Digest: Channel 4 Launches Emissions Measurement Tool; Bluesky Enhances Referral Tracking for Publishers

Today's digest looks at a new emissions measurement tool introduced by Channel 4, Bluesky enhancing referral tracking for publishers, and Perplexity AI's ambitions to raise funds.

Channel 4 launches new emissions measurement tool

An advertising emissions measurement tool has been introduced by Channel 4 Sales – it claims it as a first for a major broadcaster. Channel 4’s commercial team will be able to offer advertisers emissions data about digital campaigns running on its owned and operated platforms, through collaboration with Scope3.

Additionally, advertisers will have access to reports to help them minimise the carbon impact of their media buying and reach their wider emissions targets. The launch forms  part of Channel 4’s sustainability strategy; this includes a competition spotlighting B Corp businesses.

Bluesky enhances referral tracking for publishers

Bluesky has introduced an update that will allow publishers to better track the referral traffic from posts on its platform. According to Bluesky employee Emily Liu, the open-source X rival now routes referral traffic through its ‘go’ subdomain, making it easier for publishers to track visitors who use links shared on the social network.

In a post by Liu, the change came about because newsrooms were seeing engagement in the form of likes and reposts in the app but had a hard time tracking how that was translating into ‘actual website traffic’.

Perplexity AI to raise USD$18bn valuation in funds

The Nvidia startup, Perplexity AI, is in talks to raise funds at a USD $18bn (£13.8bn) valuation, according to a source who spoke to Reuters on Thursday (21st March). The company aims to expand its operations and meet growing demand for its search tools. Discussions have included raising between USD $500m (£384.5m) and USD $1bn (£769m) for the funding round, the source added.

The AI company has been developing the features on its platform to rival Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.