Media Sync for January 14, 2026: CES 2026 media and ad tech trends

Rise Media Sync is a new column that quickly summarizes media and platform news of interest to marketers. Here are four key developments, first announced during CES 2026, that the Rise team is monitoring

What’s happening: Roku will become the first major streaming platform to integrate iSpot’s Outcomes at Scale metric directly into its ad optimization engine.

What we know:

• Roku, which has been collaborating with iSpot since 2024, will leverage Outcomes in an attempt to improve targeting, creative performance and overall advertising efficiency.
• Early testing with SimpliSafe delivered a claimed 23% increase in leads and a 31% boost in site visits.
• Roku says that it reaches 90 million U.S. households and expects platform revenue to represent the majority of its projected $4.7 billion in total 2025 revenue.

Early indications and Rise perspective: This integration provides a clear path to outcome-driven streaming campaigns, tying ad spend to measurable business results rather than impressions alone. By linking performance signals directly to optimization — rather than treating measurement as a post-campaign exercise — Roku is positioning itself as a platform where ROI can actively shape delivery and creative decisions in flight. For advertisers, that operational feedback loop could materially improve efficiency and effectiveness.

What’s happening: Roblox has announced a new CPM-based homepage ad format alongside expanded programmatic buying access, signaling a more mature approach to monetization.

What we know:

• The new CPM-based Homepage Feature ad unit can convert video ads into interactive 3D experiences — tech that’s currently in closed beta but should move to always-on later this year.
• The Roblox homepage is the first touchpoint for a claimed 150+ million daily active users, making it one of the platform’s most visible placements.
• Programmatic access is expanding via Amazon DSP and Liftoff, with new supply-side integrations including Index Exchange, Magnite and PubMatic.

Early indications and Rise perspective: This marks a meaningful step in Roblox’s evolution from experimental metaverse brand activations to a scalable, media-buyable environment. The homepage placement offers high-impact reach at the very start of a session, while CPM pricing introduces predictability absent from custom-built brand worlds. As Roblox plugs more deeply into programmatic infrastructure, immersive formats should become easier to test, measure and justify within broader media plans — a boon for brands focused on reaching younger audiences, as Roblox has emerged as a favored platform among Gen Alpha and Gen Z consumers.

What’s happening: Samsung Ads is expanding advertiser access to its linear TV and CTV data via a new platform called Data+, created in collaboration with Snowflake.

What we know:

• Data+ provides advertisers with access to Samsung’s linear and CTV logfile data for the first time, promising deeper visibility into consumer behavior and journey after they’re exposed to ads.
• Advertisers can combine their data with these Samsung datasets in the secure Snowflake Data Clean Room, reducing their risk of exposing sensitive first-party information.
• Samsung Ads joins other heavy-hitters across the entire TV ecosystem — including Google TV, Disney+ and DirectTV — in making major announcements at CES 2026.

Early indications and Rise perspective: Data+ reflects growing advertiser demand for transparency inside premium, closed ecosystems. By enabling first-party data collaboration alongside TV and CTV exposure insights, Samsung appears to be offering marketers a clearer line of sight beyond reach metrics and into downstream outcomes, such as engagement and conversion.

What’s happening: Viant Technology launched Outcomes, its first fully autonomous advertising product powered by ViantAI.

What we know:

• Outcomes is driven by AI Lattice Brain, Viant’s new decisioning system that evaluates proprietary signals including household IDs, supply quality, historical performance, bid dynamics and real-time delivery conditions.
• It can autonomously manage campaigns toward achieving specific business objectives, such as sales, customer acquisition or ROI.
• Viant emphasizes transparency and higher-quality inputs, positioning Outcomes as a solution that’s designed to better distinguish invalid traffic from real (human) audiences.

Early indications and Rise perspective: By offloading day-to-day optimization to AI systems, Outcomes aims to ease the operational burden of campaign management while maintaining business-level accountability. If successful, this model would allow internal teams to redirect effort from tactical oversight to higher-value strategic planning — an approach that may be necessary as the marketing ecosystem grows more complex.

• “PubMatic launches AgenticOS, operating system for agent-to-agent advertising” (MSN)
• “Magnite builds seller agent into SpringServe for AI-driven ad buying” (PPC Land)
• “Yahoo DSP advances agentic media-buying models” (MediaPost)

If you’ve made it this far, here’s a fun fact: The first CES was held in June 1967 in New York City. It emerged as an offshoot of the Chicago Music Show, which previously served as the primary showcase for consumer electronics.

Not totally sure what these CES 2026 announcements (or the broader trends around AI and disruptive tech) mean for you? We’ve got you covered.