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USSI Global has opened its Media Transport Solutions Lab in Melbourne, Florida, offering a platform‑agnostic environment to test alternatives to the FCC’s C‑Band media transport. The lab lets broadcasters, MSOs and network operators configure and re‑configure satellite, IP and cloud workflows remotely or on‑premises. It aims to accelerate the industry’s transition after the FCC clears at least 100 MHz of C‑Band spectrum. USSI will provide turnkey services to help customers validate resilient, hybrid connectivity strategies without the expense of building in‑house test facilities.
Netflix announced a second price increase this year, raising its Standard With Ads tier from $7.99 to $8.99, the Standard Without Ads tier from $17.99 to $19.99, and the Premium tier from $24.99 to $26.99. The new rates take effect...
The 2026 NAB Show will feature a high‑profile session on NextGen TV, bringing Brazil’s Minister of Communications Frederico de Siqueira Filho and FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty together to discuss ATSC 3.0 deployment. The two‑hour panel will examine Brazil’s TV 3.0 initiative, the U.S. rollout...
The music industry is re‑examining album‑centric record contracts as streaming platforms and social media prioritize single tracks. Data shows that hit singles now generate a larger share of revenue than full‑album sales, prompting labels to question the profitability of traditional...
Uproxx TV debuted at NewFronts, positioning itself as a top‑10 entertainment property on connected TV with over 160 million monthly viewers, more than half of whom watch on traditional TV screens. The company is launching creator‑driven shows like “Love, Songs,” leveraging...
Foxtel Business has signed an exclusive agreement with beIN SPORTS to distribute its three linear channels across Australian pubs and clubs, ending a six‑month blackout of major European football and top‑tier tennis. The package restores live rights to LaLiga, Serie...
Baobab Studios announced it has secured exclusive film and television rights to three of Roblox’s most‑visited titles—Natural Disaster Survival, Barry’s Prison Run, and Deepwoken. The trio accounts for nearly 10 billion visits, demonstrating sustained, multi‑generational engagement. Baobab will develop animated feature...
ESPN has secured exclusive rights to broadcast the 2026 Pakistan Super League across Australia and New Zealand, delivering all 44 matches live on Disney+ and through Foxtel, Kayo, Fetch TV and Sky NZ. The T20 tournament features a host of Australian...
Meta announced that Instagram’s Reels Trending Ads will now include a "TV & movies" category and dedicated line‑ups for cultural moments such as NFL games, Black Friday and Fashion Week. A limited‑alpha reserve‑buy option will let brands secure up to...
WEBTOON Entertainment is rolling out a unified international CANVAS platform beginning in spring 2026, merging its regional user‑generated content services into a single global hub. The platform will support seven languages—English, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Thai, Traditional Chinese and German—allowing creators...
Piracy has outpaced the streaming industry, evolving into a commercial operation that rivals legitimate platforms. In Japan, illegal distribution cost roughly $38 billion in 2025, and when counterfeit media are included the damage approaches $67 billion. Modern pirates sell turnkey streaming services...
Google will retire its free Widevine Cloud License Service in April 2027, forcing every OTT platform that relies on it to migrate to a new DRM license infrastructure. The shutdown impacts key DRM workflows, including key exchange, entitlement checks, and...
Adventure 33 introduced Prism, a purpose‑built global audio broadcasting ecosystem designed to replace traditional satellite distribution. The flagship Quattro receiver is a four‑channel, stereo‑capable 1RU appliance co‑engineered with Angry Audio. Prism’s architecture routes audio across five independent network layers, eliminating single...
Great Plains Christian Radio Inc., owner of KJIL‑FM 99.1 in Copeland, Kansas, announced a pending purchase of nine full‑power FM stations and five translators from The Praise Network Inc. The assets span small towns across Eastern Colorado and Kansas, extending the...
2025 reshaped streaming video economics as content‑side patent pools and high‑profile settlements brought codec royalties into the CFO’s purview. Access Advance launched a VDP pool with capped fees and de‑minimis waivers, while Nokia’s settlement with Amazon proved that patent owners...
The 2025 Streamticker roundup chronicles a wave of high‑value mergers reshaping streaming, advertising, and infrastructure. DIRECTV’s acquisition of INVIDI strengthens addressable TV ad solutions, while Outbrain’s $1 billion purchase of Teads creates a $1.7 billion omnichannel ad platform. DAZN’s $2.2 billion buy of...
Australian music services firm GYRO Group announced the launch of its first Latin American headquarters in Santos, Brazil, partnering with local operator MusicStream. The new office will serve as a hub for its DistroDirect distribution platform, extending support to artists,...
The podcast highlighted the demise of regional sports networks after Sinclair’s $9 billion overpay and Diamond Sports’ bankruptcy, reshaping MLB local broadcasts. Disney announced Josh D’Amaro as its new head, sealed a $1 billion OpenAI partnership, and faces waning Fortnite engagement. The...
Sony Pictures announced it will wind down its visual‑effects and virtual‑production subsidiary Pixomondo, moving remaining projects and talent to its Vancouver‑based Sony Pictures Imageworks. The closure affects Pixomondo’s studios in the U.S., Canada, Europe and its LED‑volume division PXO Clara,...
NEOWIZ announced that its idol‑management RPG IDOLY PRIDE will cease operations on April 26, 2026, ending service on both Korean and global servers. The title, which debuted in South Korea in 2021 and expanded worldwide in 2023, will remain playable...
TapNation and payments platform ZBD are championing rewarded play as a growth engine for mobile games. TapNation’s data shows real‑world rewards can lift day‑7 and day‑30 retention, while ZBD reports that allocating 10‑20% of ad revenue to players yields 80‑200%...
Warner Bros. Discovery launched HBO Max in the United Kingdom and Ireland on March 26, 2026, adding an ad‑supported tier that is free for Sky TV subscribers and available via Prime Video Channels. The rollout also introduced the service to...
PBS and ITVS have launched PBS Documentaries, a rebranded YouTube channel that expands the former PBS Voices hub to include full‑length documentary films. The channel inherits more than 316,000 subscribers and 52 million views, and will roll out over 100 new...
Musixmatch has introduced Sentinel, a music‑fingerprinting service that can identify copyrighted lyrics used in AI‑generated and user‑generated content within milliseconds. The tool integrates via API, allowing platforms to detect and mitigate infringement risk in real time. Sentinel builds on Musixmatch’s...
Content creator Alanah Pearce has founded Charred Pictures, an indie production company that partners directly with game developers on film and TV adaptations. The debut slate includes three projects: a pre‑production adaptation of the survival‑horror game Faith: The Unholy Trinity,...
Marc Pritchard, Procter & Gamble’s chief brand officer, told the ANA Media Conference that AI, data and media fragmentation are reshaping brand building into a continuous, one‑to‑one engagement model. He highlighted P&G’s shift to in‑house, programmatic media planning and buying...
Attiya Henry has been appointed executive vice president of Production for Disney Branded Television, reporting to Carol Turner and joining Ayo Davis’s senior leadership team. She will oversee production of animated and live‑action programming across Disney+, Disney Jr. and Disney Channel,...
Horizon Media has appointed veteran Bhavana Smith as chief operating officer to eliminate billable‑hour billing and pivot toward performance‑based contracts as artificial intelligence reshapes agency economics. The move is part of an early‑stage overhaul that ties compensation directly to client...
AviaGames has opened a Global Trust Centre in Singapore to centralise cybersecurity and data‑protection for its real‑money games. The facility will be overseen by former AWS security leader Dr. Jan Wang, who will drive compliance strategy across multiple jurisdictions. AviaGames...
True Native Media announced that it has added the Storybutton Network to its exclusive podcast representation roster. Storybutton, a leading kids‑and‑family podcast network created by storyteller Jim Jacob, brings shows like Kids Short Stories and Spyology Squad to the agency....
WPP has created a new global head of commercial position and hired Guillaume Epstein, a veteran of Publicis Groupe, to fill it. Epstein brings over a decade of senior finance and commercial experience across Europe, APAC and Latin America, including...
Morinaga Milk announced that Kraft will launch Pokémon‑branded sliced cheese in Japan in early April 2026, celebrating the franchise’s 30th anniversary. The limited‑edition packs feature Pikachu, Snorlax and Eevee, are priced at ¥475 (≈$2.99), and have varying expiry periods. This...
Podscribe unveiled two major upgrades: airchecks that now capture run‑of‑network (RON) podcast campaigns and a turnkey server‑to‑server integration with Tealium’s customer data platform. The RON airchecks use pixel activity and expanded transcription to verify ad placement, deliver brand‑safety signals and...
Meta will count only link clicks for click‑through attribution, moving likes, shares and saves to a new “engage‑through” category. Spotify launches an interactive BTS ARIRANG campaign and introduces SongDNA, a discovery‑focused music experience. Anghami adds AI‑generated metadata to 2.5 million songs,...
Los Angeles soundstages remain about one‑third vacant, with average occupancy holding at 62% in the first half of 2025, virtually unchanged from 2024. Despite a modest 5% rise in projects on participating stages, new facilities such as East End Studios’...
Jersey Zoo’s new director Mark Habben, appointed in January, is confronting a steep drop in visitors—from 209,474 in 2023 to 175,940 in 2024—and a roughly $6.1 million deficit. He announced a long‑term masterplan that will replace empty enclosures and phase out...
Chainplay’s 2025 report shows the blockchain gaming sector’s market value slumped 67% year‑over‑year, marking a sharp reversal from its rapid ascent. Both overall market capitalization and venture funding contracted sharply during the year. The decline coincided with heightened regulatory scrutiny...
Ghost, the open‑source CMS competing with Substack, has partnered with podcast host Transistor.fm to enable private, members‑only podcasts directly from the Ghost dashboard. The integration lets publishers bundle exclusive audio content with their subscription offerings, expanding Ghost’s toolkit beyond newsletters....
Fred Media has appointed Jamie I as its new sales manager for the Asia‑Pacific region, bringing over 20 years of distribution experience from her previous role as VP of Asia‑Pacific at Amazon MGM. She replaces long‑time representative Jimmy Elkington, who...
Microsoft raised Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to $29.99 per month, a 50% increase that has sparked subscriber backlash. The hike coincides with growing subscription fatigue as gamers juggle multiple entertainment services. The author proposes a modular, à la carte Game...
Atresmedia closed a distribution deal for its hit drama Entre Tierras with Italy’s Mediaset at the Series Mania festival in Lille. The series, which has been the most‑watched TV show in Spain in 2024, consists of ten 50‑minute episodes and...
ProSiebenSat.1 reported a 6% drop in total revenue for 2025, with advertising revenue falling 8% in German‑speaking markets, but the broadcaster is betting on a multi‑platform "total reach" strategy to reverse the trend. CEO Marco Giordani outlined a plan that...
The BBC’s Annual Plan outlines a digital‑first agenda for the next year, emphasizing iPlayer upgrades, short‑form video experiments, and expanded YouTube distribution. It arrives alongside the appointment of Matt Brittin as director‑general and the looming renewal of the corporation’s Royal...
In the latest VideoWeek podcast, ITV’s Director of Advanced Advertising, Rhys McLachlan, detailed the broadcaster’s evolving programmatic strategy. He highlighted ongoing challenges such as fraud and waste in the ecosystem and warned about the "enshittification" of social media platforms. The conversation...
Kakao Entertainment announced JungHee Ko as co‑CEO and Chief Platform Officer, joining Joseph Chang who will now lead a newly created Global Growth Center. Ko will oversee the platform unit that houses music‑streaming service Melon, web‑novel and webtoon platform KakaoPage,...
BMG reported 2025 revenues of €900 million ($1.02 bn), a 6.5% YoY decline driven by divesting non‑core live assets and a weaker dollar. Despite the dip, streaming subscription revenue grew double‑digit and the company’s adjusted EBITDA rose 7.2% to €284 million ($321 m), pushing...
Vodafone TV Spain has partnered with Rakuten TV to embed its Videoclub rental service into the operator’s set‑top box platform. The integration adds roughly 6,000 titles, from new releases to catalog films, available for rent and billed through the monthly...
SPI International has renewed its distribution agreement with Orange in Spain, extending carriage of Fast&FunBox, FightBox and Gametoon through the end of 2026. The channels remain in Orange TV’s Sports Pack and Basic Pack and will also be available on...
K-LOVE is swapping legacy tube transmitters for GatesAir solid‑state Flexiva GX5K and Flexiva FAX10 units at stations in Billings, Montana and Tremonton, Utah. The new transmitters occupy roughly one‑third the rack space, cut power consumption and simplify maintenance. Audio monitoring...
Savor FM has launched Federated Savor, a global syndication network that aggregates foodservice podcasts and digital media creators onto a single platform. The network instantly taps a combined audience of more than 500,000 subscribers across YouTube and podcast services, offering...
