Author: Jessica Davies

News UK is turning The Times’ first-party data into a synthetic audience-planning tool for advertisers to plan and test campaigns, as open-web signals fade and CMOs come under growing pressure to prove ROI.

Dubbed “Times ExplorAItion,” the tool pulls together multiple data sets, including stripped-back subscriber behavior, reader panels, engagement stats and third-party PAMCo industry data, and feeds them into synthetic-audience platform Electric Twin to generate versions of key audience segments. No personally identifiable information will be used. Advertisers can use that to run surveys, pressure-test propositions, messaging and formats within seconds. The publisher is currently offering it as a value-add for branded content deals, rather than charging an extra fee. 

Behind the scenes, the system, powered by Electric Twin, has been in use for months across The Times and Sunday Times, informing subscription strategy, content decisions and product development. The Times now has 659,000 digital subscribers, up 7% in the past year, per the publisher. 

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Tipped to become the largest advertising company in the industry in 2026, Meta is quietly laying the groundwork for a move into CTV advertising, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions. 

While the exact nature of its intentions remains unclear, such a move would extend its performance advertising offering onto the biggest screen in the home. 

Digiday sources, all of whom requested anonymity to maintain relationships, say Meta has held a series of exploratory meetings since early 2025 with supply-side players, including Magnite and Comcast-owned FreeWheel — both of whom own two of the most prominent video ad servers on the market — as well as TV manufacturers, or “OEMs,” and publishers, to assess how it could access CTV inventory at scale. 

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