Nexxen's Home Screen Pivot: A Record Quarter and a New Programmatic Category

Record Q1 results, raised guidance, and a first-mover advantage in smart TV home screen advertising shape Nexxen's acceleration story.

NEXN · Earnings Call · 2026-05-13

A Record Quarter and a Pivot to the Home Screen

Nexxen entered 2026 with a clear inflection point, delivering record Q1 results that beat both company expectations and Wall Street estimates. CEO Ofer Druker opened the call with a confident tone: “We have had a strong start to the year. Delivering record Q1 results and continued momentum into Q2.” — Ofer Druker, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-05-13 This momentum across the full platform is now underpinning a raised full-year guidance, with contribution ex-TAC lifted to $382–$397 million (from $375–$390 million) and programmatic revenue to $374–$388 million. The standout driver is the home screen — a new programmatic category Nexxen is creating around smart TV operating system inventory. As Ofer explained, the scale is remarkable: “I think that the number of impressions that people are exposed when they are launching their TVs is really meaningful.” — Ofer Druker, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-05-13 The company's first-mover advantage through its partnership with VIDAA (V-powered devices) and expansion to TCL and TiVo is positioning it to capture an under-monetized surface where consumers spend over 10 minutes a day. The strategic pivot to native home media is a decisive shift in the company's AI-resilience thesis. In prior calls, management consistently discussed protecting the business from AI-driven disruption in the open web, and this quarter the execution is visible. The home screen inventory is non-skippable, high-attention, and now programmatically accessible — a structural growth engine that complements in-stream CTV. CFO Sagi Niri emphasized the financial inflection: “Q1 marked a clear financial inflection point with record results that exceeded both our expectation and Wall Street consensus.” — Sagi Niri, Chief Financial Officer · 2026-05-13

AI, Data, and Enterprise: The Compounding Flywheel

Beyond the home screen, Nexxen's enterprise go-to-market is showing accelerating traction. The company highlighted that it has onboarded more new enterprise clients in 2026 than in all of 2025, each with potential to generate over $1 million in annual spend. Ofer attributed this to a combination of platform capabilities and AI enhancements: “Our DSP basically is winning more clients now with more attention because of a situation that is placed inside our platform that include also our PMPs.” — Ofer Druker, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-05-13 The AI capability suite, branded NextAI, is increasingly central to customer decisions, driving efficiency gains and deeper platform utilization. This aligns with the company's long-standing data advantage, including exclusive ACR data from VIDAA, which is now being licensed to partners like AdForm, expanding high-margin revenue streams. The CTVIDAA revenue returned to growth in Q1, up 12% year-over-year, with momentum building into Q2. This is a direct consequence of the home screen push, which Ofer called a “first mover advantage” in turning the native operating system surface into programmatic inventory. On the call, he elaborated on the cross-sell potential: “When people are buying from your media, people advertise... probably they will start running with us or increase their spend in other formats like in stream CTV, in video, in app, and so on.” — Ofer Druker, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-05-13 The integration with Unity and other in-app SDKs is further diversifying the revenue base toward mobile in-app, which grew 18% year-over-year in Q1 and is seen as a key AI-resilient channel.

What's Next: World Cup, Midterms, and Share Gains

Looking ahead, Nexxen sees clear catalysts in the FIFA World Cup and U.S. midterm elections, both of which are expected to drive meaningful incremental ad spend. The company's exclusive data and programmatic home screen inventory position it well to capture a share of this spending.

With Nexxen TVIDAA on screen, we are not just enhancing our CTVIDAA differentiation, we are defining and leading a new programmatic category.
Ofer Druker, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-05-13

Ofer also signaled that the NPV of these efforts will become more visible in H2 and beyond, with the company reinvesting in AI, data, and platform innovation to sustain its growth flywheel. In prior quarters, the company faced challenges from a major DSP pulling back and softness in CTV, but the current call reflects a decisive turnaround. As Ofer noted in the previous earnings call, “we opened last year the first programmatic marketplace with what we call on-screen native” — Ofer Druker, CEO · 2026-03-04 — a statement that now bears fruit. The consistency of the narrative around data and end-to-end execution is now translating into tangible financial performance. With record Q1, raised guidance, and a structural growth driver in the home screen, Nexxen is arguably at its most compelling point in years. The key question is whether the momentum can extend into the second half, but all signs point to a company that has found its next leg of growth.