Every month the Together team highlights five media stories from New Zealand and globally that defined the month, and one great media idea we love. October was a big month for the future of media in New Zealand, with TVNZ and Sky taking a major step towards unified audience measurement, Netflix putting a date on its advertising launch and AI opening up new opportunities for advertisers. Meanwhile, local publishers are finding new ways to monetise audiences and make their inventory more accessible, as competition for advertising dollars and audience attention continues to intensify.
TVNZ and Sky join forces on total TV measurement
TVNZ and Sky announced this month that they’re partnering on a new audience measurement system that brings local broadcast and streaming together for the first time. The system will be built primarily on first-party viewing data from TVNZ and Sky’s broadcast and streaming platforms, with global technology specialist tvbeat selected to deliver it and Ipsos providing the independent research panel. The new service is expected to launch from mid-2027, with Nielsen continuing as TVNZ and Sky’s measurement partner until then.
For NZ marketers, this is the next chapter of the Total TV story we flagged last month. Counting linear and streaming viewing in one currency should make it far easier to plan TV as a single screen, and to understand genuine deduplicated reach rather than stitching together separate reports.
The watch-out is independence. A currency built mainly on broadcasters’ own data needs the independent research layer to do real work if agencies are going to trade on it with confidence. It also only covers TVNZ and Sky, so YouTube, Netflix and other streamers sit outside the number. Nothing changes on the trading desk until mid-2027, but now is the time to ask how the new currency will be calibrated and audited.
Read more: ipsos.com/en-nz/advancing-total-tv-audience-measurement-nz
Netflix puts a date on its NZ ad tier
Netflix holds about 50% of the streaming audience in New Zealand. This month it announced it will roll out its ad-supported services to Kiwi viewers in March 2027. Experts are warning the roll-out could usher in a big shift in the local market, raising questions for local content producers who rely on advertising dollars.
For NZ marketers, a March launch puts Netflix squarely into first-half 2027 plans. When we covered the announcement in July, it was a future opportunity. Now it’s a planning decision. Premium AV supply is about to grow significantly, which should give advertisers more choice and potentially more negotiating power across the streaming market.
The pressure falls hardest on local players. TVNZ+ and ThreeNow will be competing for the same premium video budgets against the platform that already owns half of streaming viewing. As we said in July, ad-tier uptake will decide how much scale is genuinely on offer, so expect launch audience figures to be scrutinised closely.
AI answers become ad inventory
October was the month AI advertising started to look like a grown-up channel. OpenAI is adding visual display ads so that ads appear alongside images users ask ChatGPT to generate, and is expanding its measurement tools and partner ecosystem, alongside brand suitability pilots with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science. ChatGPT Ads expanded to 89 countries on October 21, more than 100,000 advertisers have run campaigns since launch, and OpenAI says ad revenue is pacing at $1 billion a year.
Google moved too. It is bringing ads in its AI-powered search experiences to international markets, betting generative AI can open new revenue even as growth in its core search advertising business slows.
For NZ marketers, ChatGPT ads have been available here since earlier this year. What changed in October is the infrastructure: attribution, brand safety and visual formats are the things brands need before shifting meaningful budget. And with search making up almost half of NZ digital ad revenue, Google bringing ads into AI Overviews and AI Mode means search plans built purely around keywords and blue links will need rethinking.
One practical note: automation is being switched on by default. From October 30, Meta’s updated terms make advertisers responsible for what Meta’s AI features create or change in their ads, including features it turns on by default, and OpenAI’s creative enhancements are now on by default too. Worth checking your settings.
Read more: openai.com/index/new-chatgpt-ads-format-and-measurement & techcrunch.com/2026/10/05/openai-launches-visual-ads-that-appear-alongside-image-generation-results
NZME opens its audio to programmatic buyers
NZME has partnered with Magnite to make its iHeartRadio, podcast and video podcast inventory available programmatically. Its digital audio network reaches 1.04 million digital radio and 1.3 million podcast listeners on average every month. NZME will also expand its use of Magnite’s SpringServe platform to power video podcast advertising, as more Kiwis watch their favourite shows as well as listen to them.
For NZ marketers, this makes premium local audio much easier to fold into omnichannel programmatic plans, with frequency managed alongside video and display rather than bought in isolation. Following August’s radio survey results, it’s another sign audio’s scale is holding while the way it’s bought keeps changing.
The video podcast piece is the one to watch. Shows like Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley now behave as both audio and screen content, which blurs the line between an audio buy and a video buy. Programmatic convenience shouldn’t come at the cost of context, though: host reads and show sponsorships still do things a programmatic spot can’t.
Read more: stoppress.co.nz/news/nzme-opens-premium-audio-to-buyers-through-magnite
Stuff launches Extra Stuff
Stuff has launched a new membership layer, Extra Stuff, delivering events, extra content, insider access and new member communities. Membership begins at $10 per month, or $99 per year, with a one-off Founding Membership programme for its most loyal supporters. Owner and publisher Sinead Boucher says everything Stuff audiences already enjoy for free will stay free.
In the same month, Stuff joined the Spur coalition, a global coalition established to prevent AI companies from misusing or profiting from media organisations’ content without permission, alongside RNZ, the BBC and The New York Times.
For NZ marketers, membership models matter because logged-in, highly engaged readers make a publisher’s audience offer stronger. Better first-party data, plus events and communities, open up sponsorship and partnership opportunities beyond standard display.
The bigger picture connects to story three. As more discovery shifts into AI answers, publishers are fighting to protect the journalism that creates the trusted, brand-safe environments advertisers depend on. How that plays out will shape where quality attention lives in a few years’ time.
Read more: stuff.co.nz/about-us/361051394/introducing-extra-stuff-more-what-you-love-and-then-some
Media idea we love: Ford proves the Transit is everywhere by simply counting them
Ford Pro and Born Social filmed a single stretch of UK road for an hour from 5am and captured 320 Ford Transit vans passing the camera. Rather than claiming the van is popular, they set out to prove it. The real, unstaged footage became the hero film for ‘Another Ford Transit’, running across organic and paid social, with paid content driving people to book a test drive.
Why we love it:
- The proof is the idea. Almost one in five vans sold in the UK is a Transit, and the footage shows it rather than says it.
- It’s cheap, honest and impossible to argue with: one camera, one road, one hour.
- It celebrates the customer, not the product, turning ubiquity into recognition for the tradies behind the wheel.
