Disney+

Paramount has escalated its hostile takeover campaign for Warner Bros. Discovery, sweetening its $30-per-share offer with new terms designed to force WBD's board to abandon a rival deal with Netflix. The move is a direct assault on WBD’s pre-existing agreement and is backed by a hefty personal guarantee from tech billionaire Larry Ellison.

• Paying to play: While the $30-per-share price is unchanged, Paramount's updated play includes a new quarterly 'ticking fee' for shareholders if the transaction drags on past 2026. More importantly, the company is now offering to pay the $2.8 billion breakup fee Warner Bros. would owe Netflix for walking away.

• A clearer path: Paramount is betting its bid for the entire company is superior, pitching it as having a "clear regulatory path" to approval. The company backed up its claims by noting it has already complied with a "Second Request" from the Department of Justice and secured clearance from German authorities.

• The defense holds: For now, WBD's board is holding firm. While it acknowledged it will review the new terms, its recommendation still favors the Netflix plan. Meanwhile, WBD appears to be preparing for a significant legal battle, reportedly bringing famed antitrust lawyer Dan Petrocelli into its corner.

Paramount's aggressive move puts the pressure squarely on WBD's board, forcing it to publicly justify why it would choose Netflix's offer over a sweetened, all-cash bid for the whole company.

While the takeover battle rages, Paramount is also shuffling its C-suite, appointing a new CFO. Elsewhere, Paramount is taking its fight directly to shareholders, urging them to reject executive pay packages as part of its proxy fight.

Super Bowl LX averaged nearly 125 million viewers across all platforms, making it the second most-watched U.S. television event in history but failing to break the previous year's record, according to data from Nielsen. The slight audience dip for the game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots broke a four-year growth streak for the NFL's championship.

• Record peak, slight dip: While the total audience was down 2%, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter, the broadcast still hit a new peak of nearly 138 million people tuned in simultaneously during the game's second quarter. The lopsided 29-13 final score may have contributed to the overall viewership decline in the second half.

• Winning the web: Bad Bunny's Apple Music halftime show drew an even bigger crowd than the game, pulling in an audience of over 128 million. The performance became a monster hit on social media, generating a record-breaking four billion views across social platforms in the 24 hours following the event—a 137% increase year-over-year.

• Telemundo's touchdown: NBCUniversal also saw historic success with its Spanish-language broadcast on Telemundo, which averaged 3.3 million viewers. That audience made it the most-watched Super Bowl in U.S. Spanish-language history.

Even a slight dip can't diminish the Super Bowl's status as an unrivaled media event, and the massive social engagement for the halftime show proves that the broadcast's true reach now extends far beyond the traditional television screen.

The Los Angeles Angels are launching Angels.TV, a new direct-to-consumer streaming service, to escape the implosion of their regional sports network partner. The move, made in partnership with Major League Baseball, finally kills the dreaded local blackout for fans in the team's home territory.

• The price of admission: For $100 a year or $20 a month, fans get a blackout-free season, a model MLB is now providing for 20 teams left stranded by the RSN model's failure. "MLB’s in-market streaming option allows us to remove a point of friction for the fans," said MLB Deputy Commissioner Noah Garden in a press release.

• Not the final inning: The deal is reportedly a stopgap, not a final destination, according to the Sports Business Journal. A team-owned linear network remains a future goal, with talk of the NHL's Los Angeles Kings eventually coming aboard, but fans on traditional cable are still left in a holding pattern.

The Angels solved their immediate streaming crisis by leaning on the league, but the move highlights the messy, ongoing fragmentation of sports media and leaves traditional cable viewers waiting on the bench. But while the Angels opted for MLB's solution, other teams like the Atlanta Braves are still contemplating their own RSNs. The league's broader streaming strategy also includes a major partnership with ESPN for its out-of-market package, and in the wider world of sports, the Big Ten is urging the NCAA to limit prop betting on college athletics.

Netflix is turning its hit Broadway prequel, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, into its next streaming special, with filming underway this week to capture the original cast.

• Going dark for the camera: To accommodate the shoot, performances at the Marquis Theatre are canceled from February 10-14. The timing is designed to capture the original cast—fronted by Tony nominee Louis McCartney—before their final performance on March 29.

• A box office monster: The canonical prequel, which details the origin of villain Henry Creel, has been a critical and commercial smash since opening last spring. The play has become one of Broadway's top earners, recently pulling in $1.4 million in a single week, and won a Special Tony Award for its mind-bending effects.

The move is a textbook case of corporate synergy, turning a theatrical hit Netflix already co-owns into exclusive streaming content. The strategy more savvily integrates the company's stage investments with its core streaming business and builds a new content pipeline from a proven hit. The live show is already preparing for its next chapter with a new principal cast set to take over in March.

In a move to combat subscription fatigue, Philo announced it is expanding its channel lineup with four new free channels from Paramount and adding a Western-themed network to its paid tier. The dual strategy aims to attract new users with free ad-supported content while giving paid subscribers more niche programming.

• News, noms, and no cost: The company is adding CBS News 24/7, 48 Hours, The Martha Stewart Channel, and The Emeril Lagasse Channel to its free offering. The inclusion of a 24/7 news network reverses Philo's long-standing strategy of shunning news programming to maintain its budget-friendly price, a move made possible through a broader distribution deal with its investor, Paramount.

• Go west: Subscribers to the $33-a-month Core package also gain access to WEST (Western Entertainment Series Television). The new network from Weigel Broadcasting features a library of classic TV westerns like Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and The Virginian.

The strategy pits a growing FAST offering to onboard users without a paywall against a fortified paid tier designed to keep subscribers from leaving.

Measurement firm iSpot has launched Sage, an AI platform designed to give marketers instant answers on ad performance. The platform's key differentiator is its reliance on iSpot's massive, closed dataset, aiming to provide more trusted insights than generalist AI models.

• Garbage in, gospel out: iSpot's bet is that a closed data set is the only way to avoid the classic "garbage in, garbage out" problem. Unlike generalist AI models, Sage is trained exclusively on iSpot's internal data, which includes performance metrics from 2.5 million commercials and nearly 100 million consumer surveys.

• A trusted model: The platform, developed over two years with input from brands like General Motors and Airbnb, is designed to streamline ad analysis. "The market has made it clear that a trusted model, grounded in expert data, is the only AI they want for their video investments," said Miles Drayton, Global Director of Marketing Intelligence at GM, in a statement.

• Augment, not replace: The initial version, iSpot SAGE for Creative, breaks down ads frame-by-frame to identify which elements drive metrics like purchase intent. Speaking with The Measure, iSpot CEO Sean Muller said the platform is meant to augment marketing teams, not replace them, making employees "more valuable, more efficient."

Future updates will expand Sage's capabilities from creative analysis into media planning and audience measurement. The launch of Sage comes as iSpot continues its push to be a primary challenger to Nielsen, recently gaining re-accreditation from the U.S. Joint Industry Committee to serve as a currency for TV ad measurement.

Netflix calls it "ordinary course of business." The data tells a different story about who wins, who loses, and why advertisers should be paying closer attention than anyone.

On Friday, after the closing bell, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice launched an antitrust review of Netflix's $82.7 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. As part of the probe, the DOJ issued a civil subpoena to another entertainment company asking it to describe "any exclusionary conduct on the part of Netflix that would reasonably appear capable of entrenching market or monopoly power."

Netflix's Chief Global Affairs Officer, Clete Willems, went on Fox Business and called it routine. "This is ordinary course of business," he said. "The Department of Justice is going to investigate this transaction and make sure it's good for our economy and consumers."

Perhaps. But there's nothing ordinary about what this deal would do to the streaming landscape. And the conversation happening in Washington is missing the point that matters most to anyone buying or selling Streaming TV advertising.

"Last year was the year of consolidation," said Jean Carucci, best known as "The Streaming Strategy Scholar" and Principal of Carucci Consultants, a streaming advertising veteran who has worked on the agency, pay TV, and network sides of the business. "This year is the beginning of the mega mergers." Jean joined the State of Streaming for a live breakdown of what both potential WBD deals mean for media buyers, and her analysis paints a picture the Senate hearing never touched.

What The Senate Hearing Missed

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust heard testimony last Tuesday, and the questions were predictable. Senator Mike Lee of Utah warned Netflix could become "the one platform to rule them all." Senator Josh Hawley pressed for commitments on union labor and a 45-day theatrical release window for Warner Bros. films. Netflix committed to both under oath.

Pricing came up. Netflix pointed out that its cost per hour of content is roughly 36 cents compared to Paramount's 70-plus cents. They promised more content for less money and a discounted bundle for the 80% of Netflix subscribers who also subscribe to HBO Max.

All of this makes for good television. But none of it addresses the structural question that actually matters for a sustainable streaming advertising ecosystem and since ads are what pay the bills, it's worth mentioning.

The Question Washington Isn't Asking

Here's what the Senate hearing didn't touch: what happens to the advertising inventory landscape when one company controls Netflix's audience scale and WBD's content library?

Netflix made its pitch in consumer terms. More content, lower prices, theatrical distribution, jobs in all 50 states. But the advertising implications of this deal are enormous and almost entirely absent from the public conversation.

Carucci framed it bluntly. A combined Netflix and WBD would offer "limited premium inventory. Premium, no doubt. Each one of these companies has an ultra light ad load, four to six minutes. That will severely limit the number of ad slots available." High demand, scarce supply. "I can assure you those will be very high CPMs."

And the data transparency problem makes it worse. "Let's remember that Netflix has never really published subscriber numbers," Carucci said. "They've traditionally relied on monthly active viewers. And that actually just inflates the household reach number." Warner Bros. Discovery's Max averages between eight and ten million ad-supported subscribers. Combined, the audience is real but the visibility into it remains, in Jean's word, "murky."

For buyers used to planning with precision, that's a problem. You're being asked to pay premium prices into an environment where the inventory is limited, the audience measurement is opaque, and the ad load gives you almost no room to optimize.

The Data Behind the Power Shift

This is where it helps to look at what Reelgood CEO David Sanderson told the State of Streaming podcast recently, because his data quantifies exactly what's at stake.

"When we looked at the top 10 titles on Paramount, 40% of them are licensed from Warner Brothers," Sanderson said. "When you compare that to Netflix, none of the top 10 are licensed by Warner Brothers."

Zoom out to Paramount's top 50, and a quarter of their highest-performing content comes from WBD's library.

"For Netflix, buying Warner Brothers is really an offensive move," Sanderson said. "For Paramount, it's a defensive move."

Netflix's global affairs officer made a version of this argument on Fox Business, though he framed it differently: "Right now we do not have 100 years of iconic IP, shows like Harry Potter or Sopranos. We don't have theatrical distribution or the world-class studio that Warner Bros. has. We are going to bring these things together and give consumers more content for less."

That's the consumer pitch. The business reality is more pointed. Netflix doesn't need WBD's content to survive. Their top 10 has zero WBD titles. They want it to dominate. Paramount, on the other hand, loses a quarter of its best-performing catalog if Netflix acquires WBD and pulls those licenses. That's not competition. That's a structural collapse of a competitor's content supply chain.

Netflix acknowledged as much indirectly during the hearing, noting that Paramount's competing bid involves "$6 billion in synergies, which is code for $6 billion in job cuts." Netflix positioned their own cost savings as "primarily from licensing savings." Read that again - licensing savings. That means pulling content back from competitors and keeping it in-house. Exactly what Sanderson's data predicts.

Two Deals, Two Completely Different Ad Environments

Jean Carucci broke down the contrast in terms every media buyer can act on immediately.

A Netflix/WBD combination gives you premium drama and film access with prestige content environments. But the practical reality is "low frequency of events," he said. "Those prestigious dramas don't have a deep library or twenty-two episodes. They're much less." The ability to advertise in award-winning content is real. The ability to build scale, frequency, and endemic relevancy against it is limited. "It's great for luxury and high-end brands seeking prestige. It's just not going to work if you're a mass market company looking for scale."

A Paramount/WBD combination offers something fundamentally different: endemic lifestyle content, reality programming, and live sports. "Food, home, eating, competition," Carucci says. "Advertiser relevancy is very, very high there." The combined live sports portfolio alone (March Madness, NFL, NHL) would create what Jean calls "a fierce competitor to the juggernaut of Disney's ESPN." And the integration opportunities are cheaper, faster to produce, and available in far greater volume. "You can own a show. You can own the first pod. So many different opportunities."

The distinction matters because it changes how you plan. Netflix/WBD is a prestige play with limited inventory and premium pricing. Paramount/WBD is a scale play with endemic content and integration depth. Both have value. But they serve fundamentally different advertisers with fundamentally different objectives, and right now the public conversation treats them as interchangeable bidders for the same asset.

The 45-Day Window and What It Means for Streaming Ad Inventory

One detail from the hearing that flew under the radar: Netflix committed under oath to a 45-day theatrical release window for major Warner Bros. films. That means every WBD theatrical release would hit Netflix's streaming platform (and its ad-supported tier) roughly six weeks after its theatrical debut.

For advertisers, this creates a predictable, premium content pipeline feeding directly into Netflix's ad inventory. Every major Warner Bros. release becomes a tentpole advertising moment on Netflix's platform six weeks later. That's a structural advantage no other streaming ad platform can currently promise.

Carucci's advice here? It's direct: "Lock in those high-affinity tentpoles or events before the price resets in the marketplace. Premium inventory is going to become competitive very, very quickly. Try to commit early so you can get the best value."

What Buyers Should Be Doing Right Now

The DOJ review means this deal isn't closing tomorrow. But the strategic implications are already in motion. Content licensing negotiations are happening now. Platform strategies are being set now. Upfront conversations are happening now.

That's why we asked Jean Carucci, The Streaming Strategy Scholar to outline five questions every media buyer should be asking their streaming partners heading into this upfront season:

Can I activate my own first-party data on your platform, or am I relying solely on your native targeting tools? "As ownership shifts, you need to safeguard your targeting consistency," Jean said. "You need to make sure that your data portability is protected." This isn't a theoretical concern. When platforms merge, data systems merge, and the targeting infrastructure you built your campaign on may not survive the transition.

What is the actual ad-available subscriber base and impression supply? Not monthly active viewers. Not inflated household reach. The real number of people you can actually serve an ad to, with the transparency to verify it.

What content am I actually buying against? Sanderson's data already shows the vulnerability. Forty percent of Paramount's top 10. A quarter of their top 50. All from WBD. If Netflix pulls that content post-acquisition, the platform you're buying today might not have the same content environment six months from now.

Does your ad tech stack support interactive, shoppable, and outcome-driven formats? "A thirty-second ad just to increase brand awareness is done," Carucci said. "This has got to work harder." If the newly merged entity can't support the formats that drive measurable outcomes, the premium you're paying for prestige content isn't translating into performance.

How can my brand be on the home screen during the transition? This is The Streaming Strategy Scholar sleeper pick. "That home screen is the most valuable piece of real estate in streaming," he said. When a merged platform launches a new interface, millions of subscribers are rediscovering what's available. "If your brand can be there at that moment of selection, that's a win-win."

The Bigger Picture

Here's what ties all of this together. The streaming industry just completed what Carucci calls "the plethora of 'Plus' era" and is now deep into mega-merger territory. The number of places to buy advertising is about to shrink, again. The complexity of buying it is about to increase, again. And the leverage advertisers have is about to shift in ways that most media plans haven't accounted for.

"We've sort of just traded off subscribers," Jean said. "There's only so many people who are going to subscribe to so many streams. There's got to be a point of diminishing returns. And now how do I keep those subscribers? Therein lies the challenge. That's why we're in this state."

For sellers competing with Netflix, the window to differentiate is right now, before the deal closes, before the content library consolidates, before the ad dollars follow the eyeballs to wherever the best content lands.

And if you're Netflix, the playbook is clear. They said it themselves on national television: more content, less money, theatrical distribution, and licensing savings. Every one of those moves consolidates power. Every one of them reshapes the advertising landscape. The only question is whether the DOJ decides that's a feature or a problem.

Listen to Reelgood CEO David Sanderson on the State of Streaming podcast and Jean Carucci, The Streaming Strategy Scholar on the State of Streaming LinkedIn Live Stream for the full conversations behind this analysis.

A record 102 celebrities appeared in Super Bowl LX commercials, according to new data from ad-tech firm XR. The turn to star-studded ensemble casts appears to be a form of risk management for brands shelling out millions on advertising's biggest stage.

• An expensive insurance policy: With a 30-second ad slot costing as much as $8 million, brands are stacking their commercials with famous faces to maximize the chances of instant recognition. The strategy is to cut through the noise in a media environment where attention is the only currency that matters.

• Hitting the right note: Musicians are becoming a Super Bowl cheat code, appearing 60% more frequently in the big game than in typical year-round ads. The appeal is their versatility; unlike actors or athletes, musicians aren't tied to a specific character or team, giving them broad, immediate recognition that cuts across demographics.

• A calculated crowd: The move to ensemble casting isn’t about cramming more stars on screen for the sake of it; it's a deliberate strategy. As XR's Chief Marketing Officer Graham McKenna noted in a blog post, “Brands are being far more deliberate about how they use talent to reach different fans at the same time.”

For a brand already committed to a massive media buy, adding more stars is an easier incremental cost to swallow—especially if it helps land the message in a high-stakes moment. While celebrities were everywhere, AI companies also made a huge splash, though with mixed results for brands like Anthropic and AI.com. Despite the star power, this year's ads were also reportedly 9% less likely to be funny than in 2025, with brands leaning more on nostalgia.

The Detroit Tigers and Red Wings, both owned by Ilitch Sports + Entertainment, have inked a first-of-its-kind deal with Major League Baseball to take over local game broadcasts, creating a new survival model as their regional sports network partner faces collapse.

• A house of cards: The arrangement secures a future for the Detroit teams, whose games were on the FanDuel Sports Network, formerly Bally Sports. That network's operator, the financially troubled Main Street Sports Group, is set to shut down after the current season, forcing numerous pro teams to scramble for a new home on the airwaves.

• Flipping the playbook: Under the unique venture, MLB will produce and distribute games for the Tigers starting in 2026. The roles will flip for the Red Wings in the 2026-27 season: Ilitch Sports + Entertainment will produce the games itself, while leaning on MLB's infrastructure for distribution.

• The stability promise: The core promise from Ilitch Sports + Entertainment is stability for fans, keeping games on the air through a mix of cable, satellite, and streaming. "Given recent uncertainty... we recognize the importance of providing fans with a consistent, year-round outlet to watch Tigers baseball and Red Wings hockey,” said CEO Ryan Gustafson.

The Detroit deal provides a snapshot of sports media's tectonic realignment. With MLB already slated to handle local broadcasts for more than a dozen of its teams, this cross-sport model could become a template for other leagues navigating the post-RSN world.

YouTube TV is rolling out a suite of cheaper, genre-specific subscription plans, offering more flexible alternatives to its pricey all-in-one bundle. The new tiers aim to give subscribers more control by letting them pay less for packages focused on sports, news, and entertainment.

• A bundle of savings: The new plans offer a clear price break from the main ~$83 package. A sports-focused tier will run ~$65 a month, while a stripped-down entertainment plan without sports will cost ~$55 a month, a savings of $28. Other bundles combining news, family, and sports content will also be available at different price points.

• One big catch: Subscribers to the lower-priced tiers will still get key features like unlimited cloud DVR and six accounts per household. But sports fans will have to wait for a major perk; while the new sports plans include ESPN Unlimited, the integration won't actually launch on YouTube TV until this fall.

The pivot toward flexibility repositions one of live TV streaming's biggest players in a market where users have become sensitive to "stream-flation." While it stops short of the true 'pick-and-pay' freedom many users want, the move is a clear rebellion against the rigid, expensive bundles that streaming was meant to leave behind.

Warner Bros. Discovery is officially bringing its HBO Max streaming service to the UK and Ireland on March 26, upending its long-standing licensing deal with Sky. The move consolidates its entire content library and integrates live sports in a direct bid to capture the market.

• The one-two punch: The launch combines a deep entertainment library with live sports from TNT Sports, a major differentiator in the UK market. Subscribers will find Premier League matches and UFC fights in the same service as tentpole series like House of the Dragon, The Pitt, and the upcoming Harry Potter series, creating a single destination for both entertainment and live events.

• The price is right: WBD is clearly looking to undercut rivals with an aggressive entry-level price point. The service will launch with an ad-supported plan for £4.99 per month, making it one of the most affordable premium streaming options available and signaling a direct challenge to established players.

The launch marks a major strategic pivot for Warner Bros. Discovery, moving away from a lucrative, decade-long licensing model to a more competitive, direct-to-consumer approach. By bundling its entire portfolio, the company is betting it can build a more sustainable and profitable streaming business on its own terms.

Dan Abrams’ digital-first true-crime network, Law&Crime, is acquiring the iconic Court TV brand from The E.W. Scripps Company. The deal puts the legacy cable network under the ownership of Jellysmack, a YouTube-native media company, flipping the traditional script where legacy players typically buy digital upstarts.

• Strengthening the books: For Scripps, which relaunched the network in 2019, the sale is a strategic move to shore up its finances. Scripps President and CEO Adam Symson noted the exit will "strengthen our balance sheet," calling the brand a "natural complement" to Law&Crime's existing library.

• An Abrams homecoming: Law&Crime will operate Court TV as a distinct brand, positioning it as the network’s main destination for trial coverage. The move represents a homecoming for Abrams, who began his career at the original Court TV. "There is no better partner than Law&Crime to continue the distinctive Court TV brand and network," Abrams said in a statement.

The acquisition shows that in the modern media landscape, a massive digital audience can be the ultimate leverage, allowing new media players to purchase and remake the very legacy brands that once dominated the airwaves. The move by parent company Jellysmack follows its previous acquisition of Law&Crime in 2023, signaling a clear strategy of rolling up successful creator-led media brands. The deal gives Law&Crime control of a brand known for its coverage of high-profile cases, including the widely watched Depp vs. Heard trial.

FanDuel Sports Network is shutting down this spring. Main Street Sports Group couldn't find a buyer. Nine MLB teams are walking. Thirteen NBA teams and ten NHL teams could lose local broadcast partners midseason. The regional sports network model that powered local sports television for decades is, by most accounts, finished.

So it's worth paying attention to what NBC Sports did this week.

NBC Sports Regional Sports Networks just signed a multi-year deal with Sportradar to integrate advanced NBA data and AI-powered visual storytelling into live game broadcasts across multiple markets for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons. The product is called GameFrame, and what it does is convert official NBA player-tracking data into real-time on-air graphics, animated replays, shot charts, and customized digital assets that help broadcasters explain what's actually happening on the court as it happens.

Think heat maps of player movement. 3D animations of defensive schemes. Performance metrics that show you why a player's postseason numbers jumped, not just that they did. The kind of context that turns a casual viewer into someone who stays through the fourth quarter.

This matters for three reasons.

The RSN collapse is a distribution story. This is a product story.

FanDuel Sports Network didn't fail because fans stopped caring about local sports. It failed because the business model underneath it (cable subscriber fees from a shrinking pool of cord-cutters) couldn't support the rights costs anymore. The math stopped working years ago and NBC Sports isn't ignoring that reality. Instead, they're responding to it by making the product itself more valuable, more differentiated, and harder to replicate on a second screen.

Better broadcasts make better ad inventory.

This is the part buyers and sellers should care about most. The Sportradar integration doesn't just improve the fan experience, it improves the advertising environment too. Why? Because viewers who are more engaged stay longer. Viewers who stay longer see more ads. Viewers who see more ads in a context they're actually paying attention to are worth more to advertisers. That's not complicated, but it's the piece most RSN conversations miss entirely. Most talk about distribution and rights fees. Almost nobody talks about whether the broadcast itself is good enough to hold attention in a world where every viewer has a phone in their hand.

NBC is playing a different game than everyone else.

While Main Street Sports Group was trying to survive long enough to finish the NBA and NHL regular seasons, NBC Sports was signing multi-year technology partnerships. While FanDuel Sports Network's parent company was missing rights payments to the St. Louis Cardinals, NBC was investing in tools that make their coverage more compelling, more data-rich, and more aligned with how modern fans actually consume sports. The divergence is stark and the RSN shakeout isn't over.

Forbes reports that the NHL is especially vulnerable because the league folded its digital distribution into ESPN+ and has no standalone local streaming fallback. Teams on FanDuel Sports Networks could go dark during playoff races. The financial implications are real: industry estimates suggest teams moving to league-controlled streaming may initially see as little as 50% of their former RSN revenue.

But the lesson here isn't that regional sports networks are dead. It's that the ones built on distribution leverage alone are dead. The ones investing in product, technology, in giving fans and advertisers a reason to show up, have a future. NBC Sports appears to understand the difference.

For buyers of sports advertising inventory, the question is straightforward. Are you buying into a network that's fighting to survive, or one that's building something worth watching? Because in a market where fan attention is fragmented, expensive, and unforgiving, the quality of the broadcast isn't a "nice-to-have" - it can be the whole game.

Learn more about Sportradar in this podcast interview with Brian Josephs, VP of The Americas @ Sportradar

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And read these recent stories about the State of Regional Sports Networks:

- MLB Steps In to Save Detroit Sports Broadcasts From RSN Collapse

- Angels MLB Team Ditches Failing Model for MLB-Powered DTC Streaming

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A wave of expensive AI-themed commercials during Super Bowl LX largely failed to connect with viewers, exposing a major disconnect between the tech industry and mainstream consumers, as first reported by The Measure. The ads were widely seen as confusing and pointless, sparking a "WTF" reaction from audiences.

• Who is Claude?: The disconnect was on full display with Anthropic’s ad for its AI assistant, Claude, which viewers called "awkward and pointless." The ad's failure stemmed from a simple reality: Claude is virtually unknown, with a 2025 S&P Global survey showing only 7% of AI users have tried it, compared to nearly three-quarters for ChatGPT. This rejection points to a deeper consumer skepticism, as an Animoto report found that more than a third of consumers distrust brands that use AI-generated video.

• Puppy power: The one glaring exception was Ring’s ad for its AI-powered lost dog finder, which landed in the top percentile for attention and likeability. Unlike its peers, Ring didn't sell AI as a vague concept; it demonstrated a clear, practical benefit that tapped into the universal fear of losing a pet.

The pressure to build a distinct identity is immense for AI companies seeking valuations north of $800 billion. But as the Super Bowl showed, connecting with audiences requires a clear, human-centric benefit, not just an inside joke about the tech itself. The focus on AI ads came as the cost of a 30-second spot pushed brands to pull back on big celebrity paydays.

NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Milan Cortina Olympics opening ceremony delivered 21.4 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, a 34% jump from the 2022 Beijing Games, according to preliminary figures released by the company.

• The Peacock flex: The real story is the massive boost from streaming. Peacock set a new record for a Winter Games opening, pulling in over 3.0 million viewers on its own. That performance reflects the platform's growth from just 9 million standalone subscribers during the last Winter Olympics to 44 million today, making a streaming lift not just a hope, but an expectation.

• Time on their side: Beyond Peacock’s growth, a more favorable time zone played a key role. Milan's six-hour time difference from the U.S. East Coast made the live event far more accessible to American audiences than Beijing's 13-hour gap. The audience boost also provided a halo effect for NBC's late-night programming, with The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon pulling in its largest audience since Thanksgiving.

The strong opening numbers validate NBCUniversal's massive Olympic investment. The company holds the U.S. media rights for the games through 2036. Meanwhile, the network is doubling down on its investment, using the coveted post-Super Bowl slot to air more Olympics coverage instead of a traditional entertainment show.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s investigation into alleged advertiser boycotts of conservative news has expanded to include ad-verification firm Integral Ad Science, a development revealed in legal filings from another target, the Global Disinformation Index. The news, which widens the scope of the regulatory battle over brand safety practices, was first reported by Adweek.

• The FTC's playbook: Launched in June 2025, the agency's action questions whether brand safety and media rating firms colluded to penalize right-leaning publishers. The commission is using its authority to issue Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs), forcing firms to turn over years of internal records.

• The firms punch back: The targeted companies are fighting back with legal action, arguing the inquiry is political retaliation that violates their First Amendment rights. GDI, Media Matters, and NewsGuard have all filed lawsuits against the FTC, with a federal court already granting Media Matters a preliminary injunction that temporarily halts the probe into its operations.

The expanding investigation intensifies the conflict between the ad industry's brand safety efforts and the government's antitrust concerns, creating a high-stakes showdown over who polices online speech and commerce.

Free TV Networks (FTN), Versant's recently acquired broadcast unit, made its first big move by inking major distribution deals with CBS and Sling Freestream. The expansion is a clear shot across the bow, planting Versant's flag in the free, ad-supported television market just a month after the company's buyout.

• Airwaves and streams: The two-front push targets both broadcast and streaming audiences. FTN’s Western-themed Outlaw channel and 365BLK, a network focused on Black culture, will launch on 16 CBS-owned stations, boosting their reach to over 90% of U.S. TV households. Meanwhile, the FAST channel Pam Grier’s Soul Flix lands on Sling Freestream, expanding its digital footprint.

• Filling the void: The deal sees FTN’s channels moving into broadcast slots recently vacated by Fave TV, after parent company Paramount shuttered the network earlier this month. It's the first major play for FTN under Versant, which itself spun out of Comcast/NBCUniversal in January to build a business beyond the legacy pay-TV model.

• The official script: "These agreements accelerate our growth plans," said FTN president Jonathan Katz in a press release. Versant’s Chief Revenue and Business Officer, David Pietrycha, added that the move advances a "scalable, free, ad-supported model that complements our broader portfolio."

This expansion is the first concrete step in Versant's strategy to diversify its revenue and compete for eyeballs shifting away from traditional cable bundles and toward free content. The move is the direct result of Versant completing its acquisition of Free TV Networks last month, setting the stage for this expansion.

Most brands paid Olympic premiums to show up. These three showed up.

Here's something nobody in the planning meeting will admit out loud: most Olympic advertising is furniture. It fills the room. You know it's there but you couldn't describe a single piece of it a week later.

On Friday night, 21.4 million people watched the Milan-Cortina opening ceremony on NBC and Peacock. That's up 34% from Beijing in 2022 and the biggest streaming viewership for any Winter Olympic Games on record. Peacock and NBCUniversal's streaming platforms logged over 700 million minutes through Friday alone, 2.5 times the streaming consumption of the Beijing Games in the same window.

And most of the ads that we saw looked like they were assembled from the same AI-powered mood board. Athletes in slow motion. Flags. Swelling orchestral scores. Product shot. Logo. Gone.

But three brands did something else entirely. Hershey's, FIGS, and Saatva didn't just rent space at the Olympics. They became a part of the Olympics. And the difference between those two things is the difference between burning money with your logo on it and making people remember your name.

🥉Bronze Medal: Saatva

Ryan Cochran-Siegle's mom won Olympic gold in slalom in 1972. Fifty-four years later, her son is a U.S. Olympic skier with a silver medal, going for gold in Milan-Cortina, and trying to sleep at night knowing the entire country will measure him against her legacy.

That's a mattress ad.

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Saatva understood that and did something clever with it. Instead of the typical Olympic spot (inspirational montage, logo, forget it by the next commercial break) they let Cochran-Siegle talk directly to camera about what restorative sleep actually does for an elite athlete. Keeps him alert. Strengthens his immune system. Speeds up muscle recovery. The legacy tension with his mom gives you a reason to care. The product information gives you a reason to act.

Then Saatva closed the loop. They carried the Olympic branding through to their website with clear calls to action that connect the emotional hook to an immediate purchase decision.

This is what most brands miss about the supposed divide between brand building and performance marketing - thinking you have to pick one. Saatva picked both. They made you feel something, then they made it easy to do something about it, and the whole thing felt like one continuous thought instead of an ad bolted onto a landing page. The brand story and the conversion path were the same story.

The lesson isn't complicated: Don't treat your thirty-second spot and your website like they live in different universes. They don't. Your customer doesn't experience them separately, so let them work together.

And judging by this Google Trends snapshot, it's delivering the intended effect.

🥈Silver Medal: FIGS

Here's a question worth asking about advertising during a major sporting event like the Olympics: whose story are you actually telling?

Most brands that partner with an athlete tells the athlete's story and hopes some of the glory transfers. This is called borrowed interest. It's the advertising equivalent of name-dropping someone you met once at a conference and calling them a close friend. The brand shows up next to the athlete and prays that proximity equals relevance. It rarely ever does, because the audience can feel the difference between a brand that belongs in the story and one that bought its way in.

FIGS did something different. They partnered with Lindsey Vonn and told the story of the five people who made Lindsey Vonn possible.

Vonn narrates the spot herself, and she introduces her medical team the way you'd introduce your closest friends. Because that's what they are. There's Dr. Hackett, who "went to town" on her knee after a Mako partial knee replacement so unprecedented that there was no real track record of evidence-based outcomes to lean on. There's Lindsay, who she introduces with a grin as "another Lindsay, my physio, my friend." Lorenzo, whose rehab work she lovingly calls "incredibly boring." Shauna, who "relieves pressure by applying a lot of it." And Leo, emotional support.

The visuals match the narration. Gritty. Technical. Real. You see the reps, the grind, the moments where everyone in the room is pushed to their limit.

The tagline lands it: "It takes heart to build bodies that break records."

This works because FIGS hasn't manufactured a position for the Olympics. They've held this position for years. They're a healthcare apparel company that has spent its entire existence making medical professionals visible, arguing that the people who fix the bodies deserve the same recognition as the people who break the records. So when they show up at the Olympics and say the real story isn't the athlete but the team behind the athlete, it doesn't feel like a campaign - it's continued conviction.

Then reality did what reality does. After the spot was shot, Vonn crashed in Crans-Montana in training and tore her ACL. That same medical team rallied. She made it to Milan-Cortina. She raced. And on Sunday, she broke her leg in competition and was airlifted off the mountain. The five people FIGS put on screen aren't a creative concept. They're the reason Vonn got to the start line, and they'll be the reason she comes back from this, too. That's what happens when your ad tells the truth. The truth keeps going even after the campaign ends.

🥇Gold Medal: HERSHEY'S

Hershey's interviewed the families of five Team USA athletes (Brenna Huckaby, Erin Jackson, Hilary Knight, Jason Brown, and Jordan Stolz) and asked them a simple question: What do you want most for your athlete?

Every single family said the same thing. Not gold. Not a podium. Happiness.

Then they played those messages for the athletes on camera and filmed what happened.

What happened is people cried. Real, unscripted, caught-off-guard tears from Olympic competitors who spend every waking hour training themselves to be unshakeable. That's the whole ad. And it's devastating, because the insight underneath it is so simple it's almost invisible: the people who love you the most don't care if you win.

They care if you're happy.

You don't need to dress it up. You don't need to layer production tricks on top of it. You just need to find it and get out of its way. Hershey's found it.

They took that insight and turned it into a tagline (happiness is the real gold🏅) that reframes the entire Olympic narrative. Not the medal count. Not the spotlight. The everyday stuff. The phone calls home. The people in the stands. That's the gold that matters.

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So here's where Hershey's separates from everyone else: Most brands would have stopped at the spot. Beautiful ad, big moment, move on. Hershey's though, built an entire ecosystem around the idea. Limited-edition chocolate medals, gold foil-wrapped and embossed, positioned as a way to celebrate everyday moments of happiness. On February 7th, the first 400 people at Hershey's Chocolate World in Pennsylvania and Times Square got a free medal. The full product drops on TikTok Shop February 13th and in retail stores February 14th. Valentine's Day. That is not an accident.

Creative. Product. Retail. Social. All of it pulling in the same direction, all of it extending the campaign's life well beyond opening weekend. This is what the company calls its "first major creative campaign in eight years", and they launched it right as 21.4 million people tuned in. The timing alone would be smart. The execution makes it something worth studying for years.

Closing Ceremony

The real premium has never been in the ad inventory. It's in the preparation. The storytelling that's true to who you actually are. The timing that rides the wave instead of fighting it. The follow-through that turns a thirty-second spot into something that lives for weeks.

Hershey's, FIGS, and Saatva understood this.

Most everyone else, didn't. So before you sign off on your next seven-figure cultural moment buy, ask yourself one question: do you have something to say, or just something to sell?

Now, time for the big game.

No one event is more synonymous with advertising than the Super Bowl. With 30 to 60-second spots going for millions of dollars every year, brands go big and pull out all the stops. Naturally, licensing is a huge part of that, and at Born Licensing, we know a good one when we see it. After all, we’ve been there, done that, and led the way in meaningful partnerships that stand out in a sea of big-time partnerships. Curious to know who’s done it best (with a little bit of our own work sprinkled in)?

Here are my 11 favorites from the past decade:

1. Facebook x Rocky (2020): Facebook’s first ever Super Bowl campaign went BIG, and we should know, since we managed it! The ad was a Herculean undertaking, but worth the effort given the clever way they used IP in advertising. Utilizing thematic elements from the Rocky films starring Sylvester Stallone, as well as the iconic stairs to complement the various rock-themed groups on display, this ad, ahem, rocked:

2. Jeep x Groundhog Day (2020): Was any ad more fun than this one? Bill Murray reprising his role in the classic film was a tremendous coup from both a cultural and licensing standpoint. Out of all the campaigns I’ve not been involved with, this is the one I wish I could’ve worked on the most. Because, I mean, come on! It’s Phil and Phil, back at it again! With a film this classic it would’ve been easy for this one to fall flat, but they totally nailed it:

3. Mountain Dew x The Shining (2020): Some scenes are simply iconic. Like this Bryan Cranston and Tracee Ellis Ross take on that classic creepy moment from The Shining. Sure, they could’ve maybe tried to recreate it wholecloth, but having A-List celebrities recreate it adds another layer of fun for the audience.

4. Pringles x Rick and Morty (2020): Do you know how long bespoke animation takes? Spoiler alert: a LONG time. But leave it to RIck and Morty to do just that with their meta—and therefore totally authentic—branded Pringles spot. Self-aware and just unhinged enough, what fan of the series could be mad about this? And if they are? Throw some Szechuan sauce at them and call it a day.

5. Discover x Various (2020): Another fun way licensing shows up in commercials? Through the use of clips. Discover collected a bevy of scenes where famous characters say “no.” And while that may seem like a simple task on the surface, it’s actually anything but: each celebrity and clip featured needs to be cleared and paid for separately. No small task, but hey: Advertisers live to spend money on Super Bowl ads.

6. Doordash x Sesame Street (2021): Sesame Workshop is extremely selective about the companies they work with and how their characters can appear in third party advertising. (Which they should be! They’re an iconic kids show!) The reason I love this one is because it’s a sweet concept and a great initiative that felt very true to Sesame Street.

7. Cadillac x Edward Scissorhands (2021): Timothée Chalamet playing the son of Edward Scissorhands is truly inspired casting, isn’t it? And to get Winona Ryder to reprise her role? Five stars, a perfect ad campaign (no wonder it stirred up so much hype)!

8. Rakuten x Clueless (2023): Alicia SIlverstone and Elisa Donovan reprising their Clueless characters for a pitch-perfect recreation of their iconic debate? AS IF there could be anything better. Rakuten really pushed our nostalgia buttons with this one.

9. Pepsi x Zoolander (2023): Real talk: celebrities reprising iconic characters in an ad campaign is seen most commonly  in Super Bowl ads because the budgets are high enough to allow for someone like Ben Stiller to be paid, as well as those that hold the rights to the Intellectual Property (IP) involved. Otherwise all they’d be able to afford is…ants!

10. Popcorners x Breaking Bad (2023): It’s unlikely this would ever have been agreed to by the Rights Holder while the series was live, but bringing the iconic characters of Breaking Bad back 10 years after the finale was exactly the right move:

11. Booking.com x The Muppets (2025): Having worked with The Muppets before on a campaign for Barclaycard Entertainment, I know how complex it can be working with these iconic puppet characters. There are a lot of moving parts that people wouldn’t even begin to consider unless they had extensive knowledge of how to work with these Jim Henson creations, so whenever I see a campaign with the Muppets go live, I have full respect for the people involved.

Learn more about David Born and his work here.

Germany is advancing a law that will force streaming services and broadcasters to invest 8% of their local revenue into European productions. The move, effectively a "content tax," is designed to mobilize private capital and strengthen the country's creative industry.

• Public and private purse: The government claims the mandate will provide "planning certainty" and is pairing it with an increase in federal film funding to €250 million. The law includes an off-ramp, allowing companies to deviate from some rules if they voluntarily invest more than 12% of their turnover.

• Praise and pushback: Producer associations are championing the legislation as a "breakthrough" that will unlock €120 million in blocked funds. But the platform association VAUNET slammed the proposal as an inflexible mandate, maintaining it ignores existing voluntary investments and raises serious legal questions under EU law.

Germany's move follows a playbook written by the EU's Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), which has paved the way for similar mandates in France and Italy. The continent's message is clear: global streamers must contribute to the local creative economy.

Tubi now has the largest content library of any ad-supported streamer in the UK, a milestone the Fox-owned service reached just 18 months after its launch, as reported by Deadline. The growth validates the company's "more is more" strategy in a competitive market.

• Feeding the stream: According to a new report from Ampere Analysis, Tubi’s UK catalog has tripled since 2024 to nearly 75,000 movies and TV episodes, making it the fastest-growing streamer in Europe. The strategy is capturing a younger demographic, with a 2025 YouGov survey finding that more than half of its UK viewers are Gen Z or Millennials, the vast majority of whom watch on-demand.

• Licensed to thrill: While its growth is largely built on a firehose of licensed titles from partners like Lionsgate and Sony, the service is also using originals to attract new users. The sequel Sidelined 2: Intercepted debuted at number one in the UK and brought in over half of its new viewers to the platform, proving that a targeted, low-cost original can drive significant user acquisition.

• A rising tide: The explosive growth of free streaming has, in turn, made services like Tubi essential clients for content distributors hunting for new revenue. As subscription services consolidate their libraries, AVOD platforms are becoming a critical downstream home for content.

The UK milestone fuels Tubi's global momentum, where it now reports over 100 million monthly active users. It's a clear signal that in the streaming wars, a massive, free library can be a powerful weapon to attract viewers fatigued by rising subscription costs. The company's massive library supports a brand identity built around serving niche fandoms, as part of a broader industry trend where FAST services are repackaging popular YouTube creator content for new audiences on their platforms.

Super Bowl LX ad spots are commanding a record $10 million for 30 seconds on NBC, with advertisers banking on a formula of celebrity-driven humor, nostalgia, and tech to capture the attention of over 100 million viewers.

• Stars on the field: The high price hasn't deterred newcomers, as an NBCU executive says about 40% of this year's advertisers are new to the game. Star power dominates the playbook, with Grubhub debuting a surreal ad starring George Clooney, while Instacart tapped director Spike Jonze for its spot. Pepsi, meanwhile, enlisted Taika Waititi to direct a spot that revives the cola wars, cheekily borrowing Coca-Cola's iconic polar bear for a taste-test gag.

• Bots, booze, and buzz: Uber is putting its celebrities to work in an interactive ad that lets users create over 1,000 versions of the spot in-app to unlock promotions. Svedka also debuts, claiming to air the first Super Bowl ad made primarily with AI—and the first spot from a vodka brand in three decades.

The record price is pushing brands to stretch their investment beyond a single night. The broadcast commercial is now the centerpiece of larger digital campaigns, with advertisers using interactive elements and early online releases of extended cuts to maximize engagement.

Bloomberg Media is placing a high-stakes bet on a new, unified global video platform designed to turn viewers into paying customers. The initiative consolidates all of the company’s video content while introducing a subscriber-only tier and a sophisticated, AI-powered advertising suite.

• A premium facelift: The new experience, now live on Bloomberg’s site and in a “Stream” tab on its mobile app, features a more cinematic interface powered by a proprietary media player. The redesign, which also combines audio content like podcasts, is scheduled to land on third-party streaming platforms in Q3.

• Paywalls and paydays: The core of the strategy is twofold: rolling out the velvet rope for select video content to reward paying customers, and debuting an advanced ad suite to capture more revenue. This ad tech includes a platform called Trigr, which aligns brand messaging with real-time market events to give advertisers hyper-specific targeting capabilities.

• The competitive squeeze: The investment is backed by a monthly video audience that now exceeds 55 million, which drove a 25% year-over-year growth in total hours watched in 2025. But the move pits Bloomberg directly against rivals like Reuters and Dow Jones, and the real test will be whether exclusive content is enough to pull viewers away from the powerful inertia of YouTube and overcome widespread subscription fatigue.

The ultimate goal is to create a flywheel on its own properties, one that spins up both subscription growth and premium advertising dollars. The free live TV stream on its digital platforms is now capped at 30 minutes per day, clarifying the line between its free and premium offerings. Meanwhile, the platform will continue to feature its library of existing original shows, including titles like The Circuit with Emily Chang and The Future with Hannah Fry.

The National Football League is in damage control mode after acquiring a 10% stake in ESPN, refuting claims the deal will give the network an unfair advantage as criticism from competitors and politicians mounts.

• No special treatment: As Cord Cutter News reports, the league is publicly pushing back on the idea of a "sweetheart deal," with NFL Executive Vice President Jeff Miller stating on a recent podcast that the league maintains "strict independence" with all its media partners. Miller insisted the process for deciding which networks get which games won't change because of the partnership.

• The new playbook: The $30 billion deal lets ESPN run the NFL Network and manage broadcast distribution for NFL RedZone starting this spring. It’s a strategic play for both legacy media giants as they scramble to compete with the deep pockets of tech companies like Apple and Amazon that are aggressively moving into live sports.

• Drawing a flag: But the vertical integration has drawn sharp criticism from rivals, who fear the move concentrates too much power and will kill off competition. In response, the NFL is pointing out that fans can still watch games on free local TV, trying to soothe fears of a closed-off media ecosystem.

Despite the NFL's assurances, the partnership puts the league's most valuable asset—its perceived neutrality in media negotiations—under a microscope, and regulators and competitors will be watching closely for any signs of favoritism.

Lionsgate posted strong revenue of over $724 million for its third quarter, but it wasn't enough to avoid a net loss of over $46 million. The studio's adjusted earnings fell short of analyst projections, a miss driven by soaring marketing costs for its otherwise successful film slate.

• A tale of two divisions: The studio's Motion Picture division was the primary growth driver, with sales surging 35% to $421 million. But that success came at a steep price, as high marketing costs weighed on the division's bottom line. Meanwhile, Lionsgate blamed the timing of its show deliveries for a 25% dip in TV production revenue, which landed at $303 million.

• Library to the rescue: The studio's quiet cash cow remains its massive 20,000-title content library. The catalog's trailing 12-month revenue climbed 10% to a new high of over $1 billion, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of record growth for the division.

• Open for business: The quarter's mixed results put a spotlight on a more telling move: its signal to the market that it's ready for a deal. Lionsgate is allowing its "poison pill"—a defense designed to ward off hostile takeovers—to expire in May, making it a prime target in an industry hungry for consolidation.

While Lionsgate is betting on a strong slate of IP-driven films, the decision to lower its defenses suggests the company sees its extensive library and production capabilities as its most valuable assets in a potential sale.