Top US Trade Official Blasts German Streaming Quota Plan
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer condemned Germany’s draft streaming‑quota law that would force platforms like Netflix to invest at least 8% of German revenues in local film and TV production. He warned the measure conflicts with the EU‑U.S. trade agreement finalized last week, calling it a “piggy‑bank” for protectionist projects. Berlin, defending the policy, says it will double public film funding to about €250 million (≈$273 million) to boost cultural diversity. Netflix responded that the rule could reduce overall content creation, harming both audiences and producers.
LiveRamp Widens Its Partnership With SiriusXM
LiveRamp has expanded its partnership with SiriusXM, integrating its Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS) into the satellite radio operator’s streaming and podcast inventory. The collaboration adds RampID, an interoperable identifier, to SiriusXM’s audio ecosystem, allowing advertisers to match listeners across platforms...
Very Pissed-Off ABC Begrudgingly Submits Its TV Stations for Early FCC Renewal
ABC has reluctantly filed early renewal applications for its eight owned‑and‑operated TV stations after a directive from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. The network accompanied the filings with a strongly worded objection, calling the demand unlawful and a tactic to suppress...
Co-Ed Tennis League Gets An Advantage With iHeart Alignment
iHeartMedia has signed an audio partnership with the co‑ed professional tennis league INTENNSE, positioning the network as the official audio partner for the league’s 2026 season. The agreement will broadcast promotional content, player coverage, and live‑streamed segments across iHeart’s radio...
FCC Issues Blunt Reminder to Broadcasters
The FCC issued a seven‑page notice warning TV and radio licensees that their spectrum privilege hinges on serving the public interest. It cautions that failure to meet community‑service obligations could trigger enforcement actions such as conditional renewals, short‑term licenses, or...
SBS Quizzed on Eurovision Costs, Possible Jury Bias.
During a Senate Estimates hearing, SBS was questioned about its Eurovision expenses and the composition of the Australian jury that awarded Israel zero points despite the country finishing second. Managing Director Jane Palfreyman confirmed a small delegation of two to...
Reservoir Deployed $120m on Acquisitions and Advances in Latest Fiscal Year, as Its Annual Revenues Grew 11% YoY to $175.7m
Reservoir Media posted fiscal 2026 revenue of $175.7 million, an 11% increase on a combined organic and acquisition basis, and lifted operating income 9% to $38.2 million. The company deployed roughly $120 million toward publishing and recorded‑rights acquisitions, adding high‑profile catalogs such as...
Spotify Has Become A Huge Player In Audiobooks
Spotify announced a 60% year‑over‑year increase in audiobook listening hours and said its Audiobooks+ add‑on is on track to generate about $100 million in recurring revenue this year. One million users have already subscribed to Audiobooks+, and half of the current...
Lionsgate Joining Movies Anywhere Digital Locker Service
Lionsgate will integrate its film catalog into the Movies Anywhere digital locker starting June 2026, initially offering 225 high‑profile titles. The studio plans to add roughly 100 additional movies each month through early 2027, expanding the service’s library to nearly...
Advaya Capital Snaps up Movie Box Office Data Provider Comscore Movies in Carveout
Advaya Capital has completed the acquisition of Comscore Movies, the box‑office data arm of media measurement firm Comscore. The deal is structured as a carve‑out, separating the movie‑tracking business from Comscore’s broader analytics platform. While financial terms were not disclosed,...
Netflix’s Rousey Vs. Carano Delivers Knockout Ratings Win as MMA Push Pays Off
Netflix’s live‑sports push scored a major win with the Ronda Rousey‑Gina Carano MMA superfight, which averaged 12.4 million live viewers worldwide and peaked at nearly 17 million. In the United States the event drew 9.3 million viewers and sparked roughly one billion social impressions....
World Cup Ads, Beer Runs, AI Shopping: Marketers Discover Americans Suddenly Care About Soccer
American marketers are finally treating soccer as a mainstream revenue driver after the 2026 FIFA World Cup landed on U.S. soil. A recent survey shows U.S. adult interest in the tournament jumped 45% year‑over‑year, prompting brands to pour unprecedented ad...
Amazon Expands Signals To Improve Performance
Amazon Publisher Services unveiled a suite of new tools aimed at boosting publisher revenue and ad performance. Signal IQ now accepts the full OpenRTB signal set and launches a coverage report that benchmarks signal usage against peers. A revamped Mobile...
Germany Passes Law Mandating Streamers, TV Networks Invest Minimum 8% of Local Revenue in Local Content
German lawmakers approved the Media Investment Obligation Act, requiring both domestic and foreign streaming services and TV networks to allocate at least 8% of their German‑derived revenue to locally produced content starting Jan. 1, 2027. The law supplements the EU’s 30% European‑content...
10 Years Later, ANA Finds Transparency Concerns Remain Acute
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) released a decade‑old follow‑up to its 2014 media‑transparency benchmark, showing overall advertiser concern fell slightly to 43% in 2026 from 46% in 2014. However, among the advertisers who remain worried, the intensity of the...
Caesars Entertainment Being Acquired For $6B By Golden Nugget / Houston Rockets Owner Fertitta
Fertitta Entertainment is set to acquire Caesars Entertainment for a cash price of $5.7 billion while assuming roughly $12 billion of Caesars' debt, bringing the total transaction value to about $17.6 billion. The deal offers Caesars shareholders $31 per share, a 49% premium...
Cord Cutting Today: Roku Made Some Major Changes & DIRECTV Gets More Expensive
Roku rolled out a major redesign of its home screen for both Roku TVs and streaming players, promising a cleaner interface and faster navigation. DIRECTV announced another price increase, intensifying pressure on cord‑cutters to evaluate lower‑cost streaming alternatives. Paramount’s bid...
Streaming Video’s Lackluster Business Growth, Under The Lens
MoffettNathanson’s senior analysts conclude that streaming video has failed to match the profitability of legacy linear TV. They argue that early optimism was driven by expectations of subscriber growth and lower distribution costs, but actual revenue and margin trends have...
Screeny Tests Creator Audiences as a New Demand Engine for Movie Theaters
Screeny, a platform that brings creator premieres into cinemas, is testing whether online fandom can be turned into ticketed theatrical demand. Since its launch in October 2025, the company has sold out every event, ranging from intimate 100‑seat venues to...
OpenAI Turns on Cost-per-Action Ads Inside ChatGPT
OpenAI has activated cost‑per‑action (CPA) advertising inside ChatGPT, allowing advertisers to pay only when users complete a defined action such as a click, sign‑up, or purchase. The feature is currently limited to a pilot group of advertisers and relies on...
Jay Moore Appointed Chief Investment Officer at Too Lost
Too Lost, the New York‑based indie distribution and services platform, has hired Jay Moore as Chief Investment Officer. Moore arrives from Position Music, where he led catalog acquisitions such as Gesaffelstein’s publishing and masters, and previously served as CIO at Ditto...
Victory+ Powers 41% Surge in WHL Playoff Viewership as Everett Silvertips Claim Double Victory in Championship and ‘Battle of the...
Victory+, A Parent Media Co.'s free sports streaming platform, reported a 41% year‑over‑year jump in WHL playoff minutes viewed, driven by its Battle of the Rinks fan competition. The Everett Silvertips captured both the Ed Chynoweth Cup and the competition’s grand...
Tele Columbus Sees TV Decline Offset by Broadband Growth in Q1
Tele Columbus reported a 0.6% year‑on‑year revenue increase to €105.5 million ($115 million) in Q1 2026, despite a decline in TV customers. Cable TV RGUs fell to about 1.01 million, while broadband RGUs rose 5.3% to roughly 746,000, boosting internet and telephony revenue...
Vox Media CRO Geoff Schiller Joins Screenvision as CEO
Geoff Schiller, former chief revenue officer of Vox Media, will become CEO of cinema‑advertising network Screenvision on June 8. The move follows Vox Media’s recent $300 million sale of half the company to James Murdoch and marks Schiller’s first exit from digital publishing...
BitSummit 2026 Showed Japanese Indies Pursuing a New Multimedia Model, Backed by Major Entertainment Firms | Opinion
BitSummit 2026 in Kyoto showcased over 200 indie titles to more than 68,000 visitors, highlighting a surge of interest from Japan’s major entertainment firms. Companies such as TOEI, Shueisha, Aniplex and PARCO Games announced dedicated gaming subsidiaries aimed at funding...
Super Mario Galaxy's Impact on Movie Theater Audience – Placer.ai Blog
The Super Mario Galaxy movie not only topped the 2026 box office, it fundamentally altered who entered cinemas. Placer.ai’s location‑analytics platform shows a pronounced shift toward families with children, with a broader socioeconomic footprint than earlier releases. Morning matinee attendance surged, average...
Paralives Launch Sales Can Fund Development Without DLC
Paralives Studio announced that every future update will be free, rejecting the paid‑DLC model popularized by The Sims. The decision stems from the studio’s confidence that initial launch sales will sustain development for years, even if the team expands. In...
This Gaming Stock Has Room to Run, Powered by Resilient Las Vegas Tourism, JPMorgan Says
JPMorgan upgraded MGM Resorts International to overweight, lifting its 12‑month price target to $46, implying roughly 10% upside. The move follows stable Las Vegas tourism, with about 9.7 million visitors recorded through April 2026, and value‑driven promotions on the Strip. MGM shares...
“The Future Couldn’t Be Brighter for D2C”: FastSpring’s Chip Thurston on Gaming’s Changing Platform Economy
FastSpring’s Chip Thurston will address the accelerating direct‑to‑consumer (D2C) trend at Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona 2026. Recent Epic rulings against Apple and Google have forced platform holders to loosen fee structures, allowing publishers to steer players to their own web...
What Is a Podcast? Podcast Industry Taskforce Forms to Determine Definition and More
A secret taskforce of 12 podcast industry leaders, including Spotify, SiriusXM and YouTube, has been meeting since July 2025 to craft a universal definition of a podcast and standardize ad‑measurement metrics. The group, organized by advertising agency Oxford Road, aims...
Linqia Wants Creator Content to Influence AI Search Results
Linqia has teamed with AI‑search specialist AirOps to roll out an influencer marketing platform designed to boost brand visibility in generative AI engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity AI and Google AI Overviews. The partnership promotes Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), shifting...
Roku’s Revenue From The Sale of Roku TVs & Roku Players Is Now Less Than 10% of Its Total Revenue,...
Roku has transformed from a hardware‑centric business to a platform‑focused model, with device sales now representing just 9.44% of total revenue. In 2026 the company projects roughly $5 billion in platform revenue versus $535 million from hardware. Q1 2026 showed device revenue...
Grupo Frontera Launch Indie Label BorderTown Records in Partnership with The Orchard
Grupo Frontera has launched its own indie label, BorderTown Records, in partnership with Sony Music’s The Orchard. The label, headquartered in the band’s McAllen, Texas complex YUMA, will debut with the group’s norteño EP "Con Dolor" on May 28. BorderTown...
Linqia Wants to Turn Influencer Comments Into Conversion Infrastructure
Linqa has unveiled Linqia DM, a conversational‑commerce tool built with ManyChat and Stampede Social that automates replies to comments, DMs and Stories across Instagram, TikTok, Messenger and WhatsApp. The platform lets brands instantly route high‑intent comments to product pages, sign‑up...
Last.fm Goes Independent After Breaking Up With Paramount Skydance
Last.fm announced it is once again an independent company after separating from Paramount Skydance, the entity that inherited the service when CBS Interactive bought it for $280 million in 2007. The music‑tracking platform says user accounts, scrobbles, privacy settings, Pro subscriptions and...
Estate of Blues Pioneer Lead Belly Sues Group of Publishers in Copyright Dispute over 49 Compositions
The Huddie Ledbetter Family Trust filed a federal lawsuit in Nashville against The Richmond Organization and nine affiliated music publishers, alleging infringement of 49 Lead Belly compositions. The complaint references termination notices served in 2013‑2014 under Section 304 of the Copyright Act,...
Turbozaurus Strikes Deal with Cycle Kids and The Roku Channel
Turbozaurs, the preschool adventure series, has secured two new FAST distribution deals. The show will launch three seasons on Cycle Kids, reaching the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia via Roku and other OTT platforms. A separate agreement...
Globo?s Best Practices for World Cup 2026 Live Streaming Ad Insertion
Globo’s ad‑tech director Ana Beaklini says latency has long hampered the Brazilian broadcaster’s ability to deliver seamless dynamic ad insertion (DAI) for high‑profile live events. To prepare for the 2026 World Cup, Globo is deploying a hybrid approach that blends...
From Midterm Money to Influencer Radio, HRC Day 1 Digs Deep
The 2026 Hispanic Radio Conference in Phoenix highlighted a massive $4.4 trillion purchasing power among U.S. Hispanics, yet radio receives only about 4 % of that spend. Speakers warned that the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act could jeopardize AM carriage if...
Spotify, UMG Deal Sets Up Paid AI Music Remix Tool
The article provides a comprehensive cheat sheet of the top generative‑AI app‑building platforms in 2026, categorizing them by use case and highlighting strengths and limitations. It evaluates tools ranging from full‑stack builders like Manus and Replit to no‑code internal‑tool platforms...
Protect Group Targets Booking Anxiety as Live Events Face Shorter Sales Windows
Protect Group is launching Refund Protect to combat growing "booking anxiety" among live‑event fans, who are hesitating at checkout due to higher ticket prices and tighter purchase windows. The add‑on lets consumers purchase a 100% refund guarantee for illness, weather...
Mattel's Immersive Indoor Water Park Coming to North Carolina
Mattel announced that its fourth Wonder Indoor Waterpark will be built at the Weldon Mills Resort in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, with a projected opening in 2029. The park joins three already confirmed sites in Orlando, Bellevue and Bradley, bringing...
Valve Raises Steam Deck OLED Prices by over 40%
Valve announced that the Steam Deck OLED handheld will now cost $789 for the 512 GB model and $949 for the 1 TB model, representing price hikes of roughly 44% and 46% from last year’s $549 and $649 launch prices. The company...
Azerion Integrates Spotify Ad Exchange Into Hawk DSP, Unlocking Global Premium Inventory at Scale
Azerion announced that its Hawk demand‑side platform now integrates directly with the Spotify Ad Exchange, giving advertisers programmatic access to Spotify’s audio, display, video and podcast inventory worldwide. The connection brings Spotify’s first‑party audience data and supports private marketplace, programmatic...
Clipster Partners with Spotify, Joe Rogan, NFL — And Pays Creators $6.5M to Creators
Clipster, a performance‑based creator marketplace, has secured partnerships with Fortune 500 brands and top musicians such as Spotify, the NFL, and Taylor Swift. The platform hosts over 140,000 creators, has run more than 1,600 campaigns, and has paid out $6.5 million through an...
‘Project Hail Mary’ Tops DEG Digital Transactions Chart for Week of May 17
Amazon MGM Studios’ sci‑fi adaptation Project Hail Mary topped the Digital Entertainment Group’s transactional digital sales chart for the week ending May 17, according to GfK Entertainment data. The film, released for premium digital purchase and rental on May 12, outperformed a...
Zee Entertainment Revives Sports Broadcasting Ambitions with Unite8 Sports
Zee Entertainment has re‑entered India’s sports broadcasting arena with the launch of Unite8 Sports, a brand comprising four dedicated channels—Unite8 Sports 1, 1 HD, 2 and 2 HD—each offering separate Hindi and English feeds. This marks the broadcaster’s most significant push into...
Why Agentic Measurement Will Reprice The Ad Market
The ad industry is on the cusp of a measurement revolution as AI‑driven agentic decision‑making replaces binary audience segments. Current post‑flight reporting delivers a single yes/no outcome that lags behind real‑time bidding cycles, creating credit leakage and mispricing. The author...
Universal Ads Must Pass the Pizza Test if It’s to Steal Ad Dollars From Social
Comcast’s Universal Ads is pushing small‑business advertisers into connected TV by bundling new AI‑friendly tools, a partnership with commerce‑media firm Koddi, and the addition of linear TV inventory to its self‑service platform. A recent pilot with Slice.com placed pizza ads...
Pat McAfee’s ESPN Value on Full Display in Commissioner Parade
Pat McAfee stepped in for ESPN after the Knicks swept the Cavaliers, delivering a two‑hour "Primetime State of Sports" special that featured all six major‑league commissioners and a roster of star athletes. The impromptu program was assembled in roughly 48...