This week was defined by soaring digital engagement, acquisitions, sharper data tools, and accelerating AI ecosystems reshaping the global tech and media landscape. In today’s MadTech Daily, we cover Disney and OpenAI striking a deal to bring characters to Sora, Google testing AI article overviews on certain Google News pages, as well as Apple’s inside look at Meta’s shift from open-source to revenue-driven AI.

Britons’ digital consumption continues to accelerate, with new Ofcom figures showing YouTube remains the dominant attention magnet, with an average of 51 minutes of viewing time per person each day across devices. Meanwhile, Alphabet and Meta together account for more than half of all online activity.

M&A activity in the industry also heats up as Cadent acquires VuePlanner, the contextual advertising and YouTube planning specialist. The deal brings more than 35 VuePlanner staff into the business, lifting Cadent’s total headcount to around 640.

And while consolidation reshapes the ad tech landscape, Hollywood is witnessing an equally seismic power play. Netflix has struck a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, taking control of its film and TV studios as well as HBO Max and HBO. This comes as Paramount tabled a hostile USD$108.4bn (£81.5bn) offer for Warner Bros, seeking to derail the USD$72bn (£54.07bn) acquisition agreement Netflix had inked.

Platforms are also sharpening their data edge. Uber is expanding its advertising toolkit with the launch of Uber Intelligence, a new insight platform built with LiveRamp. The product lets brands securely merge their first-party data with Uber’s aggregated and anonymised behavioural signals. 

Data isn’t the only area getting an upgrade, AI content pipelines are being rebuilt too. Meta has signed a fresh wave of licensing deals with major media partners including CNN, Fox News and People Inc. The agreements allow Meta AI to surface real-time updates across news, sport, entertainment and lifestyle, while directing users back to publishers’ sites for deeper coverage.

Finally, open-source momentum continues to surge. A study from OpenRouter and Andreessen Horowitz reports that Chinese open-source AI models now account for nearly 30% of global usage.