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.
TV for Dogs Booms but Are They Watching?
Dog‑focused streaming services have multiplied, with creators like Luca Carano’s Siesta Dog TV delivering multi‑hour cartoons in blue‑rich hues that appeal to canine vision. Channels such as Four Paws TV, Puppy Dreamscape and DogTV use AI and hand‑drawn animation to produce calming or stimulating footage for pets left alone. Scientific studies show mixed results on dogs’ actual viewing attention, while owners report reduced anxiety and perceived enrichment. The niche is turning into a monetizable market, blending entertainment, therapy and pet‑owner convenience.
TNT Sports, DAZN Launch US Boxing Partnership
TNT Sports and DAZN have formed a U.S.-only partnership to launch a monthly boxing series called "The Fight," debuting on July 4. The collaboration brings together top promoters such as Top Rank, Matchroom Boxing, Golden Boy and Queensberry, delivering marquee bouts...
Fastly, LaLiga Collaborate on Anti-Piracy Innovation
Fastly and Spain’s LaLiga have launched a joint anti‑piracy project that uses AI‑driven edge detection to spot illegal live‑stream copies in real time. LaLiga estimates piracy costs its clubs $700‑$800 million annually, and the partnership aims to shrink that loss by...
John Ourand: FCC Pressure, Lack of Bidding Market Could Hurt NFL’s Leverage in Media Deal Renegotiations
The NFL is renegotiating its broadcast contracts ahead of the 2026 season, eyeing a roughly 50% revenue increase from a new deal with CBS. John Ourand warns that the league’s leverage is eroding because there are no fresh bidders for...
Ratings: One Piece Hits New High In Season 2, Virgin River Returns Strong
Netflix’s live‑action adaptation “One Piece” surged to a new series high in its second season, delivering 1.62 billion minutes of viewing and ranking No. 2 on Nielsen’s overall streaming chart for the week of March 9‑15. “Virgin River” held strong at No. 3 with...
US Judge Orders Pentagon to Restore Press Access to Credentialled Reporters
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ordered the Pentagon to immediately restore credentials for credentialed reporters after the defense department introduced an interim policy that appeared to sidestep his earlier injunction. The judge described the Pentagon’s actions as a blatant attempt...
Glen Powell's Hollywood Speedrun Now Includes a New Show with Citadel's David Weil
Actor Glen Powell has signed on as an executive producer for Prime Video’s new drama *Calamities*, created by David Weil, the mind behind *Hunters* and the flagship series *Citadel*. The show received a direct‑to‑series order and will focus on a...
Can We Ask You Something?
Substack’s premium newsletter "The Vault" is launching a three‑day flash sale, slashing prices by 30 % for both monthly and annual subscriptions. The service promises daily exclusive coverage of Hollywood gossip, royal affairs, unfiltered court documents, and real‑time true‑crime reporting. Subscribers...
“Catturd” Gets More X Engagement than the New York Times
A pseudonymous right‑wing account called Catturd consistently generates higher engagement on X than the New York Times, despite the newspaper’s 53 million‑follower base. Analyst Nate Silver highlighted that Catturd’s posts routinely attract thousands of likes and replies, while NYT tweets often linger at...
Meet Luke Tennie, the Shrinking Star Who Just Joined The Pitt as Dr Crus Henderson
Luke Tennie, the 31‑year‑old star of Apple TV’s comedy‑drama Shrinking, has been cast as Dr Crus Henderson in HBO Max’s Emmy‑winning medical series The Pitt. The new character appears in season 2, episode 13 and works the night shift, a storyline fans have been...
Commentary: Momentum Is Growing Worldwide to Make Social Media Less Addictive
A California jury found Meta and Google liable for designing addictive features, awarding $6 million to a young plaintiff. The verdict focused on infinite scroll and video autoplay, arguing these mechanics prioritize time on platform over user well‑being. Similar feature‑targeted regulations...
Meta Is Pulling Ads that Recruit Plaintiffs Suing Meta
Meta Platforms is removing more than a dozen paid advertisements that law firms used to recruit plaintiffs for social‑media addiction lawsuits. The move follows a California jury verdict that found Meta negligent in fostering compulsive use of its services. Axios...
X Eliminates Thousands of Accounts in New Bot Purge
X’s product team announced a fresh bot purge, suspending roughly 208 accounts per minute. The effort follows an October sweep that removed 1.7 million spam bots and builds on Musk’s 2022 focus after discovering that about one‑third of profiles were automated....
Re‑bundling Long‑form Video to Combat Cheap Short‑form Rise
Re-bundling is picking up speed (although there's a long way to go) as connecting high cost low margin long form video to low cost high margin services is part of the solution...Strategic question is will re-bundling & consolidation be enough...
CMB Names 2026 Award Finalists Ahead of May’s Momentum
Christian Music Broadcasters (CMB) announced the finalists for its 2026 awards, set to be presented at the Momentum ceremony on May 29 in Orlando. Six industry leaders vie for the Industry Achievement Award, while stations from Duluth to Washington, D.C., compete...
Exclusive Excerpt: Top Shelf Releases 'Punk’n Heads' Graphic Novel
Top Shelf Productions has launched “Punk’n Heads,” a new graphic novel by Eisner‑nominated creators Dave Baker and Nicole Goux. The story follows Hannah Lipsky, an art‑school dropout who joins a horror‑punk band and navigates messy relationships in a shared flop...
Amazon to Cut Off Old Kindles in May
Amazon announced it will discontinue cloud support for its first‑generation, second‑generation, and Kindle DX e‑readers after May 20. After that date users cannot purchase, borrow, or download new titles, and any device reset or deregistration will render the hardware inoperable. The...
WhatsApp Partners with Arsenal Football Club
WhatsApp announced a partnership with Arsenal Football Club to deepen fan engagement through an official WhatsApp channel and a new documentary titled “It’s Official.” The collaboration launches the film across WhatsApp, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, while offering exclusive digital experiences...
Why Automation Is Raising the Stakes for Strategy in Digital Advertising
Automation is reshaping digital advertising by moving the primary source of value from campaign execution to strategic decision‑making. Roberta Denuzzo, a veteran strategist with experience at Deloitte, Grupo Globo and Google, argues that while platforms can optimize performance, they cannot set...
I Used Notes Templates Every Single Day for 90 Days. Here’s What the Data Actually Shows.
After struggling with inconsistent subscriber gains, the author analyzed his top‑performing Substack Notes and used Claude AI to extract common structures, creating a personal Notes Writing Playbook of 30+ templates. By writing daily from these templates for 90 days, he...
EFF Quits X as Posts Now Get 3% of What Tweets Once Got
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced it is quitting X after its posts now generate only about 3% of the impressions they once did. In 2018, the nonprofit posted 5‑10 times daily and earned 50‑100 million impressions each month. By 2025,...
EFF Is the Latest Organization to Leave X
The Electronic Frontier Foundation announced it is leaving X after nearly two decades, citing a dramatic drop in post impressions. In 2018, EFF’s tweets generated 50‑100 million monthly impressions, but by 2024 the same volume of posts yields only about 2 million....
Hire Nano Banana 2 and Fire Your Agency
The post showcases how Nano Banana 2, paired with Claude Code and Kling, can turn a single product image into a full‑featured animated microsite in a single day—work that would normally command $15‑20 k from a creative agency. It also demonstrates a static‑ad...
WRNR Adds Fisher, Jimi Haha, and Hootie’s Mark Bryan
Cortona Media’s 93.5 WRNR is bolstering its Saturday schedule by bringing back veteran host Rich Fisher and adding two Maryland music icons, Jimi Haha and Mark Bryan. Fisher, who spent 14 years on the station, returns for Saturday afternoons after WRNR’s 2022...
AI's Real Impact Hides In
One interesting aspect of AI deployment is that for any given industry, the use case that seems really obvious and immediate to outsiders is quite different from one that insiders immediately think of, and often that’s a use case that...
X Brings Back DM Voice Replies
X has reintroduced voice notes to its revamped X Chat messaging platform, allowing users to send audio replies in direct messages. The feature, originally launched in 2020 and removed last year, returns alongside a broader back‑end overhaul that adds optional end‑to‑end...
Meta Removes Ads that Encourage Litigation Against the Company
Meta has removed more than a dozen Facebook and Instagram advertisements placed by U.S. law firms that were recruiting plaintiffs alleging harm from social‑media use as minors. The ads, from firms such as Morgan & Morgan and Sokolove Law, were...
Halle Berry Starred In A Forgotten Who's The Boss? Spin-Off For ABC
In 1989 Halle Berry landed her first major television role when she replaced Vivica A. Fox on ABC’s short‑lived sitcom spin‑off “Living Dolls,” a backdoor pilot of “Who’s the Boss?” The series centered on a modeling school run by Patricia Carlin and featured Berry as Emily, a...
Vegas’s Neon 93.1 Glows with Sammi Tempesta Addition
iHeartMedia Las Vegas revamped Neon 93.1 from classic rock to a Variety Hits format in February and has now bolstered its lineup by appointing UNLV graduate Sammi Tempesta as the afternoon drive host and assistant programming director. Tempesta arrives after a...
Instagram Adds Comment Editing
Instagram announced a new comment‑editing feature that lets users revise their replies within a 15‑minute window. The edit option appears beneath each comment and can be used unlimited times during that period, with an "edited" label shown but no version...
THE HOUSEMAID Author Freida McFadden’s Identity Revealed
The article highlights three major publishing trends: Nigerian Muslim women are circumventing strict censorship by sharing erotica in women‑only WhatsApp groups; bestselling thriller author Freida McFadden’s true identity was uncovered as Dr. Sara Cohen, a brain‑disorder specialist who uses a wig and...
Cord Cutting Today – Roku Expands Instant Resume, Another TV App Shuts Down & YouTube TV Hides a Key Feature
Roku announced it will extend its Instant Resume feature to additional streaming services, letting viewers pick up shows and movies where they left off on Roku TVs and players. Fox is pulling its sports app from Roku, Fire TV, Google...
The Infuriating Hypocrisy of Usha Vance
Usha Vance, the U.S. Second Lady, launched a new podcast titled “Storytime with the Second Lady,” in which celebrity guests read children’s books on a YouTube‑style show. The first three episodes have drawn roughly 6,000 views each and feature no...
Amazon Passes Masters Test During Debut
Amazon’s Prime Video made its live‑sports debut by exclusively streaming the first round of the Masters on Thursday, using CBS’s production crew and talent. The broadcast featured the standard CBS commentary team with Amazon’s branding limited to a logo overlay...
Issa Rae’s Production Company Jumps Into Micro-Dramas. Here’s What to Expect From the Hoorae-TikTok Deal
Issa Rae’s Hoorae Media has teamed with TikTok to launch the micro‑drama series *Screen Time* on the platform’s PineDrama app, marking Rae’s return to short‑form digital storytelling. The partnership includes a slate of additional vertical dramas, positioning TikTok as a...
EFF Turns Into Google Mouthpiece, Loses Credibility
Whatever changes to the algorithm this post is misleading. This refers to specifically to EFF Twitter account. What has happened is the Electronic Frontier Foundation isn’t popular anymore because it clearly became a mouthpiece for Silicon Valley specifically Google....
Greece Raises Social Media Age Limit to 15
Greece will raise the age for opening social media accounts to 15! Bravo Prime Minister Mitsotakis, for speaking so powerfully about this at the UN in October, and for your leadership today. @kmitsotakis https://t.co/zdvJDR48PD
RAIN Notes: April 9
AdsWizz is hosting a webinar on April 23 titled “Scaling Podcast Advertising: Unlocking Growth with Context and Confidence,” aimed at helping advertisers break through scale ceilings caused by over‑filtering and brand‑safety constraints. The session will cover where scale is lost, episode‑level...
Judge: Pentagon's Press Ban Signals Autocratic Tendencies
The Pentagon violated a federal court order in its press access case against the @nytimes, a judge ruled, admonishing the Trump admin: "Suppression of political speech is the mark of an autocracy, not a democracy," he wrote. https://t.co/cDhR0uFkL4
Bonnie Hunt's “Life with Bonnie” Deserved a Longer Run
As Marc Berman has often said, Bonnie Hunt was more than deserving of a long-running hit sitcom. That’s what makes the brief run of “Life with Bonnie” so disappointing. On this day (April 9) in 2004, the series aired its...
Error-Free Instagram Comments Are Here: Here's How to Edit Yours
Instagram announced a new comment‑editing feature that lets users correct typos or replace emojis within 15 minutes of posting. Users can make unlimited edits during that window, and an "edited" tag appears without showing version history. The tool works on...
NYT Mislabels Israel's Target, Confusing Hezbollah Claim
Another serious headline sin at the NYT. The headline writers does NOT know who Israel is striking. They know Israel SAYS it is striking Hebollah. https://t.co/6mzcLL3VJU https://t.co/tCuatPrXuJ
1985 Sitcom Introduced First Female U.S. President
📺 April 9, 1985: "Hail to the Chief” debuted on ABC. Patty Duke starred as the first female President of the United States in this sitcom created by Susan Harris ("Soap", "The Golden Girls"). Only seven episodes aired. https://t.co/M56tFF5eh1 https://t.co/ntVrhfsUUh
BET President Louis Carr Prioritizes Black Culture, Revives Soul Train
“I educate people on Black culture, Black lifestyle, and the influence it has on our broader community,” Louis Carr, the new President of BET tells me. He joined me to talk the business of BET, why 106 & Sports failed,...
Judge Says Pentagon Defying Court Order on Press Access
Just in: Blow to DoD/press access:April 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge in Washington ruled on Thursday that the Pentagon is hampering journalists in defiance of a court order that required it to restore access to credentialed reporters covering the...
OpenAI CGO and TBPN President Discuss Future Collaboration
🎙️Tomorrow on The Grill Room: A special OpenAI-TBPN deal omnibus featuring back-to-back conversations with: * OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer @chrislehane * TBPN President @DylanAbruscato Follow here: https://t.co/OUrgd2dr7a @PuckNews https://t.co/LNZpsHUAkd
Judge Rules Pentagon Breached Court Order, Voids Interim Policy
Just In: Judge says Pentagon violated court order in N.Y. Times case over press access, strikes down "interim policy." https://t.co/dKcohBzxRs
Social Sanctioning Engine Stalls; Scandals Lose Impact
It's incredible the extent to which the social sanctioning engine has simply seized up. Hit pieces that would have been 5-alarm fires 5 years ago now come and go with no notice. Nobody cares, it's over.
DOJ Probe Unlikely to Directly Alter NFL Streaming
Will the Justice Department's investigation into the NFL lead to major changes in how we watch and stream NFL games? I'm skeptical. It's possible there will be changes, but I think they would come about via courts or market effects. My @Sportico...
Thai Randolph Launches NILE & Co., Acquires BuzzFeed
Thai Randolph Launches NILE & Co., Creator-Driven Media Company That Has Acquired BuzzFeed’s As/Is and Goodful Brands https://t.co/XyY5sffSyU via @variety