amusing exceptions, though: Pages can still include links in ads, Meta affiliate links and links to Meta’s own services, such as WhatsApp and Threads. Because of course, of course.

Hold On

Some holdcos don’t even want the title.

During her first investor call last year, WPP CEO Cindy Rose declared her new home “no longer a holding company.” Meanwhile, Bob Lord, president of Horizon Media Holdings, is an avowed holdco skeptic.

Regardless, agencies are intent on growing and adding services.

Midsize indie agencies, for instance, are merging their way into hybrid holdcos. Cited examples include Wpromote’s deal for Giant Spoon and the recent acquisition of Colossus by Chemistry. Acadia buying Crush is another example.

But these indie mergers pale in comparison to dealmaking at the top of the market. Setting aside Omnicom-IPG, there’s the joint venture launched last year between Horizon Media and Havas (dubbed Horizon Global), and 2025 was the first full year that commerce agency Mars United was under the Publicis banner.

“It’s going to be harder for indie agencies to compete,” Mars CEO Rob Rivenburgh told AdExchanger at the time. He’d led Mars for 23 years before the deal, then stayed on at Publicis for roughly a year.

The pressure is coming from clients, too: Rivenburgh said fewer marketers are willing to include indie agencies in their roster of partners.

For indies, staying independent may mean getting bigger.

But Wait! There’s More!

Apple might have fixed The Trade Desk’s problem with Safari ads, but that doesn’t mean everything is going back to the status quo.

The freelance graphic designer who made the M logo for Meta’s Muse AI assistant is getting hate for her work – on Threads, ironically.

Agencies are embracing agentic media, but clients are still worried about those agents going rogue.

Meta is testing a new video-first user experience for Facebook in India.

USA Today sues OpenAI for copyright infringement.

Cable has a regional sports network problem.

You’re Hired!

Apple replaces its longtime M&A chief Adrian Perica with his lieutenant Steve Smith and promotes Carson Oliver to VP of the App Store.

Skydance announces a number of new hires and promotions, including Jay Askinasi as head of ad sales, David Decker as head of content sales and Ray Hopkins as head of distribution.

Infra TV, the parent company of ad tech platform Tatari, names Teg Grenager as SVP of product.

Smartly appoints Netflix vet Kelly Uphoff as CTO.

McCann CEO Tyler Turnbull is set to take over as WPP Creative’s global CEO.