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.
Paramount+ and CBS Partner to Air UFC 327: Prochazka Vs. Ulberg Live on Paramount+ and CBS Television Network
Paramount+ and CBS have agreed to jointly broadcast UFC 327, featuring Jiří Procházka vs. Valter Ulberg, on April 11 from Miami’s Kaseya Center. Paramount+ will stream the entire fight card in the United States and Latin America, while CBS will simulcast the final hour of the prelims and the first hour of the main card in primetime. The arrangement gives over‑the‑air viewers access to key bouts without a subscription, and positions Paramount’s Direct‑to‑Consumer and TV Media segments for cross‑platform synergy. The partnership underscores the growing trend of major sports events leveraging both streaming and broadcast distribution.
Offscript Media Launches 3BlackDot Gaming Media Platform
Offscript Worldwide, the parent company behind the Revolt media property, announced the launch of 3BlackDot, a consumer‑facing gaming media platform. The debut featured its flagship show, 3BD Weekly, streamed live from SXSW. 3BlackDot is positioned as a centralized hub that...
TikTok Radio Sets Relaunch on iHeartMedia App and 28 U.S. Stations After Leaving SiriusXM
TikTok Radio is relaunching on March 13 via the iHeartRadio app and on 28 iHeartMedia broadcast stations after ending its four‑year SiriusXM partnership. The new channel blends music, creator‑led conversation, and signature segments such as ‘Behind‑the‑Charts’ and ‘Hacks on the :20s.’...
Judge Supports Washington Legislature In Not Granting Press Passes To Conservatives
A federal judge ruled that Washington legislators were within their rights to deny press badges to three conservative media figures, rejecting a request for a restraining order. In a separate dispute, DISH Network lost its retransmission agreement with Gray Media,...
Agency Client Lands on Bestseller List, Celebration!
It was so exciting yesterday to see an agency client hit the bestseller list. ❤️❤️❤️
"Superb" And "Compelling" Period Crime Drama Being Removed From Netflix Soon
Period crime drama "Ripper Street" will be removed from Netflix on March 26, ending its streaming availability after a year on the platform. The BBC‑originated series follows Detective Inspector Edmund Reid and his team as they investigate Whitechapel crimes from...
BET Expands Daytime Lineup with AFRO TV's "The Sisaundra Show" And "Point of View," Celebrating Community, Culture and Connection on...
BET is expanding BET Her’s daytime schedule through a partnership with AFRO TV, adding two live daily talk shows—The Sisaundra Show and Point of View—premiering on March 16, 2026. Both programs are produced in Orlando and focus on Black women’s culture, perspectives, and community issues. The collaboration gives...
Will the Telegraph’s New Owner Curb Its Wilder Excesses – or Make Them Worse? | Jane Martinson
Axel Springer has completed a £575 million acquisition of the Telegraph Media Group, ending a three‑year ownership battle that involved foreign suitors and regulatory hurdles. CEO Mathias Döpfner, who called the paper his "north star," promises to transform the historic title...
Rakuten TV Enterprise Launches LIVE CTV Event Series
Rakuten TV Enterprise has launched LIVE, a new European event series focused on connected TV and streaming executives. The inaugural edition will take place in Madrid on March 17, gathering over 150 senior leaders from advertising, media agencies, platforms, studios...
RTL Approaches Inflection Point with Streaming Profitability Expected This Year
RTL Group reported a 3.8% drop in total revenues to €6.02 billion, but announced that its streaming portfolio is poised to become profitable this year after nearing break‑even at the end of 2025. Subscriber numbers rose to 8.06 million in 2025 and...
Govt Considers Taking Steps to Protect Mainstream Media
Indonesia’s Human Rights Ministry is preparing regulatory measures to safeguard mainstream media’s financial viability as digital platforms dominate information distribution. Minister Natalius Pigai will consult the Press Council to shape provisions that could be embedded in upcoming human‑rights legislation. The...
FixEd Podcast: How Newsrooms Survive Crises
The International Press Institute’s Head of Innovation and Media Business, Ryan Powell, discussed how independent newsrooms are coping with a perfect storm of financial shortfalls, political pressure, and platform dependency. He highlighted that USAID’s 2025 aid gap stripped 20 investigative...
Bonus 215: How I Write the Newsletter
Steve Vladeck explains the inner workings of his "One First" newsletter, noting that the regular edition remains free while bonus issues sit behind a paywall for subscribers. He describes the ad‑hoc, last‑minute writing schedule—often Wednesday afternoons or early Thursday mornings—driven...
Lessons From an Early-Career Journalist
In this episode of The Kicker, host Megan Greenwell chats with early‑career journalist Sophia Barnett about her rapid rise at the Minnesota Star Tribune, where she’s covered high‑stakes stories from a school shooting to the national ice‑raids story within her...
In Praise of Jeremy Bowen
Jeremy Bowen’s eleven‑minute monologue on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme offered a calm, historically grounded analysis of US‑Iran tensions, contrasting sharply with the sensationalist tone of much contemporary coverage. Drawing on his decades of frontline reporting—from the 1991 Gulf War shelter...
DStv’s High Entry Price Is Killing Subscriber Growth, Says Canal+
Canal+ Africa warned that DStv’s steep entry price is stalling subscriber growth in Anglophone Africa. Installation costs average €38 per household, nearly three times the €13 seen in Canal+‑run Francophone markets, contributing to a drop from 14.9 million to 14.4 million subscribers...
Liza Tarbuck Leaves Radio 2 Saturday Show After 14 Years
BBC Radio 2 presenter Liza Tarbuck announced she is leaving her Saturday evening show after a 14‑year run, posting a heartfelt farewell on Instagram. Shaun Keaveny will temporarily fill the slot until the end of March, while the station highlighted Tarbuck’s desire...
A Call for Reporting Tips Rankles Pentagon Officials
The Pentagon’s October‑2025 media policy classifies journalist solicitations as potential security risks, allowing the department to label reporters as "security risks" and revoke press credentials. A recent dispute arose when The Washington Post added a tip‑box on its site inviting...
Nielsen’s New Insights Could Help Shift Ad Budgets in the Upfront
Nielsen unveiled a new upfront planning guide that offers a granular look at ad‑supported TV viewership across linear, FAST and AVOD platforms, with a focus on the 18‑49 demographic and sports audiences. The study shows adults 18‑49 allocate 63.8% of...
Mumbrellacast: Media Apocalypse Right Now
Tim Burrowes’ Unmade Index, which monitors 14 Australian listed media firms, has recorded a more than 60% drop in total market value since its launch in early 2022, underscoring a deepening media apocalypse. The latest Mumbrellacast episode also dissects the...
Netflix Announces New Live-Action Series “Soul Mate” Starring Hayato Isomura and Ok Taec-Yeon
Netflix has announced a new Japanese live‑action series titled “Soul Mate,” starring Hayato Isomura and K‑pop idol Ok Taec‑yeon. Written and directed by Shunki Hashizume, the drama follows a decade‑long bond between a Japanese expatriate and a Korean boxer, moving...
Exploring New Revenue Opportunities Through Licensing
At the London Book Fair, a panel of publishing leaders highlighted licensing as a critical growth engine, especially as large language models demand high‑quality text. They urged publishers to adopt a pragmatic stance—accepting imperfect licenses rather than forgoing deals—to capture...
Journalism Still Obtainable Career for Young as 88% with NCTJ Qualification Get Jobs
The National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) has launched the "Where your story goes" campaign to inspire 14‑18‑year‑olds across the UK to consider journalism as a career. The initiative features an interactive digital experience, stories from young reporters,...
The Fall and Rise Of Reggie Dinkins Puts Other Mockumentary Sitcoms to Shame / Will CBS News Be Folded Into...
The Cracked piece lauds the mockumentary sitcom "The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins" as a benchmark for sharp, self‑referential comedy. Meanwhile, industry chatter intensifies around a potential merger that would fold CBS News into CNN, reshaping cable news ownership....
‘The Vanishing Of Nancy Woodrum’ Coming Soon To ABC, Hulu & Disney+
Disney announced a new episode of its flagship newsmagazine "20/20" titled "The Vanishing of Nancy Woodrum," set to debut on ABC, Hulu and Disney+ on March 13, 2026. The hour‑long special recounts the 2018 disappearance of 62‑year‑old entrepreneur Nancy Woodrum...
Media Control and NielsenIQ BookData to Publish BookTok Charts for the U.K.
Media Control and NielsenIQ BookData have launched an official BookTok Charts for the United Kingdom, extending the successful German model. The monthly list merges verified retail sales data with #BookTok engagement metrics to rank the top titles. By providing real‑time,...
Digest: Meta Hikes Ad Prices; AI Agents Cannot Act on Your Behalf Without Platform Permission, Rules US Judge; IPA Unveils...
Meta announced a 2%‑5% fee increase for ads delivered in Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK, citing local digital service taxes. A California federal judge ruled that AI agents cannot access a platform’s systems without the platform’s explicit...
EXCLUSIVE: NewsGuard Taps Startup Pangram to Identify AI-Generated News and Misinformation
NewsGuard has launched an AI content farm detection tool built with Pangram Labs’ proprietary models to spot sites that mass‑produce AI‑generated news without disclosure. In its first rollout, the system helped flag roughly 3,000 AI farms, more than double the...
Naseeruddin Shah, Nana Patekar, Sanjay Kapoor Lead Indian Streamer Amazon MX Player’s Most Expansive Slate Yet, Topping 150 Shows for...
Amazon MX Player, India’s free streaming service with 250 million monthly viewers, announced its most ambitious 2026 lineup. The slate features over 150 new and returning titles across drama, action, reality and its micro‑drama MX Fatafat vertical. High‑profile projects such as...
Creators Demand Fixes for Threads Editing Tool Shortcomings
As a content creator, I use Edits. Here’s what I would love to have @mosseri help fix: 1) Captions. They constantly fail, especially when trying to edit them (edits don’t stick, can’t add missing captions, etc) 2) Sound boosting and...
VFL Inks Broadcast Deals with Foxtel, Seven, ABC, and SEN
The Victorian Football League has secured broadcast agreements with Foxtel, ABC, Seven and SEN, promising the competition’s biggest audiences in decades. Foxtel will stream 16 matches on Kayo Sports across the first 13 rounds, while ABC returns to VFL TV...
The New Creator Video Play: Moving From Shorts to CTV | Behind the Numbers Special Edition
In this special edition of the Behind the Numbers podcast, eMarketer analyst Emmy Liederman moderates a panel with Nicole Marcus of Dick's Sporting Goods and Alison O'Keefe of Best Buy about the evolving creator video landscape and its migration from...
How Medical Creator Nick Norwitz Grew His Substack Paid Subscribers From 900 to 5,200 Within 8 Months
Harvard‑trained physician Nick Norwitz leveraged his Metabolic Health YouTube channel to drive a dramatic surge in paid Substack subscribers, climbing from 900 to 5,200 in eight months. Partnering with creator‑management firm Shorthand Studios, he applied A/B testing, refined branding, and...
Looper Survey: Streamers Set to Dominate Sports Media Rights
A Looper Insights survey of sports‑media executives finds global streamers poised to dominate sports rights by 2026, with Amazon Prime Video emerging as the clear front‑runner. Forty‑one percent of respondents said streaming platforms will hold the greatest structural power, edging...
Gayle King's CBS Deal Only One-Year, No 2027 Lock
Scoop: Gayle King's new deal, which CBS News triumphantly announced last week, is only a one-year renewal, I've learned. It does not lock King into the network past 2027.
Summit Announces AirLux Studio Signaling
Summit Technology Group unveiled AirLux Studio Signaling, a network‑based on‑air light replacement that uses PoE‑powered touchscreen displays. The platform integrates natively with Axia Livewire consoles, automatically reflecting status cues such as On‑Air, Recording, or Production in Progress. A centralized web...
Saturday TV Ratings: 48 Hours, NBA Basketball, World Baseball Classic, Paralympic Games
Saturday, March 7, 2026 TV ratings show CBS’s true‑crime series *48 Hours* aired a new episode amid a slate of high‑profile sports and specials. The Paralympic Games, NBA tip‑off, World Baseball Classic, and UFC 326 prelims dominated viewership, while reruns like *Saturday Night...
Subscriber Counts Are Vanity; Track Open Rates Instead
Newletter subscribers is the perfect vanity metric, especially for people with no opt-in or catchpa. What’s your open rate? How many people are actually reading it every week?
Inside the CNN‑CBS Merger: Power Shifts and Trump’s Influence
NEW: The CNN–CBS Marriage Plot: • Will Bari Weiss expand her remit? • Who will actually run the network? • How much will David Ellison cut, and how will he cut? • And where does Trump factor in? https://t.co/BuiVS0srnq @PuckNews
Why I Do This Work — And Why I’m Asking for Your Support
The author, an independent journalist, urges readers to fund his newsletter, arguing that trustworthy, non‑partisan analysis is essential for restoring a shared political reality. He contrasts the lucrative, partisan content model with the slower, fact‑based approach he chooses, noting that...
WeChat Cracks Down on Feminist, LGBTQ, Mental Health Accounts
“In what is becoming an annual event, a spate of bans on the eve of March 8 International Women’s Day has struck numerous WeChat public accounts focused on feminism, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights…and promoting mental health.” @CDT https://t.co/PUc2VIdUO1
Radio DJs Once Recorded Bumpers on Sony Minidiscs
When I was an on-air radio DJ in the early 2010s, all of our bumper spots were recorded on Sony minidiscs. The technology of a forgotten future, and the sort of thing that's everywhere in Japan. https://t.co/3ITnIGzgW1
Fox, ESPN on Improving Live Sports Experience With DTC
Fox One and ESPN Unlimited are refining their direct‑to‑consumer (DTC) platforms to tackle sports‑viewing fragmentation, ingestion hurdles, and personalization demands. Fox targets the 60 million cord‑less households, offering the same lineup as pay‑TV and a joint ESPN bundle at $39.99 per...
Accusing Omidyar of Disclosure Lies May Constitute Fraud
Lying on this disclosure would be financial fraud. Ur claiming Pierre Omidyar is lying on this disclosure so that he, a billionaire known for funding journalism projects, can secretly accept outside $ to fund a non-partisan investigative journalism fellowship w...
Podcasters Aren’t All Alike – Celebrate Differences
Podcasters: we are not all the same Also: (@MatthewBerman and I keeping our man @dylan522p on message 🤝) https://t.co/o6kr36PccQ
Giddy Up: The Most Syndicated Radio Show in Australia Is Expanding
Craig Hutchison’s Sports Entertainment Network has expanded its flagship Giddy Up program, now broadcasting live for four hours, five days a week on Racing.com via 7plus. The show, hosted by Gareth Hall, is Australia’s most syndicated radio show, airing across...
Canada’s Top Media Outlets Hiring Journalists Now
Looking for your next journalism job? From CBC/Radio-Canada and Rogers to Postmedia and Torstar, here are current reporting, video journalist, and newsroom roles across Canada. Browse the latest opportunities and apply. https://t.co/mpT9nBkOgy
QMS Adds 24 Digital Sites Through New AOM Outdoor Media Deal
QMS has signed a new agreement with AOM that adds 24 digital out‑of‑home assets and three premium static sites to its national network, effective 1 May. The rollout spans New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, with additional Sydney static...
I Was Inconsiderate but Now I’m Everywhere
Derek Sivers announced that he is expanding his personal content beyond his own website to a suite of social and video platforms. He likens his previous single‑site approach to a record producer who forced everyone to travel to a remote...
Sans-Curry, Are Warriors Suddenly a Ratings Drag?
The Golden State Warriors posted their lowest‑rated ABC broadcast since 2002, drawing a 1.1 rating and 1.90 million viewers in a Curry‑less matchup against the Thunder. Historically a marquee NBA draw, the team’s viewership fell sharply when Stephen Curry missed his...