Know What's Happening in Media
Know What's Happening in Media
Indian TV market braces for sales dip amid rising production costs and rupee weakness
Soaring RAM prices, higher plastic and ocean‑freight costs tied to the West Asia crisis, and a weakening rupee have pushed retail TV prices up roughly 20%. An entry‑level 32‑inch set now costs about $133, up from $108 six months earlier, prompting many buyers to down‑trade. Counterpoint Research forecasts shipments to fall 5‑6%.
Also developing:
By the numbers: K‑Love seeks FCC approval for acquisition of WFCC
Thrad has extended its partnership with Betadine through iNova Pharmaceuticals to launch digital‑first, AI‑native advertising campaigns for healthcare brands. The first effort is a Betadine Feminine Care initiative that aims to create supportive, informative spaces for women. By combining Betadine’s trusted brand equity with Thrad’s privacy‑forward ad infrastructure, the collaboration seeks to deliver more meaningful, data‑safe consumer experiences. Both firms say the alliance will serve as a template for trust‑centric marketing in the health sector and will broaden to additional brands.
Happy to report I did indeed incorporate Heated Rivalry into all 3 of my panels at SXSW - Viral Nation’s Emotion Economy of Social Media - Heated Rivalry made people feel seen. Tap into emotion in marketing Patreon’s Building Brands...
Meta introduced GEM (Generative Ads Model), a foundation‑model approach that treats ad recommendation like a large language model. The architecture separates sequence and non‑sequence features, uses an InterFormer to handle long user histories, and adds a Student Adapter to keep...
Radio America announced the creation of Helios Media, a new podcast network dedicated to developing, distributing, marketing, and monetizing next‑generation audio content. The company highlighted its proven podcast track record with titles such as The Dana Show, Chicks on the...
MS NOW president Rebecca Kutler announced a major schedule overhaul that will take effect in June 2026. Veteran journalist Ali Velshi will assume hosting duties for the network’s primetime analysis program, The 11th Hour. The move is part of a...
Philadelphia talk radio station WPHT hosted its ninth "Talk Radio 1210 WPHT Radiothon" on March 12, raising $110,115 for the Travis Manion Foundation. The event brought together on‑air personalities Dom Giordano, Rich Zeoli, Nick Kayal, Greg Stocker and Dawn Stensland, who aired veteran...
Israeli defence reporter Emanuel Fabian received threatening messages from Polymarket users after his routine report on a minor missile strike near Jerusalem became central to a $23 million prediction market bet on whether Iran would strike Israel. The bettors, who stood...
MediaScience introduced Creative Twin, an AI‑powered tool that replicates ads element‑by‑element for precise testing. In a study with 812 U.S. respondents, participants could not distinguish AI‑generated copies from originals. The platform lets marketers modify individual components—such as talent, hair style,...
CBS Evening News, anchored by Tony Dokoupil, has seen a sharp ratings drop, shedding roughly 20% of its audience in the first week. Current average viewership sits at about 3.83 million overall and only 468,000 in the coveted 25‑54 demographic, far...
Patrón Tequila has launched a global campaign titled “The Perfect Pour,” directed by Oscar‑winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, marking his first television commercial. The ad features del Toro overseeing a set staffed by animated skeletons, tying his meticulous storytelling to Patrón’s handcrafted,...
One major issue in 𝕏’s new regional silencing policy 🧵👇is that it will destroy many of the professional communities on 𝕏. Here is a relevant example for @nikitabier and @elonmusk - the BioTech community on 𝕏 includes many scientists, investors,...
Global Media has struck a data partnership with Sainsbury’s Nectar360, merging first‑party shopper information with its own listener data on the DAX digital audio platform. The integration lets advertisers target UK audio audiences using anonymised purchase insights and directly measure...
FreeWheel announced a direct integration with data‑partner Tunnl, adding more than 3,500 issue‑driven audience segments to its CTV buying platform. The partnership promises a roughly 90 percent match rate on premium CTV inventory, reducing waste and accelerating activation for political advertisers....
Trump troll Matt Gertz, senior fellow at the hard left Media Matters for America @mmfa: “Any broadcaster now has to question if anything they put out could end up getting them in a heap of legal trouble with the @FCC.”...
Policyband Quote of the Day: “@BrendanCarrFCC critics pretend he said something radical. However, the Communications Act in Section 309(a) has long required broadcasters that use public spectrum to operate in the ‘public interest.’ That principle is the foundation of...
National Lottery operator Allwyn is establishing Studio 59, an in‑house creative and content studio slated to open in April. The unit will unify creative, social, production, planning and brand marketing to accelerate content creation across retail, digital and communications channels....
Twirl remains a popular choice for structured creator‑led content, but growing brands are seeking platforms that can handle larger creator volumes and more flexible workflows. Alternatives such as Modash, Humanz, Creator.co, Billo, Collabstr, Insense, Influee and Trend.io each emphasize different...
Macmillan Publishers announced Darryll Colthrust as its inaugural Chief Technology Officer, set to assume the role on April 7. Colthrust will deliver the keynote at the AI@Media international conference on March 24, 2026, organized by Publishing Perspectives and Digital Publishing...
Investigative reporter Francesca D’Annunzio uncovered that Texas Department of Public Safety spent $5.3 million on PenLink’s Cobwebs‑produced Tangles phone‑tracking software, a key component of Governor Greg Abbott’s $11 billion Operation Lone Star. The contract, first signed in 2021 and renewed annually, allows...
A video showing a toddler crying over a flag‑draped coffin went viral, amassing over 1.1 million views before experts identified it as AI‑generated. Digital‑forensics specialists from UC Berkeley, Northwestern and the University of Michigan flagged visual anomalies and confirmed deep‑fake characteristics. The...
MS NOW announced a sweeping programming overhaul set for June, aimed at capitalizing on double‑digit viewership gains and positioning the network for the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential race. Late‑night anchor Stephanie Ruhle will leave her 11 p.m. slot to host...
Former President Donald Trump escalated attacks on the press, calling war reporting treason and urging punitive measures. FCC Chair Brendan Carr and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed his rhetoric, threatening license revocations and demanding patriotic coverage. Media companies, including CNN...
Chelsea FC’s upcoming fixtures are being distributed across multiple UK broadcasters, with Premier League games typically on Sky Sports or TNT Sports and FA Cup ties on BBC or ITV. The article lists specific dates, kick‑off times, and opponents from...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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....
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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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
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.
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.
How to show up in Google Discover 2026 edition: tweet things you also might be interested in 😅 https://t.co/QuiAVIpyCy
MS NOW Shake-Up: Ali Velshi Seizes ’11th Hour,’ ‘Morning Joe’ Cedes 9 A.M., Ana Cabrera Slides in Daytime Overhaul https://t.co/e2DZ9wmvcn via @variety
Be sure to check out Dr. Tour on the @ReviveOurHearts radio program on March 18–19. You can listen by going to https://t.co/sId2dCw6Dm https://t.co/HhBKlIdeso
In which The Times reveals that it hires a company to alter its own Wikipedia entry. 1/ Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Push to Cleanse His Past Online https://t.co/TloRZagrQU https://t.co/eBZnCsL2sQ
@AnthropicAI what happened to Opus 3’s substack? There were never any posts after the big fanfare announcing it. https://t.co/by55bhhHnx
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
