The Death of Linear TV: How a $100M Deal Just Rewrote the Rules of Attention

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By: Robert Kensington

The Super Bowl is dead for anyone who actually wants to be seen. For decades, the industry treated the game as the ultimate altar for brand worship. Companies spent billions for thirty seconds of prime time, hoping for a fleeting memory. That era ended when brands started realizing that a thirty-second spot is a whisper in a hurricane. The new war is not about reach. It is about retention. The headline reads that a social-first agency sold for at least $100 million. This is not just a sale. It is a valuation shift for the entire creative economy. We are moving from buying eyeballs to buying engagement.

Get Engaged did not stumble into this position. They started in 2016 as a side hustle. Ben Hiott was managing celebrity Facebook pages while keeping a full-time job. The company was essentially a digital scrapyard for talent relationships. Then the pandemic hit. Traditional media channels dried up. Radio and billboards saw budgets shrink. Brands panicked and moved their cash to digital. Get Engaged caught the wave. They pushed clients toward TikTok just as the platform exploded. Today, they have over 100 employees across four major US hubs. Their client list includes DoorDash, Universal Music Group, and EA. Their revenue is growing 40% year over year. This is not a small operation. It is a major commercial force.

The acquisition by SAMY changes the power dynamic. SAMY is a global player. It has 1,200 employees across four continents. It is majority-owned by Bridgepoint, a private equity firm. This is not a merger of equals. This is a vertical integration play. Get Engaged becomes the U.S. arm. But the founders stay. Alex Dermer takes the CEO title. The deal includes a stock and cash component. The founders insisted this is not about fixing what they built. It is about connection. They want to scale their specific talent relationships into a global framework. They are selling the formula. The formula is that culture happens on social feeds, not on broadcast schedules.

The industry subtext is clear. Linear TV accounted for 41.3% of global ad spend in 2013. By 2025, that figure is projected to fall to just 12.4%. Social media is now the largest ad channel. Nearly 80% of global ad spend will concentrate in retail media, paid search, and social platforms by 2026. The total market is hitting $1.3 trillion. Agencies that refuse to migrate to social-first strategies are dying. The ones that adapt are commanding premium valuations. This $100 million price tag is a benchmark. It tells every other agency that if you have a proven ability to create viral moments, your assets are not just employees. They are intellectual property. The endgame is consolidation. Social-first agencies will be absorbed by global PE-backed giants. The independent player is disappearing. If you are still betting on the Super Bowl, you are betting on a sinking ship.

Author bio: Robert Kensington, an overseas entrepreneurial veteran with decades of experience in real-economy industrial investment and expansion.