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.
Proof Delivers Extensive Previs and Postvis for 'Stranger Things' Final Season
Proof Inc. released new previs and postvis reels for the final season of Netflix’s *Stranger Things*, covering all eight episodes after nearly two years of work. The studio generated roughly 1,900 combined shots, visualizing major action set pieces such as creature attacks, vehicle chases, and dimensional battles. Production relied heavily on Unreal Engine, enabling fully rendered previs to feed directly into editorial and accelerate iteration. A custom lighting pipeline and Gaussian Splats technique further refined creature integration and environment stitching, boosting efficiency for the series’ VFX pipeline.
New Imprint: 3AM Books
Transworld, a division of Penguin Random House, has launched 3AM Books, the company’s first imprint dedicated solely to horror. The imprint will be led by publishing director Rachel Winterbottom and editorial director Simon Taylor, supported by a team of editors...
Commentary: Why I Left National Media to Run a Small Town Newspaper
Skylar Baker-Jordan left a national journalism career to become editor of the Glasgow Courier, a small‑town newspaper in Montana. The piece highlights a nationwide crisis: 40% of local papers have shuttered in the last two decades, with over 130 closures...
ProPublica and The Connecticut Mirror Win Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting
ProPublica and its Local Reporting Network partner The Connecticut Mirror earned the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for the "On the Hook" series exposing abusive towing practices in Connecticut. The investigation revealed that tow companies could sell vehicles within...
New Apple Podcasts HLS Host, Digital Audio’s 2025 Consumer Spend, & More
Apple Podcasts has moved out of beta for video distribution, letting Buzzsprout users push video‑plus‑audio HLS feeds to the platform automatically. The industry is grappling with a surge of AI‑generated "podslop" content, prompting RSS.com to restrict programmatic ads and Spotify...
GUY SEBASTIAN Targeted on GLENN & MICK’S CELEBRITY INTERVENTION
Australian singer‑songwriter Guy Sebastian will be the next focus of Seven Network’s comedy‑talk series *Glenn & Mick’s Celebrity Intervention*. Hosts Glenn Robbins and Mick Molloy, joined by co‑host Lawrence Mooney, will guide a conversation that includes Sebastian’s wife Jules and fellow...
RAIN Time Travel: May 2016 Headlines
The May 2016 roundup revisits a pivotal month when digital audio accelerated across multiple fronts. DAB+ smartphones launched in Australia and the UK, while iHeartRadio hit 85 million registered users and SoundCloud expanded ads into the UK and Ireland. Industry forecasts predicted...
Trump’s Late-Night Truths Are the Ultimate Professional Hangover
The Daily Beast podcast reveals that former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social almost every night in April, with only five days without activity between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Data shows he was online roughly 80 % of the time he...
Best of Show: Wheatstone VMX Virtual Mixing Platform
Wheatstone’s VMX virtual mixing platform won Radio World’s Best of Show award at the 2026 NAB Show. The web‑based system removes physical studio constraints by running on existing servers or dedicated appliances. It is hardware‑agnostic, AES67‑compliant, and integrates with WheatNet’s...
Amazon Music To Livestream Rolling Loud 2026
Amazon Music has secured exclusive rights to livestream the 2026 Rolling Loud festival, held May 8‑10 in Orlando, Florida. The three‑day event, featuring more than 75 hip‑hop artists including headliners Playboi Carti, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Don Toliver, will be broadcast on the Amazon Music...
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TikTok: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It's Popular
TikTok, launched in 2016 by ByteDance, has become a dominant short‑form video platform with over 5 billion downloads and more than 100 million U.S. users. Its AI‑driven feed fuels high engagement, attracting brands that invest heavily in viral ad formats. In April 2024,...
Adthena Launches Industry-First Tool for ChatGPT Ads Campaigns
Adthena unveiled ChatGPT AdBridge, a free migration tool that converts existing Google Ads campaigns into keyword and negative‑keyword lists ready for the new ChatGPT Ads platform. The solution uses AI to enrich keywords, broaden coverage and streamline negatives, then delivers...
The Audio Industry Is Grappling With the Rise of 'Podslop'
The audio ecosystem is confronting a surge of AI‑generated shows, a phenomenon dubbed “podslop.” Platforms such as Amazon have begun auto‑creating quasi‑podcasts, while the Atlantic’s CEO noted the term flooding Spotify searches. Apple Podcasts now mandates AI disclosure, whereas Spotify...
Fox News Media Leads News Brands on YouTube in April
Fox News Media closed April as the top news brand on YouTube, racking up 605 million video views across its channels. The flagship Fox News YouTube channel alone delivered 471.9 million views, outpacing MS NOW, CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS. The network also...
Allen Media Channels Coming to Lower-Priced YouTube TV Packages
YouTube TV and Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group have renewed a multi‑year carriage agreement that places Allen’s national cable networks, including The Weather Channel and Comedy.TV, in YouTube TV’s base package priced at $83 per month. The deal does not...
The Night Agent to End with Season 4 / Jenna Elfman Joins Fox's The Interrogator / SNL Had Trouble Figuring...
Netflix announced that the action‑thriller series The Night Agent will conclude with a fourth season, ending its run after four years of strong viewership. The show, led by Gabrielle Basso, has drawn more than 30 million global viewers and helped Netflix...
AI Search Visibility Index: Influencer Marketing Platforms, May 2026
Net Influencer and Grow and Convert analyzed how AI chat tools surface influencer‑marketing platforms. Across 40 query runs on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, 50 platforms were mentioned, but visibility is heavily skewed toward the top....
Carney Grilled over Censorship, Media Subsidies on World Press Freedom Day
On World Press Freedom Day Prime Minister Mark Carney praised Canada’s "free and open press," but the comment ignited a wave of criticism on X. Commentators accused the Liberal government of eroding media independence through extensive public subsidies, regulatory measures...
Local TV News Is Vanishing
Local TV newsrooms are disappearing as stations like Indianapolis’ WRTV and California’s KION-TV abruptly dismissed over 50 staff members and replaced local newscasts with content from distant affiliates. The closures are tied to recent ownership changes, including Circle City Broadcasting’s...
Fox News Viewership Linked to Belief in a Racist Conspiracy Theory
Researchers led by Jesse Rhodes tracked over 1,000 white Americans from summer 2024 to 2025 and found a strong link between regular Fox News viewership and belief in the Great Replacement Theory. Viewers of specific Fox programs, such as those...
I Used to Spend 5 Hours a Week on Research. Two AI Agents Replaced All of It.
An entrepreneur reduced a weekly five‑hour research routine to under 20 minutes by deploying two AI agents. Agent 1 monitors 20 YouTube channels, summarizing new videos into Slack; Agent 2 aggregates those summaries, selects highlights, and drafts the newsletter research section. The...
Disney+ Adds New Star Wars Darth Maul Profile Avatar
Disney+ has rolled out a new Darth Maul profile avatar to mark Star Wars Day and promote the debut of the animated series "Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord." The avatar, placed at the top of the profile selection list,...
CANAL+ App to Be Pre-Installed on Sharp TiVo TVs
CANAL+ announced a strategic partnership with Sharp Consumer Electronics to pre‑install its streaming app on Sharp Smart TVs powered by TiVo in Europe. The app will be pre‑loaded on models sold in France, Poland, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Hungary,...
Authors Needn't Shame Over Unclear Book Sales Data
I'm willing to go out on a limb and say no author should ever feel embarrassed by their book sales figures. Here's a primer on what book sales data is available and what it tells us about the economics of the...
NBC Sports’ NBA Playoff Viewership Up 58%
NBC Sports reported that its NBA playoff coverage on NBC and Peacock averaged 4.9 million viewers during the first 13 games, a 58% increase over the same period last year. The surge created the most‑watched comparable playoff window since 1996 and...
YouTube TV Will Keep The Weather Channel in New Deal
YouTube TV has reached a new long‑term agreement with Allen Media Group that keeps The Weather Channel on its lineup, along with niche channels Comedy.TV, Justice Central and Recipe.TV. The Weather Channel was reportedly at risk of removal before negotiations...
World Split on Free Speech vs Misinformation, Right Leans Free
The dilemma of balancing freedom of expression against limiting the spread of misinformation is a central debate in modern information ecosystems. In our latest paper, we measured citizens’ preferences for...
Everton v Man City Live Stream, TV Channel – Where to Watch Football on Tv Today
Everton host Manchester City on 4 May 2026 at 20:00 BST, with the match broadcast live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League. The fixture pits a City side six points off league leaders Arsenal against a Toffees side chasing...
A New Hope (for Publishers)
Publishers face mounting revenue pressure as AI bots flood sites, creating traffic volatility and operational strain. Industry leaders urge rapid‑revenue tactics, treating the second quarter as a make‑up period, while emphasizing the need for visibility into bot activity. A series...
6 TV and Streaming Shows You Should Binge-Watch in May
May’s streaming calendar is packed with six high‑profile series, ranging from spy thriller Citadel’s Season 2 debut on Prime Video to the final episode of Good Omens. The Yellowstone universe expands with the Dutton Ranch spin‑off on Paramount+, while Rick and...
Top 3 New Netflix and Prime Video Arrivals for a Mid-Week Binge (May 4-8)
Netflix and Prime Video unveiled three standout titles for the week of May 4‑8, targeting viewers looking for a mid‑week binge. Netflix adds the British‑produced drama "Legends" on May 7, a gritty tale about customs agents turned anti‑drug operatives. On May 8, Netflix...
Fact Checking Snopes
The blog critiques Snopes' May 1 fact‑check of a disbarment complaint against Chief Justice John Roberts, acknowledging Snopes accurately reported Jane Roberts’ $10.3 million commission earnings but faulting its legal analysis. It argues Snopes misapplied recusal statutes, relied on an outdated 2009...
Paramount+ Viewership Stagnates Despite CEO’s Growth Promises
The Four Paramount Questions We Want David Ellison to Answer Tonight Back in August 2025, PSKY CEO David Ellison laid out his vision for Paramount to be “a fast-growing DTC offering that we expect will be a leading, global streaming...
Playing Catch-Up in Online Publishing
The author of a casual blog explains how traditional distribution channels—RSS, social media, and even native site traffic—are losing effectiveness as algorithms favor short‑form video and ad‑laden experiences. To counteract this, the blog migrated to Ghost, which natively supports email...
YouTube Powers Record Live Streams with New Global Features
April was an absolutely massive month for live streaming on @youtube, from @NASA's Artemis II mission 🚀 (which accumulated over 79M viewers) to the iconic stages of @coachella 🎡 None of this scale would be possible without our infrastructure and engineering...
Writers Chase Trends to Outcompete, Not Create
This is terrible, of course, but an important thing to understand about the book world is that a lot of writers are hopping on these bandwagons out of sheer (short-sighted) commercial self-interest. It's about taking down your competitors so you...
WNYC, WQXR Parent Adds Three To Executive Team
New York Public Radio, which operates WNYC, WQXR and the Gothamist website, announced three senior hires. Ruchika Sharma joins as Chief People Officer, Emily Christner as Chief Growth and Engagement Officer, and Patti Cohen as Senior Vice President of Analytics,...
Washington Post Wins Pulitzer for Exposing Trump's Workforce Cuts
The Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for its coverage of Donald Trump’s far-reaching efforts in his second term to shrink the federal workforce and overhaul government through the Elon Musk-led U.S. DOGE Service. My story: https://t.co/6mlOqNabYq
Paramount+ Strategy: Path to Streaming Leadership
How Does Paramount+ Become a Streaming Industry Leader? + three other questions for $PSKY https://t.co/2FaqAGBFq4
Short‑Form Videos Can Hook Users in 35 Minutes
This is crazy: According to TikTok's own internal records, short-form content is so powerful that: "In under 35 minutes, an average user is likely to become addicted to the platform." I imagine the same is true for IG Reels and YouTube Shorts. No...
Parenting a Viral YouTuber: Learning to Let Go
I talked to a mom-ager about what it's like to manage her son's popular YouTube channel — and letting go as a parent @CaseOh__ @caseohs_mom https://t.co/yzngEIKSq8
Unlocking Foundation Tax Data to Trace Money Flows
Excited to have broken through on a long-time project of mine: figuring out a way to aggregate foundation tax return data to see how the money flows. Opening the Trillion-Dollar Black Box: How I Tapped Into Foundation Tax Return Data...
ESPN Keeps Promise: No Meddling in Inside the NBA
The Vrabel-Russini jab is the latest sign that ESPN is following through on its vow to not meddle in Inside the NBA content https://t.co/mahUPpk3Qs
YouTube Streams Met Gala Live for Cultural Immersion
Viewers come to @youtube to immerse themselves in the biggest cultural moments. Tonight is no exception: catch the Met Gala action, live on the @voguemagazine YouTube channel.
From $150k to $5B: Bet on Yourself
In 1973, George Lucas was offered $500k to direct Star Wars. His counter: $150k + merch & sequel rights. After minting billions, he sold LucasFilm to Disney for $4B in 2012. Lucas turned $350k into $5B+ and the world's greatest collection...
Gulf States Redefine Sports Ties, Sky News Future Uncertain
Washed up: Gulf States shake-up sports ties. Sky News Arabia future in question.... $PSKY #PIF I took a look at the growing list of Mid-East funded projects. https://t.co/ZwyGBxAlZt
Mid‑length, Original LinkedIn Posts Dominate AI Citations
Findings from a @semrush study of 325,000 AI prompts about which LinkedIn content gets cited in AI search: -Articles between 500-2,000 words = 77% of AI citations -95% of cited LinkedIn content is original -75% of the LinkedIn authors whose content gets...
Still Remembering Business Insider's Exceptional CMS After a Decade
I left Business Insider 10 years ago, and I still think about how good that CMS was
Netflix Ends The Night Agent with Fourth Season
#Netflix has canceled #TheNightAgent. The upcoming fourth season will be the series’ last. #streaming $NFLX
Acorn Launches Creator‑controlled Alternative as X Drops Communities
As X shuts down Communities, Acorn debuts an alternative that puts creators in control https://t.co/S3iCkqizJH