Tuesday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

Adam Cunningham upped at Allied 

Allied Global Marketing has promoted former chief strategy officer Adam Cunningham to become global chief exec.

Cunningham succeeds Clint Kendall, who will become a member of Allied’s board, with former marketing chief Kelly Estrella also upped to become chief operating officer.

Allied said the changes would position it for “its next phase of growth”, with a view to expanding its marketing work for brands across entertainment, gaming, sports, hospitality, tourism and location-based experiences.

Cunningham will oversee Allied’s global business and lead the agency’s focus on growth and development of proprietary tools, including data and applied AI.

C4 calls for YouTube reform

The UK’s Channel 4 has called on YouTube for a fairer distribution of ad revenues for the PSB’s content hosted on the video platform.

In a speech today, chief commercial officer Rak Patel said C4 needs fairly remunerated digital prominence to sustain its investment in original British content and stated YouTube should be returning revenues “far more” in line with what C4 earns through its own streaming service.

“Many people, Google included, think YouTube is the new TV,” Patel told delegates at the Marketing Procurement iQ Europe conference. “Well, if it wants to be TV, it needs to play by TV norms, ensuring fair renumeration for ad revenues.” Read more

News reader blasts 5 drama 

Disgraced TV presenter Huw Edwards has claimed 5’s upcoming factual drama about his case made no attempt to check with him about the accuracy of the narrative.

The 90-minute single, Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, is produced by Wonderhood Studios, with Martin Clunes playing Edwards. It is due to air tomorrow evening.

Edwards, who was sentenced in September 2024 for possessing indecent images of children, hit out at the broadcaster in a strongly worded statement to the Daily Mail, stating producers “made no attempt to check with me the truth of any aspect of their narrative before going ahead with the production”. Read more