Uncensored Offering (EXCLUSIVE): If the success of the Express Checkout founders is one end of the creator spectrum, where relative unknowns can claw their way into relevance, Piers Morgan and his two-year-old Uncensored Media is the other. Morgan is one of a handful of highly recognizable news personalities to decamp to YouTube in recent years, where he has built a budding media empire out of various Uncensored franchises, which today cover topics including soccer, royals, and history. On Monday, the company shared with me its plan to launch individual $4.99 subscriptions for its franchises, part of a mandate from new CEO Rashida Jones to grow the bottom line by launching new sources of revenue. Jones, who joined in March from MSNBC, has also spearheaded efforts to grow its licensing and events businesses. When Morgan first left television for YouTube, I will admit, I thought that meant the twilight of his career had officially begun. Now, nearly three years later, it was perhaps the savviest move he could have made.
OpenWeb Falters (EXCLUSIVE): The adtech firm OpenWeb, which helps premium publishers monetize their websites, requested insolvency protections in an Israeli court last week, as I reported on Friday. The financial strain is the result of a cascading series of events—Microsoft, a key client, stopped working with OpenWeb; a key lender worried that withdrawal posed a material threat to its business, then demanded its money—but the root cause is the ongoing contraction of the open internet, a byproduct of AI search. Just four years ago, OpenWeb was worth $1.5 billion, counted The New York Times as an investor, and had luminaries like Scott Galloway on its board. But a 2024 boardroom coup, coupled with ongoing headwinds to the open web advertising industry, have put the company on its back heel.
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The world of video games is late to advertising, relatively speaking, but that is soon poised to change. In June, EA announced its first ad platform, while entertainment firms like Netflix and LG are investing heavily to convert streaming audiences into video game enthusiasts, which could dramatically increase the pool of potential gamers. Next month, two blockbuster franchises, Zelda and Grand Theft Auto, are set to release new highly anticipated offerings—a titanic occurrence in the gaming ecosystem.
As a result, Wes Morton, the cofounder and CEO of Creativ Company, thinks that automated advertising will soon become ubiquitous within the game experience itself. If so, in-game programmatic advertising could be one of the biggest advertising mediums on the planet in the next five years, per Morton, a byproduct of improved technology, fewer barriers to entry, and a newly motivated group of industry entrants: streamers.
This interview has been edited.
Mark Stenberg: Why are so many game companies launching ad businesses now?
Wes Morton: They’re all looking for new ways to monetize their audiences. Publishers were always open to custom partnership deals, but now they’re professionalizing. To put the audience in context, The Game Awards gets more viewership than the other major award shows combined. I think video games will become the biggest advertising medium in the next five years.
