Know What's Happening in Media
Know What's Happening in Media
Indian TV market braces for sales dip as production costs surge amid West Asia crisis
Rising RAM prices, higher plastic and ocean‑freight costs linked to the West Asia crisis and a weakening rupee are pushing retail TV prices up about 20%, with a 32‑inch set now costing roughly $133 versus $108 six months ago. Counterpoint Research forecasts shipments to fall 5‑6% as consumers down‑trade to smaller screens.
Also developing:
By the numbers: K‑Love seeks FCC approval to acquire WFCC
Future plc unveiled three new initiatives—Signal, Collab, and Future+—to revamp affiliate e‑commerce, creator content, and membership registration. Signal shifts buying advice to personal “collections” that drive up to three‑fold social and email traffic, while Collab lets vetted creators publish directly on Future’s brands. Future+ offers free, data‑driven memberships, growing 30% month‑on‑month with 67,000 sign‑ups in ten weeks, and members stay four times longer on site. Despite a 6% dip in affiliate revenue to £76.7 million, the new products aim to offset declines and capture younger audiences.
The International Society of Brand Advertisers (ISBA) has announced that brands must act collectively to capitalize on a once‑in‑a‑generation market shift driven by digital transformation, AI, and evolving consumer expectations. In his first 100 days, the new ISBA chief highlighted...
Maryland’s 99.9 Free Country (WFRE) held its 2026 “Free Country Cares for St. Jude Kids Radiothon,” raising a record $640,320 in two days. The haul pushes the station’s cumulative contributions past the $10 million milestone after two decades of annual fundraisers. Station leaders...
Mike McVay addressed the Intercollegiate Broadcast System conference, urging broadcasters and media professionals to treat their careers as evolving brands. He emphasized continuous education, self‑assessment, and a clear vision to stay relevant across expanding platforms. The talk highlighted that personal...
Following Rev. Jesse Jackson’s death, Premiere Networks announced that his nationally syndicated Sunday program Keep Hope Alive will continue under the leadership of his eldest daughter, Santita Jackson. Santita, a Howard University graduate with a career in radio hosting and...
![[Guest Post] Are Gaming Publishers Maximising Revenue From Programmatic Advertising?](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://mcvuk.com/wp-content/uploads/PHOTO-2026-01-13-15-01-58.jpg)
Gaming publishers have upgraded to modern programmatic stacks—rewarded video, mediation, and in‑app bidding—but many still see flat or declining revenue. The article argues that the bottleneck is not demand scarcity but a lack of systematic monetisation governance, leading to static...
The UK government is moving to bring the most popular video‑on‑demand services under Ofcom’s regulatory umbrella through secondary legislation to the Media Act 2024. Platforms with more than 500,000 UK users—including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, ITVX and Channel 4—will be classified...
Sports radio is experiencing a resurgence, with AM/FM sports stations growing 14% and adding over 100 outlets in the past decade. Revenue share climbed from 9.3% in 2016 to 12.8% in 2025, a 38% increase, while streaming dominance places sports...
Warner Bros Discovery will launch HBO Max direct‑to‑consumer in twelve Asia‑Pacific island markets on March 26, 2026. The rollout follows recent European launches in Italy and Germany and precedes the UK and Ireland debut. The service will bundle HBO, Harry Potter, DC, Cartoon Network, Max Originals...
Samsung Ads introduced an Immersive Carousel ad unit on its European Smart TV home screens, supporting up to five rotating tiles per placement. The format appears on more than 70 million Samsung TVs, auto‑rotating every five seconds and also navigable via...
Emily Nemens, author of the Tin House novel Clutch, gained early acclaim with her debut The Cactus League, which was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and featured on NPR and Lit Hub’s 2020 favorites lists. Her short fiction...
ITV and Disney have extended their UK partnership by bringing two Hulu Original series to ITV1’s primetime linear schedule. The first, “The Stolen Girl,” premieres on February 25, followed later by “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.” The titles will air under...
A Reddit‑based weekly roundup, Last Week in AVP #107, aggregates the most compelling Apple Vision Pro (AVP) news, reviews, and videos into a single, ad‑free page. The edition highlights Apple’s potential immersive Formula 1 demo at the March 4 event, teases the...
Portland’s WNBA expansion team, the Fire, and NWSL club, the Thorns, have signed a multi‑year media partnership with Gray Media’s KPDX (FOX 12 Plus). All Fire games will air on FOX 12 Plus with select simulcasts on FOX 12, while the Thorns continue their expanded...
Live sports remain the last true appointment viewing in an on‑demand world, delivering real‑time, unscripted emotional moments that cannot be paused or replayed. Over the past decade, cloud production, remote workflows and hyper‑personalized streams have broadened access and lowered costs....
Journalists probing the Rubaya coltan landslide that killed more than 200 miners were barred by M23 rebels on Jan. 28, highlighting a tightening media blackout in eastern DRC. The disaster, tied to unsafe artisanal mining, underscores the mineral‑fuelled conflict between rebel...
DMG Media CEO Danny Groom told The Definitive AI Forum that AI is reshaping the Mail’s content model, moving from mass‑reach to targeted, personalized output. The company is piloting an AI‑powered dynamic paywall in Australia and has cut article volume...
BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4 presenters dominate the audio categories at the 52nd Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. The shortlist includes Sara Cox, Trevor Nelson, Anna Foster, Sue Mitchell and Jamie Theakston for Audio Presenter of the Year. Radio 4’s...
GoWit, a commerce‑enablement platform, has entered a strategic partnership with Publicis Media Middle East to expand its retail‑media solutions across the MENA region and Turkey. The collaboration will combine GoWit's AI‑driven shopping tools with Publicis' extensive media network, enabling brands...
Audible Australia’s new research shows audiobooks are eclipsing music as the preferred soundtrack for morning routines and workouts. Thirty‑two percent of Australians consider audio essential for setting the day’s tone, while 34% specifically choose audiobooks over playlists during exercise. Among...
In this episode, Digiday hosts Tamika Baziel, a B2B creator, who explains why she audited and ultimately severed her partnership with Hootsuite after learning of its collaboration with ICE and concerns about surveillance culture. She details her systematic audit process—using...
Samsung Ads has introduced an Immersive Carousel ad unit for Samsung Smart TV home screens across Europe, allowing up to five interactive tiles that rotate automatically or can be navigated with the remote. The format appears on the home screen,...
Menarini Asia‑Pacific has appointed Omnicom Media’s PHD as its regional media agency, expanding the partnership to seven additional markets—India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and Korea—effective January 1 2026. The new remit consolidates media planning and buying across Menarini’s pharmaceutical and consumer‑health...
Conan O'Brien says his podcast "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend" and HBO Max travel series now reach more people than his former TBS late‑night show, which ended in 2021. He argues the traditional late‑night talk‑show format is fading, replaced by...
Scoop: Sen. Richard Blumenthal has written a letter to David Ellison demanding answers and records pertaining to Stephen Colbert's claim of FCC censorship. Details in @get_status: https://www.status.news/p/stephen-colbert-blumenthal-letter-david-ellison-fcc
“…The decision marks the first time that management has called off production of a daily paper since the organization’s founding in 1872.”
IKEA is returning as the principal sponsor for Australian Survivor: Redemption, extending its partnership with Network 10 and Paramount+. The renewed deal deepens in‑show integration, featuring IKEA‑branded food rewards, sleep solutions, and daily gift‑card competitions during pivotal moments. The brand cites...
Meta’s new Facebook creator monetization program has exploded to 12 million participants, yet the platform still distributes only about $2 billion to creators each year. By contrast, YouTube shares more than $30 billion, and Instagram Reels generate $50 billion in revenue with minimal payouts....
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The NAACP Image Awards kicked off their 57th ceremony with Night 1 winners, highlighting achievements across literature, short‑form media and digital creation. Michelle Obama captured the Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/Autobiography award for her fashion‑focused book *The Look*, while producer Will Packer...
Maksim Chmerkovskiy, former *Dancing with the Stars* pro, headlines the vertical drama *Wild Silence* on Holywater Tech’s My Drama platform. The series marks the first U.S. vertical production to feature a reality‑TV star in a leading role and follows two...
JVC Broadcasting has promoted Scott Mallory to Operations Manager of its Fort Walton Beach radio cluster, formalizing his expanded duties overseeing programming, team coordination, and brand execution. The company also hired Brad Miller as Production and Promotions Lead, adding a veteran with...
CBS has renewed the flagship FBI series for a ninth season while cancelling its two spin‑offs, FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International. Season 8 posted a 0.38 rating in the 18‑49 demographic and attracted 6.14 million live‑plus‑same‑day viewers, a solid performance by...
Mario Gabelli highlighted at the Barron’s Roundtable 2026 that value investors should target mispriced experiential assets such as media, sports franchises, and entertainment companies. He cited Madison Square Garden Sports as trading at roughly half its calculated intrinsic value and...
Free ad‑supported streaming TV (FAST) has become the new normal in 2026, reshaping audience habits, advertising models, and content monetisation. International programming, especially Asian dramas and anime, generated $8 billion in streaming revenue between 2020‑2024, while FAST sports channels grew 105%...
Amazon Ads reports a surge in demand for UEFA Champions League advertising on Prime Video, attracting brands across automotive, financial services, lifestyle and travel. Brand‑lift studies show average lifts of 20% in favourability, 14% in familiarity and 21% in purchase...
McCann Group New Zealand announced Zac Stephenson as Managing Director, Media, effective 9 March, and promoted Terri Collier to the newly created Chief Client Officer role. The duo, who previously collaborated at DDB, will steer the agency’s shift toward a fully integrated,...
The Federal Communications Commission issued a Notice of Unlicensed Operation to Beacon Air Group, the fixed‑base operator at Billings‑Logan International Airport, for transmitting on the VHF aircraft band at 128.825 MHz without a license. The unauthorized signal interfered with a co‑located...
On Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, No. 14 Kansas Jayhawks (20‑7, 10‑4) will host No. 5 Houston Cougars (23‑4, 11‑3) at Phog Allen Fieldhouse. The game, a pivotal Big Monday showdown, tips off at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN. Both programs are seeking to rebound...
Maureen McCollum has been hired as Vice President of Content for Milwaukee NPR affiliate WUWM 89.7. The former Wisconsin Public Radio journalist and host will steer the station’s editorial strategy and drive its shift toward a multi‑platform public media model. McCollum...
Direct-to-consumer is still a big opportunity, even for the biggest artists in the world. That’s the opportunity EVEN saw. Build the infrastructure once, make it work at every scale, and help artists turn moments into sales. The company just powered J....
On Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, No. 18 North Carolina hosts Louisville in a pivotal ACC showdown at 7 p.m. ET in Chapel Hill. Both teams sit at 9‑5 in conference play, making the game critical for postseason positioning. The contest will...
Comcast’s FreeWheel has hired Woolworths senior media manager Alan Jenner as Director of Platform Partnerships for Australia and New Zealand. Jenner spent nearly five years leading programmatic at Woolworths and previously held senior roles at LiveRamp, Comscore, Optus and Telstra. FreeWheel,...
The New York Times now has more bundle subscribers than those who pay for news‑only, reflecting a strategic shift toward ancillary products such as Wordle, cooking guides, and The Athletic. The company has stopped offering a pure news subscription to new customers,...
102.7 KPGZ in Kearney, Missouri leveraged Comrex’s FieldLink sideline reporter codec to enhance its live coverage of the Bulldogs’ high‑school football playoff run. The FieldLink system, which uses the free FieldTap app on iOS and Android smartphones, provided crisp, wireless...
Online News Act is a “trade irritant “to Google and Meta, and govt carrying its water, but it’s a “game changer” for a free and plural press living with a massive imbalance in bargaining power - now in the case...
If we want to talk about manipulation I think it's important to note Cyabra (company POLITICO's story is based on) is an Israeli AI startup that does not have a good record of identifying who is and who isn't bots....
NewzDash’s early analysis of Google’s February 2026 Discover core update shows a shift toward locally relevant, in‑depth content and a drop in click‑bait style items. In California, local articles in the top 100 rose from 10 to 16, while Yahoo’s presence fell...
New: Paramount has made a new and improved offer for WBD. Expect WBD to respond soon. https://t.co/CW7caCn4xm
Google proxy Chamber of Progress has really unleashed on Meta over its debate on the right and wrong way to protect children from harm. Playing out in LA, New Mexico and NdCal courts. Making it all about age-gating rather than...
