In episode 04 of Pixels and Points, we will discuss Google’s introduction of AI into its search engine and the recent developments in traditional media during upfront week. We’ll cover how Google’s AI impacts search results, organic traffic, and website monetization, and compare it to Bing’s Co-pilot. Additionally, we’ll explore how streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon are joining traditional networks during upfront week, highlighting Amazon’s emphasis on star power in their new programming.

Transcript

Matt: Hello and welcome to another episode of “Pixels and Points.” I’m Matt Nelsen, digital media director at Redroc.

Susie: And with me is Susie Brown, media planner and buyer here at Redroc. Alright, we have a couple of big stories over the past week or so. The biggest one, let’s just dive into it first. It’s a big one. We have the Google upgrades its search engine with AI overviews and risks Revenue drain for media companies.

Matt: Yeah, so here’s the AI overview. It “Quick answer” to your search query that will appear after sponsored results, but it’ll appear before organic results. So, what people are worried about is that this AI overview is going to be sucking information from the organic search results, and Google’s gonna make its own answer right there.

Susie: People are pretty mad that they’re saying that you’re just plagiarizing what’s on our sites and putting it on your own, so they’re losing that clickthrough for someone going through and actually going to that site.

Matt: All that monetization, a big fight right now for protecting your content against AI. But you’ve got to think about it; on the other side, somebody can just read your content and put it on their own site in their own words, and that’s not copyright.

Susie: It’s just hard. It’s going to be a hard case to sell for AI. Definitely a gray area because it’s just taking the work off of the human element.

Matt: on the other hand, we have things competitor called co-pilot. What you do is, on Bing, you would normally come in and do your search, and your search results come back as you expect. However, their AI response is not going to be on this main page. Their AI response is going to be on the co-pilot section, so you actually have to physically click on another tab. Also, it’s a lot closer to a chat GPT kind of layout where you can just ask a question and it’ll answer it.

Susie: Compared to Bing, I feel like the Google one’s just going to be really invasive.

Matt: It’s a first step in a Brave New World of search that people were worried about when AI was starting to come up. It’s starting to become a little bit more invasive, and we’ll have to just plan accordingly.

Susie: Yes, so today, I brought an article talking all about traditional media if I can find it.

Susie: So, this week is a big week in traditional TV because it was upfront week. I found an article just kind of overviewing everything that happened this week.

Matt: Yeah, I think the biggest thing was Amazon’s star power. So, it seems like they’re spending the most money to get a chunk of this $20 billion in upfront ad spending.

Susie: Amazon brought the star power with Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal. They’re pushing reboots like Legally Blonde and Tomb Raider.

Matt: NBC’s all about throwbacks to the 2000s with Kelly Clarkson and a new Reba McEntire sitcom. Plus, Snoop Dogg’s hosting the Olympics!

Susie: Fox is creating its own content bubble, keeping everything in-house.

Matt: And Disney ABC FX has so much content; their presentation was a bit all over the place. They’ve got to streamline it better.

Matt: Alright, so that’s going to wrap up today’s episode. Be sure to tune in next week, where we will have some more interesting stories from the world of Pixels and Points.

Susie: Thanks for watching.

Matt: See ya.