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.
Legacy TV and Tech Titans Clash Over Ad Dollars at 2026 Upfronts
NBCUniversal, Fox and Amazon used the 2026 upfronts to pitch sports‑centric inventory, AI‑driven ad tools and performance‑based measurement, each hoping to lock in a larger slice of advertisers’ budgets. Amazon highlighted a $68 billion ad business and live‑sports portfolio, while NBCU leaned on its centennial legacy and Fox showcased AI‑native ad stacks. The showdown underscores how legacy broadcasters and digital platforms are redefining the ad‑sales playbook.
TikTok Go Lets Users Book Hotels and Tours Directly From Travel Videos
TikTok introduced TikTok Go on Tuesday, a feature that turns travel‑inspiration videos into instant hotel and tour bookings. Partnered with Booking.com, Expedia, Viator, GetYourGuide, Tiqets and Trip.com, the move pushes the platform from content to commerce in the hospitality sector.
Saturday TV Ratings 5/9/26: Saturday Night Live Ratings to Come, NBA Playoffs Dominate, All’s Fair in Love & Mahjong Solid...
Saturday night television was dominated by sports, with the NBA playoffs delivering the highest primetime rating of the week. The Thunder‑Lakers matchup on ABC earned a 1.69 rating and 5.86 million viewers, outpacing the NBA tip‑off and all network comedies. NBC’s...
Meta Overtakes Google as World's Top Advertising Seller
Meta has surpassed Google to become the planet’s biggest advertising seller, a shift first noted in a Behind the CMO briefing. The change, unnoticed by many CMOs, signals a potential reallocation of ad budgets toward Meta’s platforms.
Turning Purchase Data Into Outcomes in Mobile Gaming: Unity and Attain’s Partnership
Unity announced a partnership with data‑provider Attain to embed verified, real‑time purchase information into its mobile gaming inventory. Attain’s permissioned data set covers more than 14 million consumers, allowing programmatic buyers to create purchase‑based audience segments. The combined offering lets advertisers...
Disney Upfront: Here’s What Happened At North Javits With Josh D’Amaro, Olivia Rodrigo, Anne Hathaway, Paul Anthony Kelly & NFL...
Disney’s 2026 Upfront at North Javits introduced new CEO Josh D’Amaro, featured a high‑energy opening by the Savannah Bananas and a three‑song performance by Olivia Rodrigo, and showcased a star‑studded mix of film, TV and sports talent. The event announced...
Amazon MGM Studios Names Mandy Schaffer Head Of TV Business Affairs, Craig Muhlrad Head Of Film Business Affairs
Amazon MGM Studios announced two senior appointments: Mandy Schaffer, a 12‑year Netflix veteran, will become Head of Business Affairs for Global TV, and Craig Muhlrad will lead Film Business Affairs. The moves follow Dan Scharf’s exit and accompany a structural...
Disney’s 2026 Upfront Goes All in on Savannah Bananas, Billie Jean King and ‘American Horror Story’
Disney’s 2026 upfront showcased a cross‑platform slate that blends live‑event programming, premium scripted series, and high‑profile talent. The company announced that the Savannah Bananas’ Banana Bowl will stream live on Disney+ in October and highlighted a Billie Jean King 30‑for‑30 documentary on ESPN. Marvel’s...
USA Network's
USA Sports' first-ever WNBA broadcast (Aces vs. Sparks) averaged 529,000 viewers on USA Network, up 18 percent vs. last year’s WNBA regular season cable average viewership. Network said the game had the youngest median age among all national WNBA broadcasts from...
How Video Game High School Turned YouTube Into A Movie Studio
Freddie Wong’s *Video Game High School* (VGHS) proved YouTube could produce cinematic, serialized storytelling with modest budgets. Leveraging the DSLR revolution and accessible editing software, the series delivered high‑production‑value action that rivaled traditional media. Its success helped legitimize creator‑owned studios...
‘Camp Rock 3′ Sets Release Month On Disney+ And Disney Channel
Disney announced that the third installment of the musical franchise *Camp Rock* will debut in August on both Disney+ and Disney Channel. The Jonas Brothers are returning to star and serve as executive producers, while Demi Lovato also joins the production team....
NYT Games Chief On Bringing ‘Wordle’ To NBC & Staying True To The Daily Puzzler – Web Summit
The New York Times Games division is turning its hit puzzle Wordle into a television show for NBC, with Savannah Guthrie slated to host. The show, produced by Universal Television Alternative Studio and Jimmy Fallon’s Electric Hot Dog, will be taped this summer and...
Doc Talk Podcast: Director Alexandria Stapleton On Her Diddy-Damning Emmy Contender ‘Sean Combs: The Reckoning’
Netflix’s four‑part documentary ‘Sean Combs: The Reckoning’ is now an Emmy contender, spotlighting the mogul’s sexual‑misconduct allegations. Directed by Alexandria Stapleton, the series features rare footage captured weeks before Combs’ federal indictment and includes testimony from accuser Joi Dickerson‑Neal. Executive...
Disney, Country Music Association Extend Broadcast & Streaming Deal Through 2032
Disney and the Country Music Association have renewed their broadcast partnership through 2032, adding a six‑year extension that brings the CMA Awards to Disney+ for the first time. The deal expands the existing ABC‑CMA collaboration to include streaming of the...
Disney Cozies Up To NFL At Upfront, Revealing Schedule Details And Super Bowl On-Air Lineup
Disney used its upfront presentation to cement a deeper partnership with the NFL, highlighting the earlier deal that gave ESPN control of NFL Network and a 10% league stake in ESPN. The company unveiled key schedule details, including the season‑opening...
Streaming Ads Overtake TV as Infrastructure and Patience Pay
From today's @WSJ featuring @AntennaData: The TV Ad Market Is Being Taken Over by Streaming Platforms. I wrote about this years ago when the industry was fretting that streaming had reached its cap: advertising revenue trails consumer behavior by 3-5...
KPop Demon Hunters Is Officially Out of Netflix's Top 10 Chart
After a 46‑week run atop Netflix’s U.S. Top 10 movies, Sony Animation’s *KPop Demon Hunters* fell out of the domestic chart this week. The animated feature still holds a No. 5 spot globally, marking a 47‑week streak among English‑language titles worldwide. Its...
FOURTH WING Series Ordered And Michael B. Jordan Is Producing It
Amazon Prime has green‑lit a television adaptation of Rebecca Yarros’s bestselling fantasy, “Fourth Wing,” with Oscar‑winner Michael B. Jordan joining Lisa Joy and Meredith Averill as producers. Development began just five months after the novel’s 2023 release and production is...
The New York Times Got Caught Using AI Hallucinations in Its Reporting
The New York Times published a fabricated quote attributed to Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre after an AI tool generated a summary that was mistakenly presented as a direct statement. A reader on Bluesky flagged the discrepancy, prompting a correction weeks later that...
Netflix Reveals $135B Spend, Launches $325B Impact Site
Netflix announced that it has invested more than $135 billion in film and television production over the past ten years and launched a new website, “The Netflix Effect,” to showcase a $325 billion contribution to the global economy. The data underscores the...
InMobi’s MobileAction Deal Boosts Agentic Commerce And Global Advertising
InMobi announced the acquisition of MobileAction, an AI‑powered app‑marketing platform, to strengthen its agentic commerce offering and expand into the Apple ecosystem. The deal adds MobileAction’s data on millions of creatives, keywords and apps, complementing InMobi’s Glance platform that already...
WPP Appoints Toby Jenner and Philip Heimann as Global Presidents of Client Growth to Steer Elevate28
WPP announced that Toby Jenner and Philip Heimann will serve as Global Presidents of Client Growth, reporting to COO Devika Bulchandani. The appointments are a core element of the Elevate28 transformation, designed to integrate media, creative and data‑AI capabilities for a...
This Media Startup Is Trying to Reach Readers Exhausted by Political Noise
Straight Arrow News, founded by Joe Ricketts and Jonathan Harding, is repositioning itself as a politically unbiased digital news outlet. Chief content officer Derek Mead is steering the company away from high‑volume SEO aggregation toward original reporting, regional storytelling, and...
Brands Can Pre‑Invest in YouTube’s New Creator Shows
Tomorrow at #Brandcast, we’re unveiling our first-ever slate of Creator Shows. YouTubers are the new stars and studios. To ensure @youtube remains the home for their most ambitious projects, we're shifting our model to connect @youtubecreators and brands more directly....
Alec Baldwin, Betty Gilpin and David Costabile Join Oscar Isaac Netflix Drama / Queen Latifah Joins The Voice / Jimmy...
Netflix announced its new Las Vegas‑set drama "The Roman," starring Oscar Isaac alongside Alec Baldwin, Betty Gilpin and David Costabile, signaling a high‑profile push into casino‑world storytelling. ABC reshuffled its 2026 fall lineup, moving the hit crime series "High Potential"...
Italian Transposition of Press Publishers’ Right May Be Compatible with EU Law, Though with Caveats, Says Grand Chamber
The EU Court of Justice’s Grand Chamber ruled that Italy’s implementation of the press publishers’ right under Article 15 of the DSM Directive can be compatible with EU law, provided the rights remain preventive and apply only where information‑society service providers...
If You Thought the US Music Industry Was Concerned About AI, You Should Hear What They’re Saying in China.
Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) warned that AI‑generated, copyright‑infringing tracks are creating "industry chaos" in China’s streaming market. On its Q1 2026 earnings call, TME said rivals such as ByteDance’s Soda Music and NetEase Cloud Music are using AI to bulk‑fill catalogs,...
The European Union Backs Italy’s Right to Make Meta Pay for News
The EU Court of Justice upheld Italy's law that forces Meta to negotiate and pay for the use of news content, confirming that EU copyright rules permit national bargaining systems for publishers. Italy’s regulator, AGCOM, can now request traffic and...
Stellar Entertainment Becomes Content Service Provider for Tigerair Taiwan
Stellar Entertainment has been appointed as the Content Service Provider for Tigerair Taiwan’s first inflight entertainment (IFE) offering across its A320 fleet. Working with Bluebox Aviation Systems’ wireless Wow platform, Stellar will stream Hollywood blockbusters, regional hits and popular TV...
A Warning to the News Industry: Act Now or the Joe Rogan/Piers Morgan Ecosystem Will Leave You Far Behind |...
Deborah Turness warns that the news industry faces an existential shift as audiences abandon traditional TV for creator‑driven platforms like YouTube, podcasts and Substack. She cites a loss of 4 million TV news viewers, a three‑fold rise in YouTube news consumption...
Meta Debuts Unblocked Grok AI on Threads
Meta launched its own version of Grok on Threads today, and you can’t block it 😬
Seth MacFarlane Earns Nine Emmy Nods in Peacock's Ted Push
Seth MacFarlane Lands on Emmy Ballot Nine Times as Peacock Mounts 19-Category ‘Ted’ Push, With Brennan Lee Mulligan in Guest Comedy (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/7yMITzu8TU via @variety
Spotify Is Down
Spotify experienced a global service outage, leaving users with a perpetually loading player. The company acknowledged the problem on its X support account, stating it is investigating the issue. Downdetector recorded tens of thousands of reports, confirming the scale of...
Ahsoka Season 2 Slated for Early 2027 Release
News: Star Wars series AHSOKA Season 2 finally gets a release date: early 2027. Via Rick Porter https://t.co/tSTxmGp80l
Verify Real Publish Dates with Wayback Machine Extension
I used to use Chrome extensions to pull in the Schema for "date published," but now that so many sites are faking date published/date modified, I am also using the Wayback Machine Chrome extension to see when the page was...
Summer Stall? Media’s Ad Trends Against Continued Headwinds
Media advertising revenue is showing a seasonal slowdown this summer, compounded by broader macro‑economic uncertainty. Industry analysts cited in the RBR+TVBR Summer 2026 issue warn that headwinds such as tepid consumer spending and fragmented digital competition will keep ad trends volatile....
Chapter 7 Liquidation Comes To Global One Media
Global One Media, which owned six radio stations in Elko, Nevada, four audio brands in Clovis, New Mexico, and two local news websites, has entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy. FCC filings confirm the company is liquidating all assets, including the seasonal “Radio Santa”...
A Hard Commitment to Spot Cable For a Soft Drink Giant
Coca‑Cola topped the national spot‑cable advertising rankings for the week ending May 10, 2026, delivering 71,118 commercial plays. The soft‑drink giant edged out Liberty Mutual, the previous leader among insurance advertisers. The data, compiled by iHeartMedia‑owned Media Monitors, also showed Tempur‑Pedic...
Netflix Teams up for “The Remembered Soldier” Adaptation
Excl: After the success of REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES, Netflix is getting back in business with the movie's director & producers to adapt acclaimed novel THE REMEMBERED SOLDIER. https://t.co/PcUUR8IV5w
Upfronts Day One: Publishers Jostle For Position As Performance Drivers
Day one of the 2026 media upfronts in Manhattan saw NBCUniversal, Fox and Amazon all championing performance‑driven advertising. NBCU unveiled a linear‑TV retargeting capability and new contextual measurement tools. Fox promoted Tubi’s on‑demand reach, AI‑personalization and a ChatGPT integration. Amazon...
Viant Sees A Growth Wave Coming, But First Marketers Must Really Ditch Walled Garden Ad Tech
Viant posted Q1 2026 DSP revenue of $50.3 million, up 18%, while its net loss narrowed to $2.2 million and an adjusted profit of $5.5 million was reported. The company’s COO warned that advertisers are abandoning walled‑garden DSPs such as Amazon, Google and Yahoo...
IHeartMedia Plans More Cost-Cutting
iHeartMedia announced an additional $50 million in annual cost savings for 2026, bringing total projected savings to $150 million after earlier AI‑driven cuts. The company reported Q1 revenue of $884 million, up 9.6% year‑over‑year, with Digital Audio revenue rising 18% and podcast revenue...
E2TS: Using Technology to Enable Creators
E2 Technical Services (E2TS), founded by broadcaster Edwin Bukont, provides integration, project management and remote support for radio and video broadcasting systems. The firm leverages certifications from NetGear, QSC/Q‑SYS, Dante, Avixa, SBE and Axia/Livewire to design AoIP and visual‑radio solutions....
I'm a Devoted iPhone User but Android 17 Is Tempting Me with Its New Video and Social Features
Google’s Android 17 rollout targets creators by adding on‑device video‑editing tools, AI‑enhanced enhancements, and a tighter Instagram experience. The OS also introduces Adobe Premiere for Android, Smart Enhance and Sound Separation in the new Edits app, and a capture‑to‑upload pipeline that preserves...
Major Android Auto Update Will Bring YouTube to Your Car’s Screen
Google is rolling out a major Android Auto overhaul that adds YouTube video playback when the vehicle is parked, alongside a new UI that supports custom Gemini‑powered widgets across irregular screen shapes. The update also brings richer navigation with live...
Grazia Editor-in-Chief Hattie Brett to Step Down After Eight Years
After eight years at the helm, Hattie Brett will step down as editor‑in‑chief of Grazia UK in September, remaining in the role until a successor is found. During her tenure she transformed the title from a weekly print magazine into...
AI Has Cut My Pay as a Memoir Writer in Half | Letter
A freelance memoir writer for a memoir‑production agency reports that the company now uses a large language model to draft books, cutting the writer’s fee by 50% and relegating the role to editing the AI output. The writer says editing...
Spotify ‘Wraps’ with a New Review of Its History
Spotify has launched a new "Party of the Year(s)" feature that turns its classic Wrapped experience into an interactive quiz. Users guess their first streamed song via multiple‑choice, then see their all‑time most‑listened artist by streamed minutes and a list...
Han Kang’s ‘The Vegetarian’ Tops Reader Poll as Favorite International Booker Winner
The Booker Prize Foundation announced that Han Kang’s novel “The Vegetarian,” translated by Deborah Smith and published by Granta, has been voted the readers’ favourite International Booker Prize winner of the last ten years. The result comes from a public poll...
Apple TV+ ‘The Studio’ Becomes Most‑Awarded Freshman Comedy in TV History
Apple TV+’s satire ‘The Studio’ completed an unprecedented awards sweep, clinching the 2026 BAFTA International Television Award and cementing its status as the most‑awarded freshman comedy. The series now holds 13 Emmy wins, multiple Golden Globe and Critics Choice trophies,...