Television News and Headlines
Television News and Headlines
Canal+ will retire Showmax, migrating South African subscribers to its own OTT app after Showmax accumulated roughly R8.7 billion in losses, including R4.9 billion in 2025. The transition will fold Showmax titles into the Canal+ platform and DStv Stream, aiming to retain customers amid fierce competition from global services. Meanwhile, escalating Iran‑Qatar hostilities have spiked oil prices and unsettled the region’s large expatriate community, where foreigners comprise about 90 % of the population. In a separate development, China has warned Nigeria it could disable the NigComSat‑1R satellite unless an $11.44 million debt for telemetry services is paid within 30 days.
Amazon MX Player, India’s free streaming service with 250 million monthly viewers, announced its most ambitious 2026 lineup. The slate features over 150 new and returning titles across drama, action, reality and its micro‑drama MX Fatafat vertical. High‑profile projects such as...
The Victorian Football League has secured broadcast agreements with Foxtel, ABC, Seven and SEN, promising the competition’s biggest audiences in decades. Foxtel will stream 16 matches on Kayo Sports across the first 13 rounds, while ABC returns to VFL TV...
A Looper Insights survey of sports‑media executives finds global streamers poised to dominate sports rights by 2026, with Amazon Prime Video emerging as the clear front‑runner. Forty‑one percent of respondents said streaming platforms will hold the greatest structural power, edging...
The IndyCar and NASCAR doubleheader at Phoenix Raceway delivered record viewership, with the IndyCar Good Ranchers 250 drawing 1.247 million viewers—a 95 percent increase—and the NASCAR Cup Straight Talk Wireless 500 pulling 2.841 million, up 19 percent. The event marked Team Penske’s 60th anniversary and featured...
Fox One and ESPN Unlimited are refining their direct‑to‑consumer (DTC) platforms to tackle sports‑viewing fragmentation, ingestion hurdles, and personalization demands. Fox targets the 60 million cord‑less households, offering the same lineup as pay‑TV and a joint ESPN bundle at $39.99 per...
Optimum‑owned News 12 is debuting “Made In,” a weekly series that highlights local businesses and entrepreneurs across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, premiering March 16 at 9 p.m. with repeats throughout the week. The show will be anchored by Rebecca...
March Madness drove record TV audiences, with ESPN delivering its most‑watched men’s college basketball season since 2014‑15, averaging 1.1 million viewers across 127 games. ABC’s five tournament events pulled 1.7 million viewers, while ESPN’s family of networks posted a 25% year‑over‑year increase....
Disney+ is rolling out a new vertical‑video feature called Verts to U.S. mobile users this week, following a January announcement. A dedicated Verts icon will appear in the navigation bar, letting subscribers swipe through bite‑size scenes from the platform’s library....
Barb, the UK’s joint‑industry audience measurement body, announced Caroline Baxter as its new chief executive. Baxter, who joined Barb in 2022 and was promoted to COO in 2024, will steer the firm through a new wave of innovation for linear,...
Sony Pictures Television announced that Eli Holzman and Aaron Saidman will leave the nonfiction division they have led since 2022. The unit will be folded into President Katherine Pope’s portfolio, joining her scripted and kids businesses. Sony originally acquired Holzman...
The DOJ reached a settlement with Live Nation‑Ticketmaster that stops short of a breakup, instead imposing a 15 % fee cap on tickets sold at Live Nation‑owned amphitheaters and requiring limited transparency for artists. The agreement also obliges Ticketmaster to open...
Bell withdrew its April 2025 complaint after reaching a distribution agreement with Telus for five discretionary channels—Oxygen True Crime, USA Network, CTV Nature, CTV Speed and CTV Wild. The dispute originated from Bell’s claim that Telus favored Rogers’ new channels...
Magnify Digital announced that Te Māngai Pāho, New Zealand’s national Māori screen fund, will deploy its AI‑driven audience intelligence platform ScreenMiner across about 150 funded productions each year. The platform aggregates quantitative metrics and structured qualitative feedback from digital channels, delivering decision‑ready insights...
Spain has been named the Country of Honour for the 2026 Banff World Media Festival, recognizing its rapid ascent as a global hub for premium content. The designation follows a breakout year featuring hits such as *Berlin* and *La mesías*,...
Kerry Washington, promoting Apple TV+’s Imperfect Women, was asked about a possible Scandal reunion and redirected the question to creator Shonda Rhimes. Co‑star Tony Goldwyn gave a matching response, also pointing to Rhimes for any revival plans. Fans have already...
Calrec will showcase hybrid workflow solutions at the 2026 NAB Show, unveiling its U.S. debut of the IP‑native Argo M audio console. The 48‑fader console packs up to 356 internal DSP channels and supports SMPTE ST 2110 and cloud connectivity. Calrec will also...
FreeWheel unveiled an AI agent infrastructure built on its Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server and a suite of Intelligence tools, embedding artificial intelligence directly into premium video ad transactions. The platform enables real‑time workflow automation, performance monitoring, and decision‑making for...
CBS Sports partnered with the University of Cincinnati to produce two Big 12 men’s basketball games from the school’s on‑campus control rooms, marking the second university‑based linear broadcast after Kansas State. CBS supplied its front‑bench producers and directors while Cincinnati...
U.S. streaming services now account for about 75% of online video viewing across Europe, according to Mediavision and the Digital Production Partnership. Local platforms collectively hold only around 25% of the market, with notable variation—Finland’s domestic services capture 43% while...
NBCUniversal Media Group promoted Gus O’Brien to president of International Networks and Direct‑to‑Consumer, effective April 1, succeeding veteran Ken Bettsteller who moves to an advisory role. O’Brien previously served as managing director for Latin America, overseeing joint ventures and the launch...
OpenX and TVision have introduced OpenX Attention Targeting, the first supply‑side solution that lets advertisers bid on CTV inventory based on real‑time viewer attention scores. The offering merges TVision’s passive, person‑level panel data with OpenX’s bid‑stream signals, delivering predictive engagement...
Banijay Entertainment announced the sixth international adaptation of its reality competition The 50, produced by Banijay Italia for Amazon Prime Video. The Italian version will run ten episodes, featuring 50 reality stars locked in a castle under a Lion‑masked Game...
Xilam Animation announced a ninth season of *Oggy and the Cockroaches*, comprising 78 seven‑minute episodes slated for delivery between Q3 2027 and Q2 2028. The new season coincides with the franchise’s 30th anniversary in 2028 and is produced in partnership with France...
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) welcomed the FCC’s Media Bureau public notice seeking comment on the state of sports television, with a comment deadline of March 27, 2026. The inquiry, supported by FCC Chair Brandon Carr and Senator Mike Lee, aims...
TikTok announced a partnership with Apple Music that lets Apple Music subscribers play full tracks directly within the TikTok app via a new “Play Full Song” button. The integration uses Apple’s MusicKit, so playback occurs in Apple Music and streams are counted as...
Peer39’s latest research reveals that roughly 60% of open‑market CTV programmatic bid requests contain no program‑level metadata, while about one‑quarter are classified as fake content, primarily originating from concealed mobile‑app inventory. The remaining bids often feature shallow or inaccurate genre...
Israeli pay‑TV operator YES, part of the Bezeq Group, has chosen Synamedia Iris to power advanced advertising across its linear TV and streaming services. The Iris platform will enable addressable, server‑side ad insertion that unifies delivery on set‑top boxes and...
Pluto TV has renewed its partnership with the Modus Super Series to broadcast the third edition of the International Pairs darts tournament. The event streams live and free on Pluto TV’s dedicated MODUS Super Series Darts channel from April 20‑25, reaching...
TAM Sports, the sports intelligence arm of TAM Media Research, has expanded its monitoring suite to track advertising on linear live broadcast as well as live streaming via Connected TV and mobile devices. The move broadens its cross‑platform analytics, which...
Netflix’s 2016 series *The Get Down* dazzled with Baz Luhrmann’s lavish 1970s hip‑hop aesthetic but was halted after one season due to its staggering $120 million budget. Production hurdles, including a showrunner departure and a reduced episode order, compounded low viewership, making the project...
Disney+ announced it will stream the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, known as March Madness, across Europe and South Africa. The service will carry all 134 games live from March 17 to April 7 as part of the standard...
Gracenote, the Nielsen‑owned entertainment metadata giant, has launched a CTV advertising business that layers its extensive content data onto programmatic buys. Research cited by the company indicates that about 70 % of bid requests lack basic genre signals, prompting a push...
Canal+ has entered a multi‑year partnership with Google Cloud to roll out the latter’s generative AI suite across its European and African app markets starting in June. The AI tools will automate video indexing, create a multimodal content database and...
EE announced that the DAZN sports streaming app is now available on its EE TV Box Pro and Box Edge devices, accessible via the Apps rail. The partnership brings live boxing, MMA, football, golf and more to UK households, with over 185...
Primary research from Omdia shows that 52% of U.S. adults aged 45‑54 watched video clips on their mobile phones while viewing television in November 2025, up from 39% in 2022. The trend also accelerated among 55‑64‑year‑olds, rising to 35% from...
Sony Pictures' comedic remake of Anaconda topped the Digital Entertainment Group's weekly digital sales and rentals chart for the week ending March 1, according to GfK Entertainment data. The film rose five spots to claim the No. 1 position, displacing Disney's Zootopia 2,...
Netflix’s "Bridgerton" Season 4 Part 2 topped Samba TV’s weekly US streaming chart for Feb 23‑Mar 1, reclaiming the #1 spot. HBO Max’s pre‑Game of Thrones series "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" fell to second place, while its drama "The Pitt" secured third. Netflix’s...
Sky and Canal+ have entered a three‑year co‑commissioning partnership to develop English‑language scripted series, committing to at least two new projects each year. The deal pools StudioCanal’s resources with independent producers, allowing both companies to co‑finance green‑lit titles. By targeting...
Sunny Nights, the Australian comedy‑drama starring Will Forte and D’Arcy Carden, premiered on Stan in December 2025 and arrived on Hulu on March 11, 2026. As of now the series has not received a renewal order for a second season,...
Free TV Australia launched PacificAus TV in Timor‑Leste, delivering free Australian programming to RTTL as part of the Indo‑Pacific Broadcasting Strategy. The service arrives alongside the broadcast of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, highlighting women’s football across the region. Officials...
Tomorrow Studios is quietly developing a live‑action adaptation of Shinichirō Watanabe’s 2004 anime *Samurai Champloo*. After the mixed reception of Netflix’s *Cowboy Bebop* and the more favorable response to *One Piece*, the studio is leveraging lessons learned by securing Watanabe’s direct involvement. Producer Marty...
The FCC’s Media Bureau has opened a docket to examine the fragmented sports‑broadcasting ecosystem, inviting comments through March 27. Early filers include One Ministries, which urges the commission to extend must‑carry rules to virtual MVPDs so independent stations like KQSL...
Snapchat released a study with Omnicom Media and Ipsos showing social platforms heavily influence TV viewership. Two‑thirds of viewers say ads on social make them more likely to watch, while 65% are driven to watch trailers after online discussions. The...
Broadpeak will unveil a suite of live‑streaming and monetisation tools at NAB Show 2026, highlighting premium‑performance delivery, advanced ad insertion, and anti‑piracy safeguards. New offerings include Multiview for simultaneous event viewing, Media over QUIC (MoQ) for lower latency, and AI‑powered...
Neutral Wireless, Haivision and ITN delivered the United Kingdom’s first live broadcast using the newly‑available n40 private 5G spectrum (2320‑2340 MHz) for the London New Year’s Eve Fireworks 2025/26. A portable pop‑up 5G Pro system created a single cell covering the...
Globo and Paraguay’s leading free‑to‑air channel Telefuturo have signed a new five‑year agreement (2026‑2030) to broadcast Globo’s flagship drama slate, beginning with the telenovela “Anything Goes,” which amassed over 150 million viewers and is Globo’s highest‑grossing prime‑time production. The renewal builds...
Amazon MGM Studios and Alliance Home Entertainment announced that the sci‑fi thriller Mercy will hit physical shelves on April 7, 2026, in 4K Ultra HD, Blu‑ray, and DVD formats. The film, directed by Timur Bekmambetov, earned $54.3 million worldwide at the box...
Netflix reported that the Lionsgate‑produced sci‑fi action film *War Machine* topped its global weekly streaming chart through March 8, amassing 39.3 million views and leading both the overall and English‑language movie rankings. The platform’s English‑language TV chart was led by *Bridgerton* season four...
JustWatch’s weekly streaming report for March 2‑8 shows Oscar‑nominated movies dominating the U.S. market, capturing 70 % of the top‑10 titles. Hulu leads the movie segment with Brazilian drama *The Secret Agent* at No. 1 and sci‑fi drama *In the Blink of an...
