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.
Salem Media Posts $35 Million Financial Loss Amid Lower Revenue in 2025
Salem Media Group reported a 10.5% drop in 2025 revenue to $212.7 million, largely driven by $24 million in asset sales. Despite lower operating costs, the broadcaster posted a $34.6 million net loss, a swing of 313.9% from the prior year’s profit. Impairment charges surged to $25.2 million, while interest expense fell 90% to $1.5 million. The company also recorded a $7.1 million gain from the sale of several stations, partially offsetting the losses.
EditShare To Highlight Analytical AI Capabilities At 2026 NAB Show
EditShare will demonstrate its latest AI‑powered media operations and high‑performance NVMe storage at the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas. The company is emphasizing Analytical AI, which automatically extracts speech, faces, text and scene data to enrich video files with...
ACOTAR 6 Hits Bestseller List Before Release, Fans Confused
I’m really confused about ACOTAR 6 being on the USA Today Bestseller list months before pub day. I thought pre-sales counted towards first week sales?
Playboy Just Named Its First Openly Gay Editor-in-Chief. He Wants to Change the Brand’s Pornographic Reputation Amid a ‘Sex Recession’
Playboy announced Phillip Picardi as its chief brand officer and editor‑in‑chief, making him the first openly gay leader of the iconic men’s lifestyle brand. The appointment follows a broader editorial overhaul that includes a revived print edition, a Substack newsletter,...
Stop Using “Mr. President” In Modern Headlines
I recognize this is not the most important thing in the world but it is critically necessary that we have national moratorium on pleading "Mr. President" headlines. Something so tiresomely 1957 about "Mr. President, I Beseech You That the Time...
Bell, Telus Reach Distribution Agreement for Oxygen True Crime, USA Network, New CTV Specialty Channels
Bell withdrew its April 2025 complaint after reaching a distribution agreement with Telus for five discretionary channels—Oxygen True Crime, USA Network, CTV Nature, CTV Speed and CTV Wild. The dispute originated from Bell’s claim that Telus favored Rogers’ new channels...
Audio Academy Mentoring Scheme Reveals 2026 Cohort
Audio Academy has announced its 2026 Mentoring Programme cohort, comprising 22 mid‑career professionals from across the UK radio and audio sector. The six‑month scheme pairs each mentee with a senior industry mentor, offering one‑to‑one guidance, seminars and leadership training. Supported...
Final Thoughts on Liquid Cooling Bubble Up
The article reviews liquid‑cooling technology as it moves from high‑end transmitters and particle accelerators into broadcast and consumer‑grade equipment. It contrasts anti‑freeze pumps for FM transmitters with deionized‑water loops used in megawatt‑scale systems, and highlights all‑in‑one (AIO) PC coolers as...
Matt Belloni Predicts Ellison's Plan for New Fox News
I talked to @MattBelloni about Sunday's Oscars, the future of Hollywood, and why he thinks David Ellison wants to build a new Fox News: Excerpts here: https://www.businessinsider.com/oscars-prediction-paramount-ellison-gulf-matt-belloni-peter-kafka-2026-02 Full chat on Channels: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/channels-with-peter-kafka/id1080467174?i=1000754620316
How The Kyiv Independent Is Growing Membership Through Relationship-Building
The Kyiv Independent, launched just before Russia’s invasion, has scaled from an 18‑person startup to a leading English‑language outlet with over 27,000 paying members and three million monthly readers. In 2025 the newsroom recorded a 78% increase in membership while...
Grammarly Says It Will Stop Using AI to Clone Experts without Permission
Grammarly announced it will permanently disable its Expert Review AI feature after criticism that the tool cloned the voices of prominent writers without consent. The company, in partnership with Superhuman, is reimagining the feature to give experts explicit control over...
Univ. Of Illinois Selects Grass Valley for Hybrid IP Game-Day Production Hub
The University of Illinois partnered with Grass Valley and integration firm Tab M Solutions to complete Phase 1 of a hybrid IP broadcast production hub for Fighting Illini Productions ahead of the 2025 football season. The system employs a hybrid SMPTE ST 2110/SDI architecture, deploying...
Libsyn Reveals 2025 “Surge”
Libsyn, a leading podcast hosting platform, reported a 48% year‑over‑year increase in advertising revenue for 2025, driven by 4.8 billion ad impressions and record creator payouts. The company also disclosed that upfront advertiser commitments have doubled heading into 2026. In conjunction...
Spain Named Country of Honour at the 2026 Banff World Media Festival
Spain has been named the Country of Honour for the 2026 Banff World Media Festival, recognizing its rapid ascent as a global hub for premium content. The designation follows a breakout year featuring hits such as *Berlin* and *La mesías*,...
Mediagenix Taps Semantic Intelligence to Accelerate Content Monetization
Mediagenix announced an upgrade to its Semantic Intelligence engine, aiming to turn raw title and rights metadata into actionable commercial insight for studios and networks. By embedding advanced semantic modeling—originally built by its 2024 acquisition Spideo—into its Title Management platform,...
YouTube Makes More Ad Revenue Than NBCU, Disney, Paramount and WBD Put Together: ‘New King of All Media’
YouTube generated $40.4 billion in ad revenue for 2025, overtaking the combined $37.8 billion earned by Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery. Financial analysts at Moffett Nathanson value the platform at $500‑$560 billion, positioning it as the world’s largest media company by ad sales. The...
With Newpress, Iz and Johnny Harris Incubate Video Journalism for the Creator Era
Johnny and Iz Harris have launched Newpress, a production company and community platform designed to incubate creator‑journalists. The venture, built on the success of Johnny Harris’s 7.5 million‑subscriber YouTube channel, already backs three flagship shows that blend deep‑dive reporting with high‑production...
From Rented Audiences to Engaged Communities: Why Participation Is the New Moat for Publishers
Publishers are abandoning reliance on social platforms and rented traffic as Google’s zero‑click search results erode referral visits. The article argues that participation‑driven experiences—embedded comment streams, community tools, and real‑time interaction—create a defensible moat. By shifting engagement to owned properties,...
Eight Out of Ten PMax Advertisers Are Now Running CTV Ads
Eight out of ten Performance Max advertisers are now seeing connected‑TV impressions on YouTube, a shift driven by Google’s expanded CTV capabilities. Since Q2 2025 the platform has auto‑generated TV ads from product‑feed images, and in January 2026 introduced shoppable CTV formats...
When a Blue Checkmark Becomes a €120 Million Problem
The European Commission fined X €120 million for breaching the Digital Services Act, citing a deceptive blue verification badge, inadequate advertising‑transparency tools, and restricted researcher data access. The DSA classifies platforms with over 45 million EU users as very large online platforms...
What Premium Actually Buys You on CTV
Premium CTV inventory, while more expensive, offers advertisers higher-quality audience engagement. Vevo, partnering with measurement firm Amplified, has produced rigorous attention data demonstrating that premium placements deliver longer view times and stronger brand recall. The partnership’s findings provide concrete evidence...
Coors Banquet Returns to Live Sports Marketing Following Growth Spurt
Coors Banquet has logged five straight years of volume growth, driven largely by Gen Z and younger drinkers. To capitalize on this momentum, Molson Coors is boosting its media budget with a double‑digit increase and re‑entering live‑sports advertising during the 2026 MLB...
$40B Lost to Sound and Sports Piracy: New Government Report
The United States Trade Representative released its 2025 Notorious Markets report, highlighting $40 billion in annual losses from music and sports piracy. The 61‑page document catalogs dozens of high‑profile piracy sites such as DHgate, MegaCloud, Private Layer and The Pirate Bay,...
An Update on ‘Bridgerton’ Season 4 and ‘Stranger Things’ 5 Viewership Races
Netflix’s two flagship English‑language series are falling short of their own records. Stranger Things Season 5 has logged 132.7 million views after 77 days, 8 million fewer than Season 4’s 140.7 million, and cannot close the gap before the 91‑day window ends. Bridgerton Season 4 sits...
NextAud.io Announces Exclusive Agreement with AdsWizz to Sell Streaming and Podcast Inventory in MENA Region
NextAud.io has signed an exclusive agreement with AdsWizz to become the sole sales representative for streaming and podcast inventory across Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, while also acting as AdsWizz’s preferred reseller in...
FreeWheel Launches AI Agent Infrastructure for Premium Video Ads, Pilots with PMG
FreeWheel unveiled an AI agent infrastructure built on its Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server and a suite of Intelligence tools, embedding artificial intelligence directly into premium video ad transactions. The platform enables real‑time workflow automation, performance monitoring, and decision‑making for...
Spread Your Brand Story Across Publishers for AI Visibility
Making a strong case for distribution of your company information / news / etc in a GEO world. This part makes me think a lot about the black box of training data and the long horizons of training data...
Dwarkesh and TBPN Deliver Top‑Tier Media Ad Reads
sizzling hot take: dwarkesh and @tbpn do the best ad reads in media. like all of media.
TRL: What Would You Like to See Covered in Future Posts?
The author of the TRL Substack invites readers to suggest topics for future posts, ranging from query etiquette to industry deep‑dives. The invitation follows a popular piece on residencies that impressed agents, signaling a desire for more community‑driven content. Additionally,...
Pentagon Bars Photographers After Unflattering Briefing Images
The National Press Club’s statement on our story in The Washington Post on the Pentagon banning photographers from briefings after they published “unflattering” photos. https://t.co/4EbXGWkVHt https://t.co/yWQniBhU0i
Outdated Intel Led to School Strike, NYT Masks as Mistake
Nah, this is the NYT laundering evil US crimes as “mistakes” since it got so much public attention. Nobody should buy this shit. They’ve tried this over and over to cover themselves. Zero excuses for targeting schools, which they are...
Don La Greca Regrets Not Fighting for His Name on ‘The Michael Kay Show’: ‘I Should Have Threatened to Walk’
Don La Greca, co‑host of ESPN Radio's The Michael Kay Show for more than 20 years, never saw his name added to the program title despite his on‑air prominence. In a recent interview on BT Unleashed, he revealed that management...
Ellison Empire Threatens Media Plurality with Massive Consolidation
Aren’t a lot of these media assets just melting ice cubes that can’t cut it outside the (withering) cable bundle?
Discussed Launching “The Town” On YouTube Video
Had a nice chat with the official @YouTube blog about launching The Town on video. ⬇️⬇️ https://t.co/Zj2sG7EZNv
CBS Sports Turns to University of Cincinnati’s Control Room and Staff for Two Big 12 Men’s Basketball Broadcasts
CBS Sports partnered with the University of Cincinnati to produce two Big 12 men’s basketball games from the school’s on‑campus control rooms, marking the second university‑based linear broadcast after Kansas State. CBS supplied its front‑bench producers and directors while Cincinnati...
Ellison and Paramount's Decisive Move Reveals Winning Strategy
The one BIG move that will tell us if Ellison and Paramount are playing to win. $PSKY $WBD $AMZN The LightShed Podcast, Ep. 304. With @BrandoLightShed and @WaltLightShed https://t.co/YJZW8CaF1O
Barnes Sues Pentagon over Retaliatory Press Credential Policy
Appreciate the reporting here by Barnes. Worth noting he’s also the plaintiff in the important lawsuit against the Pentagon over its new press policy that creates an opening for the Pentagon to revoke his credentials in retaliation over his...
US Streamers Take 75% of Europe’s Online Viewing, Says Mediavision
U.S. streaming services now account for about 75% of online video viewing across Europe, according to Mediavision and the Digital Production Partnership. Local platforms collectively hold only around 25% of the market, with notable variation—Finland’s domestic services capture 43% while...
Barry Diller Says He'd Overhaul CNN if He Buys It
Barry Diller on hopes to buy CNN: "I would change everything" Interview with Graham Bensinger. https://t.co/mkgyjN8GTY via @YouTube
Creator Platforms Launch Self‑made Awards to Celebrate Top Talent
The latest craze among creator platforms? Inventing their own awards shows to honor the most popular and creative people cranking out content on their apps. https://t.co/SVFliYvp6u via @variety
AI Podcast Start-Up Rebel Audio Comes Out of Stealth Mode, Taps Mark Burnett as Adviser (EXCLUSIVE)
Rebel Audio, a Nashville‑based AI podcasting start‑up, has emerged from stealth mode with a $3.8 million seed round and the addition of TV legend Mark Burnett as its first adviser. The company unveiled an invitation‑only beta of its AI‑driven platform at SXSW,...
DC Council Delays Waymo Safety Report Four Years Late
One of the most important jobs of local journalism, which it historically finds most difficult to do, is saying “There is a quotidian procedural issue which affects this community but will not rate national attention. The government is lying about...
Digital Creators Cash In on Brands as Agencies Multiply
Creators Go Pro: Digital Stars Bank Brand Bucks While Talent Agencies and Support Firms Proliferate https://t.co/P1OMksQCSC via @variety
Why Russia’s Pro-War Military Bloggers Remain a Valuable Source on the Invasion of Ukraine
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left independent reporting from the Russian side virtually nonexistent, prompting a surge of pro‑war “voenkory” military bloggers on Telegram. These channels, some with millions of followers, range from state‑embedded correspondents to active soldiers, veterans, volunteers,...
Paramount Aims to Challenge Netflix as Daily Streaming Hub
Game of Streams: David Ellison's Plan to Compete with Netflix called Paramount+HBO Paramount wants to be more than a survivor in the streaming wars. It believes it can catapult itself into a daily use streaming platform that can compete head-on...
Media VC Deals Plunge 70% While AI Soars
.@thewrap looks at M&A so far this year: media VC deals are falling – 70% year over year – compared to AI which is soaring. Here’s the story in charts, in partnership with @PitchBook : https://t.co/dQDSQqFM6m
OpenX & TVision Launch First Supply-Side Attention Targeting Solution for CTV
OpenX and TVision have introduced OpenX Attention Targeting, the first supply‑side solution that lets advertisers bid on CTV inventory based on real‑time viewer attention scores. The offering merges TVision’s passive, person‑level panel data with OpenX’s bid‑stream signals, delivering predictive engagement...
Rebel Audio Debuts Invite-Only AI Podcast App, Adds Mark Burnett
AI Podcast Start-Up Rebel Audio Launches App With Invite-Only Access, Taps Mark Burnett as Adviser (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/C0nR4IG3VQ
Google Earns 4× YouTube’s Ad Revenue, Still Monopolist
And Google generates 4x as much ad revenue as YouTube. And guess what? Google owns YouTube and provides most user data "signal" and discovery that has boosted it. And Google is a 'recidivist monopolist' according to DOJ + 4 federal...
Choose Credible Outlets, Not Random Social Media Posts
Yup. "Farid said the best way to remain accurately informed is to make a choice to get your news from credible journalistic outlets instead of scrolling through posts from 'random accounts' on social media." https://t.co/BYB495AEqW