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.
Streaming Platforms Revive YA Boom, Driving 1.2 Billion Views in 2025
Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video have turned young‑adult adaptations into a revenue engine, logging more than 1.2 billion global views in 2025. Executives say the surge reflects audience demand for authentic, diverse storytelling and a shift in licensing models that favor binge‑ready series over traditional broadcast.
Ozen.fm Names Bruno Pinheiro Network Manager to Accelerate Podcast Growth Across Latin America
Ozen.fm announced the appointment of Bruno Pinheiro as Network Manager to accelerate podcast growth across Latin America. Pinheiro will oversee a network of roughly 100 Brazilian shows and expand the slate to Portuguese‑ and Spanish‑speaking audiences. His background in advertising,...
OpenX Rebrands as 'The Intelligent SSP' To Simplify Programmatic Ads
OpenX announced it will operate under the name The Intelligent SSP, unveiling a new product suite—OpenXSelect, OpenXBuild, OpenXControl and OpenXExchange—to make programmatic buying more transparent and easier to use. CEO Matt Sattel said the move tackles a decade of industry...
Can An AI Solution Fix Misaligned Marketing Orgs?
Opal unveiled Gem, an AI‑driven campaign‑planning tool designed to align fragmented marketing teams and streamline brand‑to‑sub‑brand coordination. The platform leverages natural‑language prompts to generate briefs and media plans, delivering 85‑90% of a campaign’s structure with minimal human tweaking. Early adopters...
#SHOWBIZ: Media Prima Audio Reaches 6.1 Million Weekly Listeners, Strengthens Multi-Platform Dominance
Media Prima Audio (MPA), one of Malaysia’s leading media networks, reported a weekly audience of 6.1 million listeners nationwide, according to the latest Nielsen survey. The figure reflects continued growth across its flagship stations—including Kool FM, Hot FM, Fly FM, and Molek FM—and underscores MPA’s...
Programmatic Live Sports Buying Is Starting To Get Less Complicated
StackAdapt has turned a beta test run during the 2026 Winter Olympics into a generally available programmatic live‑sports buying workflow. The new interface lets advertisers set granular controls for ad frequency, budget pacing, and inventory filters such as league or...
Streaming Wars Threaten NFL’s Sunday Night Broadcast Future
The Varsity * Russini-gate underscores underlying tension between NYT and The Athletic. * NBA ends its season of tanking. Plus, ahead of NFL Kickoff in September, the streaming wolves are circling Sunday Night Football—so media-industry equity research analyst Michael Nathanson stopped by to...
How Liverpool FC Overhauled Its Fan Experience with Wasabi
Liverpool FC launched a cloud‑based digital content platform with Wasabi to streamline video storage, tagging and delivery. The AI‑powered Wasabi AiR solution cut cloud costs by roughly 80% and eliminated over 5,000 hours of manual media management each year. As...
Survey Reveals News Outlets Are Not Seen As 'Trustworthy'
A Magid survey reported that the attribute "trustworthy" now ranks 39th out of 44 emotional descriptors associated with news organizations, highlighting a steep decline in public confidence. Meanwhile, Amazon is in advanced negotiations to acquire satellite telecom firm Globalstar, a...
NAB Show: LiveU to Showcase LU900Q's 'Quantum Leap' In Intelligent Connectivity, Workflows
LiveU unveiled its LU900Q encoding platform at the 2026 NAB Show, positioning it as the company’s first AI‑powered, intelligent production unit. The compact device combines native LiveU IQ, eSIM, 5G modems and a MIMO antenna to deliver 4:2:2 encoding, dual‑camera...
Dollar General, QSIC Partner To Expand Chain's In-Store Audio Network
Dollar General has teamed up with QSIC to roll out an AI‑driven in‑store audio network across roughly 6,000 stores, doubling its reach to 12,000 locations by the second quarter of 2026. The QSIC platform will generate curated music playlists and...
1,000+ Hollywood Insiders Write Letter Opposing Paramount/Warner Bros Merger
More than 1,000 leading Hollywood professionals, including Glenn Close and Denis Villeneuve, have signed an open letter condemning the proposed $111 billion merger of Larry Ellison’s Paramount/CBS with Warner Bros. Discovery. The signatories argue the deal would shrink the U.S. studio...
IAB Introduces Actionable Industry Guidelines as Commerce Media Enters AI-Fueled Performance Era
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) unveiled a new industry guide, “Building a Competitive Commerce Media Ecosystem,” at its Connected Commerce Summit. The document offers strategic recommendations for commerce‑media networks to transition from rapid expansion to AI‑driven, performance‑focused operations. It defines...
Affiliate Earns a Seat at the Table: Meytal Markman Talks Innovation, Brand Safety and Micro-Influencers
Meytal Markman, VP of Product Management at Rakuten Advertising, told DealMaker that brands are now blending creator‑driven content with affiliate programs to reach niche audiences at scale. She highlighted the surge of micro‑influencers and closed‑user groups, which deliver higher trust...
Introducing WYouth, a New Publication From W for the Next Generation
W Magazine is launching WYouth, a teen‑focused print publication that taps into Gen Z’s preference for tangible media. The biannual, half‑size magazine will debut in September 2026, drawing on W’s archives while delivering contemporary style, beauty, and fashion history. Creative...
AI-Driven Media Quality Signals Move Into Campaign Activation
Basis and Protected by Mediaocean have launched a direct integration that embeds AI‑driven verification, attention, and quality signals into the Basis campaign activation platform. The partnership replaces static, post‑campaign checks with real‑time, pre‑bid intelligence that continuously adapts to performance data....
How the Shift From Audiences to Fans Drives Media Value
Deloitte’s Digital Media Trends report finds that roughly 80% of U.S. adults consider themselves fans, spending about an hour more daily on media than non‑fans and subscribing to more services. Fans, especially younger ones, chase content across social, podcasts, games...
GoWit & Numatec Forge Retail Media Partnership in Spain and Italy
GoWit announced a strategic partnership with Numatec to roll out its AI‑driven retail‑media platform across Spain and Italy, leveraging Numatec’s local martech network. The deal targets the fast‑growing European retail‑media market, projected to reach €31 bn (≈$33 bn) by 2028, with Spain...
Titan OS Positions Smart TV Homepage as Key Growth Driver
Titan OS announced that the smart TV homepage is becoming a primary growth engine for content discovery and user acquisition. At Stream TV Europe, the company highlighted its high‑impact video banners and discovery tools that drive app installs directly from...
Edit Faster by Planning Before You Press Record
The fastest way to shorten your video editing time has nothing to do with the software you're using. It starts before you hit that record button...
Legacy TV News Must Evolve as Linear Viewership Declines
🎙️ NEW POD: Former NBC News chief Noah Oppenheim returns to The Grill Room to assess the slow fade of linear TV news—and what legacy players like NBC, CBS, and CNN can do to stay relevant. Listen: https://t.co/1eirU7syNu @PuckNews https://t.co/NmK46593Oc
Bundesliga Uses UK as Test Bed for Fragmented, Multi-Platform Rights Strategy
Bundesliga International is testing a fragmented, multi‑platform rights model in the UK and Ireland, combining pay‑TV, free‑to‑air, FAST and pay‑per‑view. The league keeps Sky for premium matches, while BBC iPlayer streams Friday games free, Amazon’s Prime Video offers Sunday matches...
Mediaite Accused of Fabricating Quote, Blames Attribution Error
.@oliverdarcy's Status says that @Mediaite "appeared to outright fabricate" a quote and attribute it to @passantino. Mediaite blames "mistaken attribution." 🤔 https://t.co/C7NVPDLmZl https://t.co/y8KkhxhmeU https://t.co/jTdqSJdbP7
Ad Ops Experience Remains Crucial Amid Growing Automation
Ad ops experience changes how you see everything from metrics to AI. @EricTilbury_RTB , Senior Director of Ad Operations and Product Solutions at @Inuvo shares why hands-on knowledge still matters as automation takes https://t.co/oVLkIGPa4k
Curation Is Changing Programmatic — But Not Always For The Better
Programmatic curation is rapidly gaining traction among mid‑market agencies seeking greater control over inventory, pricing, and performance. While self‑service platforms promise real‑time supply‑path optimization and reduced manual effort, many still operate as opaque black boxes that shift rather than eliminate...
Delayed Nielsen Gauge Confirms the Olympics Were Great for NBCUniversal (and Versant)
Nielsen’s delayed February Gauge data show NBCUniversal and its spin‑off Versant captured 13.1% of all TV usage, overtaking YouTube for the first time. The surge was driven by the Super Bowl and the 2026 Winter Olympics, which lifted NBCU’s share...
As In Days Of Old, TV Took Us To The Moon And Back
NASA’s Artemis II mission completed a ten‑day crewed lunar flyby, marking the first time humans have traveled beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo era. The crew orbited the Moon, captured striking images of Earth and the lunar surface, and returned...
Ad Quality Is a Monetisation Problem: What Publishers Need to Do Now
The article frames ad quality as a core monetisation issue, noting that deceptive or disruptive ads erode user experience and revenue. AppHarbr has launched the In‑App Network Ad Quality Index, a quarterly benchmark that analyzes billions of impressions to rank...
Dhar Mann Kicks Off Social Media Week With $1,000 Old Navy Giveaway
Creator Dhar Mann launched ADWEEK’s Social Media Week by reviving his Old Navy partnership, giving away a $1,000 gift certificate. The giveaway builds on a previous campaign where participants guessed whether outfits were Old Navy or designer, reinforcing the brand’s...
Ocean World Builds Market Reputation Through a Year-Long Brand Positioning
SV Digital spent a year reshaping Ocean World’s portfolio of nine yacht brands, creating a unified brand architecture and digital presence. Five previously unbranded sub‑brands received full naming, logos, and e‑commerce sites, while the agency produced a 171‑piece content library...
European Originals Thrive on Authenticity as Dubbing, AI and Co-Productions Reshape Market
European broadcasters are piloting AI‑powered dubbing to broaden reach while preserving the authenticity that drives global appeal. Sky Entertainment tested AI dubbing with lip‑sync adjustments on Italian dramas, offering viewers a choice between subtitles and dubbed versions. Industry leaders warned...
The $500 Billion Blind Spot
S&P Global’s latest sports media rights report shows a $67.34 billion market in 2026, but that figure represents only a fraction of the broader sports economy, which exceeds $500 billion. The traditional rights model is heavily concentrated, with the NFL, NBA and...
Telegraph Takeover by German Buyer Cleared by Culture Secretary
The UK culture secretary has cleared Axel Springer’s £575 million (≈ $735 million) takeover of the Telegraph, ending nearly three years of ownership uncertainty. The deal still requires regulatory sign‑off in Ireland and Austria but is slated for completion by the end of June....
![[Industry News] ESL FACEIT Group and KICK Announce Strategic Global Partnership to Accelerate Esports Growth and Audience Expansion](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://mcvuk.com/wp-content/uploads/kick.png)
[Industry News] ESL FACEIT Group and KICK Announce Strategic Global Partnership to Accelerate Esports Growth and Audience Expansion
ESL FACEIT Group announced a strategic partnership with livestreaming platform KICK to broaden its distribution beyond traditional broadcasters. The deal will stream all major English‑language Counter‑Strike and Dota 2 events, including IEM, ESL One and the ESL Pro League, on KICK’s...
The Netflix English Series Hits and Misses of 2026 So Far
Netflix’s English‑language slate in Q1 2026 delivered a mixed bag, with Bridgerton Season 4 topping the chart at 73.5 million views across 92 countries and the limited series HIS and HERS pulling 59.2 million views. Reliable returners such as ONE PIECE Season 2, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Night...
Indian Football League 2025–26 to Be Broadcast on Sony Sports Network
Sony Pictures Networks India has secured both television and digital broadcast rights for the Indian Football League’s 2025‑26 season. The deal expands Sony’s football portfolio, which already includes the Indian Super League, UEFA competitions, the Bundesliga and the FA Cup....
Applications Open for European Journalist Retreat on Trauma, Resilience and Ethical Reporting
The Global Center for Journalism and Trauma, together with iMEdD's Ideas Zone, announced a four‑day retreat for European journalists in Vamvakou, Greece, from 14‑18 October 2026. The fully funded fellowship targets reporters, editors, photographers and multimedia journalists covering conflict, migration,...
Kesha Wins Australian Idol 2026
Kesha Oayda, a 21‑year‑old singer from Jindabyne, captured the Australian Idol 2026 crown, becoming the first female winner since 2007. She edged out competitors Harlan Goode and Kalani Artis in a finale praised for its youthful vocal talent. The victory...
HuffPost UK Integrates Taboola's DeeperDive AI
HuffPost UK has integrated Taboola’s generative AI answer engine, DeeperDive, directly into its website to boost reader engagement and diversify revenue. The tool lets users pose questions and receive answers drawn from HuffPost’s own reporting, while also suggesting related queries...
YouTube Turned Coachella Into a Mass Event - Now the Market Needs to Catch Up
YouTube has turned the Coachella music festival into a near‑real‑time, mass‑viewing experience, reaching roughly 200 million concurrent viewers and targeting half a billion in the coming years. Despite this scale, advertisers still allocate far less budget to YouTube than to traditional...
Decoding Subscriber Loyalty: A Publisher’s Honest Guide to Retention That Lasts
Aimie Rigas, Director of Audience Growth at Nine Publishing, argues that true subscriber loyalty stems from habit formation, high‑quality journalism, and strategic pricing rather than sheer traffic or personalization. She highlights that weekly engagement habits—especially through newsletters—are the strongest predictor...
Analyst Report: Applovin Corp
AppLovin Corp received a new BUY rating as Argus launched coverage, with senior analyst Joseph F. Bonner highlighting the firm’s mobile advertising platform. The company’s core real‑time ad auction helps game developers, publishers, and advertisers monetize global audiences. AppLovin went...
Communiqué 113: Masobe Books’ Bet on Digital Subscriptions to Save Nigeria’s Reading Culture
Masobe Books, a Lagos‑based publisher, captured the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature ($100,000) with Oyin Olugbile’s novel “Sanya” and had five of the eleven long‑listed titles, underscoring its influence in the local literary scene. Yet sales fell from roughly 60,000...
The Clip Economy
OpenAI reportedly paid roughly $200 million to acquire the tech‑talk podcast TBPN, a deal driven by the massive reach of its short‑form clips rather than its live audience. TBPN’s one‑minute snippets average 257,000 views—about 37 times the full episode’s audience—and generated...
Can You Spot a Fake Political Ad? AI Is Making It Harder.
An AI-generated video depicting Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico was released by the National Republican Senatorial Committee as a political ad, labeling it as synthetic. The clip illustrates a growing trend of deepfake campaign ads that can convincingly mimic candidates’...
Whoopi Goldberg Launches WhoopInk Imprint with Blackstone Publishing
Whoopi Goldberg announced the launch of WhoopInk, a new imprint under Blackstone Publishing, on April 13, 2026. The imprint will focus on publishing works by Black authors and other under‑represented creators, signaling a high‑profile push for greater diversity in the...
Roku Adds 22 New Free Ad‑supported Channels, Expanding FAST Lineup to over 500
Roku has rolled out 22 new free ad‑supported streaming TV (FAST) channels on the Roku Channel, bringing its total to more than 500. The addition includes classic series, niche sports, and multilingual options, underscoring the rapid growth of FAST services...
FTC Negotiates Settlement with Major Ad Agencies Over X Boycott
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is finalizing a settlement with top advertising firms—including Publicis Groupe, WPP and Dentsu—over alleged coordinated boycotts of Elon Musk's platform X. The deal would prohibit agencies from directing spend away from media outlets for political...
Media Smart and AA Roll Out Pre-Local Elections Revamp of Political Ads Awareness Drive
Media Smart and the Advertising Association have launched a revamped political‑advertising awareness drive ahead of the UK’s local elections. The partnership focuses on first‑time voters, offering a free digital toolkit, webinars and school‑based workshops to demystify ad sponsorship rules. By...
Trump Deletes AI Image of Himself as Jesus After Religious Backlash
President Donald Trump removed an AI-generated image on Truth Social that many saw as portraying him as Jesus, after swift condemnation from evangelical and Catholic leaders. Trump insisted the picture was intended to show him as a doctor, not a...