Media News and Headlines
Media News and Headlines
ESPN is launching an unprecedented 650+ hours of live coverage across 20 NCAA winter championships this March and April, streaming everything from women’s basketball and wrestling to gymnastics and ice hockey. The programming will be distributed across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS and the ESPN+ app, which acts as the central hub for fans. Highlights include the inaugural women’s college wrestling championship and extensive studio shows, selection specials, and on‑demand replays. Subscription tiers start at $12.99 for ESPN Select and $29.99 for ESPN Unlimited, unlocking the full slate.
Australian streaming service Stan Sport has secured a sub‑licensing agreement with beIN Sports to broadcast the entire WTA Tour, covering every 250, 500 and 1000‑level tournament as well as the season‑ending WTA Finals. The rights add a year‑round women’s tennis pillar to...
ESPN announced its third real‑time animated NHL broadcast, the “Inside Out Classic,” featuring the Washington Capitals vs. New York Rangers on April 5. The telecast blends Pixar’s *Inside Out* characters with live player data using NHL Edge positional tracking and Sony’s Hawk‑Eye...
Audiochuck, the true‑crime podcast network behind hits like “Crime Junkie,” has appointed Matt Shanfield as Head of Television and Film to spearhead a new division. The unit will adapt the company’s podcast catalog for global streaming platforms while also developing...
Seven has unveiled "My Reno Rules," a new renovation competition backed by billionaire Adrian Portelli that promises the largest giveaway in Australian television history. The format pits four teams of everyday Australians against each other to transform two neighboring rundown...
ATSC is finalizing an amendment to its Recommended Practice A/327 that details how ATSC 3.0 broadcasters can interleave 5G Broadcast waveforms within the same RF channel. The proposal leverages ATSC 3.0’s built‑in time‑domain sharing mechanisms, requiring no changes to the core standard, and...
CBC/Radio-Canada announced that its all‑news channels, CBC News Network and French‑language ICI RDI, are now available on Amazon Prime Video as add‑on subscriptions. The service costs $5 per month and includes a seven‑day free trial, delivering 24/7 live breaking‑news coverage....
Indie distributor Bleecker Street turned the K‑pop concert film “Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience” into an event‑cinema hit by limiting showtimes to a single evening per theater. The scarcity tactic drove $1.4 million in ticket sales within 24 hours and the film...
Listen Notes reports a 12% decline in new podcast launches in February, dropping to 12,852 from January's 18,863. The figure marks the lowest monthly addition in the past 13 months, though it still adds nearly 13,000 titles to the global...
Cumulus Media, the third‑largest U.S. radio broadcaster, filed a voluntary Chapter 11 reorganization in Houston on March 5, 2026. Judge Alfredo Perez has been assigned to oversee the case, which the company labels as "complex" due to multiple subsidiary filings. Co‑counsel from...
Kimberly and Kenneth Smith have created Ice Cream Castle LLC in West Union, Ohio, and are set to purchase two FM stations: a Class A outlet serving Georgetown and its Class C3 sister station in Ripley. The acquisition marks the...
Natalia Dyer, fresh from the Stranger Things finale, has signed representation with Creative Artists Agency. The move follows her casting in Amazon MGM’s upcoming romantic comedy “Goodbye Girl,” alongside Kiernan Shipka and Cole Sprouse. Dyer also retains representation from Circle...
Nexstar Media Group announced a cash tender offer to repurchase its 5% senior notes due 2029, a move directly tied to the pending acquisition of TEGNA. The offer, managed by BofA Securities, J.P. Morgan, and Goldman Sachs, will remain open...
Publishers in the United Kingdom have launched SPUR, a standards alliance that brings together the BBC, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Sky News and The Guardian to protect their content from unchecked AI use. The group aims to establish guardrails for responsible AI, simplify licensing...
Scott Patterson announced his departure from the CW‑aired drama Sullivan’s Crossing after three seasons, citing untenable creative differences with showrunner Roma Roth. Patterson emphasized his affection for the Sully character and clarified that the exit was his own decision, not...
HBO’s anthology drama *The White Lotus* is gearing up for a fourth season set in France, marking a return to Europe after previous locations in Hawaii, Italy and Thailand. Deadline reports that Helena Bonham Carter, Alexander Ludwig, AJ Michalka, Chris Messina, Marissa Long...
ABC has officially renewed the procedural drama "High Potential" for a third season, even as the series searches for a new showrunner after Todd Harthan announced his departure to co‑create the live‑action adaptation of "Eragon." The show, starring Kaitlin Olson...
Veritone has signed a multi‑year, global licensing agreement with The Washington Post to distribute the newspaper’s video journalism. The AI‑driven platform will make both current reporting and archival footage searchable for media companies, producers, and digital creators. Executives say the...
Spain’s recorded music market posted €409.5 million in wholesale revenue for 2025, up 13.7 % year‑on‑year. Subscription streaming drove most growth, generating €214 million and rising 19.2 % YoY, representing 71.3 % of streaming income. Physical formats rebounded, with vinyl sales up 44.9 % and overall...
DHD Audio will showcase firmware 10.4 at the 2026 NAB Show, extending capabilities of its DX2, RX2, SX2, TX2 mixers, RM1 portable unit, and XC3/XD3/XS2 processing cores. The update adds flex channels, mic preamp control, and channel categories, enabling more...
Seven’s commercial late‑night bulletin The Latest, launched in 2018, was axed in early 2025 and has not been replaced. The network now only airs occasional updates for breaking stories, leaving it as the sole Australian commercial broadcaster without a regular...
Kayo Sports and Foxtel are delivering a record‑dense weekend, headlined by the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix and the season openers of the AFL and NRL. The schedule also features Australia Women’s cricket Test, extensive NBA coverage, NBL playoffs, and two...
Australia’s media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), has launched an eight‑week public consultation to review how alcohol advertising appears on commercial free‑to‑air television. The review, running until 5:00 pm on 30 April 2026, will assess the volume, frequency and placement...
The author recounts deploying Telos VXs, a virtual VoIP phone system, in Buffalo and Denver broadcast facilities, using an Avaya SIP server and an Ubuntu container. The installations performed flawlessly, earning immediate praise from on‑air talent. This experience sparked a...
The City of Bellevue, Iowa, announced it will discontinue its municipal cable television service on October 1, 2026 after nearly twenty years of operation. The decision cites mounting competition from streaming platforms and rising financial pressures. Residents were notified through...
BBC’s new period drama *The Other Bennet Sister* will debut on Sunday, 15 March at 8 pm on BBC One, with the first five episodes available on iPlayer at 6 am the same day. The ten‑part series reimagines Jane Austen’s world through Mary...
Dolan, former VP of Agency and Retail Partnerships at Consumable, has left a 12‑year tenure at Crystal Media Networks to join Compass Media Networks in a senior advertising sales role under President Paul Gregrey. The move positions her at the...
Advertisers struggle to monetize brand‑building efforts, with only 53% confident in ROI measurement. Amazon Ads introduced Long‑Term Sales (LTS), a metric that assigns monetary value to shopper actions across the full journey using its authenticated identity graph. LTS combines short‑term...
Net Insight will unveil its Nimbra Live Intelligence platform at the 2026 NAB Show, positioning it as a unified solution for live‑media production, distribution and protection. The system‑level platform promises predictable behavior across on‑premise networks, public internet and cloud environments...
More than 200 journalists at Law360 and its sister sites signed a letter demanding that parent company RELX terminate its $22.1 million, five‑year contract with the Department of Homeland Security that gives ICE access to a LexisNexis Risk Solutions database. A...
The New York Yankees have announced that 21 of their 2026 regular‑season games will be streamed exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video for fans within the team’s local broadcast footprint. YES Network will produce the telecasts, including a 30‑minute pre‑game show,...
The Trade Desk faces criticism for a complex, opaque fee structure that includes platform, data, and bid‑shading charges. Consultant Sarah Caputo argues the DSP should lower its take rate and simplify fees, especially the double‑digit bid‑shading fee on savings. Recent...
Harmonic will debut its next‑generation Spectrum X media server at the 2026 NAB Show, showcasing a suite of AI‑enhanced video appliances and SaaS solutions. The new server streamlines ingest and playout, while the XOS Advanced Media Processor adds ATSC 3.0 and DTV+...
A memorandum of understanding was signed between leading Philippine news outlets and the Presidential Communications Office to tackle the surge of fake news. The article argues that disinformation has become a structural threat to democracy, eroding public trust and distorting...
Domino’s is rolling out a social‑first campaign that showcases influencer‑crafted pizza combos ahead of March Madness, promoting its under‑$10 “Best Deal Ever.” The initiative pairs creators like Jesser, Trisha Paytas and Courtney Cook with college basketball players, and includes a partnership with...
Sid Rosenberg, a WABC New York morning host, issued an apology after posting a tweet that labeled Mayor Zohran Mamdani a “America‑hating, Jew‑hating, Radical Islam cockroach.” The inflammatory language sparked immediate backlash from the mayor, community leaders, and the broader public. Rosenberg...
Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday, March 8, moving clocks forward an hour for most U.S. regions. The shift creates darker mornings and longer evenings, affecting listeners’ mood, safety, sleep patterns, and energy use. Radio stations can capitalize on these changes by...
Talk radio once thrived on sex‑focused programming, with pioneers like Dr. Ruth, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Dr. Toni Grant capturing record shares among 18‑34 listeners. These shows expanded from brief segments to multi‑hour live call‑ins, becoming cultural staples and lucrative...
Audacy’s research shows podcast listening in the U.S. has surged from 6% of audio consumption in 2015 to 23% in 2025, overtaking both social‑media scrolling and streaming music. Adults now spend an average of 103 minutes per day on podcasts,...
AMV BBDO announced that longtime partners Nadja Lossgott and Nick Hulley will leave the agency at the end of April. Both have been instrumental in driving the firm’s integrated campaigns and client wins over the past decade. Their exit comes...
Guideline launched its Media Plan Management MCP Server, allowing agencies and advertisers to link any MCP‑compatible AI agent—such as Claude or ChatGPT—to its media planning platform. Built on the open Model Context Protocol, the server provides a plug‑and‑play, read‑only connection...
Open World, the marketing consultancy division of Loaded Holdings, has acquired influencer platform Drope.me to add automation and performance‑tracking tools to its gaming creator campaigns. The acquisition enables Open World to scale activations from dozens to thousands of creators simultaneously....
European drama producers and distributors are adapting to a tighter financing environment as U.S. co‑production dollars shrink and production costs rise. They are emphasizing well‑packaged deals, flexible windowing, and multi‑territory appeal, often leveraging tax incentives and strategic location budgeting. Known...
Men’s Wearhouse partnered with Ovation Group and The Trade Desk’s Kokai platform to run an audio‑only campaign from March to June 2025 across Spotify, iHeart, Acast and Pandora. The effort, aimed at younger, digitally‑first men, leveraged Ovation’s EMRge marketing intelligence...
Men’s Wearhouse partnered with Ovative Group and The Trade Desk’s Kokai platform to run an audio‑only campaign across Spotify, iHeart, Acast and Pandora from March to June 2025. The campaign, aimed at younger “Stylish Steve” and older “Professional Paul” men,...
Campaign’s Brand Buzz roundup highlights how major brands used social media last month to drive conversation and sales. McDonald’s launched a limited‑time menu item on TikTok, sparking viral user videos. Aldi promoted its new eco‑friendly packaging through Instagram Stories, while...
Kevin Joyce, veteran XR marketer, launched Evolution Publishing to back indie VR studios amid a market downturn. The publisher uses a revenue‑share model without taking equity, aiming to nurture innovative titles until VR reaches a mainstream breakout. Joyce cites Meta’s...
Thrad, a leading AI advertising infrastructure provider, announced its entry as a founding member of AgenticAdvertising.org (AAO), an initiative to develop open standards for AI‑powered ads through the Ad Context Protocol. The move comes amid OpenAI’s launch of a high‑cost,...
Lumen Research has teamed up with Netflix to launch an attention‑measurement solution that tracks how viewers engage with ads across Netflix’s ad‑supported CTV, desktop, and mobile platforms. The offering is initially available to advertisers in the UK, Germany, France, Italy,...
Radio broadcaster Cumulus Media has filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 reorganization, aiming to eliminate approximately $600 million of debt. The plan, backed by its lenders, allows the company to continue operating its 394 radio stations, Westwood One network, and podcast platform...
