Know What's Happening in Television
Know What's Happening in Television
China regulator cracks down on TV dramas obsessed with beauty
China’s National Radio and Television Administration warned that domestic TV dramas are overly fixated on physical beauty and traffic‑driven popularity, urging producers to prioritize stronger acting and storytelling. The directive was delivered at a conference attended by major streamers including iQIYI, Tencent Video, Mango TV and Youku.
KLIP, a new microdrama streaming app, launched a television commercial to introduce its two‑minute, bite‑sized drama episodes. The ad targets Indian Tier 2 and Tier 3 viewers aged 16‑45, emphasizing entertainment that fits into everyday waiting moments. By framing waiting as an opportunity for quick emotional payoff, KLIP positions itself as a bridge between endless social‑media scrolling and long‑form OTT content. The campaign is anchored with hashtags like #Sirf2Minute and #ChhotaEpisodeBadaDrama to drive awareness and app downloads.
The NBA is in advanced talks with YouTube TV, Amazon, ESPN and DAZN to launch a centralized streaming hub for local team broadcasts, potentially as early as the 2026‑27 season. The effort gained urgency after Main Street Sports Group collapsed,...
T‑Mobile has revived its partnership with Major League Baseball, offering eligible customers a free MLB.TV subscription for the 2026 season—a service normally priced at $149.99. The benefit applies to qualifying T‑Mobile and Metro by T‑Mobile voice and data plans, but...
Ryan Murphy’s limited drama "Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette" has become FX’s most‑watched limited series on streaming, delivering over 25 million hours viewed across its first five episodes on Disney+ and Hulu. The fifth episode attracted 51 % more viewers...
Czech television viewing jumped sharply in February after Atmedia introduced a new audience metric that adds out‑of‑home consumption. Average daily viewing rose to 4 hours 11 minutes, a 10% year‑on‑year increase. Out‑of‑home viewing accounted for about 7% of total time but drove roughly...
Aferian has suspended its AIM‑listed shares as it moves toward a pre‑pack administration and the sale of its operating subsidiaries, 24i and Amino, to a single buyer. The transaction, backed by senior lenders, is expected to close within days and...
Bluey reclaimed the No. 1 spot on Nielsen’s Acquired Shows chart for the week of Feb 2‑8, 2025‑2026, logging 871 K minutes and breaking into the overall top‑10. Disney’s family‑friendly slate continues to dominate the acquired‑show rankings, while Netflix’s original hits The Lincoln...
Movistar Plus has expanded its mandatory pre‑roll advertising to several Atresmedia linear channels, adding a 30‑second non‑skippable ad before viewers can watch live broadcasts. The system, first rolled out on RTVE channels, limits exposure to one ad per 30 minutes...
The ABC police drama "The Rookie" has avoided cancellation after a dramatic surge in streaming viewership, with its same‑day 18‑49 audience now far exceeding the modest 350‑375k numbers that would have doomed it a decade ago. The bump, driven by...
At Streaming Media Connect 2026, Fuse Media’s CRO Karl Meyer and Spaceback co‑founder Joe Hall discussed how shoppable content is converging with cloud gaming on connected‑TV platforms. Samsung’s early integration of on‑demand gaming into its smart TVs set the stage,...
ABC News appointed Dani Isdale as the new Executive Producer of 7.30, succeeding Joel Tozer. Isdale brings 26 years of award‑winning international journalism experience, including BAFTA, News Emmy and RTS honors. She currently serves as Deputy Head of Foreign and...
A24 has opened advance orders for the Blu‑ray release of *If I Had Legs I’d Kick You* through its own online store, with shipments slated for May 2026. The dark comedy stars Rose Byrne, who recently earned a Golden Globe...
After nearly a week of being mum about it, David Ellison *finally* commented on CNN's future under Paramount—but he offered little more than empty platitudes and dodged the larger questions that loom over the network. More in @get_status: https://www.status.news/p/david-ellison-cnn-cbs-news-future
Paramount+ will debut the Brazilian biographical MMA series “Anderson Spider Silva” in the United States on March 7, following an international launch on March 5 across Latin America. The eight‑part miniseries tracks Silva’s journey from a challenging childhood in São Paulo to his...
The transition from broadcast to IP delivery has sharpened the focus on live‑stream latency, exposing a 30‑60 second gap that threatens viewer engagement. Unlike Video on Demand, live events cannot rely on pre‑encoding buffers, forcing engineers to balance immediacy against stability....
The NFL is accelerating its media‑rights negotiations, aiming to lock in new agreements before the 2026 season starts in September, earlier than the previously expected fall window. Talks will begin with Paramount and then Fox, with contracts likely extending through...
Eurovision Sport, the EBU’s free‑to‑air streaming service, has teamed with AI specialist CAMB.AI to deliver live and on‑demand subtitling for the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games. The partnership will provide real‑time, contextual speech‑to‑text transcription across all six Paralympic sports, preserving editorial...
Estrella TV’s latest Nielsen report marks its strongest performance in half a decade, with a 51 percent lift in prime‑time audience among adults 18‑49 and a 65 percent year‑over‑year gain for February. The surge pushes the network’s average to 40,900 viewers in...
David Ellison, backed by Skydance and RedBird Capital, has embarked on a $125 billion media buying spree, acquiring Paramount for $8 billion, securing a $7.7 billion UFC broadcast deal on CBS, and moving to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery for roughly $110 billion. These transactions dramatically expand...
AI voice startup Elevenlabs has appointed former Conversant Media executive Michael Costa as its go‑to‑market director for Australia and New Zealand. Costa, who has held senior roles at Salesforce, Twilio and Mixpanel, will lead the company’s expansion despite still being based...
YouTube now accounts for over 12% of all TV viewing time in January, outpacing Netflix by roughly four percentage points, according to Nielsen’s latest "The Gauge" report. The platform’s VP for the Americas, Tara Walpert Levy, framed YouTube as a...
The 28th Cartoon Movie forum in Bordeaux awarded the 2026 Cartoon Tributes, highlighting Reza Memari as Director of the Year for his environmentally‑themed feature *The Last Whale Singer*. The Producer of the Year prize went to a multinational consortium for *Allah Is...
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,...
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...
Music Box Television has signed a distribution deal with AzamTV, bringing its Music Box Hits and Music Box Dance channels to nine East and Southern African countries. The channels launch in Full HD across AzamTV’s IPTV, OTT and DTH satellite...
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...
Frank Biancuzzo, who has led Hearst Media Production Group since its 2021 launch, announced he will retire in mid‑2026, concluding more than four decades with Hearst Television. Under his stewardship, HMPG expanded from the Litton Entertainment acquisition to a catalog...
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....
Disney is looking to crank up its streaming subscriber numbers for the first quarter of 2026 — introducing a 62% price discount on the ad-supported Disney+/Hulu bundle for a three-month period https://t.co/ThNJ10Kpe2 via @variety
The article argues that pre‑release audience intent data can forecast a film’s performance across theatrical and at‑home windows. Using Pixar’s *Hoppers* and Warner Bros.’ *The Bride* as case studies, it shows how theatrical intent and home‑viewing intent percentages, plus willingness...
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...
Wuthering Heights just hit $200 million at the worldwide box office. A good number for a period drama, but the movie cost Warners about $85 million, so still not a big moneymaker for the studio.
ABC’s crime dramedy High Potential has been renewed for a third season, but longtime showrunner Todd Harthan is departing to focus on the Eragon film. The network also confirmed Season 10 for 9-1-1 and a second season for its spin‑off...
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...
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...
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...
Spanish tech firm Konodrac has introduced Smart Self-Promotions, an automated platform that turns traditional TV self-promotion into data-driven campaigns for linear, HbbTV and OTT environments. The solution leverages census-level audience data to segment viewers, deliver interactive calls-to-action, and provide full-funnel...
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...
What’s News in Earnings: Merger News Dominates the Entertainment Business -- @benfritz and I discuss quarterly results and challenges ahead. https://t.co/sZopc3Z4Bf
Get After It Media (GAIM) has renewed its technology partnership with BroadView Software for a seven‑year term, extending the collaboration that underpins its suite of multicast channels. The agreement emphasizes a fully converged broadcast and streaming revenue operation, aligning linear,...
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...
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,...
Vigloo unveiled Vigloo Studio, an AI‑powered creator dashboard tailored for microdrama producers. The platform consolidates viewership statistics, regional breakdowns, episode completion rates, and paid‑viewership data into a single interface. It also delivers a revenue hub showing coin and subscription earnings,...
Elizabeth Stone, Netflix's chief product & technology officer, said most gen-AI video platforms don’t operate from a filmmaker's perspective. She said InterPositive's tools are designed to help produce higher-quality content — not make it faster or cheaper https://t.co/w8xyM2pXhz
Netflix will offer access to InterPositive’s AI-powered tech to its creative partners and does not have plans to sell it commercially in the marketplace https://t.co/w8xyM2pXhz via @variety
While a massive number, it’s not actually. If my math is right, it’s about 75k AMA which approximates TV viewership. Global yet significantly smaller than SC. Love to know what percent is US and by sport. Regardless, YT is destination...
This is exactly the type of deal I discuss in today's newsletter ... will a Paramount/WBD merged company do these smaller sports rights deals anymore? The calculus will definitely change for TNT ... https://t.co/DvKzUkqcDr
