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Welcome back to The Brief by Kuro House, your daily dose of what’s moving, shaking, and transforming the marketing and media world. Today, we’re diving into some of the most compelling developments in retail tech, streaming, media buying, and the ever-shifting landscape of TV news. Whether you’re a strategist, creative, or just someone who wants to stay ahead of the curve, we’ve got you covered.
Let’s start with a retail tech power play that could redefine how we shop. According to Adweek, Google and Walmart are teaming up in a big way to shape the future of retail, with a particular focus on AI and cutting-edge delivery technologies like drones. At the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in New York City, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and incoming Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner announced that shoppers will soon be able to purchase Walmart and Sam’s Club products directly through Google’s AI chatbot, Gemini. The integration goes deep: loyalty members can link their accounts, allowing Gemini to personalize recommendations and offers based on shopping history. But the partnership isn’t stopping there. Google unveiled the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), developed with Walmart, Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, and Target. UCP is designed to be a global standard for AI agents in retail, letting retailers personalize the entire customer journey—from discovery to decision and checkout—while keeping control of the customer relationship. For example, a new shopper might be nudged to join a loyalty program, while a returning customer could get a personalized offer, all within the same AI-powered conversation. Google’s Shopping Graph, now baked into Gemini, tracks over 50 billion product listings in real time. On the delivery side, Walmart is expanding its partnership with Google’s drone service, Wing, to 270 locations across the U.S., including Miami and Los Angeles. In Atlanta, half of Wing’s customers use drone delivery more than once, with half of all deliveries completed in under 20 minutes. As Pichai put it, “The retailer is able to shape the relationship at every step as the merchant of record.” With Google’s Gemini gaining share on ChatGPT and now boasting over 650 million monthly users, this partnership could set a new bar for personalized, AI-driven commerce.
Shifting gears to ad tech, Digiday reports that Yahoo’s demand-side platform (DSP) is making serious waves among media buyers. After being sold by Verizon to Apollo Global in 2021, Yahoo was seen by many as past its prime. But the company’s DSP has undergone what insiders call a “technical reset,” emerging as a credible challenger in the space. At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, Yahoo announced its DSP is now AI-native, moving beyond legacy automation to an “agentic” model. This means AI systems are embedded throughout the workflow, assisting with planning, optimizing bidding, surfacing cross-channel opportunities, and even automating measurement. A standout new feature is Yahoo’s “Yours, Mine, and Ours” framework, which lets advertisers use their own AI agents, Yahoo’s native agents, or connect both through APIs. This open approach stands in contrast to competitors like The Trade Desk and DV360, which tend to keep their AI more tightly controlled. Yahoo’s DSP already offers AI-assisted campaign activation, proactive troubleshooting, and audience exploration, with more advanced features rolling out through 2026. Despite recent layoffs and the looming dominance of Amazon’s DSP, Yahoo’s platform is gaining traction for its ability to blend retail data, extend into non-Amazon categories, and maintain advanced trader controls. The big question: will this technical leap and openness be enough to carve out a lasting place in a market increasingly dominated by giants?
On the streaming front, Adweek reveals that Netflix’s Stranger Things continues to be an unstoppable force. For the week of December 8, the series racked up a staggering 3.02 billion viewing minutes, topping Nielsen’s Top 10 Overall Streaming chart for the fifth week in a row. Netflix dominated the chart, holding five of the top slots, with Hulu close behind at four. Other billion-minute juggernauts included the Netflix docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning with 1.595 billion minutes, Paramount+’s Landman at 1.522 billion, and the Netflix film Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which pulled in 1.306 billion minutes. The ever-popular NCIS, available across multiple platforms, rounded out the top five. Notably, Law & Order reentered the chart, and Bluey on Disney+ maintained its strong showing. HBO Max’s IT: Welcome to Derry debuted with 660 million minutes. In short, the appetite for streaming content remains voracious, and legacy franchises like Stranger Things and NCIS continue to command massive attention.
Turning to the world of TV news, Adweek’s TVNewser gives us a look at the morning show ratings for the week of December 29 and the fourth quarter of 2025. NBC’s Today led in both total viewers and the key Adults 25-54 demo for the week, with 2.836 million total viewers and 561,000 in the demo. ABC’s Good Morning America was the only show to post week-to-week gains in either category, up 6% in the demo compared to the previous week, despite a slight dip in total viewers. CBS Mornings, meanwhile, lagged behind with 1.661 million viewers and 231,000 in the demo, down both week-to-week and year-over-year. For the full fourth quarter, Today was again the top morning show, edging out GMA by 87,000 viewers. Both Today and GMA posted gains in Q4, while CBS Mornings saw a decline in the demo. The data, sourced from Nielsen’s big data plus panel ratings, underscores just how competitive—and volatile—the morning news space remains.
Finally, let’s check in on some major moves in the TV news world, courtesy of Adweek’s TVNewser. Tony Dokoupil made his debut as the anchor of CBS Evening News, launching from the New York studios instead of on the road due to breaking news: the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his family by the U.S. military. Dokoupil’s first show drew 4.368 million viewers, but that’s down 18% in total viewers and 23% in the demo compared to recent anchor debuts. ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News continue to lead the evening news pack by a wide margin. Behind the scenes, CBS Evening News saw a shake-up with the departure of senior broadcast producer Javier Guzman. Meanwhile, CBS announced Adriana Diaz and Kelly O’Grady as new co-hosts of CBS Saturday Morning, taking over from Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson following network layoffs. Elsewhere, Versant—formerly part of Comcast—became an independent media company and started trading on Nasdaq, though shares dropped 20% in the first two days due to forced selling. CNBC is also shaking up its programming, with Melissa Lee and Michael Santoli taking over Closing Bell Overtime, and new shows launching for Morgan Brennan and Jon Fortt. NBC News brought on Allie Canal as a business and economy reporter, and CNN promoted Alayna Treene to network correspondent, continuing her White House coverage. Scripps News is also launching The Danny Moses Show, promising candid insights from the team that famously predicted the 2008 financial crisis.
That’s a wrap for today’s Brief. From the AI-powered future of retail to the battle for streaming supremacy and the relentless churn in TV news, the pace of change is only accelerating. Whether you’re placing media buys, building brand experiences, or just trying to keep up, these stories are shaping the conversations and strategies that will define the year ahead. Thanks for tuning in—stay curious, stay sharp, and we’ll see you tomorrow.
