Today's Media Pulse
Online video subscriptions top 2.2 bn, revenue hits $176B
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 for the first time as pay‑TV revenue fell to $170 billion. Growth is expected to slow to single‑digit rates in 2026, prompting operators to focus on monetising existing users.
"Extraordinary" Belfast-Set Drama with Line of Duty's Adrian Dunbar Is Now Streaming on the BBC
Good Vibrations, the 2013 biopic about Belfast punk pioneer Terri Hooley, is now streaming on BBC iPlayer for 28 days. The film stars Line of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar, Doctor Who alum Jodie Whittaker, and Richard Dormer as Hooley, and chronicles the city’s 1970s music rebellion. Directed by Lisa Barros D’Sá and Glenn Leyburn, it received a 95 % Rotten Tomatoes rating from 37 critics. The release follows the buzz around Line of Duty’s upcoming seventh series, offering fans fresh content while highlighting Belfast’s cultural legacy.
New Research Finds Earned Media Accounts for 25% of All Large Language Model Citations
Muck Rack’s Generative Pulse report reveals that earned media accounts for roughly 25% of all citations generated by large language models, while non‑paid sources represent about 94% of AI‑cited links. Press‑release citations grew fivefold between July and December 2025, rising...
BTS’s ‘Swim’ and ‘Arirang’ Dominate Billboard Global Charts After Four‑Year Hiatus
South Korean septet BTS returned from a four‑year hiatus with the album Arirang, moving 532,000 physical copies and 641,000 equivalent album units in its first week. The lead single “Swim” entered the Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. at No. 1,...
Cuentas, Launches World Mobile Media Group, a Next-Generation Decentralized Media Platform Integrating Content, Connectivity, and Creator Ownership
Cuentas’ 51%-owned subsidiary World Mobile Media Group (WMMG) announced the launch of a next‑generation decentralized media platform that combines premium content, live events and creator‑driven programming in a mobile‑first ecosystem. The platform gives creators ownership and a suite of direct‑to‑fan...
"Sesame Street" Arrives on Tubi with 250 Nostalgic Episodes
Tubi, the free streaming arm of Fox Corporation, announced that it will launch 250 episodes of Sesame Street on April 1, 2026. The catalog covers the series from its 1969 premiere through Season 38, with a quarterly refresh that adds roughly 10 %...
CBS Axes 'Watson' And 'DMV' As Network Shifts to Franchise Hits
CBS announced the cancellation of the sophomore drama Watson and freshman sitcom DMV, with finales set for May 3 and May 11. The moves come as the network leans heavily on franchise‑driven hits like Marshals and CIA to shore up...
Bluesky’s Ex‑CEO Jay Graber Launches Attie, an AI‑driven Personalized Feed App
Jay Graber, the former chief executive of Bluesky, has moved into a chief innovation role and released Attie, an agentic app that lets users build personalized social‑media feeds with natural‑language requests. The beta‑stage product, built on Bluesky’s decentralized protocol, signals...
Second Lady Usha Vance Launches Child‑focused Podcast to Boost U.S. Literacy
Usha Vance, the U.S. second lady, debuted her podcast “Storytime with the Second Lady” on March 30, releasing three 10‑15‑minute episodes featuring guests like Danica Patrick and Brent Poppen. The series is positioned as a low‑cost effort to counter falling literacy rates among...
Why Scripps Is All In On Women’s Sports
The E.W. Scripps Company is pivoting to make women’s sports a core part of its portfolio, broadcasting WNBA, NWSL and PWHL games on its ION network and a new FAST channel. Leveraging its local‑TV stations and streaming inventory, Scripps offers...
Why Scripps Is All In On Women’s Sports
The E.W. Scripps Company is pivoting to make women’s sports a core part of its portfolio, broadcasting WNBA, NWSL and PWHL games on its ION network and a new FAST channel. By leveraging its mix of local stations, national cable...
The Spectacle of War and the Struggle to Protest
The article argues that war coverage has become a "spectacle," where short‑form video pundits dominate the narrative, diluting genuine political resistance. Drawing on Guy Debord’s theory, it shows how interchangeable images of conflict desensitize the public and turn protests like...
How Cesar Chavez Abused His Power
The Daily investigates newly revealed allegations that labor icon Cesar Chavez sexually abused women and girls within his farm‑worker movement, featuring New York Times reporters Manny Fernandez and Sarah Hertz. They recount how a tip in 2021 led them to...
YouTube Is Top Media Brand but Sentiment Ceiling Looms
YouTube tops the 2026 Brand Influence Rank, reaching 2.7 billion monthly users and generating over $40 billion in ad spend, making it the world’s most influential media brand. All ten most influential global brands are tech‑led, with AI‑driven ChatGPT entering the list...
Bittersweet Show Hailed 'One of the Best TV Dramas' Is Streaming on Netflix Right Now
The BBC drama "Care," starring Sheridan Smith and Alison Steadman, has been added to Netflix’s streaming library. First aired in 2018, the 90‑minute film follows a single mother caring for her mother after a stroke, exploring dementia and the pressures...
Eloelo Burns Rs 59 Cr on Ads to Generate Rs 69 Cr Revenue in FY25
Eloelo, an Indian social‑entertainment platform, posted FY25 revenue of about Rs 69.5 crore (~$8.4 million), driven entirely by in‑app purchases and a modest Rs 6.3 crore (~$0.8 million) non‑operating income. Advertising and promotions were the biggest expense, rising 46% to Rs 59 crore (~$7.1 million), while creator payouts jumped...
Radio Holds 64% of Registered Voter Share of Ear In Ad-Led Audio
Radio commands 64% of ad‑supported audio time among U.S. registered voters 18+, far outpacing streaming services. Podcasts are the next biggest share at 21%, while ad‑free platforms hold the remaining 47% of daily audio. Over half of voters’ audio consumption...
Video: Biden Administration Censorship Ends With Legal Settlement That Liberals Don't Want to Discuss
A federal court settlement in Missouri v. Biden disclosed that White House officials pressured Facebook to label accurate vaccine information as misinformation. The dispute stemmed from a BMJ investigation on Pfizer’s COVID‑19 trial that was flagged by a Facebook fact‑checker,...
Brand Like a Rock Star: Lessons From Steve Jones
Radio executive Steve Jones argues that stations achieve legendary status by delivering a rock‑star experience, not just a better product. In his book *Brand Like a Rock Star*, he maps music‑industry branding tactics—memorable identity, authentic storytelling, and fan‑centric engagement—to radio,...
Three Headlines, One Message: Radio’s Old Model Is Out of Time
Three major radio companies—Cumulus Media, Beasley Media Group, and Paramount Global—have each taken drastic steps: Cumulus filed a pre‑packaged Chapter 11, Beasley announced a debt refinancing and governance overhaul, and CBS News Radio was shut down after a century of operation....
Media Repeats Questions to Manipulate Public Narrative
A way the media affects the narrative is by asking the same Q again and again. For 6 months Bloomberg was asking "Is there an AI-boble" and eventually the non tech part of the market started to question "ROI on...
Rob Phillips on Combining Comedy and Danger in His Debut Crime Novel
Rob Phillips, a former Dallas Cowboys media writer, has released his debut crime novel, *Stakeouts and Strollers*. The book mixes dark crime scenarios with a steady thread of comedy, drawing on classic detective influences such as Chandler and Parker. Phillips...
How Are Publishers Responding to AI Search? Take Our Survey
Publishers are grappling with the uncertain impact of AI‑driven search on traffic, fearing potential declines as algorithms prioritize AI‑generated results. WAN‑IFRA has launched a global, anonymous survey to capture executive insights on which content formats are most at risk and...
Samsung Ads TotalView Gives Advertisers a New Lens on TV Reach
Samsung Ads has launched TotalView, a unified measurement solution that aggregates linear and streaming ad reach across Samsung’s 70 million European Smart TVs. The platform provides deduplicated audience data for pre‑campaign planning, in‑flight activation, and post‑campaign reporting, eliminating traditional blind spots....
What Bookstores Want From Traditional Publishers—And How the Bookstore Market Has Changed
A recent BISG panel highlighted how BookTok and younger readers are reshaping bookstore traffic, prompting chains like Books‑A‑Million to expand titles in romance, fantasy, and LitRPG. Independent stores such as RJ Julia focus on curated selections, using events and physical galleys...
Ray Media Advisory Wants To Fix Agency-Client Relationships Before They Break
Ray Media Advisory has launched a Partnership Accelerator to proactively safeguard brand‑agency relationships amid industry consolidation and AI‑driven workflow changes. The service, debuting March 31, runs 10‑12‑week sprints that include diagnostics, joint workshops, and a 90‑day accountability framework. It is being...
The Story-Centric Shift: Designing the Multi-Platform Newsroom for the Streaming Era
Newsrooms are transitioning from broadcast‑first pipelines to story‑centric, multi‑platform operations to meet the speed and scale demanded by streaming and social channels. By aligning teams around a single story and leveraging AI‑driven automation, organizations can produce distinct versions for digital,...
Daily Star Became a Hit on MSN by Tailoring Content to Robot Editor
The Daily Star has appointed senior reporter Adam Cailler to work full‑time tailoring its stories for MSN.com, an AI‑driven news aggregator that now ranks as the world’s third‑largest English‑language news site. By reshaping articles to meet MSN’s strict filters—removing adult...
EE Launches AI TV Search Feature
EE has introduced Smart Search, an AI‑driven feature on its EE TV platform that lets users find shows and movies by describing mood, theme, plot or a simple one‑liner. The tool pulls content from live TV, on‑demand libraries and third‑party...
Broadcasters: Live Op IP Shift as Satellite Use Declines
Broadcasters are rapidly replacing satellite transponders and private fiber circuits with IP‑based and cloud‑native workflows, according to a new Caretta Research report co‑produced with Zixi. The transition is driven by C‑band spectrum reallocation in the United States, rising cost pressures,...
‘Another C*** Has Entered the Chat’
Australian morning‑show host Kylie Gillies inadvertently uttered the C‑word on The Morning Show, joining a notorious list of live‑TV slip‑ups. The profanity was broadcast without delay, prompting immediate social‑media chatter and brand‑safety alarms. Media commentator Dr Mumbo highlighted the incident, noting...
PubMatic & Amnet Launch the First Agentic Advertising Campaign in France Using the Claude LLM
PubMatic and trading desk Amnet have launched France’s first Agentic advertising campaign, built on PubMatic’s AgenticOS and the Claude large‑language model, for client Interbev. The video‑focused effort targets cooking enthusiasts and consumers of responsibly sourced French meat, aiming for high...
Five Steps to Creating Value in Local Community News
A new FT Strategies report, produced with the Knight Foundation, outlines five steps for local news outlets to create sustainable value. The guide stresses deep community connection, direct two‑way audience relationships, a balanced revenue mix, mission‑driven governance, and responsible use...
Instagram Tests a Feature to Let You See Your Ex's Stories without a Trace — and It's Going to Cost...
Instagram is piloting a paid subscription that lets users watch Stories anonymously, extending the feature set with audience lists beyond Close Friends and a 24‑hour story extension. The test is live in Mexico, Japan and the Philippines and costs roughly...
The Challenges of Print Magazine Publishing
Print magazine publishing faces a perfect storm of rising costs and shrinking demand. Paper prices have jumped roughly 30% and energy tariffs increase printing and distribution expenses, while distributors often retain more than 50% of the cover price. Digital advertising...
China Influencer Amasses over 1 Million Followers in 2 Weeks by Sharing How to Rent a Home Tips
Chinese influencer Gulumao amassed 1.3 million followers in just two weeks by posting short, practical videos on how to rent a home. His debut tutorial, "Youth Study: How to Rent a Home," garnered over 4.6 million views and quickly went viral on...
EXCLUSIVE: Spotify Debuts Carousel Ads and Branded Playlist Takeovers
Spotify is introducing interactive carousel ads that let brands display up to six swipeable product cards within the Now Playing screen, with Priceline and GNC among early testers. The service also launches branded playlist takeovers on high‑traffic lists such as...
Critics Ignore Fediverse, Push Regulation of Big‑tech Platforms
It's so revealing how the loudest voices ranting/raving about the "harms" of social media spend ZERO time engaging w the Fediverse at all. They want u to think that big tech's model of social media is the only one so...
James Cameron's New NatGeo Doc Offers Double‑Bill Binge
Avatar and Titanic director James Cameron has produced a brand-new NatGeo documentary — and if you're looking for a double bill binge, he's got the perfect recommendation. https://t.co/6IgTbodIK4
CIMM Is Out To Prove That All Media Isn’t Equal
The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) is releasing a paper that challenges the industry’s assumption that all media is interchangeable, especially in the fast‑growing CTV space. It argues that media quality can be objectively measured using probabilistic signals such...
Media Spotlight Skews Toward Middle East, Overlooks Other Regions
There is also a weird thing that the Middle East regularly makes the news but Africa, India, South America largely ignored.
The State of Subscriptions for Marketers – 2026 Edition
The 2026 AppsFlyer subscription report analyzes 1.7 billion paid installs across 2,900 apps, revealing $2.1 billion in user‑acquisition spend. AI has shifted from a feature to core infrastructure, making data quality and rapid action the new competitive edge. Geographic dynamics are changing...
Most Users Remain Clueless About Platform Mechanics and Metrics
A lot of people continue to get on here and reveal they have absolutely zero understanding of how online media platforms work or how metrics are calculated online. It’s illuminating
The 10 Hashtags Driving the Most Beauty Sales on TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop’s beauty category generated more than $670 million in sales over the past year, driven primarily by hashtag‑centric video content. The #skincare hashtag alone accounted for roughly $142 million, making it the top revenue generator. K‑beauty tags such as #Koreanskincare and...
Why The Guardian’s First Reader-Facing AI Product Isn’t a Chatbot
The Guardian has introduced its first reader‑facing AI product, called Storylines, which surfaces AI‑generated narrative clusters on a handful of tag pages. Rather than a chatbot, the tool analyzes the latest 200 headlines per tag to identify three dominant storylines,...
The Trade Desk Shakes up Identity Alliance Payouts, with a New Focus on Incrementality
The Trade Desk is revamping its Identity Alliance compensation, moving from a volume‑based payout to an incrementality‑focused model that rewards unique identity signals. The change, slated for early 2026, includes a temporary revenue guarantee and new APIs to help partners...
Time Pitches GEO Insights Into a New Brand Offering
Time is launching a new GEO product that audits how AI search engines portray brands and sells tailored branded content to correct mismatches. The service leverages tools from TollBit, ScalePost and Mobian to analyze up to 100 prompts across ChatGPT,...
Is HBO’s Neighbors a Prestige Docuseries — or Jerry Springer Redux?
HBO has launched "Neighbors," a docuseries that follows everyday conflicts in American suburbs, mixing observational journalism with heightened drama. The eight‑part series costs roughly $10 million per season and features high‑production values comparable to the network’s prestige titles. Critics are split,...
Why The Guardian’s First Reader-Facing AI Product Isn’t a Chatbot
In this Digiday episode, Chris Moran, Head of Editorial Innovation at The Guardian, explains why the outlet’s first reader‑facing AI tool, called “Storylines,” is not a chatbot but a narrative‑driven related‑content module. He outlines the three guiding principles the Guardian...
Malibu Taps Creator Sabrina Brier for ‘Get Ready With Me’ Campaign to Promote New Pink Spirit
Malibu has introduced Malibu Pink, a rum‑based spirit flavored with guava, coconut and pineapple, and is launching it through a "Get Ready With Malibu Pink" campaign. The brand partnered with comedian‑creator Sabrina Brier to produce #GRWM videos and a stop‑motion...
What Can Advertising Re-Learn From PR?
The article argues that advertising has drifted from its core purpose of forging human connections, turning instead into a product‑centric, technology‑driven machine. In contrast, public relations has preserved the relational, credibility‑focused playbook that brands still need. With 68% of agencies...