Today's Media Pulse
Online video subscriptions top 2.2 bn, revenue eclipses pay‑TV
Omdia reports global online video subscriptions reached 2.24 billion at the end of 2025, a 17.6% year‑on‑year rise. Revenue grew 13.5% to $176 billion, overtaking pay‑TV's $170 billion for the first time. Growth is expected to slow to single‑digit in 2026 as operators shift focus from acquiring new users to monetising existing ones.
Bill Maher Slams Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg and Other Tech Leaders in Scathing Rebuke of AI: ‘Practically Robots Themselves’
Bill Maher used his HBO show’s “Real Time” segment to launch a scathing critique of artificial intelligence and the handful of tech moguls steering its development. He warned that leaders like Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk control personal data and could inadvertently trigger existential risks, even suggesting a temporary shutdown until safety is assured. Maher cited a 20% chance of human extinction and echoed concerns voiced by other celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson and Joseph Gordon‑Levitt, who have called for stricter regulation. The remarks highlight growing public unease about AI’s unchecked power.
Twitter Embed Hack Turns Threads Post Into Hybrid
Trying to repurpose my Twitter embed implementation for Threads posts and it ended up looking like a crossover between the two websites
BDO Expands Legal‑tech Insight with New "Legal Tech Talk" Podcast Series
BDO has introduced the Legal Tech Talk podcast, hosted by Daniel Gold and Eric Derk, to explore emerging technologies shaping law firms. Episodes feature judges, legal professionals and cover topics such as privacy, AI governance and e‑discovery, offering practitioners timely...
Forbes Seeks Remote Editor for New Wine Vertical
Forbes is hiring an editor to help launch Forbes Wine, a new content vertical and e-commerce site. The role is fully remote, $100k-$110k salary. These are the types of opportunities I share on my Substack 💻
Beef Season 2 Episode 4 Takes On The U.S. Medical System In A Dark Mirror Of The Pitt
Netflix’s "Beef" Season 2 Episode 4 uses a chaotic emergency‑room setting to lampoon America’s profit‑driven health‑care system. The plot follows uninsured Gen‑Z workers Ashley and Austin as a burst ovarian cyst forces them into an overcrowded ER where staff act like bureaucratic...
Steam Pulls Clone Game Pickmos Over Copyright Concerns
Steam has taken down the game Pickmos, a title accused of copying Pokemon, Palworld and other franchises, after publisher Networkgo intervened. The removal underscores growing pressure on digital storefronts to police intellectual‑property violations and raises questions about the future of...
2026 NAB Show Opens Tomorrow, Uniting Global Media Leaders to Shape the Future of Storytelling
The 2026 NAB Show opened in Las Vegas on April 18, drawing over 18,000 companies and more than 630 speakers across 11 stages. The event features 1,100+ exhibitors—including Sony, Adobe, Google Cloud and AWS—and offers 550 sessions covering AI, the...
Netflix Rolls Out Four Colombia Initiatives After ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ Success
Netflix announced four new initiatives to grow Colombia’s film and TV ecosystem, citing the success of its flagship series ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude.’ The move follows the streamer’s recent office openings in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina and marks its...
Social Media Sells Attention, Diminishes Our Consciousness
Michael Pollan: Social Media Sold Our Attention. We Are Now Less Conscious | Video | Amanpour & Company | PBS https://t.co/ZHUwseBdQG
What’s Alpha Males’ Renewal Status After Season 5?
Netflix has not yet announced whether Alpha Males will return for a sixth season, leaving its renewal status officially undecided. The decision will depend on Season 5’s viewership numbers, ratings, and overall financial performance. Season 5, which just premiered, follows the four...
AEQ to Showcase Forum IP Plus and Systel Max at NAB Show
AEQ will debut its new Forum IP Plus AoIP digital console and the Systel Max call‑management system at the NAB Show. Forum IP Plus offers 32 mix buses, 10 N‑1 buses, up to 24 motorized faders and multichannel connectivity via...
Liz Pelly’s Spotify Book Unpacks New Media & AI
Highly recommend Liz Pelly’s new book on Spotify, many insights for anyone interested in new media, generative AI, even vibe coding as a modern form of creation. https://t.co/LVArLxahL7
Slay Stays In Nashville’s Zone With Cumulus Continuation
Ron Slay, ESPN and SEC Network analyst and former UT player, has signed a multi‑year contract to stay on Cumulus Media Nashville’s 104.5 The Zone afternoon show “3HL.” The program, now in its sixth year, streams on radio, TV and...
Five Questions with Independent Journalist Scott MacFarlane
After decades at major news organizations, Scott MacFarlane quit to become an independent journalist. He now hosts “Scott MacFarlane Reports,” delivering daily breaking news on YouTube and Substack, and serves as chief Washington correspondent for the MeidasTouch Network. The venture...
Publication Success: 80% Optimization, 20% Content
Have come to the realization that the success of a publication is 80% website/email optimization, 20% the actual content. If you check out Compounding Quality’s Substack, you can tell he gets it. That’s just the reality. https://t.co/4tfh0TgOqb
NBA Play-In Viewership up Thus Far in Streaming Debut on Prime Video
The NBA’s Play‑in Tournament debuted on Amazon Prime Video, averaging 2.69 million viewers—a 12% rise over last year’s TNT/ESPN windows. Younger audiences propelled the growth, with 18‑34, 18‑49 and 25‑54 demos up 32%, 31% and 26% respectively. The Warriors‑Clippers game peaked...
Prime Video Wins Exclusive Rights to 2026 NBA Play-In Tournament
Amazon's Prime Video has secured exclusive streaming rights to the 2026 NBA Play-In tournament, airing all games from April 14 to 17 with no traditional TV broadcast. The move underscores the accelerating migration of live sports to over‑the‑top platforms and...
EU Rolls Out Free Age‑verification App to Curb Online Harms to Children
On April 15 the European Commission introduced a free, open‑source age‑verification app that lets users confirm their age with a passport or ID card without revealing personal data. Ursula von der Leyen warned platforms that “no more excuses” will be tolerated, signaling...
(Podcast) Downstream 116: Ceramic Dalmatian
The Downstream 116 podcast covers several media‑industry shifts, starting with Jeopardy’s push into streaming and a playful nod to its recent loss on the game show. Hosts reminisce about Netflix’s evolution, note Paramount+’s deeper integration with Pluto TV, and speculate...
Desperate Companies Use Every App to Keep Users Hooked
They must be desperate to offset signal loss. Also see how they’re leveraging all of their apps and services to try to get you to log in anywhere anywhere anywhere to bring you back on their grid.
Meta Unveils 'Suite of Truth' Framework Claiming 31% Under‑valuation of Its Ads
Meta released a white paper introducing its 'Suite of Truth' framework, arguing that last‑click attribution undervalues Meta‑driven conversions by 31% and recommending a hybrid ladder of incrementality. The study, based on 307 experiments across 54 advertisers, calls for a 1.45×...
50% Off To Data & Beyond Subscription + All My Books & Courses (Bundle + Individual)
Data science educator Youssef Hosni announced a limited‑time 50% discount on his To Data & Beyond newsletter, an eight‑book collection, and a five‑course crash‑course bundle. The promotion reduces the subscription to half price for a year and cuts the book...
A Message From The TV Answer Man
Phillip Swann announced that TVAnswerMan.com will stop its daily TV‑industry coverage effective immediately, ending a 25‑year run that began with TVPredictions.com in 2001 and continued with TVAnswerMan.com since 2017. The decision follows Google’s 2023 search algorithm changes that prioritize large...
I Asked ChatGPT to Find Me a Free Movie and Didn't Expect This
Tubi, the ad‑supported free streaming service, has launched a native ChatGPT app that lets users search its catalog of over 300,000 titles using natural‑language prompts. After connecting the Tubi app within ChatGPT, users can ask for movies or shows by...
Online Personalities and Comedians Overtake TV and Newspapers as Primary News Sources
A March Ipsos poll shows 70% of Americans get news online each week, eclipsing TV (55%) and newspapers (25%). Online personalities and comedians—especially Joe Rogan, Greg Gutfeld, Sean Hannity, and late‑night hosts—rank as the top news influencers, with conservative figures...
The DOJ Is Launching An Investigation Of MLB’s Streaming Deals For Anti-Competitive Tactics That Harm Viewers
The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an antitrust investigation into Major League Baseball’s streaming rights, extending a broader probe of professional‑sports media deals. Regulators are examining how MLB packages national and local digital broadcasts, which often require fans to...
Doomsday Prepping for the A.I. Media Apocalypse
The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that the company’s models can replicate proprietary content such as NYT Cooking. At a recent Human Ventures event, executives debated a scenario where AI bots dominate web traffic, delivering news summaries...
You Don’t Need Another Tactic to Find Your First 100 Customers
The post argues that founders chasing dozens of growth tactics dilute their efforts and miss the data needed to acquire their first 100 customers. By committing to a single primary channel—such as Substack—and defining a clear "North Star" outcome for...
Hollywood Fears Retaliation After Anti‑Paramount Letter
"The worry is that this letter, and people who signed it, end up becoming Larry Ellison’s blacklist." Brian Lowry's latest column for @get_status is about Hollywood's growing concerns with Paramount WBD deal—and how major figures are speaking out, even though they...
Wednesday TV Ratings: MasterChef, Scrubs, Survivor, Chicago Med, Police 24/7
On Wednesday, April 15, 2026, major broadcast networks released their final ratings for the night, highlighting new episodes of popular series such as Scrubs, MasterChef, Survivor, and Shark Tank, alongside reruns of the Chicago franchise and Police 24/7. The report notes that...
Not Sure What to Write on Notes? This One Template Gets Me New Subscribers Every Time I Use It.
A Substack writer discovered that the most effective Notes are not polished tips but honest admissions of past mistakes. By analyzing 900+ Notes, he found that stories where he admitted errors consistently drove new subscribers, while advice‑heavy posts garnered only...
MasterChef: Season 16 Ratings (Global Gauntlet!)
Fox has secured MasterChef through season 17, extending the cooking competition’s run despite modest viewership. Season 16 posted a 0.22 Nielsen rating in the coveted 18‑49 demographic and attracted roughly 1.62 million live + same‑day viewers, mirroring season 15’s performance. The series continues to offer a...
Christopher Meloni Bids Farewell to Law & Order’s Elliot Stabler
Christopher Meloni announced his farewell to the iconic Detective Elliot Stabler after NBC confirmed the cancellation of *Law & Order: Organized Crime*. The actor, who first embodied Stabler in the 1999 *SVU* pilot and returned for the spin‑off in 2021,...
Twitch Launches Fast‑track Partner Program for Cross‑platform Creators
Twitch has a new recruitment page that fast-tracks creators to get Twitch Partner. Creators with followings on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, or Snapchat are asked to enter their follower counts and usernames. Twitch will then reach out if you are a...
Casting News: The Last Of Us Casts Sinners Star As Miriam, Dexter Adds Fargo Alum, And More
The Last of Us added Li Jun Li to its Season 3 cast as Miriam, the mother of newly introduced characters Yara and Lev, deepening the series' Seattle‑set revenge arc. Li follows Michelle Mao and Kyriana Kratter, who were announced earlier as Yara and Lev,...
The Six Figure Substack System
In this episode, host Jen explains how consolidating all business tech onto Substack can simplify operations and enable coaches, consultants, and service‑based entrepreneurs—especially women—to reach multiple six‑figure revenues. She contrasts the traditional, fragmented tech stack (email, landing pages, webinars, social...
Spectrum Announces Expanded Carriage Deal with Mid-Atlantic Sports Network
Spectrum and Charter Communications have sealed a multiyear carriage agreement that brings the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) to Spectrum TV in select areas of southeastern Maryland, Virginia and eastern North Carolina. The network launches on channels 335 or 440 and...
Consumers Put A WBD-Paramount Merger On Probation
Warner Bros. Discovery’s pending acquisition of Paramount is set for a shareholder vote on April 23, 2026, marking the most critical stage of a deal that would consolidate film, TV, streaming and news assets. Forrester’s March 2026 Consumer Pulse Survey of 540 U.S....
Suite Studios & Frame.io Drive: Bringing File Streaming to Creative Teams Everywhere
Suite Studios has integrated its cloud‑native file‑streaming technology into Frame.io Drive, the new desktop application from Adobe’s Frame.io. The integration lets users view and edit media directly in macOS Finder or Windows File Explorer without downloading or syncing files. By embedding...
Project Hail Mary Streaming Plans Delayed as IMAX Return Extends Theatrical Run
Amazon MGM announced that the Ryan Gosling‑led sci‑fi film *Project Hail Mary* will stay in theaters longer, adding a limited one‑week IMAX engagement starting this weekend. The studio confirmed the movie will not move to streaming soon, pushing back its...
TFI Friday Unplugged Review – Chris Evans Struggles to Recapture the Spirit of His 90s Chatshow Juggernaut
Chris Evans relaunched his 1990s hit TFI Friday as the low‑budget "TFI: Unplugged," first on YouTube and now on Channel 4 for a six‑episode run at 11 pm on Fridays. The reboot leans heavily on nostalgic guests and vintage music performances but...
Project Hail Mary Won't Be Streaming At Home Anytime Soon (And The Reason Is Solid)
Amazon MGM Studios announced at CinemaCon that the theatrical window for Ryan Gosling’s sci‑fi hit "Project Hail Mary" will be extended, delaying its debut on Prime Video. The film, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, has already earned $518 million...
Netflix Is About to Launch Its Vertical Video Feed
Netflix announced it will roll out a TikTok‑style vertical video feed within its mobile app by the end of the month. The new feed will surface short clips from Netflix originals, movies and its growing slate of video podcasts, offering...
TasteBuds NYC
TasteBuds NYC is a YouTube channel with 2.89 K subscribers that documents a series of episodes where the host samples authentic dishes from individual countries, all within New York City. Season 1 features 20 episodes, each spotlighting a different nation’s cuisine—from Armenia...
257K Views Per Clip
TBPN's 257K views per clip turned their ad business from $5M to $30M in a single year. I dive into what I call "The Clip Economy" in my latest newsletter: bit.ly/ClipEconomy
Check Facebook DM Requests—Legit Messages May Be Hidden
Didja know? Facebook automatically hides DM requests from unknown users, typically marking it all as spam. But it might not be! Here's how to check your DM inbox and make sure legit messages haven't been misdirected... https://t.co/sd5nfp48xa #messenger @facebook @messenger...
SELFmagazine's Closure Ends Frontline COVID-19 Stories
I'm so disheartened to learn that @SELFmagazine is closing. During the pandemic, I found folks on the frontlines to interview about how they were coping with COVID-19 from a nurse anesthetist to a grocery store manager for the What It’s...
Rebuild Your Campaigns for Immediate Performance Boost
So spend yesterday rebuilding a lot of our campaigns and oddly today is popping. Some of the best numbers since last week. If you're still seeing bad performance today as you have all week I suggest trying this in your campaigns.
Lennybot Now Lives Inside Substack, Ready for Queries
New: Lennybot now lives natively within my Substack. Trained on all of my ~350 newsletter posts and ~300 podcast interviews. Check it out, ask it a question: https://t.co/3DzeiuQpl6 You can also text or call him anytime: +1 (877) 537-9455 https://t.co/DT4mtt7gtH
Hollywood Rebounds: Massive Movie Production After Pandemic Slump
I’ve got good news for you guys: Hollywood is making a lot of movies. The pivot is remarkable. It has been at least six years, since the advent of COVID, that declining attendance, a flood of investment in streaming, the erasure...