German Media Groups Call for Stronger AI Rules to Protect Journalism
German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, together with commercial association VAUNET and publishers BDZV and MVFP, issued a joint statement urging tighter AI regulation. They warn that large tech platforms are using journalistic content to train generative AI without compensation, threatening media plurality, revenues and democratic discourse. The groups call for coordinated copyright, competition and media law measures, including control over content use, fair remuneration and transparency obligations. They welcomed the EU Parliament’s March 10 2026 resolution on AI and copyright and asked the German government to shape forthcoming EU rules.
Deezer Says It’s Getting Spammed with AI Songs
Deezer reports that AI‑generated tracks now account for 44% of its daily uploads, even though they represent only 1‑3% of listener consumption. Roughly 75,000 AI songs are added each day, amounting to about two million per month, creating sizable moderation...
Gator Country: It’s K-LOVE and Air1 For This Radio Vet
Gator Harrison, a veteran of secular radio, will join K‑LOVE’s Ministry Leadership Team as Chief Media Officer on May 11. He will oversee the K‑LOVE and Air1 Worship brands, live events, and partnership initiatives. Harrison previously spent more than a decade...
Comscore Renews Measurement Agreements with Local TV Broadcasters
Comscore announced the renewal of measurement agreements with more than a dozen local television broadcasters, including Sinclair, E.W. Scripps, Cox Media Group, Hubbard Broadcasting, Allen Media Group and Thomas Broadcasting. The contracts span renewals, extensions and new partnerships, reflecting broadcasters’...
‘Philomena Cunk’ to Return in Cunk on Cinema
Philomena Cunk returns in Netflix's three‑part mock‑documentary "Cunk on Cinema," where Diane Morgan reprises her deadpan investigative reporter to explore film history. The series, produced with Charlie Brooker, spans topics from the invention of the camera to New Wave cinema,...
Tim Cook Turned Apple Into a Hollywood Power Player. Does the New CEO Feel the Same Way?
Tim Cook transformed Apple from a hardware‑centric firm into a major player in Hollywood by launching Apple TV+ and an in‑house studio, driving services revenue from $46.3 billion in 2019 to $109 billion last year. The platform attracted marquee talent such as...
Frank Maranzino Named Leader of CapRadio
Frank Maranzino has been appointed permanent president and general manager of CapRadio, the Sacramento public radio network, effective April 1. He had been serving in an interim capacity for more than two years, guiding the organization through a leadership crisis. The...
Google Adds AI-Qualified Call Leads to Improve Measurement
Google Ads is rolling out an AI‑qualified call leads feature that evaluates the substance of inbound calls rather than just their length. The machine‑learning system generates call summaries and tags, feeding higher‑quality signals into smart bidding and reporting. Recording is...
UK Publishers Urge CMA to Curb Google as Search Giant Claims AI Does Them No Harm
UK news publishers have asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to force Google to separate its AI fine‑tuning crawler from its search ranking system and to provide granular opt‑out controls for training, fine‑tuning and retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG). They dispute...
Readly Deluged with User Complaints Post Cafeyn Merger
Readly has completed its merger with French rival Cafeyn, creating a combined European digital‑magazine platform with roughly €100 million (about $107 million) in revenue and over 2.5 million users. The company reports that 99% of sessions are crash‑free and 97% of users successfully...
Mr. Smith’s Goes To Oxnard, Joining Cumulus
Cumulus Media has hired Bill Smith as Vice President and General Manager of its Oxnard‑Ventura radio cluster. The portfolio includes KRUZ‑FM 103.3, KBBY‑FM 95.1, KHAY‑FM 100.7 and KVYB‑FM 106.3, covering a mix of classic rock, hot adult contemporary, country and...
Xbox Game Pass Is About to Get Less Expensive — Is Microsoft Actually Listening to Us?
Microsoft announced a significant reduction in its Xbox Game Pass subscription fees, cutting Game Pass Ultimate to $22.99 per month and PC Game Pass to $13.99. The price cuts follow a controversial 50% increase in October 2025 that reportedly drove...
Podcast Nation Partners with 7EQUIS to Lead Sales for Bangin’ Out
Podcast Nation has teamed with 7EQUIS to manage sales for "bangin’ out," a fast‑growing long‑form video podcast hosted by YouTube star Kayla Malec (1.9 M subscribers) and TikTok sensation Jacob Sartorius (23.6 M followers). The partnership gives Podcast Nation control over audio...
Not So SMARTBOX? Gray Accuses Dish Of Carriage Violation
Gray Media has lodged a formal complaint with the FCC alleging that DISH Network violated retransmission‑consent rules. The dispute stems from a CBS affiliate in Knoxville being carried on a DISH‑owned distribution platform at a local hotel. Gray’s attorney from...
Musician Morgan Wade Joins Paramount+’s ‘Dutton Ranch’
Country singer Morgan Wade joins Paramount+’s Yellowstone spinoff Dutton Ranch as Carol, a bartender in the Texas town of Rio Paloma. The nine‑part series, created by Chad Feehan and executive‑produced by Taylor Sheridan, premieres on May 15, 2026, following Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly)...
Japan Weighs Age-Based Filtering on Social Media to Combat Addiction
Japan is weighing a regulatory push that would require social‑media firms to enable age‑based content filtering by default. The proposal also includes a government‑run risk‑assessment system to evaluate each platform’s impact on minors. Officials say the measures aim to stem...
Telefilm Unveils Framework for Strategic Review of Funding Programs
Telefilm Canada released its Strategic Orientation Framework, a roadmap guiding the review of all funding programs under its 2024‑2027 plan. The review, slated to run through 2028, will introduce clear, measurable performance indicators and publish results regularly. By focusing on...
Deezer Says It's Being Bombarded by 'Nearly 75,000' AI-Generated Tunes Every Day, and that 97% of Survey Respondents Can't Tell...
Deezer reports that nearly 75,000 AI‑generated tracks are uploaded daily, representing about 44% of all new songs on the platform. Its detection system flags roughly 85% of those as fraudulent, demonetizing them, while only 1‑3% reach listeners. A survey shows...
Cord Cutting Today: Big Changes Could Hit Free OTA TV as Roku Expands and Netflix Eyes More NFL Games
Cord‑cutters face a shifting landscape as major broadcasters consider moving local ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC stations from free over‑the‑air (OTA) channels to 6G wireless spectrum, while Roku expands its ecosystem with a new interactive video game for TVs and...
How Native CTV Is Solving the Channel’s Attention Problem
The NewFronts highlighted a shift in connected‑TV advertising toward performance, with native CTV emerging as a key format. By embedding ads into the smart‑TV home screen, brands reach viewers during the 10.5‑minute browsing window before content selection, turning attention into...
IPL 2026 Ad Race Sees Digital-First Categories Dominate CTV
The IPL 2026 advertising landscape shows a stark split between Connected TV (CTV) and Linear TV. Digital‑first categories such as e‑commerce media, entertainment and social platforms captured 35% of CTV ad volume, while traditional mouth fresheners led Linear TV with...
'American Idol' Finalists Hard-Launch Their Relationship
Season 24 of American Idol saw finalists Brooks Rosser and Rae Boyd publicly confirm their romance during the April 20 live episode, effectively hard‑launching a new power couple on the show. The 22‑year‑old Baltimore singer and the 24‑year‑old from Frederick had...
Maxine Peake's "Powerful" Historical Drama Lands New UK Streaming Home
Mike Leigh’s 2018 historical drama *Peterloo*, starring Maxine Peake and Rory Kinnear, has been re‑added to Prime Video’s UK catalogue. The film dramatizes the 1819 Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, a pivotal moment in the fight for parliamentary reform and expanded voting rights....
PBS in Minneapolis Is Taking Over Control of a Smaller PBS Station, Likely a Sign of Things to Come
Twin Cities PBS (TPT) has taken operational control of Austin‑based KSMQ Public Television through a no‑cost asset transfer that took effect on April 14. The agreement lets TPT manage daily operations while preserving KSMQ’s local identity and service to the Rochester‑Austin...
Netflix Drops ‘Devil May Cry’ Season 2 Trailer
Netflix unveiled the official trailer for Season 2 of its animated adaptation of Capcom’s Devil May Cry, slated to debut on May 12. The new season pits Dante against his estranged twin Vergil, deepening the series’ family‑drama and supernatural conflict. Creator Adi Shankar promises a...
‘The Creative Is Coming Out of the Internet’: What This Year’s Webby Winners Say About Advertising
The 2026 Webby Awards highlighted a shift in advertising where creative originates on the internet rather than being imposed on it. Winners showcased AI‑enhanced campaigns, from a Dr Pepper jingle generated online to the “death of Duo” stunt, and blended digital...
New Programmatic 'Transparency' Initiative Excludes Advertisers
The IAB Tech Lab announced a new Programmatic Governance Council aimed at boosting transparency in the roughly $200 billion U.S. programmatic advertising market. The council brings together agencies, publishers and platforms such as Dentsu, Omnicom, Disney, Amazon Ads and The Trade...
YouTube Expands Its AI Likeness Detection Technology to Celebrities
YouTube announced that its AI‑driven likeness detection system, originally tested with a limited creator group, is now available to the entertainment sector. The tool works like Content ID, scanning uploaded videos for AI‑generated faces that match enrolled celebrities, talent agencies...
IAB Tech Lab Launches Programmatic Governance Council
IAB Tech Lab announced the creation of a Programmatic Governance Council, bringing together leading agencies, publishers, and ad‑tech platforms such as Dentsu, Disney, Amazon Ads, and The Trade Desk. The council targets the roughly $200 billion U.S. programmatic advertising market, which...
The AI Content Flood Isn’t Just an Information Problem — It’s a Trust Problem
By 2026, roughly 90% of online content will be AI‑generated, and existing detection tools fail more than half the time. Research shows readers rate AI‑written material as equally credible, often finding it clearer and more engaging than human prose. This...
800 Pound Gorilla Goes Direct-to-Fan with a Comedy Streamer
800 Pound Gorilla Media is launching Gorilla Comedy+, a dedicated comedy streaming service featuring over 250 stand‑up specials from names like Patton Oswalt and Pete Holmes. The platform, built with Cineverse’s AI‑powered Matchpoint technology, will debut on May 5 with a...
Rockstar Games Co-Founder Dan Houser Unveils Cast of His Sprawling ‘Absurdaverse’ Video Game-TV Series Franchise; First Animated Shorts to Premiere...
Rockstar co‑founder Dan Houser announced the first voice cast for his new “Absurdaverse” franchise, a comedy‑satire universe that will span an untitled animated series and a AAA open‑world video game. The initial lineup—Rachel Dratch, Dan Soder, Ari Matti, Annie Lederman,...
Terence and Rachel Winter Team With Bizaar Studios for Animated Series (Exclusive)
Emmy‑winning writer Terence Winter and Oscar‑nominated producer Rachel Winter are developing an adult animated series titled "Nouvelle" with the year‑old Bizaar Studios. The show, inspired by Jacob Tomsky’s memoir "Heads in Beds," follows the staff and guests of a luxury...
Adobe and Speechmatics Deliver Cloud-Grade Speech Recognition On-Device for Premiere
Adobe Premiere now offers on‑device speech‑to‑text powered by Speechmatics, delivering accuracy within 5% of cloud models while keeping audio local. The new model processes an hour of audio in roughly 55 seconds and supports Windows, macOS, and a range of...
MCD Closes
Farrar, Straus & Giroux announced the closure of its MCD imprint, citing financial realities. Publisher Sean McDonald will depart on April 15, and MCD titles will be absorbed by FSG in the fall, with paperbacks moving to Picador. The imprint...
Five Ways for Publishers to Attract and Retain High-Value Audiences
Q5’s latest report outlines five practical steps for publishers to attract and retain high‑value audiences. It stresses that journalism alone isn’t enough; commercial, product, and editorial teams must collaborate within organized structures. Senior leaders need a shared vision, transparent trade‑off...
The Makers of Playdate, the Console-with-a-Crank, Will No Longer Accept Games Created with Generative AI
Panic Inc., the maker of the Playdate handheld console, announced that any new games using generative AI for art, audio, music, text, or dialogue will be rejected from its Catalog store. The ban excludes custom‑written functions such as enemy AI,...
'Always On' Isn't Broken -- The Way We Use It Is
The article argues that today’s “always on” advertising has devolved into a blanket, budget‑draining approach that treats every audience as constantly receptive. It calls for a shift from a channel‑centric mindset to a behavior‑centric one, activating each medium only when...
StackAdapt Brings Campaign Intelligence Into Claude with MCP Server Launch
StackAdapt announced the general availability of its Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server, which injects the platform’s campaign intelligence directly into AI tools such as Claude. The server lets advertisers query performance, creative status, and audience results in natural language without...
Multiviews on Live Sports Streaming at NAB 2026
At NAB 2026 the streaming industry zeroed in on live sports, with multiview solutions emerging as the centerpiece for delivering seamless, low‑latency experiences across devices. Executives highlighted the massive mobile‑first audience—India alone has 650 million streaming smartphones—prompting vendors to prioritize short‑form highlights...
Oprah To Receive Cannes LionHeart Award At This Creative Festival
Oprah Winfrey will be honored as the 2026 Cannes LionHeart, recognizing her decades‑long influence on culture and media. She will deliver a keynote on June 23 at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity and receive the award that evening. The Lions...
3 New Ways Ads Advisor Is Making Google Ads Safer and Faster
Google Ads is rolling out three AI‑driven safety upgrades in its Ads Advisor tool. The platform will now proactively flag complex policy violations and guide advertisers through fixes, monitor accounts 24/7 with personalized security recommendations, and automate certification processes using...
NBC, Amazon Make Crucial Scorebug Errors in NBA Postseason
NBC and Amazon Prime Video each displayed incorrect timeout information on their NBA scorebugs during the 2024 postseason. NBC’s bug showed a Knicks timeout that didn’t exist in a Game 2 loss to Atlanta, while Amazon’s feed indicated a Miami...
OpenAI Turns on Cost-per-Click Ads Inside ChatGPT
OpenAI has activated cost‑per‑click (CPC) advertising inside ChatGPT, allowing marketers to bid $3‑$5 per click. The move follows a rapid decline in CPM rates, which fell from $60 to $25 per thousand impressions within ten weeks. By shifting to a...
Mediterráneo Takes Its Hit Series to Content Europe
Spanish production house Mediterráneo used this week’s Content Europe in Lisbon to launch its latest slate for the European market. The lineup includes the sci‑fi thriller *Point Nemo*, the equine‑drama *Pure Blood*, the talent‑agency comedy *Call My Agent*, the military...
Gregg Bell Returns to KJR-AM, Seattle
Sports media veteran Gregg Bell is rejoining iHeartMedia’s KJR Sports Radio in Seattle as the host of a new weekday show from 10:00 a.m. to noon. The program, titled “The Gregg Bell Show with Christopher Kidd,” follows the recent departure of...
Atresmedia Sales Takes Its Original Dramas to Content Europe
Atresmedia Sales showcased its original Spanish drama slate at Content Europe in Lisbon, unveiling titles such as The Maid’s Daughters, The Girl, Dreams of Freedom, Father There Is Only One, and Between Lands. The Maid’s Daughters is an eight‑episode period...
Aaron Miller Named DOS at CMG Tampa
Aaron Miller has been appointed director of sales for Cox Media Group’s Tampa station group, which includes talk outlet WHPT‑FM “102.5 The Bone” and five music brands. Miller returns to CMG after serving as senior vice president and market manager...
TALKERS Books Announces Publication of Playing the Clip: The Digital Media Creator’s Legal Guide to Fair Use
TALKERS Books has released *Playing the Clip: The Digital Media Creator’s Legal Guide to Fair Use*, authored by media attorney Matthew B. Harrison. The book codifies the “Play the Clip” technique—presenting source audio or video rather than merely describing it—and...
Brands Want To Know How Well Their Affiliate Content Is Performing In The AI Age
Adobe is turning to Partnerize’s VantagePoint generative‑AI attribution platform to solve the attribution blind spot created by AI‑driven search. The solution, now enhanced with the Influence Compensation Lighthouse Program, assigns influence scores (HaloIndex) beyond last‑click and automates publisher payouts. Brands...