The global tech giant’s president, Brad Smith, announced in March 2025 that Microsoft would invest R5.4 billion to expand data centre capacity in South Africa and train South Africans with AI skills.
Johnny Davids, the beloved TV presenter of programmes like Landbouweekliks on VIA (DStv 147) and Kwêla and Ysters op die Landgoed on kykNET (DStv 144) who was also a sports commentator on SuperSport in Afrikaans died on Thursday morning after a heart attack. He was 48.
Despite evidence suggesting that teen social media bans in Australia are not yet having the intended impact, officials in the EU are pushing ahead with their own plans for teen social media bans. Bloomberg reported that Emmanuel Macron, president of France, is leading the charge to implement EU-wide rules on teen app access.
A major new study has found that social media advertising delivers 11% lower attention and engagement during the day, when consumers are most active out of the home. The findings highlight a clear opportunity for advertisers to get the most from their social campaigns and position out of home (OOH) as a channel to prime and amplify social media campaigns.
South African marketers are still often forced to rely on global reports to guide their digital strategies. However, international data rarely reflects the realities of local platforms, audience behaviour, and market-specific challenges.
An estimated 40% of South Africa’s digital programmatic advertising spend is either wasted, compromised or actively funding misinformation – a structural governance failure raising urgent concerns for marketers, CFOs and boards across the country.
MultiChoice has launched numerous initiatives to make its DStv service more attractive, including lower decoder prices, split billing, and better streaming content.
Connected TV demand is strong, budgets are growing and premium inventory continues to command attention. Yet, for publishers, the growth of CTV has complicated how deals get done. This is the point CTV has now reached, and it explains why the channel is becoming the first proving ground for agentic trading.
The IAB’s 2026 Connected Commerce Summit in New York City felt to me like the retail media industry’s first sit-down explanation to a child who is now a “big kid” and must act accordingly. Not the birds-and-bees-type conversation by any means. But an important reality check. And I’m not the only one to think so.
Google will replace Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) with AI Max for Search, an AI-powered solution, for all advertisers. The news, announced Wednesday, focuses on all campaigns using DSA, automatically created assets (ACA), and campaign-level broad match.