Telcos Expanding into Advertising: Strategic or Opportunistic?

VideoWeek published an interview with Chris Le May, Director of Advanced Advertising at Synamedia, examining why telecommunications operators are increasingly entering the advertising market. Le May says telcos are moving beyond enabling addressable advertising to becoming buying destinations themselves. He argues this shift is not merely opportunistic: telco executives see potential existential threats to traditional connectivity revenues and are creating advertising divisions to develop new revenue streams. The interview discusses drivers behind telcos' advertising interest and how relationships between telcos, broadcasters and technology vendors may evolve. The conversation was filmed in Cannes and the piece was published by VideoWeek on July 9, 2026.