Strictly's New Host Reportedly 'Revealed' - as Popular CBB and Netflix Host
Emma Willis is reportedly on the verge of signing a deal to become the new host of Strictly Come Dancing for its 2025 season, succeeding long‑time presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman. The Sun also claims Zoe Ball will join Willis as a co‑host, with Willis anchoring from the dance floor and Ball from the auditorium. Willis brings a résumé that includes Big Brother, The Voice UK and Netflix’s Love Is Blind UK, while Ball returns after a decade presenting the spin‑off It Takes Two. The BBC expects to confirm the line‑up later this year.
Ofcom Investigating GB News Over Donald Trump Interview After All
Ofcom announced it will reopen its investigation into GB News after the network rebroadcast a November interview with U.S. President Donald Trump. The regulator says the repeat, aired 12 hours later with a different panel, may breach rules on due impartiality...
A Smarter Way to Approach Reddit in PR
Reddit, now 21 years old, has become a primary source for AI‑generated answers, with Google paying $60 million annually for its content. This shift means that brand visibility on Reddit directly influences the information AI assistants present to consumers. PR professionals...
Netflix’s Bold New Pitch to Advertisers: ‘We Can Compete With Anyone’
Netflix’s advertising division is on track to double its revenue for the second consecutive year, targeting roughly $3 billion in ad sales by 2026. Programmatic buying now accounts for almost half of its ad business, bolstered by recent DSP integrations with...
Why SPH’s Lianhe Zaobao Is Rethinking How Stories Are Framed
Singapore Press Holdings’ Chinese‑language outlet Lianhe Zaobao used a custom GPT model to dissect 6,006 articles and map them to user‑need categories. The analysis revealed an over‑reliance on "Update Me" pieces and a gap in emotional and actionable stories for different...
AM/FM Captures Huge In-Car Audio Share Among Top Auto Brands
Traditional AM/FM radio commands the vast majority of in‑car ad‑supported audio, holding 81% of listening time among Ford drivers and 90% among Chevrolet drivers. Across all brands, radio accounts for 83% of in‑car audio share, far outpacing podcasts and streaming...
This Upfront Season, Measurement Is More Important than Ever
Upfronts week returns with networks and streamers pitching advertisers, but measurement and performance metrics now dominate discussions. Flexibility in dealmaking and real‑time data are top priorities amid economic volatility. Disney’s ownership of the 2027 Super Bowl gives it leverage, while...
How World Cup Filming Has Evolved Since the Last US Tournament – From Spider Cameras to AI and Drones
The 2026 FIFA World Cup, staged across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, expands to 48 teams and 104 matches, deploying an unprecedented 45‑50 cameras per game. Players will be scanned into AI‑generated 3‑D avatars that feed into VAR and off‑side...
Hulvey: Radio Is the ‘Force Multiplier’ Digital Budgets Need
RAB President Mike Hulvey used the Broadcast Advocate podcast to argue that radio acts as a ‘force multiplier’ for digital‑only ad budgets, citing John Morgan’s testimonial as proof of concept. He pushed back against recent headlines that mischaracterized Jacobs Media’s...
Time To Rethink Your Client List
Radio sales reps often hit a revenue plateau not because they stop working, but because their client mix has reached a ceiling. Loyal, low‑growth advertisers dominate the book, limiting upside. The article urges sellers to redefine a “better client” and...
Aimee Lou Wood’s BBC Comedy ‘Film Club’ Will Not Return For Second Season
BBC has confirmed that the romantic‑comedy series Film Club will not return for a second season. The six‑part debut, starring Aimee Lou Wood, earned a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress but was mutually ended as Wood opts to focus on writing. Co‑writer...
MrBeast Is Wooing Big Advertisers at an Invite-Only Gathering in NYC. Here's What He's Planning.
Creator-driven media company Beast Industries is hosting an invite‑only breakfast in Manhattan to pitch its brand‑partnership vision to top advertisers and agency executives. The event, timed with the traditional TV upfronts week, signals the growing competition between creator‑led platforms and...
PwC Warns Pressure on Media Markets, Shifting Fan Expectations Will Impact Sports Rights
PwC’s ninth Global Sport Survey warns that the value of sports media rights is set to decline over the next three to five years, even as the overall sports market continues to grow. The study of 500 senior executives and...
Prime Video Ads Can Now Change Based on What Viewers Already Saw
Amazon announced Dynamic TV Creative, a new tool that automatically adjusts Prime Video ad creatives based on a viewer’s prior exposure to a brand or product. The feature, unveiled at Amazon’s May 11 upfront, builds on last year’s interactive video ads...
Adobe Acrobat as a Marketing Tool? New AI Features Help You Reach Every Stakeholder, Every Time
Adobe introduced PDF Spaces, an AI‑powered workspace inside Acrobat that transforms static PDFs into interactive, shareable microsites. The tool bundles documents, links, notes and AI‑generated summaries, audio overviews, and a conversational assistant that answers stakeholder questions. Real‑time engagement analytics reveal...
The Gap Between Modern and Legacy ESPs Is Widening
Artificial intelligence is reshaping email marketing by embedding predictive audience selection, timing, and content optimization directly into modern email service providers (ESPs). Legacy ESPs, which rely on bolt‑on AI and relational databases, cannot match the speed, cost efficiency, or real‑time...
'Treat Us as People, Not a Story,' Abuse Survivors Tell News Organisations
New UK research surveyed 15 sexual‑abuse survivors about their experiences speaking with journalists. Conducted with University of Essex psychologists, the study found interview practices often replicate the powerlessness survivors felt during abuse. Lack of choice and control can re‑traumatize, while...
“The Biggest Psychology Experiment Ever Conducted by Humans” – How Big Tech Got Us Addicted to Social Media
A California jury in March held Meta and Google liable for deliberately engineering addictive features on Instagram and YouTube, marking the first major verdict in a wave of roughly 2,000 lawsuits alleging harm to users, especially minors. The ruling underscores...
Digest: ChatGPT Ads Expand to New Markets Including UK; Meta Sues Ofcom Over Safety Act Fines; Apple Pays $250m Over...
OpenAI is rolling out its ChatGPT advertising pilot to five new markets— the United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and Mexico—following earlier launches in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The move coincides with the hire of former Trade Desk...
Seth Matlins Launches Marketing Podcast With Vox Media
Seth Matlins, former Forbes CMO Network director and Live Nation executive, has launched the weekly podcast “Create or Destroy: Reimagining Marketing” in partnership with Vox Media and his new venture, The Wisdomous Company. The show will interview CMOs, CEOs and...
A Greener, More Cinematic Eurovision
The 70th Eurovision Song Contest returns to Vienna, Austria, where ORF is staging a technically ambitious show. Production employs 28 cameras—including ARRI Alexa 35 Live cinematic units—and a mix of PTZ and gimbal rigs to deliver a more film‑like broadcast,...
New PEN America Report Finds Nonfiction Increasingly Targeted by Book Banners in U.S. Schools
PEN America’s new report, released May 7, documents 3,743 titles removed from U.S. school libraries between July 2024 and June 2025, with nonfiction accounting for 29% of bans – more than double the previous year’s share. The analysis shows that 52% of the...
Gaza Filmmakers Slam BBC After Shelved Documentary Wins Bafta
The BBC‑commissioned documentary "Gaza: Doctors Under Attack" was shelved by the broadcaster over impartiality concerns, later aired by Channel 4, and won the BAFTA TV Award for Current Affairs. At the ceremony, producers Ben de Pear and journalist Ramita Navai publicly criticized the...
Ooh Media Auction Lifts the Unmade Index
Ooh Media announced a second takeover offer from private‑infrastructure investor I Squared Capital, valuing the company at roughly $508 million USD. The bid lifted Ooh Media’s share price 7.14% to $1.35, pushing its market capitalisation to about $470 million USD, the first...
‘Project Hail Mary’ Arrives On Streaming This Week As Film Tops $655 Million At Box Office
Ryan Gosling’s sci‑fi adventure *Project Hail Mary* will hit premium video‑on‑demand on May 12 after a strong theatrical run that has amassed $655.7 million worldwide. The film, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and adapted from Andy Weir’s novel, is the...
TelevisaUnivision’s New Ads Chief ‘Energized’ After Planning Upfront in Just Weeks
TelevisaUnivision appointed longtime executive John Kozack as its ads president just weeks before the annual upfront, replacing Tim Natividad. Kozack, with more than 20 years at the company, says he is "energized" and familiar with the upfront planning process. The...
See Behind the Scenes of Disney’s Massive 2026 TV Upfront Event
Disney is staging its 2026 TV upfront at New York's Javits Center, expecting 3,700 attendees. The production features over 300 rigging points supporting 183,000 lb of equipment, including 7‑ton LED walls that move in unprecedented ways. New Clear LED panels provide...
Is Agentic Commerce An Oasis Or Mirage?
Agentic commerce—AI‑driven shopping assistants that can complete purchases—has moved from concept to pilot across Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, Instacart and Criteo. Recent earnings calls reveal that Amazon’s Rufus prompts 20% of engaged shoppers for brand details, Walmart’s Sparky lifts order values...
16-Year-Old Owen Cooper Completes Generational Awards Sweep At The BAFTAs
Sixteen‑year‑old Owen Cooper capped a historic awards sweep by winning the BAFTA Television Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Netflix’s limited series *Adolescence*. The win completes a clean sweep of every major television honor—including the Emmy, Golden...
Penske Media Illuminates Dark Traffic To Find New Revenue
Publishers are losing measurable traffic to generative‑AI answer engines and privacy tools, creating a growing pool of "dark traffic" that evades analytics. Penske Media Corporation (PMC) teamed with ad‑block recovery platform Ad‑Shield to model and recover these invisible users, especially...
‘Off-Campus,’ and 8 Things to Watch on TV This Week
Prime Video is debuting the eight‑episode adaptation of the BookTok‑fueled hockey romance series “Off‑Campus,” releasing all episodes at once. Netflix is reviving the creator‑driven comedy “Everyone Is Doing Great,” moving its second season to the platform after an initial Hulu...
The Case for and Against Agentic Media Buying
Agentic media‑buying tools are being piloted by holding companies such as Omnicom, Stagwell and Butler/Till to bypass traditional ad‑tech intermediaries and deliver more budget directly to publishers. Proponents argue the technology can strip away layers of the programmatic supply chain,...
Inside Expedia’s Year-Long Partnership with Mega Creator IShowSpeed
Expedia has signed a year‑long partnership with mega‑creator IShowSpeed, whose 150 million followers span YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. The deal, estimated at $250,000, includes a Caribbean livestream, an interactive travel‑site and a dedicated TikTok account, and gives Speed full creative control....
‘Google Doesn’t Care that It’s Terrible’: Brand, Agency Execs Air Frustrations with The Trade Desk, Google’s Performance Max, Meta’s Advantage+
Agency leaders say The Trade Desk has stepped up rep outreach after a March advisory from Dentsu, Publicis and WPP warned clients about spending on its platform and OpenPath. While the DSP claims its data is transparent, users must stitch...
Media Alarmism and the Space Industry: What It Is, Which Topics Attract It, and Why It Happens
Media alarmism turns legitimate space risks—debris, asteroids, solar storms, launches, and defense—into sensational headlines that outpace scientific nuance. The article explains how uncertainty, visual drama, and commercial hype combine to amplify fear, using the 2024 YR4 asteroid episode as a case...
Biozet Attack Shows How a ‘Cleverer Clean’ Frees You to Be ‘Not so Clever’ with Your Clothes in New Brand...
Biozet Attack, a KAO Australia laundry brand, has launched a new “Cleverer Clean” campaign developed by Communicado. The multi‑platform effort, featuring a 3‑D brain visual and a hero film about an over‑confident waiter, runs on CTV, BVOD, SVOD, cinema, OOH,...
Weekend Ratings (8–10/05/2026): Aussies Game-Obsessed As Nine’s The Floor & Seven’s The 1% Club Drive Big Boom
Australian TV audiences gravitated toward game‑show entertainment over the weekend, with Nine’s “The Floor” posting a 1.93 million reach and a 965 000 average audience, while Seven’s “The 1% Club” logged a 1.69 million reach and 901 000 average viewers. Both shows also attracted sizable BVOD...
Behind The Success Of Selleys Billboard Stunt That Almost Didn’t Stick
Howatson+Company’s “If you can take it, it’s yours” campaign turned a Sydney roadside billboard into an interactive adhesive challenge, letting the public pull down glued items ranging from kayaks to arcade machines. Budget cuts forced all objects onto a single...
Zenith Reveals Australians Still See Cathy Freeman As A National Treasure
Zenith Australia’s nationally representative study finds 68.7% of adults consider Olympic champion Cathy Freeman a national treasure, the highest recognition among all figures surveyed. Support for Freeman is remarkably uniform across generations, with 61% of Gen Z and over 70% of...
Instagram Can Now Read All Users’ Private Messages. Will This Make Kids Safer or Just Boost Ad Targeting?
Meta has removed end‑to‑end encryption from Instagram direct messages as of May 8, saying few users opted in to the feature. The change means all private chats are now readable by Meta and could be leveraged for ad personalization, AI model...
Monks Brings AI-Led ‘Creative Intelligence’ to APAC Market via Monks.Flow Ecosystem
Monks, the AI arm of S4Capital, launched its Creative Intelligence engine across APAC as part of the Monks.Flow ecosystem. The cloud‑native solution fingerprints video and static assets, attaching granular metadata to performance data so marketers can pinpoint which creative elements...
Filming Underway on NCIS: Sydney S4
Paramount+ has begun filming season 4 of the Australian spin‑off NCIS: Sydney, produced by Endemol Shine Australia for CBS Studios. The joint U.S.‑Australian task force returns to chase mermaid masterminds, gold heists and secret‑trade conspiracies, building on a 20‑episode third season...
Marshals Season 1, Episode 11 Recap, “On Thin Ice”
Episode 11, “On Thin Ice,” brings the first season of Marshals to a tense climax as Kayce, Cal and escaped convict Lamb battle a winter storm on the Madison range. The episode reveals Cal’s long‑held secret that he blamed himself...
The Trade Desk Study Reveals Flaw In How The Industry Defines Advertising Efficiency
The Trade Desk and PA Consulting released the "Premium Media Payoff" study, showing that ads in premium environments outperform lower‑cost placements on core brand metrics. Premium media delivered 4.3% higher purchase consideration, a 37% lift in purchase intent, a 22%...
Kyle and Jackie O’s ‘Intern Pete’ Joins Christian O’Connell
Peter Deppeler, known as “Intern Pete,” is leaving the Kyle and Jackie O Show after more than 12 years to become senior producer and roving reporter on Christian O’Connell’s national breakfast program on ARN’s Gold network. His departure comes as...
Airdate: Leonard and Hungry Paul
Irish comedy series Leonard and Hungry Paul, starring Alex Lawther, Laurie Kynaston and Jamie‑Lee O’Donnell, debuts on ABC Entertains on May 12, 2026. The show is narrated by Oscar‑winner Julia Roberts and follows two board‑gaming friends navigating personal loss, family events, and budding...
India’s Cricket Cash Machine Faces a Slower Run Rate
India’s cricket governing body, the BCCI, is seeing its once‑explosive revenue engine slow down. After a decade of double‑digit growth driven by the Indian Premier League (IPL) and lucrative broadcast deals, the 2023‑24 fiscal year recorded a modest increase in...
Amazon's New Fire TV Operating System Closes the Loopholes that Made Fire TV Worth Buying in the First Place
Amazon is replacing the Android‑based Fire OS on new 2026 Fire TV devices with a proprietary Linux platform called VegaOS. The change eliminates sideloading of Android APKs, ending the long‑standing openness that attracted power users. Existing Fire TV units will...
The Only Bones Cold Open The Show's Creator Regrets (For A Reason You'd Never Guess)
In 2011 Fox moved *American Idol* into a Thursday slot directly before *Bones*, prompting the procedural’s Season 6 opener to feature a graphic head‑explosion cold‑open. Creator Hart Hanson later admitted the violent prologue was a regret, noting the mismatch between a...
Josh Heuston Joins Prime Video’s OFF CAMPUS Sydney Fan Event
Prime Video is promoting its new YA series Off Campus with a week‑long immersive fan event at Romancing The Novel bookstore in Sydney. Australian actor Josh Heuston will appear for a Q&A on May 19, and fans can earn tickets...