Today's Media Pulse
Online video subscriptions hit 2.24 billion in 2025, overtaking pay‑TV revenue
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, surpassing pay‑TV's $170 billion for the first time. Growth is expected to slow to single‑digit levels in 2026 as operators focus on monetising existing users.
Also developing:
The Masked Singer: Season 15 Renewal; FOX Singing Competition Returning for 2026-27
Fox has renewed The Masked Singer for a 15th cycle, set to air in early 2027. The competition, hosted by Nick Cannon and judged by Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, Ken Jeong, Robin Thicke and Rita Ora, concluded season 14 with 12 episodes. Season 14 showcased contestants with 94 million records sold and 54 million Instagram followers, but ratings slipped 19% in the 18‑49 demo and 10% in total viewers versus season 13. Production will shift to New Jersey under Eureka Productions to tap tax incentives.
Heineken Wraps Global Agency Review in Bid for Scale and Consistency
Heineken has completed a global review of its marketing agency ecosystem, appointing a leaner set of partners: dentsu for media, Publicis for secondary production, and creative work consolidated under Publicis, WPP and Stagwell. The restructuring supports its EverGreen 2030 growth plan,...
Put Key Findings in Headlines, Not Just Actions
Kevin Rose @kevinrose started up https://t.co/qMvWnX9Rip tonight. It's very good. It competes with my https://t.co/8L5xphk0qQ So I had my AI agents (made by Levangie Labs) that build my page go over and check it out and look for ways to improve. Here is its...
Goalposts Keep Shifting: Adapt, Persist, and Thrive
One thing I don’t think people talk about enough in publishing, business, or honestly entrepreneurship in general… is that the goalposts never stop moving. Ever. 🤣 You might look at my page and think, “Well, she’s had some success.” And yes, I...
Basketball: Amazon Seeks NBA Fan Expansion in Japan as Views Catch On
Amazon Prime Video has launched an 11‑year exclusive deal to stream NBA games in Japan, marking a shift from Rakuten’s long‑standing broadcast rights. The platform delivered 67 regular‑season games and full playoff coverage this season, with the Spurs‑Thunder matchup drawing...
Disrupting Maritime Publishing, yet Still Blocked by Entrenched Power
Yep. Started @gCaptain 20 years ago confident we could close down incumbents that charged ship captains insane subscriptions for paper products. One, @LloydsList, was the longest running publication in print and I thought, we are young, we are California bases, we...
Why the $400 vSeeBox V6 Plus Isn't Just a Roku
This Android set-top box costs $400! Why? Because it ain't just a bigger Roku, as I explain in my review of the vSeeBox V6 Plus Android TV device. It's a grey market device, quite interesting, and probably illegal. Sort of......
Pixability Launches Pixability360 to Unify YouTube Paid, Organic and Creator Work
Pixability introduced Pixability360, a single dashboard that merges YouTube advertising, organic channel management and creator collaborations. The platform responds to a study showing that while 90% of agencies think these functions should align, fewer than one‑third actually do, and early...
China Needs a Podcast to Elevate Scientific Rockstars
“There’s no track in China that systematically enables the growth of star power for Chinese scientists, akin to mega mainstream podcasts like Dwarkesh or Lex.” Builders and scientists are rockstars and should be celebrated as such.
Fear Outpaces Context in Virus News Coverage
I ran sentiment analysis on top news coverage of the new virus. My conclusion: fear travels faster than context. The best public-health signal was measured. A lot of the media signal was amplified. This infographic breaks down who stayed grounded and who leaned alarm-prone. https://t.co/ZJP8ODS0Ft
Wall Street Doesn’t Understand the CDN Business, What AI Agentic Traffic Is, and How Bits Are Delivered
Fastly’s shares plunged 40% after its Q1 earnings revealed lower‑than‑expected delivery volumes, despite stable pricing. The company’s top ten customers, which generate 34% of revenue, saw no acceleration in traffic, and 4K streams now represent only 1‑2% of bits delivered...
Amazon Nails NFL, NBA Streams but Mismanages Crowd Noise
Amazon has overall done a great job with NFL and NBA. But I don’t think they’ve gotten the crowd noise levels right for either yet.
Perceived Platform Bias: Throttled Twitter, Silent Facebook Engagement
I didn’t get any backlash on twitter… my account was completely throttled. And I my company has 100k more followers on facebook than x and we don’t get any likes or comments. Zuck still uses the woke Wikipedia blacklist to shadow ban...
MSNOW: Federal Prosecutor Commends ABC for Defending ‘The View,’ Says ‘It Does No Good to Bend the Knee’
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance praised ABC’s petition to the FCC challenging an equal‑time investigation of “The View,” noting the involvement of former solicitor general Paul Clement signals the network’s seriousness. The FCC opened the probe after Democratic Senate candidate...
Roku Starts to Roll Out a Major Update to Roku TVs & Roku Players
Roku has begun the phased rollout of its Spring OS 15.2 update to compatible TVs and streaming players, a process that may take several weeks to a month. The upgrade introduces developer‑focused tools such as Perfetto‑based tracing and the chanperf command,...
Bangladeshi Entrepreneur Mayeen Rahman Attributes Digital Empire to Self‑Belief
Mayeen Rahman, a self‑made entrepreneur from Bangladesh, credits unwavering self‑belief and disciplined self‑education for turning a modest start into a growing digital enterprise. His story, amplified through motivational speaking and an online presence, is shaping how Gen Z views discipline,...
Bipartisan Senate Push Seeks to End Section 230 Immunity for Big Tech
A coalition of Senate Democrats and Republicans has introduced a bill to repeal Section 230, the legal shield that protects major social‑media platforms from liability over user posts. Lawmakers argue the immunity enables harmful content, while tech firms warn it...
Peloton Posts Q3 2026 Turnaround, Revenue Grows YoY, Debt Cut 70%
Peloton Interactive announced positive year‑over‑year revenue growth and a 70% reduction in net debt during its Q3 2026 earnings call. The company highlighted a $1.13 billion cash reserve, a new Spotify content partnership and expanding commercial sales, signaling a shift toward...
Gray Media Q1 2026 Revenue Drops 11% as It Expands Station Portfolio
Gray Media (NYSE: GTN) posted Q1 2026 results showing retransmission consent revenue fell 11% to $339 million and core advertising slipped mid‑single digits to $361 million. The broadcaster added stations in four new markets, closed deals covering ten additional markets, and highlighted...
Gawker's Billionaire Battle Left Lasting Scars
Good story on Gawker. TIL Tim Cook killed a show based on it. Boo. Best quote: "Gawker eventually became like Lennie from Of Mice and Men, where it didn’t understand its own power.” At Gawker, They Battled a Billionaire. 10 Years...
Premier League Soccer: Stream Man City Vs. Brentford From Anywhere Live
Manchester City hosts Brentford on Saturday, May 9, at 12:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network and Peacock Premium. The win is crucial for City, who sit five points behind league leaders Arsenal despite holding a game in hand. Brentford, sitting seventh, looks...
Built My Dream Content CMS in Hours with Claude
Weekend Project: Build the dream Content CMS I've always wanted... my own ContentOS I've been building with no-code tools for the past five years (Notion, Tana, Code, you name it). But there is always trade-offs. → Views that I can't get...
Debt Deal Could Push Connoisseur Past Foreign Ownership Cap
Connoisseur Media has filed an FCC petition to permit up to 100% indirect foreign ownership of its broadcast radio licenses, shifting majority equity to Cayman Islands‑registered entities while CEO Jeff Warshaw keeps full voting control. Two pending transactions—a debt‑to‑equity conversion...
Wednesday TV Ratings 5/6/26: Chicago PD and Survivor Rise, Chicago Med Stable, MasterChef Slips Again
Wednesday, May 6, 2026 primetime ratings show a mixed performance across the major broadcast networks. CBS’s "Survivor" led the 8 PM hour with a 0.91 rating and 5.16 million viewers, while NBC’s "Chicago Med" held steady at 5.56 million viewers and a 0.38 rating. Fox’s "MasterChef"...
Competing AI Agents Accelerate News Platform Innovation
I'm real excited to see the new @digg that @kevinrose and team are building. His teases show it does a ton of stuff I haven't been able to do on https://t.co/8L5xphk0qQ (and promises to do AI news from X too). The...
Outlander's David Berry On Lord John's 'Foolish Hope,' How He And Sam Heughan 'Really Worked' On That Reconciliation Scene
Outlander celebrated its 100th episode with a dramatic rescue and reconciliation between Lord John Grey (David Berry) and Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan). The penultimate episode sees Lord John kidnapped, blackmailed over his sexuality, and ultimately freed by Claire, William and...
The Podcast Report 🎙️
Stat Significant’s Podcast Report provides a live dashboard of the most‑watched podcast episodes, shows, and genre shares on Apple Podcasts. The platform refreshes data daily, offering downloadable datasets for the Top 100 episodes, overall show rankings, and stickiness metrics. Interactive visualizations...
What To Watch This Weekend: New Shows And Movies To Stream On Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Apple TV And More
Forbes’ weekend guide highlights a surge of new titles across major streaming platforms, from Netflix’s four‑part *Lord of the Flies* adaptation to Prime Video’s *Citadel* Season 2. The list also features genre‑spanning releases such as Starz’s *Amadeus*, HBO Max’s Japanese martial‑arts...
Wednesday TV Ratings: The Floor, Chicago Med, America’s Culinary Cup, Police 24/7, Shark Tank
Fox released its Wednesday ratings snapshot for May 6, 2026, highlighting new episodes of The Floor, Survivor, America’s Culinary Cup, and several Chicago franchise dramas. A special installment of The Nancy Guthrie Mystery aired, while reruns of Shark Tank and...
5 TV Show Trailers Released This Week You Need to Watch
ComingSoon.net highlighted five upcoming TV show trailers set to shape the second half of 2026’s streaming slate. Hulu will debut the British comedy "Alice and Steve" on June 8, while Netflix rolls out the sci‑fi comedy "The Boroughs" on May 21 and...
Twitch CEO: Embeds Account for Just 0.37% View Hours
Twitch CEO Dan Clancy says embeds are not a primary source of viewbots on Twitch. According to him, only 0.37% of Watch Hours come from people watching on embedded players.
CBS Evening News Falls Below 4M Viewers, Fourth Week
For the fourth *consecutive* week, Bari Weiss' revamped "CBS Evening News" averaged less than 4 million viewers—a once unthinkable situation.
Merged Reality: HBO Max & Paramount+ Are Set To Be United, What Does That Mean For Unscripted?
Paramount’s CEO David Ellison announced plans to merge HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single streaming service that would exceed 200 million subscribers. Parrot Analytics estimates the combined platform would capture 25.1% of unscripted‑content demand in Q1 2026, outpacing Hulu+Disney+, Netflix and...
Upfronts 2026 Offer An Anxious Industry A Chance To Tune In For A Repeat; Here’s The Lineup & Schedule
The 2026 media upfronts will run May 11‑13 in Manhattan, featuring eight major players such as NBCUniversal, Disney, Amazon, and Netflix. Over three days, advertisers will watch celebrity‑hosted presentations, including Seth Meyers at NBCUniversal and Jimmy Kimmel at Disney. Total upfront spending slipped...
Why Africa’s Media Security Is at a Tipping Point
The Pan‑African Media Summit in Nairobi gathered over 300 media leaders to confront a surge in repression and digital threats across the continent. Recent arrests of journalists in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso illustrate a pattern of state‑driven intimidation. Meanwhile, artificial...
Prime Video Follows Netflix and Disney by Adding a TikTok-Like ‘Clips’ Feed in Its App
Amazon announced a new short‑form video feed called “Clips” within the Prime Video app, debuting in the United States. The vertical, TikTok‑style carousel showcases brief snippets of Prime shows to entice viewers to add titles to their watchlist, share them,...
Meta’s Daily User Count Just Dropped for the First Time Ever
Meta reported its first-ever decline in daily active users, slipping from 3.58 billion to 3.56 billion in the latest quarter. The 0.6% drop marks a notable shift after years of steady growth across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. New York Times columnist Julia...
The Writers Growing the Fastest on Substack Have One Thing in Common. It’s Not Their Subscriber Count.
The post argues that Substack writers obsess over subscriber counts while neglecting the real growth engine: trust. It shows that the fastest‑growing newsletters combine genuine, specific storytelling with a disciplined daily Notes routine that feeds the platform’s algorithm. By consistently...
TikTok-Driven Supplement Sales Face Safety Scrutiny After Recall and Illness Reports
A wave of adverse health events tied to supplements popularized on TikTok has triggered product recalls and heightened FDA warnings. The incidents, ranging from salmonella outbreaks to liver damage, underscore growing concerns over the safety and labeling of influencer‑driven nutraceuticals.
Zendaya’s ‘The Drama’ Tops PVOD Charts After Tripling Budget at Box Office
Zendaya’s new film ‘The Drama’ earned $122 million at the box office—three times its $28 million production cost—and has surged to the top‑10 of Apple TV’s PVOD charts in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The rapid theatrical‑to‑home transition highlights a shifting...
Paramount+ Streams RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars S11; Free via DIRECTV, Walmart+, Prime
Paramount+ will debut RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 11 on May 8, and viewers can watch the premiere at no extra cost via DIRECTV’s Premier bundle, a Walmart+ trial, or a Prime Video add‑on. The strategy highlights how streaming services are...
De'Longhi Teams with Unsociable to Roll Out Six TikTok Shops Globally
De'Longhi Group has partnered with social‑commerce agency Unsociable to launch six TikTok Shop storefronts across multiple markets. The collaboration marks the Italian appliance giant’s first coordinated foray into short‑form video retail, aiming to capture the platform’s fast‑growing shopper base.
Brian Glenn Exits Real America’s Voice to Marry Marjorie Taylor Greene
Brian Glenn, a longtime Trump‑endorsed commentator, announced Thursday that he is leaving the pro‑MAGA streaming outlet Real America’s Voice. He said he will step back from the “MAGA mouthpiece” role to focus on his personal life and an upcoming wedding...
WNBA League Pass to Offer Spanish Language Option
One interesting media thing: The league is working on getting WNBA League Pass in Spanish.
TV Producers Feel Squeezed Out, Not a Charity
“ A lot of our friends have been squeezed out of the biz… It’s not an NGO.” Howard Owens of Propagate dishing the truth on being a TV producer today. @TheWrap
Disney Q2 2026 Beats Forecast as Streaming Profit Soars 88% Amid Parks Slowdown
Disney reported fiscal Q2 2026 revenue of $25.2 billion and diluted EPS of $1.57, beating analysts’ expectations. Streaming operating income surged 88% to $582 million, while domestic park attendance fell 1%, prompting a cautious outlook for the experiences segment. The board also...
Late‑Night Legends Guest‑Star on Colbert’s Final Episodes
Stephen Colbert’s Final Weeks: David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon and John Oliver to Hit ‘Late Show’ Before Last Episode https://t.co/Hi8MvXkFUw via @variety
Programmatic Ads Now Drive over a Third of Spotify Revenue
Interesting data point from Spotify’s $SPOT earnings call last week: more than 1/3rd of its advertising revenue is now generated from “biddable” (programmatic) buying. https://t.co/iO6L7ngsmh
Veteran Reporters Call for Reform in D.C. Journalism
“What would you change about D.C. journalism?” former Washington Post scribes were asked. (I’m included.) Source: NOTUS https://t.co/LBLK7GgLRo
Chatbot Ads Slip By? Users Say They’ll Notice
This Article Claims You Probably Wouldn’t Notice if a Chatbot Slipped Ads Into Its Responses Well, I would certainly notice and would not like it at all https://t.co/aRMvQtJavM https://t.co/i2qsfiAfxf