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.
NITV to Broadcast Farewell and Week Long Tribute for RHODA ROBERTS
National Indigenous Television (NITV) will air a live broadcast of Rhoda Roberts AO’s funeral on March 31, followed by a seven‑night tribute series titled *Rhoda Roberts AO: A Lasting Legacy*. The programming runs from March 31 to April 6 and features documentaries, a one‑woman stage show, the 2024 SBS Elder in Residence Oration, and highlights of the Garma Festival. Each night includes introductions by SBS Director of First Nations, Tanya Denning‑Orman, underscoring Roberts’ impact on theatre, media, and Indigenous advocacy. The collection will remain on SBS On Demand throughout April.
What Is YouTube’s Dominance Doing to Us? We Asked Its C.E.O.
YouTube is now the dominant video platform in the United States, reaching 90% of American teens and two billion daily users, with YouTube TV overtaking many cable operators. CEO Neal Mohan highlighted the platform’s growth, its role as a podcast hub,...
Users Will Pay More to Hide YouTube Shorts
I’m a very happy subscriber to YouTube Premium and I’d pay another $5 a month for the option to never see Shorts in my search results or recommendations
Social Media Bosses Not Serious About Safety, Says MP
A US jury awarded $6 million to a plaintiff who claimed lifelong social‑media addiction, holding Meta and Google liable. Both tech giants intend to appeal the verdict, which underscores the legal risks of engagement‑driven design. Former Meta AI ethics employee Josh...
Series Mania Announces Winners and Reveals Dates for 2027
Series Mania’s 2026 edition in Lille attracted roughly 112,000 attendees, a rise of 4,000 over the previous year, and featured a robust professional Forum with 5,200 industry participants from 75 countries. The event announced the Council of Europe’s first‑ever convention...
Media Association Condemns ‘Violent Assault’ on CNN Crew by Israeli Soldiers
The Foreign Press Association condemned a violent assault by Israeli soldiers on a CNN crew reporting near the Palestinian village of Tayasir in the occupied West Bank. Soldiers pointed rifles at journalists, placed cameraman Cyril Theophilos in a chokehold, and...
As a Court Rules that Social Media Platforms Are Harmful and Addictive, New Bans Are Considered, and VPN Use Is...
A U.S. jury has ruled that Meta and YouTube knowingly created addictive products, marking the first major legal finding of platform liability for mental‑health harm. In the United Kingdom, the House of Lords is pushing a ban on social‑media access...
Returning: The Assembly
Season 3 of the acclaimed factual series "The Assembly" returns to ABC with guests Andy Lee, Claudia Karvan, Jimmy Barnes, Dave Hughes, Jessica Mauboy and Ian Thorpe. The show continues its model of autistic journalism students conducting in‑depth interviews under...
Walton Goggins Was Nearly Fired From The Shield After Just One Episode
Walton Goggins was nearly dismissed from FX's crime drama *The Shield* after his two‑line appearance in the pilot, as executives questioned the show's risky premise. Creator Shawn Ryan intervened, writing the second episode to center on Goggins’ character Shane Vendrell,...
Clayton Kershaw’s Next NBC Appearance Won’t Come Until August
Former Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw made his NBC broadcasting debut on Opening Day, providing live pitcher analysis alongside Adam Ottavino. He announced his next on‑air appearance won’t occur until August, as he also assumes a fluid special‑assistant role...
UGC Job Ads Demand Endless Hustle, Low Pay
This is my impression of every UGC creator job posting. — We want someone: - funny 😜 - unhinged 👹 - willing to be poorly compensated 💸 - CHRONICALLY online 🤓💻 - hot 🔥😍 - post 50 videos / mo 📈 - viral af💥 This job...
All 5 Seasons of Vampire Series & Every TV Show Leaving Netflix in April
Netflix will remove a slate of TV titles in April 2026, including both original series and licensed shows. Notable exits include the full five‑season run of the vampire drama Van Helsing, the four‑season historical adventure Black Sails, and later‑season episodes...
Finland Gives Away Free Lake District Getaway to Six Pairs of Travelers
Finland’s official tourism board has launched a contest that will award six pairs of non‑Finnish travelers an all‑expenses‑paid seven‑day vacation in the country’s Lakeland region. Applications close on March 29, 2026, and winners will be announced on April 21, 2026.
We Lost the Quiet Lives Before News Became Entertainment
These young women have always existed, and they’re usually pretty happy and normal. Hard to remember this, but there used to be a time where politics and the news cycle wasn’t central to the daily experience. People subscribed to the...
Rebecca Adlington's Post‑birth Manicure Fuels Viral Mum‑guilt Backlash
Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington posted an Instagram story about treating herself to a manicure after giving birth to her third child, Thea Joy. A social‑media user slammed her, saying “kids should always come first,” prompting Adlington to confront the criticism...
Slayyyter Drops ‘Wor$t Girl In America’, Signaling Breakthrough for Indie‑Pop Star
Slayyyter released her third studio album, Wor$t Girl In America, on March 27, 2026, via Columbia Records. The record pushed her Spotify monthly listeners past 2.3 million and is backed by a 30‑date North American and European tour, positioning her for...
Mainland Digital Books Pull Young Crowds at Taipei Book Fair
The Simplified Chinese Books Pavilion at the 2026 Taipei International Book Exhibition showcased nearly 8,000 titles, with mainland digital literature drawing the biggest gatherings of young visitors. Organizers say the trend reflects a growing appetite for online‑originated stories among Taiwanese...
MLB Faces Fan and Lawmaker Backlash as 2026 Games Shift to Streaming Platforms
Major League Baseball announced that select 2026 regular‑season games will be streamed on platforms such as Netflix, prompting angry reactions from fans and scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers. The league launched Opening Day amid the uproar, with on‑field action offering a...
NBCUniversal CMO Jenny Storms Presents Brand Vision at Newsweek Women’s Global Impact Forum
NBCUniversal TV & Streaming chief marketing officer Jenny Storms outlined her brand strategy at the Newsweek Women’s Global Impact Forum. Specific initiatives and metrics were not disclosed in the available sources.
Walmart Makes Walmart.com Login Required on New Vizio Smart TVs
Walmart is mandating that owners of its newly released Vizio smart TVs sign in with a Walmart.com account to access streaming apps. The policy follows Walmart’s 2024 $2.3 billion purchase of Vizio and is designed to fuse TV viewing with shoppable...
DVB-I Gathers Global Momentum
Momentum is building for the DVB‑I open specification as New Zealand, Ireland and Germany announce concrete steps toward deployment. Freeview New Zealand aims for a nationwide DVB‑I launch in 2026, positioning the standard as the future of free‑to‑air TV. RTÉ in Ireland...
I've Been Sleeping on Tubi — the Best Horror Movie There Cost Nothing and It's Legitimately Great
Tubi’s free streaming catalog now includes the 2024 horror film *Lowlifes*, which critics praise for its clever blend of classic slasher tropes and modern class commentary. Directed by Tesh Guttikonda and Mitch Oliver, the 90‑minute indie production delivers theatrical‑level gore...
Lion Forge Entertainment Announces Premiere Date for Second "Iyanu" Animated Movie
Lion Forge Entertainment announced that its second Iyanu feature, Iyanu: The War of Twin Princes, will debut on Cartoon Network on July 11, 2026, with a streaming release on HBO Max the following day. The animated prequel expands the Nigerian‑inspired...
Prime Video's 2-Part Sci-Fi Western Series Is One of the Best on Any Streaming Platform
Prime Video’s two‑part series *Outer Range* merges neo‑Western storytelling with sci‑fi elements, delivering a time‑travel mystery across 15 episodes. Starring Josh Brolin, Lili Taylor, and Lewis Pullman, the show follows the Abbott family as they confront a black‑hole‑like anomaly and a...
An American Influencer Has Achieved the Impossible By Uniting Europe in Defense of Ryanair After Viral Video Backfires
Boston‑based influencer Joleen Weiss posted a two‑minute TikTok after Ryanair staff in Porto removed her from a flight, claiming she missed check‑in and insulted gate agents. The video quickly hit 1.4 million views, prompting a wave of European users defending Ryanair’s...
Why Can’t TikTok Identify AI Generated Ads when I Can?
TikTok requires advertisers to label content that is significantly altered by AI, yet enforcement appears uneven. Samsung’s AI‑generated Galaxy S26 Ultra ads are disclosed on YouTube but lack any AI label on TikTok, suggesting a gap in the platform’s verification...
Publishing Paths Vary: No One Method Is Superior
Why is everyone constantly pitting traditional publishing and self-publishing against each other? One is not objectively better than the other – everyone’s path is different and each author’s experience is their own. You’re never going to get a satisfactory answer...
What You Need To Know About Streaming UFC Fight Night: Adesanya Vs. Pyfer On March 28
UFC Fight Night heads to Seattle on March 28, 2026, featuring a middle‑weight showdown between former champion Israel Adesanya and rising contender Joe Pyfer at Climate Pledge Arena. Adesanya looks to halt a three‑fight skid, while Pyfer aims to cement...
FCC Chair Warns NFL Could Lose Antitrust Exemption if Games Shift to Streaming Paywalls
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told the New York Post that the NFL could lose its long‑standing antitrust exemption under the 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act if the league pushes an increasing share of live games onto subscription streaming platforms. The warning...
Judge Pauses $6.2B Nexstar‑Tegna Merger Over Antitrust Challenge
U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley ordered a temporary halt to Nexstar Media Group's $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna Inc., citing antitrust objections raised by DirecTV and several state attorneys general. The pause gives regulators time to assess whether the combined...
How ‘Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette’ Built Its Viral, ’90s-Driven Soundtrack
FX’s anthology *Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette* has turned its 1990s‑driven soundtrack into a cultural phenomenon, dominating social feeds and Billboard’s Top TV Songs chart. Music supervisor Jen Malone built a period‑accurate playlist, securing iconic tracks...
Mehdi Goes Head-to-Head With ‘Professor’ Jiang, the Internet Sensation
In this episode, host Mehdi interviews Chinese‑Canadian self‑styled "Professor" Jiang, who rose to fame for his 2024 geopolitical predictions using game theory. Jiang explains his framework—treating nations as players in a zero‑sum game—and applies it to the U.S.–Iran conflict, arguing...
OpenAI Launches AI‑Powered Ads in Free ChatGPT App for U.S. Users
OpenAI has started showing advertising in its free ChatGPT mobile app for U.S. users, marking the company’s first direct‑to‑consumer ad model. The move opens a new channel for digital marketers while raising questions about ad relevance, data use and user...
Peter Alexander Shines Sparring with White House Leadership
Few TV journalists are as good as @peteralexandertv . Loved watching him spar with White House leadership
YouTube CEO Vows to Curb AI Slop While Empowering Creators
YouTube's CEO about AI slop on the platform in a NYT video interview: Q: You’ve declared war on A.I. slop. But you are also handing creators tools to use A.I. How do you distinguish between a creative A.I....
Apple Music Has Never Been This Far Ahead of Spotify
Apple Music’s iOS 26.4 update introduces Playlist Playground, Concerts, and a full‑screen themed UI, closing the discovery gap with Spotify. The service now delivers Hi‑Res lossless (24‑bit/192 kHz) and Dolby Atmos audio, while Spotify’s lossless tops out at 24‑bit/44.1 kHz and lacks spatial...
Google Spurned VCG for Complexity and Higher Bids
Google initially rejected the VCG auction design in 2002 because (1) it would be harder for advertisers to understand than GSP and (2) it would likely require them to increase their bids, since it incentivizes truthful bidding. https://t.co/jgf9YOpSZ0
Abby’s Debuts as First Outdoor Multi‑Camera Sitcom
📺 March 28, 2019: “Abby’s” premiered on NBC. The sitcom about an unlicensed backyard bar where those in its neighborhood hung out starred Natalie Morales and Neil Flynn. “Abby’s” is TV’s first multi-camera comedy series to be shot entirely outdoors, wi…...
Empty Station Strategy Solves Rotation Design’s Biggest Challenge
The Empty Station Strategy: Solving the Biggest Challenge in Station Rotation Design 🎧 Now on The Balance. Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/tkEPxrcYSn Spotify: https://t.co/qoU0wMcKLX
New Censorship Laws Will Amplify Surveillance and Big‑tech Dominance
Exactly what she said, and the tech landscape is about to get a billion times worse as we enact mass surveillance and censorship laws that crush competition and allow big tech to consolidate even more power under the guise of...
AI Video, TTS, and Autoresearch Threaten Social Apps
The biggest threat to today’s social media apps is an incredible video model + TTS + autoresearch
Stop Judging My Screen Time; I’m Overloaded
Can everyone who complains about my “screen time” please start writing my newsletter, filing my freelance stories, editing my videos and podcast episodes, responding to thousands of email and doing my dozens of meetings every week bc I am burned...
FCC Chair Turns Partisan, Threatening Democratic Media Freedom
The FCC Chair is at a partisan conference cheering journalists critical of the administration getting fired and allies buying news networks. The FCC should never be an arm of any political party. That’s how democracy dies.
Lost's Spider Bite Twist: Mistaken Death Leads to Live Burial
📺 March 28, 2007: On ABC’s “Lost”, Nikki (Kiele Sanchez) and Paulo (Rodrigo Santoro) were both paralyzed by venomous spider bites but were later mistaken to be deceased and thus buried alive by Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Hurley (Jorge Garcia). The...
Social Media Addiction Lawsuit Masks Censorship Agenda
Kat Tenbarge and I discuss the “social media addiction” lawsuit and why the verdict is absolutely not about “holding big tech accountable”, and how media addiction claims are being used to censor annual LGBTQ ppl, immigrants, and all of us....
Seven Scientific Proofs Social Media Harms Users
If you come across someone asserting there is "no scientific evidence" that social media is causing harm, please send them this link. We lay out seven lines of evidence, including RCTs, natural experiments, and testimony from victims &...
Video Ads Out‑earn Print, Thanks to Google’s Monopoly
NYT is a subscription business so it's a much more complex calculus but for every other media company operating on the open web video CPMs blow written CPMs out of the water in part because Google's monopoly on programmatic ads
AI Tends to Deliver Moderate Content, Unlike Extreme Social Media
While social media shows you extreme content, AI is more likely to show people more moderate content This means the technology, on average, could have very different effects on polarization. https://t.co/2MrrG5To8R https://t.co/7xE2wOX8t5
Google Experiments with Whiteboard Animation in NotebookLM
Using NotebookLM? -> Google tests Whiteboard Animation format in NotebookLM (and a new "Short" format) "A standalone whiteboard animation format would likely produce an entirely different video structure, mimicking the hand-drawn, progressively illustrated style that made the RSA Animate series...
Paywalls Feel Ridiculous: Business Insider’s Subscriber Spiral Exposed
Every time I hit the paywall at Business Insider or Forbes, I have to giggle: Seriously? Business Insider’s Subscriber Spiral https://t.co/VJIwbX6r8m