Testing ad tolerance and Meta's ad fraud issue

Hi there,

This week’s signals from streaming, social platforms, and programmatic all point in the same direction: ad-supported models are maturing fast, infrastructure power is consolidating, and the gaps in platform responsibility are getting harder to ignore.

Here’s what happened and why it matters. 👇☕

🎓️ AVOD grows up in Spain

A new study from Elena Neira, Judith Clares-Gavilán and Jordi Sánchez-Navarro (UOC, 2025) shows that Spanish audiences are increasingly comfortable with ad-supported streaming — as long as the price makes sense.

Key findings (2.000 respondents, GECA OTT Barometer):

• Most viewers accept ads as a fair trade-off for lower prices (younger audiences less tolerant).

• Prime Video leads in ad-tier acceptance (61%), while Netflix users are still more resistant.

• 76–80% say ads don’t “significantly worsen” their experience.

• Sustainability will depend on personalisation and smart ad-load management.

(Last week FAST brought back linear logic. This week AVOD shows how “free” is being redefined one ad break at a time.)
🔗 Full Study →

🍿 Gen Z shifts + Netflix’s ad-tier explosion [Spain]

GfK DAM data show that Gen Z in Spain cut OTT viewing by 16% YoY, and Netflix took the biggest hit (–20%). Meanwhile, Prime Video jumped +83%, driven by bundled value and aggressive content strategy.

At the same time, Netflix’s ad-supported tier now reaches 190M monthly viewers globally, more than double its footprint a year ago. Spain is one of the fastest-growing markets thanks to pricing changes and telco bundles.

(Friendly reminder: audience measurement ≠ ad measurement.)
🔗 Business Insider España →

👀 Meta is earning a fortune from fraudulent ads

A Reuters investigation revealed that Meta is generating hundreds of millions from fraudulent advertising (including scams, deepfakes and fake celebrity endorsements) despite regulatory pressure.

Internal documents show:

• Scam campaigns can yield 10× more revenue than legitimate ones.

• Fraudulent ads often run for days, even when flagged.

• “High-risk” advertisers can reopen accounts within hours.

• Meta internally describes the scale as “structural, not incidental.”

• Proposed reforms were reportedly rejected because they would “significantly reduce revenue.”

(Some platforms optimise for engagement. Some optimise for revenue.
And sometimes revenue doesn’t ask too many questions.)
🔗 Reuters →

That’s the pulse for this week.
If you made it this far, congrats!

— Alessia Cappello
International Markets & MarCom | adjinn
(Curated from adjinn’s internal “Friday Pulse” newsletter, which provides me my weekly excuse to read industry news before anyone else does.)