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.
Paramount‑Skydance Faces $110 B Merger Lawsuit From Subscribers over Antitrust Concerns
Paramount Global, now under Skydance, and Warner Bros. Discovery are confronting a consumer lawsuit that seeks to block their $110 billion merger. Plaintiffs argue the deal would give the combined firm roughly 24% of theatrical distribution, enabling higher prices and fewer film choices. The case adds to antitrust scrutiny already underway in California and at the federal level.
LIV Golf Secures Major South Asia Distribution Push with Sony Alliance
Sony Pictures Networks India has secured exclusive broadcast rights for the 2026 LIV Golf season, covering all 14 events across South Asia. The tournaments will be shown live on Sony Sports Network and streamed on Sony LIV, reaching audiences in India,...
“The Fragmentation of Media Is Clear”: Adland Reacts to AA/Warc Expenditure Report
The latest AA/Warc expenditure report shows advertising spend becoming increasingly fragmented across a growing array of media channels. Digital continues to dominate, now representing roughly 58% of total spend, while traditional TV and print see their shares shrink to historic...
The Walrus Leads National Magazine Awards
The Walrus announced an unprecedented 25 nominations at this year’s National Magazine Awards, covering categories from long‑form feature writing to illustration and branded content. The nominations span more than 20 distinct categories, highlighting the magazine’s breadth of storytelling and visual...
Ad Council and NHTSA Unveil 'Never Happens' Hot‑Car Safety PSAs
The Ad Council and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched new public‑service ads on May 1, 2026 as part of the "Never Happens" campaign. The pro‑bono effort, developed by agency Chemistry, targets parents and caregivers to stop child heatstroke...
"Sharp" Series Branded "Comedy Comfort Food" Jumps up Netflix's UK Trending Chart
Running Point’s second season has propelled the sports‑comedy series onto Netflix’s UK trending chart, landing it at number five regionally and number two worldwide on the platform’s TV rankings, according to FlixPatrol. The show, starring Kate Hudson as reformed party...
Video: Trailer Debut - Hulu Original - "Lisa Ann Walter: It Was An Accident"
Hulu announced the May 15 debut of "Lisa Ann Walter: It Was An Accident," a comedy special streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for U.S. bundle subscribers and on Disney+ internationally. The hour‑long show is written, performed, executive‑produced and directed by Walter herself, with Art & Industry handling production. It...
Under the Trump Administration, Pressure on the Press Is Both Subtle and Direct | Kai Falkenberg
Former President Donald Trump has begun demanding that news outlets air his interviews in full, threatening lawsuits if they edit content. He has already sued CBS, the Des Moines Register and the BBC under state deceptive‑trade‑practice statutes, a legal strategy...
How to Repurpose Existing Content for Multiple Channels
Azad Yakatally, social media lead at Spring Health, urged marketers to stop chasing brand‑new ideas and instead recycle existing assets across channels. At a Ragan conference he demonstrated how a single webinar, white paper or testimonial can be split into...
Balaji and Taylor Lorenz on AI and Media
In this episode, Balaji Srinivasan and tech journalist Taylor Lorenz discuss how AI is reshaping media, trust, and the economics of information. They argue that AI-generated content makes verification harder, prompting a push for cryptographic truth, decentralized identity, and human‑only...
Disney, Hulu Team on Interactive, Immersive Storefronts
Disney+ and Hulu have rolled out “The Drama You Want,” an interactive storefront experience in Manhattan and Santa Monica. The installations turn vacant retail windows into gesture‑controlled displays that let pedestrians browse drama titles by waving their hands. Developed with Publicis...
FOX Announces "Marriage Market," A High-Stakes Arranged Marriage Experiment, Hosted by Whitney Cummings
FOX announced a new unscripted series, *Marriage Market*, slated for the 2026‑27 season. Hosted by comedian Whitney Cummings, the show places single adults in an arranged‑marriage experiment where their families select partners and can send them back to the market...
UK Affiliate Industry Hits £21 Billion as APMA Calls Time on Last-Click Thinking
The UK affiliate and partner marketing channel surpassed £21 billion (≈ $27 billion) in revenue, growing 7.3%—five times faster than the broader economy’s 1.4% expansion. Retail accounts for over half of tracked spend, while health‑and‑beauty and travel sectors posted the strongest double‑digit gains,...
Data: Football Viewership Growing Across the US
Nielsen reports U.S. audiences logged nearly 80 billion minutes watching football in 2025, underscoring the sport’s accelerating popularity ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Interest is rising across the board, with a third of the general population and nearly two‑thirds...
Voyo Adds AMC Channels and Ta3 in Slovakia
Voyo has broadened its Slovak streaming portfolio by adding ten linear channels on April 29, including nine from AMC Global Media Central Europe and the ta3 news service. The new lineup—Sport 1, Sport 2, AMC, Film+, Spektrum, Spektrum Home, TV Paprika, Minimax and JimJam—covers sports,...
WBD Lines up 4,000 Live Hours for Summer of Sport
Warner Bros. Discovery will air more than 4,000 hours of live sport this summer across TNT Sports, Eurosport and HBO Max. The schedule, running from May through July, includes over 50 events in 50 markets, ranging from Grand Tour cycling and Roland‑Garros to...
NYTimes' Delayed Coverage Raises Questions About Priorities
What I find more interesting is why it's taken the NYTimes this long to highlight this. https://t.co/ZzT7Hk26XM
The Sales Talent Lessons Radio Needs From Hispanic Radio
Hispanic radio leaders argue that attracting and retaining sales talent now hinges on storytelling, community ties, and digital integration rather than commissions alone. They frame radio as part of a broader ecosystem, emphasizing purpose, earnings potential, flexibility, and modern tools....
Charline Bou Mansour Joins CNN Creators Team
Charline Bou Mansour, a senior journalist from Sky News, has joined CNN Creators as a permanent on‑air member in Doha. Known for digital storytelling and award‑nominated documentaries, she brings expertise in Middle‑East cultural, social and geopolitical reporting. Her appointment coincides with CNN’s...
Nielsen Data Gives Radio a Foothold With World Cup Fans
Nielsen’s Fan Insights survey reveals that 61% of U.S. soccer fans rely on radio for sports news, outpacing the 46% baseline of the general population. Podcast usage mirrors this trend, with 60% of fans tuning in versus 37% of non‑fans....
Do Opposites Really Attract?
The traditional "Dick, Dork, Dear" formula that once guided morning‑show casts is giving way to fluid, contrast‑driven ensembles. Producers now map personalities to five core archetypes—Everyman, Instigator, Comic, Heart, and Head—regardless of cast size. Contrast between these roles fuels humor,...
DMR/Interactive Elevates Bannon to EVP, Strategy and Growth
DMR/Interactive announced Tony Bannon’s elevation to Executive Vice President of Strategy and Growth. Bannon, who joined the firm in December 2019 as VP of Marketing Strategy, has guided its response to shifting media‑consumption habits during the pandemic. His background spans...
How Some Crime Writers Are Finding a New Path to Publishing
The crime‑fiction market is navigating a wave of publisher closures, with indie presses like Down and Out Books folding and trade paperback sales falling 9% in 2025. In response, writers such as Jill Blocker and her partner have launched Constellate...
Reporters at McClatchy Withhold Bylines in A.I. Dispute
McClatchy has deployed an internal AI system called the Content Scaling Agent to generate audience‑specific summaries of reporters' stories. Journalists at The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and other chain papers are refusing to attach their bylines to AI‑assisted pieces, opting...
This Indigenous Language Survived Russian Occupation. Can It Survive YouTube?
Researchers from four universities analyzed 11,000 YouTube search results and discovered that Kyrgyz‑language videos are systematically under‑recommended to children, with Russian content dominating even when kids search for cartoons, fairy tales, or popular games. The study found only 2.7% of...
GymNation Launches Global Creative Competition to Design Next National Billboard
GymNation has launched the “Your Ad. Our Billboard.” competition, inviting agencies, freelancers, studios and its own members to design the brand’s next national billboard. Submissions are due by May 18, 2026, with the winning concept unveiled on National Billboard Day, June 1, 2026. The...
Italy: Sky, WBD Renew Deal
Sky Italia and Warner Bros Discovery have renewed their partnership, restoring a suite of linear channels and on‑demand assets to the platform. The agreement re‑introduces WBD’s portfolio—including Food Network, HGTV, Discovery, and kids’ brands—alongside the discovery+ app on Sky Q, Stream and...
Digital Azul Centralises Multi-Site Operations with New Lisbon MCR
Digital Azul has launched a new Master Control Room in Lisbon, capable of managing up to three concurrent productions across disparate locations. The facility leverages Vizrt TriCaster, Intinor Direkt routers, Dante audio, and supports a range of signal formats including...
Disney’s Josh D’Amaro Faces Familiar Script in Latest Trump Fight
Disney’s new CEO Josh D’Amaro inherited a political firestorm when Donald Trump and the FCC targeted ABC over a Jimmy Kimmel joke. The FCC opened an expedited review of eight Disney‑owned broadcast licenses, citing the company’s diversity policies. D’Amaro, who announced...
The Science of Ad Intelligence: How Data-Driven Brands Reverse-Engineer Winning Campaigns
The article argues that paid‑media success now hinges on ad intelligence rather than gut instinct. By reverse‑engineering creatives that demonstrate longevity and stable spend, brands can compress testing cycles, lower customer‑acquisition cost (CAC) and avoid creative fatigue. Automated tools—especially Instagram...
Netflix Pushes Deeper Into Mobile with ‘Clips’ Feature
Netflix has rolled out a redesigned mobile app centered on a new “Clips” feature, a vertical, swipe‑able feed of short excerpts from its library. The feed lets users share clips, add titles to their watchlist, and jump straight into full...
Sunil Grover and Kiku Sharda Bring ‘Dealpanti’ to Goibibo’s Latest Campaign
Goibibo has rolled out a new digital campaign titled “Dealpanti,” featuring Indian comedy veterans Sunil Grover and Kiku Sharda alongside cricketer‑turned‑brand ambassador Rishabh Pant. The two short films, created by Restless@MagicCircle and produced by Petromax India Films, use exaggerated, pop‑culture...
Tappx Strengthens Its Sustained Growth Model with Five-Year Consecutive Growth
Tappx announced a 35 % revenue increase for 2025, extending a five‑year streak of growth. From 2020 to 2025 the company posted a 31 % revenue CAGR and a 44.9 % EBITDA CAGR, with its supply‑side platform delivering 50 % growth last year. Staff...
Social Media Trends for 2026
Social media remains a dominant media form in 2026, with more than two‑thirds of the global population online each month and users spending an average of seven hours weekly. Charities face a rapidly evolving landscape, where AI‑generated misinformation and platform...
The Stack: Advertising Gets More Autonomous
This week saw AI‑driven advertising move toward full autonomy, with Omnicom reporting live media buys executed by AI agents that purchase inventory directly from publishers. Anthropic demonstrated a closed‑loop AI‑agent marketplace where bots act as buyers and sellers, while OpenAI...
From Creative Optimization to Creative Intelligence: How Mobile Teams Scale Ad Performance in 2026
Mobile growth teams now see creative as the single biggest performance lever in 2026, not the sheer number of ads. The focus is shifting from volume‑driven testing to "creative intelligence"—systems that generate hypotheses, run structured experiments, learn patterns, and scale...
Serbia’s War on the Press: The Full Playbook in 10 Chapters
Reporters Without Borders’ 2026 Press Freedom Index shows global press freedom at its lowest in 25 years, with 100 of 180 countries worsening. Serbia slipped to rank 104, eight places lower, marking the steepest regional decline. Under President Aleksandar Vučić,...
ITV Reviving ‘Name That Tune’ With Host Alison Hammond
ITV is reviving the classic music‑quiz "Name That Tune" with popular presenter Alison Hammond at the helm. The reboot taps the momentum of the U.S. version on Fox, which has completed five successful seasons. Production is being handled by ITV...
SCA Picks up the Slack as Ooh Media’s Charge up the ASX Eases
The Unmade Index closed the week flat at 381.5 points after a turbulent five‑day stretch driven by PEP’s bid for Ooh Media. Ooh Media surged 33% over the week and added another 1.3% on Friday, propelling the index’s 4.9% weekly...
"The Mystery of Richard Simmons: A Diane Sawyer Special" To Premiere Tuesday, May 12, on ABC and Streams Next Day...
ABC News Studios is debuting an hour‑long documentary titled “The Mystery of Richard Simmons: A Diane Sawyer Special” on Tuesday, May 12, from 9:00‑9:59 p.m. EDT. The film chronicles Simmons’ three‑decade fitness empire, his abrupt 2014 withdrawal from public life, a quietly...
Rohan Lund Begins as CEO of Merged Southern Cross Media
Rohan Lund began his first day as chief executive of Southern Cross Media, the newly merged entity that combines Seven Network, 7plus, Hit and Triple M radio networks, and the LiSTNR audio platform. Lund arrives after former boss Jeff Howard’s departure...
Piramal Finance Rolls Out Hyperlocal Digital Campaign During Cricket Season
Piramal Finance has launched a digital‑first, hyperlocal campaign timed with the cricket season, deploying more than 1,000 short films across its 701‑branch network. Each film is adapted by geography, language and local context, covering eight regional languages and using AI‑driven...
Mumbrella Publish Catchup: Rethinking Revenue and Reclaiming Sovereignty
At a Mumbrella Publish session, executives from Private Media, Mamamia and Little Black Book examined how media revenue models are evolving. Private Media’s acquisition pushed its ad‑to‑subscriber split to 60% advertising, while Mamamia relies on podcasts for roughly half its...
How to Build $100M Offers for Your Substack (So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No)
The post argues that most newsletter creators face an offer problem rather than a traffic problem, meaning subscriber numbers alone don’t guarantee revenue. It proposes building "$100M offers"—high‑value, irresistible packages—that transform even a modest Substack list into a profit engine....
How Streaming Platforms Can Operationalize AI Without Compromising Performance
Streaming platforms are rapidly moving AI from experimental pilots into core workflows, but the added intelligence threatens the millisecond‑level performance that drives viewer satisfaction. A recent 500 % traffic surge showed AI‑driven recommendation engines can saturate compute resources, causing playback latency...
Scrubs: Season Two; 2026-27 Renewal Announced for ABC Sitcom Revival
ABC has renewed the *Scrubs* sitcom revival for a second season slated for 2026‑27 after the nine‑episode first season aired in mid‑April. The revival brings back original leads Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke, alongside a new supporting cast. It...
Honda Australia Invites Drivers to ‘Dream Again’
Honda Australia unveiled a new "dream again" brand campaign, centering on the return of the Honda Prelude. The TV spot shows a man navigating a maze of garages that house stalled personal ambitions, before revealing a Prelude that symbolizes reclaimed...
Video: "Marty, Life Is Short" - Official Trailer - Netflix
Netflix unveiled the official trailer for "Marty, Life Is Short," a documentary chronicling the life and career of beloved comedian Martin Short. The teaser, released on May 1, 2026, promises intimate, never‑before‑seen archival footage and candid interviews that trace Short’s...
How China Is Using AI – and State Funding – to Transform the Micro Drama Industry
South Korean studio Vigloo is allocating roughly 30% of its budget to AI, slashing production cycles from three months to one and cutting costs by 80%. Meanwhile, China’s micro‑drama sector—often called vertical dramas—reached an estimated $14.6 bn in 2025 and is...
Ads of the Week: 8 Campaigns That Caught Our Eye, From Claire’s to Skittles
Adweek’s weekly roundup spotlights eight diverse campaigns, from Budweiser’s World Cup tie‑in with Erling Haaland to Disney’s feel‑good animator story. Skittles leans into surreal imagery, while Chivas Regal pairs whisky with a board‑game vibe. Claire’s launches a summer 2026 push aimed at...