The anniversary: Walmart finalized its Vizio acquisition one year ago, a move that clearly telegraphed its advertising ambitions and positioned it to be a dominant retail media player.

• Including Vizio, Walmart’s global advertising business grew 53% YoY in Q3.
• The acquisition is expected to provide a 20-basis-point tailwind to the retailer’s net sales this year, as well as an 80-basis-point drag on profits due to integration expenses.

The strategy: Vizio considerably strengthens Walmart’s pitch to advertisers by giving it more opportunities to get in front of engaged audiences and providing more data for better targeting and measurement. Walmart is now not only the exclusive seller of Vizio TVs, it also “[owns] the customer relationship, through streaming and software,” CFO John David Rainey said at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference.

• As of Q3 2024, the last completed quarter before the acquisition closed, Vizio had 19.1 million active users of its SmartCast operating system, who collectively streamed 5.8 billion hours during the quarter.
• By combining Vizio’s data with Walmart’s trove of customer information, advertisers can more effectively personalize their messaging and have a clearer view of whether an ad exposure leads to a sale, either in-store or online.

Walmart’s newfound CTV capabilities also help establish the retailer as a full-funnel ad solution, increasing its appeal to both endemic and non-endemic brands.

• Walmart sees an opportunity to capture ad spending from brands it doesn’t have a retail partnership with—such as automotive, insurance, and media and entertainment companies—but that still want to reach Vizio’s engaged audience and tap into Walmart’s customer insights.
• At the same time, Walmart’s full-funnel capabilities make it a more valuable advertising partner for companies that do sell with the retailer.

Our take: Walmart’s Vizio acquisition is one reason that the retailer will scoop up more incremental retail media dollars in 2026 than any other network save Amazon. The deal is strengthening Walmart’s flywheel and enabling it to benefit from both the retail media and CTV advertising boom.

Go further: Check out our Retail Media Networks: Trends, Benchmarks, and Leadership in 2025 and Retail Media Ad Spending Forecast and Trends H2 2025 reports.