Know What's Happening in Media
Know What's Happening in Media
Indian TV market braces for sales dip as production costs surge
Rising RAM prices, higher plastic and ocean‑freight costs linked to the West Asia crisis, and a weakening rupee have pushed entry‑level 32‑inch TV prices up about 20% to $133, up from $108 six months ago. Counterpoint Research expects shipments to fall 5‑6% as consumers down‑trade to smaller screens.
Also developing:
By the numbers: K-Love seeks FCC approval to acquire radio station WFCC
The Economist Group launched Economist Enterprise, consolidating its B2B information services and media solutions into a single brand. For the six months to Sept. 30 2025, the B2B segment generated £53.8 million (about $67 million), a 2.2% decline year‑over‑year, while rivals such as the Financial Times and Dow Jones reported double‑digit growth. The new structure combines research, events and advertising into an “enterprise‑relationship” model, promising larger contracts and steadier revenue streams. The move also raises editorial‑commercial safeguards to maintain independence.
True Native Media announced that it has added the Storybutton Network to its exclusive podcast representation roster. Storybutton, a leading kids‑and‑family podcast network created by storyteller Jim Jacob, brings shows like Kids Short Stories and Spyology Squad to the agency....
Netflix is developing an untitled drama set in modern Las Vegas, produced by legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese and created by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, the minds behind HBO’s Billions. The hour‑long series will follow casino president “Bobby Red” Redman and will...
Meta partners with Stripe for in-ad shopping If Instant Checkout didn’t represent agentic commerce, using that term to describe Meta’s new ‘purchase-from-an-ad’ experience is simply absurd. An agent plays no role in this transaction: a user sees an ad and clicks...
Podscribe unveiled two major upgrades: airchecks that now capture run‑of‑network (RON) podcast campaigns and a turnkey server‑to‑server integration with Tealium’s customer data platform. The RON airchecks use pixel activity and expanded transcription to verify ad placement, deliver brand‑safety signals and...
AI is flooding our feeds. So what should we do about it? @ShiraLazar puts it well: platforms have a responsibility to shape the ecosystem of their feeds. But so do we as consumers and creators. What is our daily social media...
Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal are urging Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act after two recent court verdicts held major social‑media platforms accountable for harming children. The bipartisan push follows growing public backlash against the companies and...
Electronic dance music star John Summit is rolling out an exclusive SiriusXM channel, Experts Only Radio, on March 27. The channel will stream directly from the SiriusXM app and feature Summit’s label releases, live sets and a preview of his...
At the 2026 Taipei International Book Exhibition, the Simplified Chinese Books Pavilion—jointly run by Chinese Creation Publishing and Xiamen International Book Company—showcased almost 8,000 titles, with mainland digital literature drawing the largest gatherings of visitors under 30. The trend signals...
Netflix broadcast the 2026 MLB season opener between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants at 8:05 PM ET, igniting a wave of fan criticism. Viewers balked at the $8 subscription cost and the perception that a historic baseball tradition was...
X (formerly Twitter) experienced a widespread outage on March 26 that left thousands unable to log in or view feeds, prompting more than 20,000 complaints on Downdetector. The disruption was resolved in under an hour, but it follows a pattern...
Artlist has launched a new AI Music category, leveraging Google’s Lyria 3 and Lyria 3 Pro audio models to let creators generate studio‑quality songs from simple text or up to ten image prompts. The service is embedded in Artlist’s AI Suite, Max, Max...
A Los Angeles jury held Meta and Google-owned YouTube liable for designing addictive platforms that harmed a young woman, awarding $6 million in total damages. The verdict, the first of its kind in the United States, could open the floodgates for...
Ghost, the open‑source CMS competing with Substack, has partnered with podcast host Transistor.fm to enable private, members‑only podcasts directly from the Ghost dashboard. The integration lets publishers bundle exclusive audio content with their subscription offerings, expanding Ghost’s toolkit beyond newsletters....
The Chicago Cubs have teamed with at least ten advertising‑technology vendors to harvest fan data through cookies that can persist for up to 750 days. The extensive collection of IP addresses, device identifiers, browsing behavior and precise location data raises...
The New Civil Liberties Alliance secured a settlement in Missouri v. Biden that bars the surgeon general, CDC and CISA from threatening social‑media firms for not removing or down‑ranking protected speech. The consent decree, pending Judge Terry Doughty’s approval, curtails...
Beijing‑based StoReel announced a $34 million financing round, including $9 million seed led by Play Ventures and $25 million user‑acquisition financing from PVX Partners. The capital will fund AI tools that can produce hour‑long series for $20‑40k, a fraction of traditional costs, and...
Wyndham and lifestyle brand Goop have partnered with Adora, an AI‑driven performance‑marketing platform, to automate creative generation and real‑time ad optimization. The system produced over 90 ad variants for Wyndham, tailoring imagery and messaging to 15 audience segments and boosting...
Public broadcaster KERA broke ground on a new 56,000‑square‑foot headquarters in uptown Dallas, replacing its 75,000‑square‑foot facility and featuring a community‑focused floor with a 300‑seat studio and podcast lab. The project is funded by a $97 million capital campaign, including a...
In the debut episode of Longview’s new series "Strange Bedfellows," host Ben Kowaler traces the evolution of the LGBTQ movement from its early gay‑rights roots through the expansion to a broader coalition and its current internal fractures. He outlines key...
Luminate’s 2025 Year‑End Music Report applied the Gini coefficient to streaming data, showing country music as the most top‑heavy genre with a 0.79 score, followed by pop at 0.75. Electronic/Dance recorded the lowest Gini at 0.54, indicating a more even...
Powerful, but will it trick prospective customers? i.e. Will there be realistic expectations? -> Veo Video Generation Now Available in Google Ads "Upload up to three images, and Veo generates unique videos up to 10 seconds long with natural motion. These...
Can't believe I'm saying this but here's a sensible WSJ editorial. The Social-Media Shakedown Begins https://t.co/lwayFcwcCW
The BBC’s Annual Plan outlines a digital‑first agenda for the next year, emphasizing iPlayer upgrades, short‑form video experiments, and expanded YouTube distribution. It arrives alongside the appointment of Matt Brittin as director‑general and the looming renewal of the corporation’s Royal...
In the latest VideoWeek podcast, ITV’s Director of Advanced Advertising, Rhys McLachlan, detailed the broadcaster’s evolving programmatic strategy. He highlighted ongoing challenges such as fraud and waste in the ecosystem and warned about the "enshittification" of social media platforms. The conversation...
A Los Angeles jury ruled that Meta and YouTube are liable for deliberately engineering addictive products and failing to protect users. The verdict marks the first U.S. judgment holding major social‑media platforms accountable for engagement‑driven design that fuels the attention...
D.C. Memo: Cox Wins Supreme Court Copyright Fight over Sony in a Crushing 9-0 Wipeout for Famed Conservative Litigator Paul Clement -- Clement has been hired by six cable broadband associations to fight @FCC approval of the @NXSTMediaGroup - @TEGNA...
Vodafone TV Spain has partnered with Rakuten TV to embed its Videoclub rental service into the operator’s set‑top box platform. The integration adds roughly 6,000 titles, from new releases to catalog films, available for rent and billed through the monthly...
The Wall Street Journal surpassed one million followers on TikTok by pairing platform‑friendly formats with its hallmark journalism. The newsroom’s strategy hinges on purposeful videos, a Talent Lab that equips reporters to promote themselves, and dedicated social video producers who...
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has flagged three menopause‑focused supplement brands—Lunera, Minerva Wellness and Nova—for making unauthorized health claims in paid social media ads. The advertisements suggested the products could treat menopause symptoms such as weight gain, hot flushes,...
BET and Paramount+ announced a sixth‑season renewal for the Emmy‑nominated comedy The Ms. Pat Show, marking the series’ debut on Paramount+ as BET originals shift to the streaming service. The move gives the show access to Paramount+’s roughly 80 million global...
California judges found Instagram and YouTube liable for fostering social‑media addiction, marking the first major platform liability ruling. A Nieman Lab study showed that ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok all struggle to credit news sources, with ChatGPT performing worst. Newsrooms...
Well well then. So The Atlantic had it right. No surprise. I’m sure the White House will correct itself so as to not damage its reliability. https://t.co/MCmNlKL91x
For those tracking the landmark social media addiction jury verdicts, this may be a timely read from DCN’s Chris Pedigo on how this gets carried into legislation, good and bad, nuance matters. 1/2 https://t.co/xF0PTet2Wq
BTS streamed a one‑hour comeback concert on Netflix that reached 18.4 million viewers across 190 countries. The event marked the first time all seven members performed together since their 2022 military hiatus and kicked off an 82‑date world tour.
Netflix has acquired the film rights to Belle Burden’s No. 1 New York Times bestseller *Strangers* after a heated bidding war involving six offers. The streaming giant attached Oscar‑nominated actress Gwyneth Paltrow to star and executive‑produce, with Stacey Sher producing and...
Netflix aired the 2026 MLB season opener between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants as a pay‑walled event, prompting a wave of fan criticism over cost and tradition. The backlash illustrates growing tension as major leagues experiment with...
Netflix’s new drama *Nuremberg* dramatizes the first of the post‑World War II trials, focusing on U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas M. Kelley, who was the first military doctor to interview Nazi war criminals such as Hermann Göring. Author Jack El‑Hai, whose book *22 Cells in...
Imagine how much better this site would be if they simply stopped paying "creators." By the way, I hate using that word. 🙄
The European Audiovisual Observatory reported that the continent’s audiovisual industry produced €142 billion ($164.7 billion) in 2024. Consumer spending on streaming, pay‑TV, cinema tickets and home video accounted for over half of that total, underscoring the sector’s reliance on subscription‑based models.
Chinese luxury brands are abandoning the short‑video‑first playbook, targeting affluent urban women who are growing weary of Douyin and Xiaohongshu. Brands like GIADA and Songmont have launched long‑form podcasts on Xiaoyuzhou FM, amassing over a million and 140,000 subscribers respectively....
Ryan Murphy’s FX series *Love Story* has reignited public fascination with John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, prompting viewers to seek a more factual account of the couple’s brief but high‑profile romance. RoseMarie Terenzio, a former executive assistant to Kennedy and chief...
K-LOVE is swapping legacy tube transmitters for GatesAir solid‑state Flexiva GX5K and Flexiva FAX10 units at stations in Billings, Montana and Tremonton, Utah. The new transmitters occupy roughly one‑third the rack space, cut power consumption and simplify maintenance. Audio monitoring...
Savor FM has launched Federated Savor, a global syndication network that aggregates foodservice podcasts and digital media creators onto a single platform. The network instantly taps a combined audience of more than 500,000 subscribers across YouTube and podcast services, offering...
Amazon Prime’s animated series *Invincible* featured Slayer’s iconic 1986 track “Raining Blood” during a climactic Hell‑level fight, with Bruce Campbell portraying Satan. The episode, titled “Hurm,” introduces an original storyline not found in the comic source material, expanding the show’s...
ZDF Studios is launching two new preschool add‑on channels on Amazon Prime Video. Biene Maja & Friends will be available in Germany and Austria, while Dibidoo & Friends will debut in the United Kingdom. The services bundle more than 200...
Kedoo has inked co‑production deals with France’s Studio Quinze and the UK’s Media Brighton to enrich its Love Drama micro‑drama app. The Studio Quinze partnership will deliver ten premium short‑form series across romance, thriller and hybrid genres, with the first...
wedotv has expanded its free ad-supported streaming (FAST) footprint in the Middle East by launching three region‑specific channels on Samsung TV Plus, including wedotv Big Stories, wedotv Sports MENA, and the soon‑to‑launch wedotv Cars. The channels deliver factual documentaries, live...
On March 18, a parody Instagram reel mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which had amassed 16 million views, was blocked in India after a legal demand from the government. Simultaneously, dozens of satire accounts on X and other platforms were taken...
Swiss telco yallo has upgraded its yallo TV streaming platform with AI‑generated video previews using Media Distillery’s Preview Distillery technology. The new auto‑generated 15‑20 second clips increase highlight availability by roughly 20%, adding about 200 multilingual previews each month without...
