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.
Spotify's New 'Exclusive Mode' Can Make Your Music Sound Better, but There's a Catch
Spotify has launched "Exclusive Mode" for its Windows desktop app, promising bit‑perfect playback of its 24‑bit/44.1 kHz lossless streams. The feature silences all other Windows audio sources, routing music directly to the selected DAC or headphone output. It is limited to Premium subscribers and currently unavailable on macOS. While audiophiles with high‑end gear may appreciate the cleaner signal path, most listeners are unlikely to notice a measurable difference.
The Hidden Cost of Over-Engineering Broadcast Stacks
Broadcast technology has shifted to IP‑based, software‑defined workflows, unlocking remote production and cloud connectivity. However, the drive for flexibility often leads to over‑engineering, where extra routing layers, middleware, and monitoring tools inflate system complexity. This hidden cost manifests as longer...
Experienced True Crime Writer — Narrative Podcast
Weingberger Media is hiring an experienced true‑crime writer for a narrative‑driven podcast with a large, engaged audience. The role focuses on crafting episode scripts from case files, interviews, and transcripts, emphasizing restraint, factual accuracy, and tension without sensationalism. Candidates must...
Mass Audiences Aren’t Dead: 5 Takeaways From Index Exchange At Marketecture Live
At Marketecture Live III, Index Exchange VP James Wilhite argued that mass audiences haven’t vanished—they’ve simply fragmented across devices, platforms, and time. The challenge for buyers is not reach but planning, as fragmented signals make audience visibility difficult, especially in...
Triveni Digital Will Show NextGen TV Solutions To Monetize ATSC 3.0
Triveni Digital announced it will showcase its end‑to‑end NextGen TV portfolio at the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, demonstrating how broadcasters can monetize ATSC 3.0 and Brazil’s TV 3.0 standards. The lineup includes GuideBuilder XM for signaling, StreamScope XM for quality‑of‑service and monetization...
Pebble To Feature Continuing Software Platform Development At 2026 NAB Show
Pebble will exhibit its automation, content‑management and integrated‑channel solutions at the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, underscoring ongoing development of its software platforms. The company’s trio—Pebble Automation, Integrated Channel and Pebble Remote—delivers scalable, multi‑site architectures that operate across SDI,...
Podcasts vs Radio: Time Spent Metrics Favor Both by Age (Edison Research)
Edison Research’s Weekly Insights reveals stark age‑based splits in spoken‑word audio consumption. Listeners aged 13‑24 favor podcasts over AM/FM radio by more than two‑to‑one, while the 55+ cohort prefers traditional radio by an even larger margin. Podcast share peaks at...
The Dos and Don’ts of Community: What Digital Entertainment Can Learn From the Live Sector
Social media has shifted from a private outlet to a passive entertainment platform, making discovery the dominant driver of digital consumption, especially for Gen Z. The article argues that this hyper‑consolidation lowers content quality and willingness to pay, while emerging regulations...
New on Netflix in April 2026: All the Latest Movies and Shows Streaming This Month
Netflix’s April 2026 slate introduces a mix of new originals, animated spin‑offs, and genre‑spanning titles. Highlights include the animated series "Stranger Things: Tales from ’85", the seven‑episode adaptation "Man on Fire" starring Yahya Abdul‑Mateen II, and season two of "The Bad...
MultiChoice to Move Showmax Content to DStv Stream by April 1
MultiChoice will discontinue Showmax subscriptions on March 31, 2026, migrating all original content and library to its sister service DStv Stream. The move follows Canal+'s $3 billion acquisition and marks the first major integration since the September 2025 takeover. MultiChoice cites cost‑cutting,...
PA Media Unveils QuickCheck: Real-Time Context Feed for Live News
PA Media launched QuickCheck, a real‑time context feed for live newsrooms. Integrated into the PA Explore platform, it delivers concise, fact‑checked updates that highlight specific claims, assessments, and supporting links. Powered by PA’s accredited fact‑checking team, the service draws on...
Russia’s Expanding Surveillance System Is Starting to Target the Audience
Russia is expanding a layered digital control system that now targets not only independent journalists but also the audiences that consume their content. A JX Fund study shows more than 1,000 journalists have fled and 63 exiled outlets still reach...
Barcelona v Newcastle Utd Live Stream – Where to Watch on TV Today
Barcelona entered the Champions League second leg with a 1‑1 draw after Lamine Yamal’s injury‑time penalty erased Harvey Barnes’ late goal at St James’ Park. Hansi Flick’s side arrived in strong domestic form, fresh from a 5‑2 La Liga victory over Sevilla that...
Meta Pays Creators Up to $3K Monthly to Join Facebook
NEW: Meta is offering creators who have large followings on other platforms (but who don't regularly post on Facebook) up to $3k a month in bonuses if they start posting on Facebook, it's the company's latest plan to bring higher...
Lovely Trailer for Series 'Babies' With Paapa Essiedu & Siobhan Cullen
BBC has released the official trailer for its upcoming drama series Babies, starring Paapa Essiedu and Siobhan Cullen. Created by BAFTA‑winner Stefan Golaszewski, the show follows a couple coping with multiple miscarriages, blending grief with humor and love. Supporting roles...
Analyst Urges Disney to Ditch Linear TV Distraction
"We view linear TV as a distraction for D'Amaro and not where we, nor investors, want to see Disney allocating capital and resources," Greenfield wrote. Media analyst Rich Greenfield of Lightshed Partners, who for years implored Disney to get out of...
Best 5 Netflix Animations Gaining Massive Worldwide Communities
Netflix’s adult‑animation lineup has become a cultural force, with titles like K‑Pop Demon Hunters, Arcane, Nimona, The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep and Love, Death & Robots drawing millions of viewers worldwide. K‑Pop Demon Hunters set a streaming record as...
AI Content Fuels Gen Z’s Growing TikTok Skepticism
We’re underestimating how much AI-generated content is going to change the way people approach social media. What happens when there’s a layer of distrust to everyone’s scroll? We already have an idea of the impact. A recent Harris Poll survey...
Elon Musk’s X Restores Services Following Outage that Blocked Feeds for Thousands
Elon Musk’s X restored services in India after a widespread outage that prevented thousands of users from loading their feeds. Downdetector logged more than 2,533 reports around 8:19 pm IST, with notifications still arriving while timelines failed. The disruption was also...
A Change to Podcasts on Planet Nude
Planet Nude announced it will stop republishing full episodes from external naturist podcasts and instead concentrate on podcasts produced in‑house. The change stems from a desire to align the site’s role with its editorial model, where all content is created,...
Emotion-Driven Marketing Wins: Heated Rivalry Powers Panels
Happy to report I did indeed incorporate Heated Rivalry into all 3 of my panels at SXSW - Viral Nation’s Emotion Economy of Social Media - Heated Rivalry made people feel seen. Tap into emotion in marketing Patreon’s Building Brands...
Thrad Extends Its Partnership with Betadine Through iNova Pharmaceuticals
Thrad has extended its partnership with Betadine through iNova Pharmaceuticals to launch digital‑first, AI‑native advertising campaigns for healthcare brands. The first effort is a Betadine Feminine Care initiative that aims to create supportive, informative spaces for women. By combining Betadine’s...
Meta's GEM: Bringing LLM-Scale Architectures to Ads Recommendation
Meta introduced GEM (Generative Ads Model), a foundation‑model approach that treats ad recommendation like a large language model. The architecture separates sequence and non‑sequence features, uses an InterFormer to handle long user histories, and adds a Student Adapter to keep...
Radio America Unveils Helios Media Podcast Network
Radio America announced the creation of Helios Media, a new podcast network dedicated to developing, distributing, marketing, and monetizing next‑generation audio content. The company highlighted its proven podcast track record with titles such as The Dana Show, Chicks on the...
MS NOW Shakes up Its Lineup: Ali Velshi to Take over The 11th Hour
MS NOW president Rebecca Kutler announced a major schedule overhaul that will take effect in June 2026. Veteran journalist Ali Velshi will assume hosting duties for the network’s primetime analysis program, The 11th Hour. The move is part of a...
WPHT Helps Raise $110k for Veterans Charity
Philadelphia talk radio station WPHT hosted its ninth "Talk Radio 1210 WPHT Radiothon" on March 12, raising $110,115 for the Travis Manion Foundation. The event brought together on‑air personalities Dom Giordano, Rich Zeoli, Nick Kayal, Greg Stocker and Dawn Stensland, who aired veteran...
Polymarket Gamblers Threaten Israeli Journalist over Missile Strike Story
Israeli defence reporter Emanuel Fabian received threatening messages from Polymarket users after his routine report on a minor missile strike near Jerusalem became central to a $23 million prediction market bet on whether Iran would strike Israel. The bettors, who stood...
MediaScience Unveils Breakthrough AI “Ad Cloning” Technology That Enables Element-by-Element Creative Testing
MediaScience introduced Creative Twin, an AI‑powered tool that replicates ads element‑by‑element for precise testing. In a study with 812 U.S. respondents, participants could not distinguish AI‑generated copies from originals. The platform lets marketers modify individual components—such as talent, hair style,...
CBS Evening News Is Dying
CBS Evening News, anchored by Tony Dokoupil, has seen a sharp ratings drop, shedding roughly 20% of its audience in the first week. Current average viewership sits at about 3.83 million overall and only 468,000 in the coveted 25‑54 demographic, far...
Patrón Ties Spirits to Filmmaking Craft in Ads Led by Guillermo Del Toro
Patrón Tequila has launched a global campaign titled “The Perfect Pour,” directed by Oscar‑winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, marking his first television commercial. The ad features del Toro overseeing a set staffed by animated skeletons, tying his meticulous storytelling to Patrón’s handcrafted,...
X’s Regional Silencing Threatens Global Biotech Community
One major issue in 𝕏’s new regional silencing policy 🧵👇is that it will destroy many of the professional communities on 𝕏. Here is a relevant example for @nikitabier and @elonmusk - the BioTech community on 𝕏 includes many scientists, investors,...
Global Signs Nectar Deal to Boost Digital Audio Activity
Global Media has struck a data partnership with Sainsbury’s Nectar360, merging first‑party shopper information with its own listener data on the DAX digital audio platform. The integration lets advertisers target UK audio audiences using anonymised purchase insights and directly measure...
FreeWheel Integrates Tunnl Audiences to Accelerate Political and Public Affairs Targeting Across CTV for 2026 Campaigns
FreeWheel announced a direct integration with data‑partner Tunnl, adding more than 3,500 issue‑driven audience segments to its CTV buying platform. The partnership promises a roughly 90 percent match rate on premium CTV inventory, reducing waste and accelerating activation for political advertisers....
Broadcasters Warned of FCC Legal Risk over Hoaxes
Trump troll Matt Gertz, senior fellow at the hard left Media Matters for America @mmfa: “Any broadcaster now has to question if anything they put out could end up getting them in a heap of legal trouble with the @FCC.”...
Carr Reaffirms Longstanding Public‑Interest Broadcast Requirement
Policyband Quote of the Day: “@BrendanCarrFCC critics pretend he said something radical. However, the Communications Act in Section 309(a) has long required broadcasters that use public spectrum to operate in the ‘public interest.’ That principle is the foundation of...
Lottery Operator Launches In-House Agency, Studio 59
National Lottery operator Allwyn is establishing Studio 59, an in‑house creative and content studio slated to open in April. The unit will unify creative, social, production, planning and brand marketing to accelerate content creation across retail, digital and communications channels....
Short‑form News with Insider Commentary Drives BiotechTV's Future
I love this video. It takes today’s news, and augments it with inside commentary straight from the newsmaker. All in a short form format that works on all platforms. This is the direction I want @BiotechTV to look more like...
Search Decline Hits Small Publishers Hardest
New data suggests small publishers (10k daily pageviews or less) are hit hardest by search traffic declines —Chatbots only drive 1% of all traffic referrals, so they can't make up the gap —News sites get most page views from AI platforms, but...
Twirl Alternatives: Comparing Creator Marketing Platforms for Growing Brands
Twirl remains a popular choice for structured creator‑led content, but growing brands are seeking platforms that can handle larger creator volumes and more flexible workflows. Alternatives such as Modash, Humanz, Creator.co, Billo, Collabstr, Insense, Influee and Trend.io each emphasize different...
Tweet Relevant Content to Appear in Google Discover
How to show up in Google Discover 2026 edition: tweet things you also might be interested in 😅 https://t.co/QuiAVIpyCy
MSNOW Reshuffles: Velshi Takes 11 A.m., Morning Joe Moves
MS NOW Shake-Up: Ali Velshi Seizes ’11th Hour,’ ‘Morning Joe’ Cedes 9 A.M., Ana Cabrera Slides in Daytime Overhaul https://t.co/e2DZ9wmvcn via @variety
Darryll Colthrust to Keynote AI@Media Conference Next Week
Macmillan Publishers announced Darryll Colthrust as its inaugural Chief Technology Officer, set to assume the role on April 7. Colthrust will deliver the keynote at the AI@Media international conference on March 24, 2026, organized by Publishing Perspectives and Digital Publishing...
Tune in to Dr. Tour on Revive Our Hearts
Be sure to check out Dr. Tour on the @ReviveOurHearts radio program on March 18–19. You can listen by going to https://t.co/sId2dCw6Dm https://t.co/HhBKlIdeso
Media and Epstein Hire Firms to Rewrite Wikipedia Histories
In which The Times reveals that it hires a company to alter its own Wikipedia entry. 1/ Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Push to Cleanse His Past Online https://t.co/TloRZagrQU https://t.co/eBZnCsL2sQ
Look Who’s Tracking
Investigative reporter Francesca D’Annunzio uncovered that Texas Department of Public Safety spent $5.3 million on PenLink’s Cobwebs‑produced Tangles phone‑tracking software, a key component of Governor Greg Abbott’s $11 billion Operation Lone Star. The contract, first signed in 2021 and renewed annually, allows...
Opus 3 Substack Vanished After Initial Announcement
@AnthropicAI what happened to Opus 3’s substack? There were never any posts after the big fanfare announcing it. https://t.co/by55bhhHnx
This Viral Video of a Child Grieving a Fallen US Service Member Was Generated by AI
A video showing a toddler crying over a flag‑draped coffin went viral, amassing over 1.1 million views before experts identified it as AI‑generated. Digital‑forensics specialists from UC Berkeley, Northwestern and the University of Michigan flagged visual anomalies and confirmed deep‑fake characteristics. The...
Stephanie Ruhle Moves to Mornings in Major Programming Reshuffle at MS NOW
MS NOW announced a sweeping programming overhaul set for June, aimed at capitalizing on double‑digit viewership gains and positioning the network for the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential race. Late‑night anchor Stephanie Ruhle will leave her 11 p.m. slot to host...
Trump Now Calls War Reporting ‘Treason’. His Attacks on the Press Are Escalating Fast | Margaret Sullivan
Former President Donald Trump escalated attacks on the press, calling war reporting treason and urging punitive measures. FCC Chair Brendan Carr and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed his rhetoric, threatening license revocations and demanding patriotic coverage. Media companies, including CNN...
Chelsea Streams: Next Match on TV UK Channel, Kick Off Time & Live Coverage
Chelsea FC’s upcoming fixtures are being distributed across multiple UK broadcasters, with Premier League games typically on Sky Sports or TNT Sports and FA Cup ties on BBC or ITV. The article lists specific dates, kick‑off times, and opponents from...