The Cultural Algorithm

On March 19, 2025, Spherex CEO Teresa Phillips joined a distinguished panel of female executives for the OTT.X BUZZ session—Women’s History Month Edition. This engaging discussion covered the latest trends in OTT and digital video while shedding light on women's unique experiences navigating the media and technology industries.

As media consumption increasingly shifts toward digital platforms, advertisers are rethinking their strategies to capture audience attention effectively.Traditional targeting methods that rely on demographics, user data, and third-party cookies are becoming less viable due to evolving privacy regulations and changing viewer behaviors. In this landscape, contextual advertising has emerged as a powerful approach for media and entertainment companies looking to align advertising with content in a meaningful way. This shift has created both challenges and opportunities for advertisers.

Artificial intelligence is poised to reshape how content reaches and resonates with global audiences this year. As discussed in The Wrap’s article, "8 Artificial Intelligence Predictions for 2025," industry leaders expect significant transformations in how AI will foster innovation across the media and entertainment landscape.

In today’s digital-first world, video content is a powerful tool for marketing, brand building, and audience engagement. From blockbuster films and TV shows to YouTube vlogs and independent streaming platforms, video content reaches millions daily.

In today's borderless media landscape, where streaming platforms deliver films and TV shows to over 200 countries instantly, advertisers face a critical challenge: ensuring their ads resonate with diverse audiences while maintaining cultural sensitivity and brand safety.

The Albanese Government has updated the Spherex Classification Tool approval to include ratings for theatrical releases, home entertainment, and streaming content in Australia. Spherex was previously approved to classify online films.

Spherex was featured in the DPP’s IBC 2024: Demand versus Supply Report, a comprehensive look at how the M&E industry is meeting key customer demands. The report focuses on the topics of empowering creators, understanding audiences, engaging users, and innovating the newsroom. It also highlights many of the technical innovations seen at the recent IBC Show.

One of the conundrums of streaming is that although a service can deliver content globally, it is not guaranteed to be acceptable in a particular local market. Netflix found this out when it announced global availability in 2016 at CES and was quickly banned in markets like Indonesia, where some of the content was deemed too violent or sexual. In 2016, without boots on the ground in a local market, it wasn’t easy to assess whether a show or movie would be culturally acceptable.

Spherex’s Co-Founder & CEO, Teresa Phillips, spoke at the recent OTT.X Summit in an insightful fireside chat titled "Unlocking AI: Driving Growth in Global Media Distribution" with Colin Dixon, Founder & Chief Analyst at nScreenMedia. The conversation provided a deep dive into how Spherex is leveraging AI to revolutionize media distribution on a global scale.