HRC 2026 Session To Plot Digital Future for Hispanic Radio
The Hispanic Radio Conference (HRC) 2026 will host a dedicated session on "Digital Platforms for Hispanic Radio Stations," addressing the rapid shift toward online audio. Recent data shows 81% of U.S. adults (about 233 million) listened to online audio last month, with 73% of 18‑34‑year‑old drivers streaming in cars and podcast ad revenue projected to surpass $3 billion by 2026. Panelists from Townsquare Media, TelevisaUnivision, Plural, and StreamGuys will share data‑driven tactics for streaming, podcasts, and mobile apps. Attendees will leave with concrete content, distribution, and measurement strategies to capture younger, multicultural audiences.
From J. Cole to Dave: A Look Inside South Africa’s Live Calendar
South Africa’s live‑music market is booming in 2026, drawing a diverse slate of international acts—from Doja Cat and Bryan Adams to J. Cole and Dave—across hip‑hop, R&B, reggae, country and electronic genres. Major venues in Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban and Johannesburg host arena shows...
Red Seat Ventures Launches Speakeasy, a New Hosting, Distribution and Monetization Platform Built for the Next Generation of Creator Media
Red Seat Ventures, a Fox Corporation Tubi Media Group division, unveiled Speakeasy, an owned‑and‑operated platform that unifies hosting, distribution and monetization for audio and video creators. The service bundles AI‑powered analytics, ad‑supported revenue, and subscription options via an integration with...
PlayDucky Rolls Out Volcano and Lava Pool Maps in New Melon Sandbox Update
PlayDucky has released two new lava‑themed maps—a volcano and a lava‑pool—for its mobile‑first sandbox game Melon Sandbox. The update adds lava tiles to the in‑game editor, letting creators design hazardous environments and sell them on the storefront using the virtual...
The Stack: AI Surges While Social Platforms Face Scrutiny
OpenAI secured a $122 billion funding round, lifting its valuation to about $852 billion and hinting at a future public listing. The company also extended its advertising pilot to Canada, Australia and New Zealand, giving brands more time to test AI‑assistant ads. In...
Discover Barcelona's Thriving Games Ecosystem on June 15th to 16th
Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona 2026 will take place on June 15‑16, gathering over 1,200 games professionals for two days of networking, deals and insight. The event builds on a successful 2025 debut and features a multitrack agenda with speakers from...
The Subscriber Retention Funnel: Turning One-Time Viewers Into Loyal Audiences
Streaming services are grappling with rising churn, which has climbed from 2 % in 2019 to 5.5 % in 2025, while retention rates linger between 30 % and 40 %. Traditional mass‑mail and generic push tactics no longer engage users, prompting a shift toward...
Natasha Gesto Joins TACT Artists Management
Uruguayan‑Australian soprano Natasha Gesto has signed with TACT Artists Management and will be represented by veteran agent Samuel Levine. Gesto currently sings with the Junges Ensemble at Semperoper Dresden, covering roles such as Erste Dame in "Die Zauberflöte" and Musetta...
The "Spotify of China" Just Got a Whole Lot Cheaper
Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME), the dominant music‑streaming platform in China with 528 million monthly active users, reported $1.24 billion revenue for the latest quarter, up 16% year‑over‑year and just above forecasts. While total MAUs slipped 5% YoY, the paying‑user base grew...
Independent Report Compares Codec Royalty Costs Across Two Major Licensing Pools
An independent analysis by Jan Ozer for Streaming Learning Center compares royalty costs between Access Advance’s Video Distribution Patent Pool and Avanci’s Video program across eight typical streaming service models. The study finds Avanci’s royalties can be 1.9‑times higher for...
The Foundation of Trust: Why Royalty Infrastructure Is the Key to Artist Retention in 2026
In 2026 music platforms are prioritizing automated royalty payouts to retain artists, as manual delays drive talent to competitors. Create Music Group now delivers YouTube streaming revenue within three days, positioning itself as an artist‑first brand. Labels like Ninja Tune...
Ads of the Week: 12 Campaigns That Caught Our Eye, From KFC to Pringles
Weekly roundup spotlights 12 standout ad campaigns, from KFC’s animated Colonel Sanders to e.l.f.’s true‑crime parody and Verizon’s suspenseful “Look Behind You.” The piece highlights unconventional collaborations such as McDonald’s with K‑Pop Demon Hunters and Liquid Death teaming with real‑estate...
Why to Invest in Lowering Sports Streaming Latency in 2026
Live‑sports streaming still lags broadcast by 30‑45 seconds, prompting industry leaders to debate the ROI of cutting latency. DAZN, BT Group and TATA Communications cite split‑rights scenarios and real‑time betting as drivers for faster delivery. Technical hurdles include low‑latency protocols,...
How Samsung Ads And Crumbl Got Their CTV Campaign To Perform Like Social
Samsung Ads partnered with Crumbl for a seven‑week CTV acquisition push in Q4, delivering over 16,000 app installs and five‑figure revenue while achieving a 23% conversion rate that outperformed the brand’s social campaigns. The integration with AppsFlyer gave Crumbl transparent,...
Transparency Brought Down The Trade Desk’s Publicis Deal but It May Not Be Enough to Win Its Other Clients
The Trade Desk’s relationship with Publicis collapsed after a leaked transparency audit, prompting rivals to tout their own openness. However, agency buyers largely dismissed transparency as a decisive factor, focusing instead on margin and control. Competitors such as Nexxen are...
High Stakes, Big Budgets: How Brands Are Navigating a Massive Sports Year
Brands are tightening budgets amid a crowded sports calendar that includes the Super Bowl, 2026 Winter Olympics and FIFA World Cup. Global ad spend is set to exceed $1 trillion, but live‑sports slots remain prohibitively expensive, with 30‑second Super Bowl spots...
Can NFLX's Content Strength Sustain User Engagement & Revenue Growth?
Netflix’s robust content engine logged 96 billion hours viewed in H2 2025, fueling higher retention, lower churn and stronger pricing power. Original titles grew 9% year‑over‑year, and a slate of marquee releases through 2026—including Bridgerton S4 and ONE PIECE S2—aims to sustain engagement. Management ties...
Tubi Teams Up With Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal, & More To Expand In Canada
Tubi is adding more than 600 movies and TV series from Disney, NBCUniversal, Sony, Warner Bros. Discovery and Lionsgate to its Canadian catalog. The ad‑supported service has seen monthly active users climb 30% year‑over‑year since its 2020 launch. A long‑term...
YouTube Experiments with TV-Style Channels for CTV Viewing
YouTube is piloting TV‑style channels with the launch of “Coachella TV,” a 24/7 streaming channel that will feature archival performances and highlights from the 2026 festival. The experiment follows earlier tests with roughly 40 musicians and is designed to let creators...
Entertainment and California Regulators Push Back Against Warner-Paramount Merger
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders will vote on a $110 billion acquisition by David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance, a deal that would unite two historic Hollywood studios. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has launched an antitrust review, questioning the fairness of a federal investigation...
All Eligible Snap Creators Can Now Offer Subscriptions
Snapchat has rolled out its Creator Subscription product to every eligible creator globally, letting them set monthly fees for exclusive Snaps, Stories and ad‑free experiences. In the pilot, creators retained roughly 60% of subscription revenue and saw Spotlight posts boost...
Everything We Know About the The Bonfire of the Vanities TV Series
Apple TV is developing a series adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s 1987 novel "The Bonfire of the Vanities," a satirical look at 1980s Wall Street and New York social hierarchies. Emmy‑winning writer‑producer David E. Kelley is penning the scripts, while Matt...
EverPass Media Expands Distribution Deal with Netflix
EverPass Media announced an expanded commercial distribution agreement with Netflix that will bring live sports events to U.S. bars, restaurants and other venues. The first title under the new deal is the Tyson Fury vs. Arslanbek Makhmudov boxing match on April 11, 2026,...
Xbox Game Pass Is Adding Tiny Bookshop as a Surprise Day-One Launch Title Soon
Xbox Game Pass will add the indie hit Tiny Bookshop as a surprise day‑one launch title on April 10, 2026, covering Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC. The game will be accessible to Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers,...
HipHopGamer Partners Exclusively with GamesBeat as GamesBeat Creators Redefines Community-First B2B Media
GamesBeat launched GamesBeat Creators, a B2B media initiative that links creator talent with industry‑focused audiences. HipHopGamer (Gerard Williams) became the first exclusive creator, releasing a video with comedian Rip Michaels that explores how gaming fuels new comedy formats. The partnership...
Strike #10: Death, Taxes and the TO War
PGL re‑enters the tier‑one CS:GO circuit with an aggressive $11 million per‑year guaranteed payout, outbidding ESL ($10.45 million) and BLAST ($10 million) for 2027. The Romanian organiser also added a year‑long revenue‑share and flat acceptance fees, mirroring ESL’s model. By overlapping four of...
FROM PLATFORM WARS TO INFRASTRUCTURE WARS: Hop-On's Digitalage Defines Stateful Media Infrastructure
Hop‑on’s Digitalage unveiled a patent‑pending Stateful Media Infrastructure that converts every livestream into a permanent, searchable asset at the moment of creation. The architecture eliminates post‑production processing, enabling creators to earn 70‑85% of revenue compared with the 45‑55% typical on...
*NSYNC Choreographer Sues Sony Music for Letting Deadpool Dance His “Bye Bye Bye” Routine
Choreographer Darrin Henson, creator of *NSYNC’s iconic “Bye Bye Bye” dance, has filed a lawsuit against Sony Music for licensing the routine without his permission. The complaint, lodged on March 27, alleges that Sony allowed the choreography to be used in...
A Local TV Newsroom Disappeared Overnight. It’s a Warning Sign for What’s Next.
Circle City Broadcasting acquired Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV from Scripps for $83 million and dismissed the entire newsroom in a single night. The move reflects a broader wave of consolidation, highlighted by Nexstar’s pending merger with Tegna that would give the...
Nielsen, TelevisaUnivision Agree To New Measurement Pact
TelevisaUnivision and Nielsen have signed a new multi‑year measurement agreement covering all of the broadcaster’s U.S. television, radio and streaming assets. The pact resolves a recent data gap that left stations like Miami’s WAMR‑FM out of Nielsen Audio’s ratings. Both...
Amazon Prime’s 12 ‘Free’ Games for April Include XCOM: Enemy Unknown Complete Pack
Amazon Prime members can claim twelve free PC games for April 2026 through the Prime Gaming (now Luna) program, with titles ranging from XCOM: Enemy Unknown Complete Pack to Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties. The games are delivered as redeemable codes...
The WNET Group, JIB Launch NHK World-Japan in New York
The WNET Group and Japan International Broadcasting have launched the English‑language NHK World‑Japan channel on WLIW’s digital subchannel 21.3, effective April 1. The service is also being carried by major cable providers such as Optimum, Spectrum, Comcast, Verizon Fios and Astound/RCN...
Knitting Factory Entertainment and The Finn Group Partner To Operate Baltimore’s Pier Six Pavilion
Knitting Factory Entertainment has partnered with Baltimore‑based Finn Group to jointly operate the city‑owned Pier Six Pavilion, a 4,600‑seat waterfront amphitheater. The agreement places veteran talent buyer Peter J. Manning in charge of bookings, leveraging his two decades of experience...
NABLF Welcomes Staab, Hartman To Board
The National Association of Broadcasting Leadership Foundation (NABLF) appointed Valari Dobson Staab, chairman of NBCUniversal Local, and Todd Hartman, executive vice president of Kalil & Co., to its Board of Directors. Staab oversees NBCUniversal Local’s portfolio of 50 media properties,...
Elite Media Technologies Selects Interra Systems’ BATON QC Solution
Interra Systems announced that Elite Media Technologies has chosen its BATON file‑based quality‑control platform for its master‑level audio, video and IMF/DCP workflows. Elite highlighted BATON’s automated audio‑video analysis, scalable architecture, and support for both SDR and HDR content as key...
Wyclef Jean and Jaeson Ma’s D2C Service OpenWav Launches Snafu-Backed Indie Artist Financing Platform
OpenWav, the direct‑to‑fan platform co‑founded by Wyclef Jean and Jaeson Ma, has unveiled OpenWav Artist Bank, a financing service that offers independent musicians cash advances ranging from low five figures to high seven figures. The program, built with AI‑driven catalog...
Saga’s Gainesville-Ocala Duo Get A New GM
Saga Communications announced the appointment of a new general manager for its Gainesville‑Ocala radio cluster, replacing the outgoing executive after a three‑year tenure. The new GM, Lisa Varner, brings 15 years of market‑specific programming and sales experience, previously leading revenue...
Sam Altman Felt ‘Terrible’ Telling Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro About OpenAI’s Decision to Kill Off Sora, Says Companies Still Looking...
OpenAI announced the shutdown of its Sora video‑generation platform, a move that caught Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro off‑guard and halted Disney’s plan to let fans create AI‑generated versions of over 200 characters. The cancellation puts a $1 billion Disney investment on...
Licata To Lead iHeartMedia’s Multiplatform Group
Ann Marie Licata has been appointed chief executive officer of iHeartMedia’s Multiplatform Group, the company’s largest operating segment that encompasses more than 860 local radio stations, live‑event sponsorships, its Premiere Networks and TTWN radio networks, and data‑targeting products. Licata will...
TV: ‘A Full-Funnel Driver Of Performance’
A new Comcast Advertising report finds that brand recall spikes dramatically when television is combined with other media channels. Recall is 8.7 times higher when TV is paired with search, 1.8 times higher with social media, and 1.6 times higher...
Nexon Agrees to Publish Overwatch in Korea
Nexon has signed a publishing deal with Blizzard to bring Overwatch to the Korean market, targeting a PC launch later this year. Nexon will manage live‑service and business operations while Blizzard retains development control of the IP. The agreement emphasizes...
How Purchase Data Is Redefining TV Ad Performance and Driving Revenue
Purchase‑based segmentation is reshaping TV advertising, letting brands move beyond reach metrics to drive sales. Circana’s data shows that targeting 126 million U.S. households with past‑purchase signals can boost incremental sales, as demonstrated by Roku’s 35 % lift with half the impressions....
How Kraft Heinz’s NFL Deal Could Help the Marketer Get Back on Track
Kraft Heinz has signed a five‑year deal to become the NFL’s first global condiment partner, integrating brands like Heinz, Kraft and Velveeta into game‑day experiences. The partnership, launching with a Draft Week activation in Pittsburgh, is designed to boost the...
Latin America Defies Game Stagnation with 372.3M Players and $8.3B in 2025 Revenues
Latin America is set to host 372.3 million gamers and generate roughly $8.3 billion in gaming revenues by 2025, positioning the region as a fast‑growing hub. Gamescom Latam, the regional edition of the world’s largest gaming expo, returns to São Paulo from April 29...
Netflix Drew the Youngest MLB Opening Day Audience Since 2017
Netflix streamed its first live MLB game on Opening Night 2026, attracting roughly 3 million viewers – the largest Opening Day audience since the pandemic‑shortened 2020 season. The 18‑49 demographic was the strongest for an MLB opener in nearly a decade,...
Asheville’s WWNC Adds FM Signal
iHeartMedia's Asheville news/talk station WWNC (570 AM) has begun simulcasting on FM translator W225CJ at 92.9 MHz. The move, announced by iHeartMedia Carolinas president Drew Salamon and SVP Zac Davis, follows the station’s critical role during Hurricane Helene. By adding FM coverage,...
Mississippi AM Owner to Make $1K Contribution for FCC Violations
The FCC entered a consent decree with Mississippi‑Delta AM station WABG after finding an unauthorized 2015 transfer of control and repeated failures to file required quarterly issue lists. The station also falsely certified compliance with public‑inspection‑file and ownership reporting rules....
Triton Digital Selected by NBC Sports to Power Podcast Hosting, Measurement, and Monetization
Triton Digital announced that NBC Sports has chosen its platform to power the network’s podcast hosting, audience measurement, and advertising monetization. NBC will deploy Omny Studio for enterprise hosting, the Triton Ad Platform for programmatic ad sales, Podcast Metrics for...
Aquaplus and Yuke's Show Interest in Bringing Dungeon Travelers and Tears to Tiara to Current Platforms
Aquaplus and Yuke’s, fresh from their 2025 acquisition, announced plans to port legacy RPGs such as Dungeon Travelers and Tears to Tiara to current-generation consoles, including the Nintendo Switch 2. The companies highlighted Yuke’s technical capability in enabling a Switch 2 edition...
Microsoft Appoints Global Media Agency
Microsoft has appointed a global media agency to manage its advertising across markets, consolidating its fragmented media buying under a single partner. The UK portion of the deal is valued at roughly £34 million, equivalent to about $43 million. The move is...