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.
Inside the Government’s Crackdown on TV
The episode examines the Trump administration’s renewed use of the FCC’s equal‑time rule to pressure broadcast networks, focusing on recent incidents involving Stephen Colbert’s interview with a Senate candidate and FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s threat to revoke licenses over Iran‑war coverage. Jim Rutenberg explains how the rule, originally designed for radio in the 1920s, has been revived to curb political speech on free‑to‑air TV, especially late‑night shows that reach a broad, cable‑free audience. He traces the historical evolution of the rule, past exemptions for news, and how late‑night programming has become a regulatory gray zone, illustrating the administration’s strategy to control the most universally accessible media platform.
The Five-Minute Internet (Estimated Reading Time: Five Minutes)
The article argues that the internet has become obsessed with delivering content in five‑minute, low‑effort packages. Platforms highlight reading times, AI tools summarize reports, and short‑form video dominates, reflecting a “mini‑max” principle of maximum stimulation with minimal effort. While podcasts...
Algorithms Stifle Mindful Dialogue, Fuel Chaotic Noise
The conversations I have on Patreon I could never replicate here because the algorithm doesn't encourage any level of mindfulness or introspection. It encourages contribution ... any and all and sometimes chaotic. Sometimes people comment in ways that...
New Report ‘Brings the Receipts’ on ROI of Women’s Sports Ads
WPP Media’s new “Women’s Sports Playbook” report shows rapid growth in advertising within women’s sports. Ad impressions rose 79% year‑over‑year and overall spend reached about $127 million, up roughly 70% YoY. Brands such as Ally Financial saw 85% higher engagement on...
Goal-Getter: An Interview with Sports Presenter Semra Hunter
Semra Hunter, an American‑Spanish bilingual presenter, has built a niche covering Spanish football for outlets like La Liga and ITV. She highlights the gradual shift toward gender diversity in sports journalism, noting progress in the UK but persistent misogyny in Spain....
The Faithful: Women of the Bible | Show Review
The Faithful: Women of the Bible is a Disney+ original that re‑centers biblical epics on female protagonists, beginning with Sarah and Hagar in Genesis. Minnie Driver humanizes Sarah while Natacha Karam delivers a vulnerable Hagar, framing their story as an...
Media Exploits Our Primitive Brains with Distant Crime
IMHO distorted crime perceptions are driven by how media dissolves distance. The human brain didn't evolve to consume graphic news stories about people we'd never meet. We process a TV or social media news story of a murder as if...
Coach and Kate Spade Conclude Global Media Pitch
Luxury conglomerate Tapestry, owner of Coach and Kate Spade, has appointed Dentsu as its global agency of record for media planning and buying outside the United States. The agreement covers the APAC region—including Japan, China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and...
I'm Starting a Substack
Leogao announced the launch of a personal Substack newsletter, linking to nablatheta.substack.com. The post is a brief linkshare on LessWrong, signaling a shift toward independent publishing. It highlights the author’s intent to deliver longer-form content outside the platform’s standard post...
Why One Creator Commerce Platform Is Connecting Brands and Creators for ‘Flat-Fee’ Campaigns
Creator commerce platform LTK has introduced Quick Collabs, a new feature that lets brands launch flat‑fee, one‑click campaigns that creators can opt into. The tool leverages LTK’s data on 44 million monthly shoppers, $6 billion in annual spend, 400,000 creators and 8,000...
From Greenwashing To Gaslighting: Clean Creatives Documents Big Oil Marketing Shift
Clean Creatives released the “Toxic Accounts” study, analyzing 1,859 ads, press releases and social‑media campaigns from 2020‑2024. It finds BP, Chevron, Shell and Exxon have abandoned climate‑friendly narratives, instead portraying fossil‑fuel use as essential for economic stability and national security....
Advertisers Aren’t Happy About Picking up Meta’s European Tax Tab
Meta will begin charging advertisers a "location fee" starting July 1, 2026 to cover European digital services taxes. The fee varies by country—2 % in the U.K., 3 % in France, Italy and Spain, and 5 % in Austria and Turkey—adding directly to ad spend....
Some Creators Don’t See Immediate Value in Instagram’s Controversial ‘Shop the Look’ AI Test
Instagram tested an AI‑driven “Shop the Look” feature that automatically tags products in creator posts, aiming to boost social commerce. The rollout, launched in February, sparked backlash as tags appeared without creators’ consent, linking followers to unvetted items and knockoffs....
Saturday TV Ratings 3/14/26: Saturday Night Live Rises, World Baseball Classic Leads, NBA Heavily Up From Previous Saturday ABC Game
Saturday night television saw sports and live events dominate the ratings, with the 2026 World Baseball Classic leading the 18‑49 demographic at a 0.81 rating and 2.80 million viewers. The NBA’s Nuggets‑Lakers tip‑off posted a 0.53 rating, marking a notable rise...
The 49MB Web Page
Shubham Bose reports that a typical New York Times article now requires 422 network requests and transfers 49 MB of data, taking over two minutes to fully load on average broadband connections. This size is comparable to downloading ten to twelve...
Iran Strikes Gulf Neighbors; Trump Urges Allies to Secure Strait of Hormuz
On March 16, 2026, Iran fired missiles and drones at several Persian Gulf states, including a strike that hit Kuwait City. President Donald Trump responded from Washington, urging regional partners to step up protection of commercial shipping in the Strait...
Trump Nominates Sarah Rogers as USAGM CEO Amid Legal Battle Over Agency Leadership
On Thursday, President Donald Trump nominated State Department Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers to become CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). The move follows a federal judge’s ruling that invalidated the staff reductions and other...
Trump Administration Pressures Media to Adopt Official Iran War Narrative
On March 15‑17, 2026, President Donald Trump and his aides, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, publicly berated reporters aboard Air Force One and used social media to denounce news coverage of the Iran‑Saudi conflict. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr echoed the...
MS NOW Chief Teases Major Dayside Schedule Overhaul
Scoop: MS NOW boss Rebecca Kutler is on the precipice of announcing some major dayside programming changes. Details on what is in store for the network in @get_status: https://www.status.news/p/ms-now-programming-changes-alicia-menendez-rebecca-kutler
Stunt Accounts Turned Brands Boost Launch Intrigue
influencers are launching stunt accounts to tease new products. those accounts are then typically converted into the brand account, with built in audience and intrigue for day one of the announcement.
Amazon Ads and Spotify Expand Partnership in Australia
Amazon Ads and Spotify have integrated Spotify’s premium audio and video inventory into Amazon’s demand‑side platform in Australia. The partnership lets Australian marketers buy across connected TV, display, audio and video through a single programmatic workflow, leveraging Amazon’s shopping and...
Losing Editors Means Losing Books: Industry Crisis
Ugh. Lots of rumbling about editor layoffs in publishing, and oh my god, if you keep letting go of the people who make the books happen, you won’t have the books. I want to scream.
Oscar Viewership Has Halved in Three Decades
Amazing how many people are triggered by my dumping on Oscar ratings yet this viewership chart says it all 1996 - 45 million 2006 - 36 million 2016 - 34 million 2026 - 18 million
Judge Orders Voice of America to Restart All News Operations
A U.S. District Court judge ordered more than 1,000 full‑time Voice of America journalists and support staff to resume work by March 23, overturning the Trump administration’s effort to shut down the broadcaster. The ruling excludes contracted employees and reaffirms Congress’s...
Community Notes Thrive when Rivals Find Common Ground
Community notes is such a good feature. Only shows up when people who usually disagree with each other agree on a note. Imagine legacy media had the guts to implement a system like this. https://t.co/5oYLqZt1iS
Judge Orders 1,000 VOA Employees Back, Rebuking Kari Lake
In rebuke to @KariLake, US judge orders 1,000 Voice of America staffers back to work My story for NPR: https://t.co/NGgPfXNWOu
The Trade Desk's OpenRow Debate Could Mean Churn In Programmatic Ecosystem
The Trade Desk’s OpenPath platform is facing pushback from major agency networks, with WPP and Dentsu withdrawing over concerns about cost transparency. While the service is free for advertisers and agencies, publishers are charged a 5 % fee tied to advertiser...
Who Blew Up The Guidestones?
The episode explores the mysterious destruction of the Georgia Guidestones, a massive granite monument often dubbed "America's Stonehenge" that bore inscriptions in eight languages offering controversial directives for humanity. Host and callers discuss theories about the perpetrators, ranging from political...
New Platform Launches to Help Independent Podcasters Reach Their Potential
Podtential, founded by veteran radio executive Wade Kingsley, has launched a growth platform for independent podcasters. The service centers on a proprietary diagnostic tool called PRO that evaluates 100 data points across ambition, concept, audience, content, marketing and commercial strategy....
Mamamia Out Loud Holds February Podcast Top Spot
The Australian Podcast Ranker, now powered by CRA and Triton Digital, shows Mamamia Out Loud retaining the February top spot with 982,235 listeners. New Demos+ tools expand audience metrics beyond age and gender to include spending habits, travel frequency and...
Australian Podcast on Leadership and Workplace Culture Joins iHeartRadio
Culture Capital, an Australian podcast exploring leadership, accountability and workplace culture, has joined the iHeartRadio network. Co‑hosted by human‑rights lawyer Prabha Nandagopal and BlackCard CEO Mundanara Bayles, the series blends legal, executive and First Nations perspectives to expose the gap...
Oscars Viewership Slides 9%, Its First Drop Since 2021
Oscars viewership fell to 17.9 million, a 9 percent decline from last year, ending a four‑year ratings rise. The drop coincided with similar declines at the Grammys and Golden Globes, marking the first simultaneous fall for all three major award shows. Conan...
ARD Launches New Audio App ARD Sounds
ARD launched ARD Sounds on 9 March 2026, a free app that consolidates radio, podcasts, on‑demand audio and live sport from Germany’s public‑service broadcasters. The platform replaces the ARD Audiothek and has already been installed on 5.6 million devices worldwide. It offers extensive...
Reddit Partners with Pacvue to Expand Ad Access
Reddit has partnered with ad‑tech firm Pacvue to let advertisers buy and track Reddit campaigns directly within Pacvue’s management platform. The integration adds Reddit to Pacvue’s suite, which already supports over 100 retail media networks and serves more than 70,000...
YouTube Expands Livestream Gifts to Users in Korea
YouTube has rolled out its Jewels livestream gifting system to Korean users, following earlier launches in the United States and Canada. Jewels are an in‑app currency that lets viewers purchase digital stickers, which appear in chat and generate Rubies for...
Sponsored: How Actus Digital Is Engineering the Future of Broadcast Intelligence
Actus Digital is unveiling major upgrades to its Actus X platform at NAB Show 2026, including native ATSC 3.0 monitoring with A3SA encryption, a sub‑second browser‑based multiviewer, and AI‑driven automation for compliance and reporting. The new features let broadcasters decrypt and analyze...
2026 NAB Show Exhibitor Insight: Amazon Web Services (AWS)
At the 2026 NAB Show, AWS will unveil Elemental Inference, the first fully‑managed service that layers AI onto live‑video encoding to produce mobile‑first vertical streams. The solution automatically detects action in a live feed and reformats 16:9 content for smartphones...
LPFM Agrees That It Violated Underwriting Rules
The FCC concluded that Charlottesville’s low‑power FM station WXRK(LP) violated underwriting announcement rules but avoided a monetary fine by agreeing to a compliance plan. This decision resolves the fifth case stemming from a Virginia LPFM “coop” that shared facilities and...
Chinese Netizens Hide Dissent in Memes and Myths
The China Show's @Laowhy86 reveals how millions of Chinese citizens disguise dissent as puns, memes, and mythical creatures to dodge censors. Notes https://jordanharbinger.com/1299 Apple https://buff.ly/Yc7PvW7 Spotify https://buff.ly/9mf3sB3 Overcast https://buff.ly/tzFoDAn
Spotify Launches Exclusive Mode for Bit‑perfect Windows Playback
Spotify has added an “Exclusive Mode” audiophile feature for Windows PCs. Spotify Premium users can now get bit-perfect playback on the Windows app, with Mac support coming later https://t.co/nJB9g10ZYU
Dow Jones Targets $1B EBITDA, Intros $7,499 Super Consumer Bundle
Dow Jones aims for $1 billion EBITDA within five years, a 70% increase from 2025, according to CEO Almar Latour. To reach the target, the company is rolling out a $7,499 “super consumer” bundle and accelerating direct‑to‑consumer products, while expanding high‑margin...
Fear-Driven TV News Skews Public Perception of Crime
Fear porn also dominates local TV news. Past studies have found a correlation: The more local TV news you watch, the more you believe crime is rising. Social media amplifies this, bu the problem is old and is all about...
CBS Evening News Falls Below 4M Viewers, Sparks Alarm
Suddenly, “CBS Evening News” is back where executives at the news division behind the show hoped never to return --- the show captured under 4M viewers last week, a level that spurred alarm when the program was under John Dickerson...
House Committee to Vote on NOAA Weather Radio Legislation
The U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee will markup the NOAA Weather Radio Modernization Act, introduced by Rep. Brian Babin. The bill authorizes $100 million for FY 2026 and an additional $20 million annually through 2031 to upgrade the 1,030‑station VHF network....
EXCLUSIVE: ABC IN EMERGENCY TALKS TO PULL ‘THE BACHELORETTE’ AFTER TAYLOR FRANKIE PAUL SCANDAL
ABC is in crisis mode after abuse allegations against lead Taylor Frankie Paul on The Bachelorette. Cinnabon abruptly terminated its promotional partnership with the show and Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, prompting emergency meetings among network executives. Production...
Andy Lack Donates $7M to Boost Investigative Journalism
Inbox: Andy Lack, former chairman of NBC News and MSNBC and cofounder of Deep South Today, has made a new $7 million gift to expand investigative reporting and digital video journalism, building on more than $5 million contribution over past decade.
Tencent Music Now Has 20M+ ‘Super VIP’ Subscribers. Here’s What that Means for China’s Largest Music Streamer.
Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) announced that its Super VIP (SVIP) tier surpassed 20 million subscribers at the end of 2025, up from 15 million in Q2 2025 and 10 million a year earlier. SVIP now accounts for roughly 15.7% of TME’s 127.4 million paying...
Food Critic Tom Sietsema Joins Beehiiv, Offers Exclusive Content
🍔 NEW: The legendary food critic @tomsietsema is joining Beehiiv and is cooking up something special for subscribers https://t.co/m6ACgUY6lj #axiosmediatrends
Profit-Driven Crime Coverage Undermines Democratic Discourse
It's not just that people are bad at this. It's that news media have consistently highlighted crime stories because they're profitable. That affects people. The news incentives are broken and toxic to democracy.
MyFitnessPal Wants To Start The Health And Wellness Subsector Of Retail Media
MyFitnessPal has launched a data‑driven advertising business, expanding beyond its legacy mobile display unit to include video, interstitials, full‑screen takeovers, newsletter sponsorships and branded recipe integrations. The platform will leverage its opt‑in food‑logging data—averaging 16 items per user per day—to...