LONDON—A new study finds that nearly three in four US TV viewers regularly use their smartphones for other media while watching television. The finding highlights the growing competition for audience attention between TV and mobile video, according to new Omdia consumer research.

The study also found that this isn’t simply an issue for younger age groups. Omdia reports that simultaneous media use is becoming increasingly widespread across older age groups:

• Among 55–64-year-olds, simultaneous media use has risen from 42% in 2023 to 56% in 2026.
• Among 45–54-year-olds, it has increased from 62% to 73% over the same period.
• Among 35–44-year-olds, the direction is also upwards, from 69% to 76% during that time.

The findings highlight how competition for viewers’ attention is extending beyond TV programs and streaming services to the smartphone screen. Short-form video, in particular, is increasingly competing for viewers’ attention even while the television remains on.

“We don’t have a content problem. We have an attention problem,” said María Rúa Aguete, global head of media and entertainment at Omdia. “Three in four US TV viewers are using their phones while watching TV, and increasingly what they are doing is watching more video. The battle is no longer simply TV versus mobile. Both screens are on. The question is: which one has your attention?”

Short-form and vertical video are playing an increasingly significant role in this shift, the data shows.

Viewers are becoming accustomed to highly personalized, instantly accessible video experiences on smartphones, adding another source of competition for traditional television and streaming services.

For broadcasters, streaming platforms, advertisers and content owners, this changing behavior reinforces the need to consider TV and mobile as part of the same viewing experience, as audiences increasingly move their attention between the two, the Omdia researchers explained.

“The future isn’t TV versus mobile. It’s TV and mobile,” added Rúa Aguete. “The companies that understand how audiences move between those screens, and how to capture attention on both, will be best positioned to win.”

The findings are based on Omdia’s latest research into changing video consumption habits, the attention economy and the growth of short-form and vertical video, presented by Rúa Aguete at IBC 2026 in Amsterdam.

CHANTILLY, Va.—BIA Advisory Services has updated its 2026 U.S. Local Advertising Forecast and is now projecting that total local ad revenue will reach $186.1 billion, up $1.6 billion (+0.9%) from the firm's April 2026 estimate of $184.5 billion and approximately 9% year over year from 2025.

The increase is driven primarily by higher political ad spending heading into the midterms, along with continued strength in mobile.

The stronger than expected political ad spend is particularly good news for local TV stations as most of the growth has been flowing into TV station broadcasts and TV station digital platforms, the researchers said.

Overall, BIA is now projecting the TV over-the-air and TV digital/OTT ad revenue will hit $19.8 billion in 2026.

The firm also released a preliminary outlook for 2027 that sees growth in mobile and underlying local ad growth, particularly in Legal Services vertical, that will offset the end of the election cycle in 2027 and keep next year’s local ad spend essentially flat compared to 2026.

Excluding political advertising, the 2026 forecast is now $176.4 billion, up $0.3 billion (+0.2%) from the prior estimate of $176.1 billion and 3.9% over 2025, reflecting steady, broad-based growth across the underlying local ad market.

“Political spending came in higher than we anticipated in April, with most of the incremental spending flowing into TV OTA and TV OTT,” said Senan Mele, vice president of forecasting and data analysis, BIA Advisory Services. “Legal Services was also notable in this update, reaching $9.3 billion, up 4.6% from the prior forecast. Despite higher media costs and a more fragmented media environment, law firms continue to invest heavily in television, both linear and streaming, where the ability to reach large audiences and generate qualified leads continues to drive demand.”

BIA now projects $9.7 billion in 2026 for local political spending, up from $8.4 billion in the April forecast, which is an increase of $1.3 billion concentrated almost entirely in video. TV OTA and TV OTT together captured $1.2 billion of that increase, reinforcing broadcast and streaming video's role as a preferred vehicle for political campaigns.

The new data shows that mobile keeps compounding, and AI reshapes search.

Mobile remains the largest local media category tracked by BIA, projected to grow to $45.3 billion in 2026 (excluding political), an 8.9% year-over-year increase. This growth comes as competition intensifies in A.I.-fueled search advertising, a category that local advertisers have traditionally relied on to reach consumers across mobile devices.

“Google, OpenAI, Amazon, and Apple are all positioning themselves to capture a larger share of advertising tied to AI-powered search,” said Mike Boland, executive in residence, BIA Advisory Services. “Google’s Gemini is increasingly becoming an extension of its advertising business, while OpenAI, Amazon, and Apple are developing their own approaches to monetize search and discovery. For local advertisers, the bigger question is where consumer intent will emerge and which platforms will capture it. Mobile will be a critical battleground as that shift unfolds.”

BIA also highlighted some of the growth categories heading into 2027.

BIA's first look at 2027 projects total local ad revenue of $186.5 billion, essentially flat versus 2026. About $9 billion in underlying, nonpolitical growth is expected to nearly offset an $8.6 billion decline in political spending as the election cycle ends. Political spending is projected to fall to approximately $1.1 billion in the 2027 off-cycle year.

BIA’s Mele explained that “political spending will decline sharply after the midterms, but the underlying nonpolitical market has continued to grow and should offset much of that decline. We expect the overall local advertising market to remain essentially flat in 2027, with continued growth across core categories helping to support the market in an off-cycle year.”

Beneath that stable topline, several categories are projected to grow well above the market average. Real estate leads at +9.8%, followed by leisure and recreation (+5.9%), automotive (+5.1%), restaurants and food (+4.4%), and financial services (+3.7%).

“2027 makes clear that the underlying growth in local advertising is broader and more durable than the political cycle alone would suggest,” said Rick Ducey, managing director, BIA Advisory Services. “Political spending has accelerated the market and delivered a strong two-year period for broadcast and streaming video, but the more important story is what happens beneath that surge. Core categories continue to expand their investments across an increasingly diverse media ecosystem. That sustained, multi-platform demand, and the media channels that capture it, will shape the next phase of local media.”

For more information on the data, which comes from BIA ADVantage and to access the updated forecast, contact advantage@bia.com to request a demonstration.

VIENNA—In the runup to IBC2026, the 10th annual Video Developer Report from video streaming solution provider Bitmovin highlights some of the major issues facing streaming media that will be top of mind at the show, with live latency and costs ranking as the industry’s top two problems.

The report finds that low latency for live streaming has overtaken controlling costs and is now the number one concern for 36% of respondents, making it the top challenge facing video teams today. This is followed by controlling costs at 35% and maintaining consistent monitoring and analytics at 28%. Finding the root cause of streaming issues and ad insertion are also major challenges for video providers today (both at 27%).

The latest edition of the report also indicates that AI has stopped being an add-on feature and is now deployed across the entire stack, often with agents operating the workflow.

Of the 486 respondents, 98% report using AI or ML for video with nearly half (46%) using AI tools every day. Only 2% report no plans for AI at all, with 4% of respondents not AI tools at all.

Audio transcription, translation and foreign dubbing are the most common applications cited by respondents (48%), followed by content recommendations (34%), visual quality and optimization (30%), and then tagging and categorization, personalization, and scene, shot boundary and ad placement opportunity detection, all come in joint fourth place (28%).

The report also highlights how expectations around low latency have shifted over time as the cost and complexity of delivering low latency has become clear.

In 2020, 60% of respondents expected low latency of less than five seconds, but that's now down to 16%, while 28% expect latency under 10 seconds. That said, sub-second latency still matters in certain use cases such as live sports, betting, auctions and interactive formats. It is this commercial need for more efficient video delivery that is driving the interest of MOQ. The report highlights that 28% of respondents plan to use MOQ in the next 12 months.

“It’s hard to believe that we’ve been producing this report for 10 years, and what a rollercoaster ride the last decade has been for the video industry,” Stefan Lederer, CEO and co-founder, Bitmovin, commented. “As we proudly present the 2026/27 report, it’s clear that AI is running the video stack, advertising is the primary revenue engine, QoE and observability have become foundational layers, and the business case for MOQ has never been stronger. But what really stands out this year, is just how fast the technology is developing - the last 3 months alone have reshaped what is possible for video developers to build and achieve. I can’t wait to see what another 10 years of the Video Developer Report will bring.”

This year's edition draws on insights from professionals across broadcast, OTT, and beyond, and for the first time includes analysis and contributions from industry analysts Jan Ozer and Dan Rayburn, alongside input from Bitmovin's partners and customers.

The Bitmovin Video Developer Report 2026/27 Edition is now available for download.

Bitmovin will be exhibiting at IBC from September 11-14 (hall 5, stand 5.F72). For more information, and to book a meeting, visit: https://bitmovin.com/ibc/.

New data from Parks Associations finds the Ruku player and operating system remains the most popular streaming media system in the U.S. with 43% of Americans reporting that a Roku device is their most-used streaming media player.

The Parks Associates’ Tech Ecosystem Dashboard, which includes data and analysis from surveys of 8,000+ US internet households, also found that 17% say their primary smart TV runs on Roku OS.

The Parks researchers noted that Fox Corporation’s planned acquisition of Roku for $22 billion highlights the strategic value of owning the platform that connects consumers to content, advertising, and streaming services.

“Roku’s strength is its reach across the connected TV experience,” said Michael Goodman, research director, Parks Associates. “Its position across smart TVs and streaming media players gives the platform influence that extends beyond any single hardware brand.”

More specifically, the Fox-Roku acquisition would bring strategic value to both companies. Fox brings premium live content, including sports and news, as well as Tubi, while Roku brings its operating system, The Roku Channel, Frndly TV, Howdy, advertising capabilities, and first-party data. Fox reports that Roku reaches more than 100 million streaming households globally.

The combination also strengthens Fox’s position in the growing free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) market. Tubi and The Roku Channel give the combined company two major ad-supported streaming properties, while Roku’s platform provides additional opportunities to connect content discovery, audience data, and advertising across the TV experience.

In the Parks top ten list of U.S. FAST streaming services, Tubi ranked as #1, followed by The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Samsung TV+, Xumo Play and LG Channels.

“Competition in video is now about who owns the relationship with the viewer,” Goodman said. “Content remains critical, especially live sports and news, but the platform determines how consumers discover that content and how providers engage and monetize audiences. The Fox and Roku combination brings greater control over how consumers access and discover content while expanding opportunities for viewer data, advertising, and distribution.”

With the NFL season starting on Weds. Sept. 9, a new study from Guideline is projecting another year of hefty ad sales growth, with 8% growth in ad revenue for the 2026-2027 season compared to last year.

Guideline is projecting that total ad revenue will hit $6.3 billion, with the inaugural Thanksgiving Eve game expected to generate $48 million in revenue.

That comes after 7% YoY growth in ad revenue in the 2025-2026 season, which hit a record $5.9 billion. Regular season ad revenue was up 6% YoY last year while playoff ad revenue was up 13% YoY.

"Overall ad demand looks healthy headed into the 26/27 season,” explained Sean Wright, chief insights and analytics officer at Guideline. “Upfront commits are pacing up double digits ahead of where they were last year, partly driven by increases in pricing, partly in a surge of new ad budgets. We'll see how much ultimately gets booked but right now, the regular season is shaping up to be another potentially record setting year."

Guideline also reported that in 2025-2026, streaming-exclusive games accounted for 13% of full-season revenue, nearly double the 8% share from two seasons ago. Overall, streaming-exclusive network ad growth was up 6% YoY in last year’s 2025-2026 season.

LONDON—While a new study from Ampere Analysis documents the ongoing decline in new orders for TV series, the research also shows that orders for new linear TV series has been more resilient than streaming VOD and that the new orders for scripted programming on linear TV actually grew in recent years.

The new report from Ampere Analysis found that between 2022 and 2025, US-produced linear orders fell 26%, a smaller decline than streaming counterparts, which fell 41%.

Very notably, the research also found that linear scripted series orders actually rose 11% in a slightly different time frame between 2023 and 2025, with a particular focus on renewing reliable franchise comedies such as “The Simpsons” and “American Dad.”

"In the post-Peak TV era, the traditional seasonal development cycle from linear broadcasters in the U.S. is evolving,” explained George Evans, senior researcher at Ampere Analysis. “With streaming players now accounting for a greater share of content spend globally, free-to-air linear commissioners in the US have adopted a more flexible approach to ordering, putting fewer titles through the development and pilot process and instead working more responsively year-round. By responding more dynamically to audience appetite and leaning on scripted franchises with established fanbases, broadcast TV can continue to prove its worth in the seemingly streamer-dominated US market."

More specifically the report found that between 2022 and 2025, U.S.-produced linear orders fell 26%, from 1,773 to 1,304, compared with a 41% decline in streaming orders, from 1,144 to 678. Linear Scripted series orders subsequently increased 11%, from 236 in 2023 to 262 in 2025.

Overall, free-to-air (FTA) channels have fared better than Pay TV.

Pay TV subscriber numbers have declined by 56% since 2016, as consumers switch to streaming. This drove a 33% decline in series orders between 2022 and 2025, down from 1295 to 877. In contrast, free-to-air broadcasters such as NBC, ABC, and CBS saw series orders drop 13% over the same period, from 408 to 352. Thematic Pay TV channels, particularly those focused on specific niches, such as Food Network and HGTV, have struggled to maintain ordering levels.

The report also highlighted changes in traditional TV development cycles. US Commercial free-to-air broadcasters are shifting away from the traditional seasonal development cycle of Q4 script orders and Q1 pilot orders, towards year-round development and 'straight-to-series' orders, committing to an entire season without first testing a pilot, the study found.

In addition, U.S. broadcast networks have shifted towards more disciplined primetime commissioning strategies. Since 2024, 52% of new scripted series orders have been franchise-based, reflecting a more disciplined approach to primetime commissioning.

The strength of broadcast programming can also found on streaming platforms. Around 50% of both linear and non-linear TV viewers enjoy genres such as comedy, action & adventure, crime & thriller, and drama. This alignment supports complementary commissioning strategies across broadcast and streaming. Primetime series from ABC, CBS and NBC generate strong engagement on Hulu, Paramount+ and Peacock, respectively, extending their value beyond linear TV.

“Despite the continued growth of streaming, broadcast television remains an important part of the US media landscape,” explained Eric Kurtsel, research manager, SME Media at Ampere Analysis. “Post-Peak TV, broadcast networks are taking a disciplined approach to primetime commissioning, focusing on proven genres and franchises that can connect with audiences across platforms. Viewers continue to engage with broadcast series on streaming platforms, suggesting their value extends beyond linear television and reinforcing broadcast TV’s foundational role in today’s content ecosystem."

LONDON—New data from Ampere Analysis shows Asia has become the world’s biggest region for first-run streaming scripted series orders for the first time, leaping two places from third to secure the top spot in the first half of 2026. More than one-third (36%) of first-run scripted TV orders from the leading global streamers now originate in APAC, the highest six-month share on record.

The new Ampere study also found that the APAC region surged ahead of North America and Western Europe in H1 2026 for the volume of new scripted TV commissions from the six leading global streamers - Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix and Paramount+. The region secured 70 first-run scripted commissions during the period, versus 46 for North America, 44 for Western Europe, and 34 for all other regions combined.

Cyrine Amor, senior research manager at Ampere Analysis, explained that “APAC has become increasingly important to global streamers for two reasons: it offers attractive opportunities for subscriber growth, while Asian content is increasingly finding audiences far beyond its home markets. India, South Korea and Japan remain at the heart of commissioning activity, but growth in markets such as Taiwan and the Philippines shows how widely streamers are now looking for locally produced content with regional and global potential.”

Of all streamers’ first-run scripted TV orders, 36% now originate from the APAC region, the highest six-month-period share to date. The rise is primarily driven by Amazon’s and Netflix’s commissioning activity in the region. In the same period, their combined first-run orders in Western Europe and North America remained almost flat compared to H1 2025.

India led the region with 25 orders, the highest increase among APAC markets, fueled by Prime Video’s commissioning push across multiple Indian languages. South Korea remained the region’s second-largest market by volume, where Netflix continues to lead commissioning activity among global streamers.

In terms of genre, one-third of these commissions were Crime & Thriller. Drama hit a new record of one quarter of commissions. Meanwhile, the Sci-Fi & Fantasy genre, which led by volume share in H1 2025, fell sharply.

Newer entrants to the streamers' regional subscriber acquisition race also stood out in this commissioning shift, the Ampere study stressed.

Taiwan and the Philippines experienced unusually high volumes of streamer orders, with nine and seven new scripted series commissioned respectively during the first half of 2026. In Taiwan, Netflix quadrupled its new scripted series orders compared to last year, including the medical drama “How to Survive Med School” and the influencer-led crime investigation “Million-follower Detective.” In the Philippines, Amazon led the charge with five new series announcements over the past six months, including the romance drama “The Loyalty Game.”

Recent successes such as Netflix’s Thai original “My Dearest Assassin” and Korean original “The Great Flood” demonstrate the potential for locally produced APAC content to travel beyond its home market. Streamers are also using licensing to capitalise on this demand, with Prime Video further expanding an existing multi-year worldwide distribution deal with CJ ENM in 2026, Ampere reported.

The commissioning surge reflects different stages of streaming growth across APAC. In more established markets, including India, South Korea and Japan, new productions are being used to both attract and retain subscribers while also targeting increasingly receptive regional and global audiences. In emerging streaming markets such as Taiwan and the Philippines, first-run commissioning is being used to support subscriber acquisition.

PLANO, Texas—Having a live TV bundle option is still important to half of all consumers surveyed in a recent Parks Associates report.

In the research firm’s latest consumer research The New Live TV Model: Skinny Bundles, Sports, News, 27% of US internet households prefer a live-TV bundle combined with their favorite streaming on-demand services, while 24% prefer a skinny bundle combined with their favorite streaming services. In total, 51% prefer a package that combines live TV with their favorite streaming services.

"Consumers are not necessarily choosing between live TV and streaming. Many want access to both in one package," said Michael Goodman, Director, Entertainment Research, Parks Associates. "Providers have the opportunity to offer greater flexibility to their consumers while making it easier to access the content they value."

Parks Associates also noted that 68% of streaming pay-TV subscribers (vMVPD subscribers), including consumers using services such as YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo, and DirecTV Stream, like the idea of a skinny bundle—a pay-TV or streaming channel package that includes a limited number of core channels, typically focused on specific content types (e.g., entertainment, sports, or news). It is priced below traditional all-inclusive TV packages.

The findings show consumers continue to value live television, but their expectations for how it is packaged are changing, according to Parks. Smaller channel packages combined with streaming services can provide a middle ground between traditional pay TV and streaming-only options.

"Skinny bundles offer providers an opportunity to address consumers who want to maintain access to live television but are increasingly sensitive to the cost and size of traditional channel packages," Goodman said. "The strongest opportunity is retention. These packages can give existing subscribers another option before they decide to cancel service entirely."

New fixed wireless speed tests for Q2 2026 from Ookla show that T-Mobile continues to dominate the category, with a median download speed of 222.7 Mbps, (outpacing AT&T Internet Air by 38.8% and Verizon 5G Home by 76%).

T-Mobile’s Q2 2026 median upload speed (18.1 Mbps) also beat AT&T by 79.2% and Verizon by 48.5%.

The data also highlighted some encouraging trends and some emerging problems. All three providers experienced a performance drop in download and upload speeds between Q1 2026 to Q2 2026. This, however, is likely a seasonal impact, Ooklas reported as dense leaves on trees can weaken FWA signals.

In more positive news, AT&T’s median download speed surged nearly 60%—from 104.61 Mbps in Q3 2025 to 167.34 Mbps in Q1 2026. This is likely the result of deploying the additional 50 MHz of spectrum purchased from EchoStar, Ookla reported.

The report also highlighted an important shift in urban deployments that could have larger implications for the broadband industry.

Traditional cable and telco operators have long dominated urban markets and fixed wireless access providers have long been seen as an attractive technological solutions for rural areas, where the cost of wiring isolated homes can be high.

The new Ookla Q2 data shows, however, that fixed wireless providers can deliver faster speeds in urban areas, potentially making them more competitive with faster wired options from cable and telcos.

Rural FWA users across all three providers nationwide have lower median download speeds and higher multi-server latency. Urban users benefit from a multi-server latency that is 7 to 13 milliseconds lower than their rural counterparts, the Ookla data shows.

Even so, the Ookla data showed that only two states (Hawaii and New York) and the District of Columbia produced fixed wireless access samples where 40% or more of the samples met the FCC’s minimum standard for broadband speed (100 Mbps download/20 Mbps upload).

A new survey of American’s media habits find that 90% access YouTube on a typical weekday versus 79% for streaming services and 73% for Live TV.

Even so, they typically spend more time with streaming services (one hour and 49 minutes) versus YouTube (one hour and 46 minutes) and Live TV (one hour and 31 minutes), according to Attest.

Very notably, Attest’s 2026 Attention Economy Report, based on surveys of 1,000 UK and 1,000 US adults alongside five years of tracking data, found that creator content is now more popular than streaming or TV.

Americans spend an average of 3 hours and 54 minutes a day with YouTube, TikTok and social video, outstripping the time, three hours and 20 minutes, that people spend with live TV and streaming services like Netflix. “YouTube hasn’t just become an alternative to TV, it’s already ahead of it,” Attest reported. “Tellingly, 23% of Americans primarily watch YouTube on their televisions.”

These numbers are higher for younger age groups. “Gen Z watches by far the most YouTube, 2h 25m a day on average, well ahead of Millennials (1h 55m), Gen X (1h 18m) and Boomers (53m),” the researchers noted. “Men also watch significantly more than women overall (2h 09m vs 1h 23m).”

This does not spell the end of longform content, however, the researchers explained.

“The assumption behind most `short attention span' commentary is that video has been chopped into ever-smaller pieces because that’s all people want,” the study noted. “The data tells a more specific story: as creator platforms introduce longer content, it’s gaining eyeballs. Two-thirds of people regularly watch YouTube videos longer than 15 minutes, while 53% watch long-form on Facebook or Instagram and 39% on TikTok. All four of these platforms launched their short-form video products with strict length caps. They have since expanded them repeatedly, visibly chasing consumer demand for longer content, not just short clips.”

As the attention of consumers shifts from TV to social media platforms, the study also found that people are paying less attention to the TV programming they are watching. “Only 12% of people give TV their full attention, with no other activity happening alongside it. The other 88% are doing something else, and for 68% of the total, that specifically involves second screening: scrolling social media, shopping, searching, messaging, or gaming.”

The study also highlighted data regarding consumer’s willingness to tolerate high ad loads. High ad loads contributed to the shift of viewing from pay TV channels to streaming services and social media platforms, which in recent years have also begun showing more ads.

“Ad frequency tolerance is one of the only genuinely flat patterns in this entire report,” the researchers noted. “People say ads become excessive once they’re shown every 14 minutes on streamed TV and every 12 minutes on social video, a threshold that barely moves regardless of generation. What isn’t flat is what people do about it: 82% of Gen Z always or usually skip ads on social video, compared with 46% of Boomers; on streamed TV it’s 68% versus 36%. Everyone hits roughly the same wall, younger audiences just act on it faster and more completely…When people can’t skip an ad, only 44% say they continue watching as intended, 34% redirect their attention elsewhere, 17% mute it, and 3% stop watching altogether.’

The full report is available here.

NEW YORK—Nielsen’s Q2 2026 edition of the Ad Supported Gauge shows that ad-supported TV captured a 71.5% share of total viewing, which represents a 1.3 share point decline from the first quarter of the year, and that live sports programming boosted broadcast’s share of ad-supported TV viewing.

Broadcast viewing followed its typical seasonal decline from Q1 to Q2, though the drop was softer than the same period last year. Sports programming, notably the NBA playoffs and early World Cup coverage, helped broadcast gain 0.6 share points year-over-year, rising to 26.6% from 26.0% in Q2 2025.

Meanwhile streaming continued its upward trajectory, expanding its lead within ad-supported TV by 1.6 share points to reach a 48.2% share. Cable held steady, retaining the 25.2% share it established in the first quarter.

The report also noted that when the focus is shifted from total viewing (Persons 2+) to adults 18 and older (Persons 18+), traditional TV gains notable ground.

The Persons 18+ segment reallocates 3.8 share points away from streaming down to 44.4%, while boosting broadcast to 28.6% (+2.0 points) and cable to 27.0% (+1.8 points).

Nielsen stressed that the published version of The Ad Supported Gauge has not migrated to the ARF DASH-based media related universe estimates which is planned for the fall. This is significant because this approach, while consistent with previous months of the Gauge, will have different results.

Average price increases across Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon have fallen from 24% of the previous subscription price in 2023/24 to 14% in 2025/26, according to a new survey from Ampere Analysis.

In dollar terms, average increases have declined from $1.67 to $1.54 over the same period, with increases averaging $1.62/17% in 2024/25. Across the full three-year period, the average individual price increase was $1.60, equivalent to 17% of the previous price. As streaming markets mature and become increasingly competitive and saturated, Ampere says the trend could indicate that streamers are moving closer to the limits of consumers’ willingness to pay, leaving less headroom for larger price increases in the future.

Ad-free tiers have seen larger price increases over the past three years, averaging $1.62 versus $1.21 for ad-supported tiers. With ad-free plans already premium-priced, the gap between the two has widened. In markets offering ad-supported tiers, the average price difference between the ad-free and advertising tiers has grown from $4.53 in August 2023 to July 2024 to $5.35 in August 2025 to July 2026 globally across the three streamers.

For Netflix in the U.S., for example, the price gap between the Standard with Ads and the Standard tiers for new subscribers grew from $8.50 in August 2023 to $11 in July 2026. As advertising becomes an increasingly important source of streaming revenue, platforms have an incentive to keep ad-supported tiers attractively priced.

Average price increases over the past three years vary across the three services, ranging from $1.73/16% for Netflix to $1.53/17% for Disney+ and $1.47/30% for Amazon. The frequency of price increases also differs.

Netflix’s price increases have remained broadly stable, according to Ampere.

Disney+ has seen the clearest shift towards more modest increases, down from an average increase of $1.86/31% in 2023/24 to $1.45/13% in 2025/26.

Amazon has made the fewest over the three-year period, likely reflecting the broader role of the Prime subscription within Amazon’s retail business.

Western Europe has seen the largest average price increases over the past three years at $1.86/16%, ahead of North America at $1.70/15% and Central and Eastern Europe at $1.68/18%. Most regional markets are moving in the same direction, with average price increases shrinking over time.

“The decline in price increases comes as streamers diversify how they monetise their audiences. says Jaanika Juntson, Senior Research Manager at Ampere Analysis. “Advertising is an increasingly important revenue stream, reducing reliance on subscription pricing alone, while password-sharing crackdowns allow streamers to generate more value from existing audiences through extra member slots. As streaming businesses mature, revenue growth is becoming less reliant on price increases, while intense competition is also making streamers increasingly mindful of how they are positioned against rivals.”

A new survey from the VAB shows that consumers across all age levels are more likely to purchase products that appear in local TV news programming and that those ads also boost their opinion of the brand being advertised.

The study comes at a time when advertisers have expressed reluctance about appearing in news content given the levels of political polarization of the country and a growing push-back by publishers working to demonstrate the effectiveness of advertising in news.

The VAB worked with Dynata on the survey, which attempts to better understand the relationship between news environments and advertiser impact on adults 18 and older, those aged 18 to 34 and those between the ages of 35 to 54.

It found that ads in local TV news positively impact brand perception across audiences, with 37% of adults 18 and older saying that they had a better opinion of brands that advertise in local news (2.2 times those who disagreed the idea) and an even bigger impact among younger viewers.

Nearly half (47%) of those 18 to 34 agreed that they had a better opinion of brands that advertise in local news, 2.8 times those who disagreed.

The study also said that 31% of those younger 18 to 34 viewers were more likely to purchase a product they saw on local news, about 23% more than the 25% who said the ads in local TV news made them less likely to buy a product.

Overall 24% of all adults over 18 said they were more likely to purchase a product advertised in a breaking news story on local TV news, versus 18% who said they were less likely. Among those between the ages of 35 to 54, 25% were more likely to purchase the product versus 15% who were less likely, a 65% differential.

Brands advertising in national TV news also saw an uplift in the number of people being more likely to buy a product.

Among the hard to reach younger 18 to 34 demo, 28% said they were more likely to purchase a product advertised in national TV news, versus 22% who were less likely. Overall 22% of those 18 and older were more likely to purchase versus 16%, and 24% of those between the ages of 35 and 54 were more likely to purchase, versus only 14% being less likely.

ESPN delivered the most-watched WNBA game ever on cable as the Atlanta Dream-Indiana Fever matchup averaged 2.6 million viewers on Sunday, August 16.

The telecast ranks as the most-watched WNBA regular-season or postseason game ever on cable. The audience was up 178% compared to last year’s ESPN regular season average. The game peaked at 4 million viewers from 7:15-7:29 p.m. ET.

Leading into the game, WNBA Countdown presented by Google Pixel averaged 452,000 viewers on ESPN, up 33% compared to last year’s ESPN regular season average.

The second game of ESPN’s Sunday doubleheader also delivered a record audience, as the Phoenix Mercury celebrated Diana Taurasi’s jersey retirement. Portland Fire-Phoenix Mercury averaged 1.4 million viewers, the most-watched non-Indiana regular-season WNBA game ever on ESPN and up 46% from last year’s ESPN regular-season average.

Through 25 games, the WNBA on ESPN networks is averaging 1.4 million viewers, up 16% compared to the comparable point last season.

NEW YORK—Gracenote’s Q3 2026 Data Hub analysis shows rapid growth for sports-related ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels and programming over the last year.

Overall the number of FAST channels classified as sports rose 13.8% year over year to 264. Over the same period, unique sports program titles increased 31.2%, while individual games and events distributed across FAST climbed 37.5%.

Each measure captures a different dimension of the FAST sports market, the researchers noted.

Channel count tracks FAST channels classified as sports, while program title count reflects the breadth of distinct offerings. Because a single sports program title can encompass many games or competitions, tracking them individually provides a fuller picture of the volume of sports distributed across FAST.

The analysis also found that in July, sports programming appeared on 20 FAST channels outside the sports category. The pattern resembles traditional television, where sports serves as both destination programming on dedicated channels and as part of lineups centered on other genres.

In general, sports programming also grew faster than the overall FAST category. Globally, FAST channel count increased 17.5% year over year to 2,172, compared with 18.6% gains in total video distribution and 19.4% in TV program titles.

The resulting larger sports inventory gives FAST programmers greater flexibility to create varied schedules and reduce reliance on frequently repeated content, the researchers explained. More broadly, the findings suggest that competitive differentiation across FAST will increasingly be shaped by the range and volume of programming within the ecosystem—not channel count alone.

The Gracenote Data Hub is a set of data visualizations tracking the volume and composition of programming available across leading global subscription video-on-demand services (SVOD) and FAST channels. Derived from Gracenote Global Video Data and updated quarterly, the Data Hub covers Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix and Paramount+, as well as more than 2,170 FAST channels.

Q3 Data Hub reporting pairs program title counts with data on individual episodes, games and events, offering a more granular view of programming distribution and revealing changes beneath topline catalog and channel counts.

HENDERSON, Nev.—While the FIFA World Cup 2026 broke viewing records in the U.S. on linear TV and on streaming platforms, new data from Gaming Compliance International (GCI) suggests that an enormous amount of illegal streaming also occurred around the world. Its first complete global measurement of illegal streaming across the 2026 FIFA World Cup, estimates that there were 174.3 billion qualifying illegal stream views of 90 seconds plus globally across the tournament.

The analysis also found that:

• 174.3 billion qualifying illegal stream views of 90 seconds or more globally across the tournament
• 1.68 billion average qualifying illegal stream views of 90 seconds plus per match, globally
• 6.2 billion qualifying illegal stream views of 90 seconds plus globally for the Spain vs Argentina Final
• 95% of qualifying illegal stream views of 90 seconds plus globally carried advertising for unregulated gambling

The estimate is derived from GCI's global monitoring and marketplace intelligence, using multiple proprietary and third-party licensed data sources.

A qualifying illegal stream view requires at least 90 seconds of streaming, denoting a "committed view". This is a stream-view measure, not a unique viewer count. The methodology accounts for stream interruptions, forced refreshes, reloads, mirror switches and channel resets throughout each match.

GCI's analysis also highlighted a dark nexus between illegal streaming and unregulated online gambling with heavy ad loads for unregulated gambling in the illegal streams.

GCI monitoring shows that illegal streamers can receive payment for advertising and referring audiences to unregulated gambling, with affiliate deals offering between 25% and 50% of net gaming revenue produced by unregulated gambling operators from referred customers.

The result is a powerful illegal economy: premium sports content attracts mainstream audiences; illegal streaming monetizes that attention; and unregulated gambling pays to acquire those audiences.

This relationship was previously identified by GCI in Great Britain. Analysis released in January 2026 found 3.1 billion illegal stream views of 90 seconds plus across the Top 10 sports in Great Britain during 2024 and another 1.6 billion during the first half of 2025, with unregulated gambling advertising present upon 89% of illegal sports streams.

The GCI study found that the World Cup demonstrated the same relationship at global scale.

Overall, GCI estimated the 2026 FIFA World Cup would generate $593 billion in global online betting handle — the value of money wagered on World Cup betting online. Of that total, $409 billion — 69% — was unregulated, compared with $184 billion — 31% — regulated.

While regulated operators saw record activity, the majority of wagering value flowed through offshore, unregulated and unlicensed channels, the study found.

Illegal streaming connects these two parts of the marketplace by delivering sports audiences to unregulated gambling operators while those consumers are watching live events and each game presents fresh betting prospects.

The commercial relationship with unregulated gambling is not the only risk associated with illegal streaming.

GCI's analysis found that video players, pop-ups and fake "click to watch in HD/4K" buttons can hide malware, spyware and keystroke loggers, exposing audiences to data harvesting and other forms of cybercrime.

"174 billion qualifying illegal stream views should remove any remaining illusion that illegal streaming is a marginal problem for sport, said Matt Holt, CEO of Gaming Compliance International (GCI). “Consumers experience one marketplace, and illegal streaming is an industrial-scale part of it — competing for the same audiences and extracting value that should support rights holders, broadcasters and the wider sports ecosystem.”

"When 95% of qualifying illegal stream views carry advertising for unregulated gambling, illegal streaming is not simply stealing content,” he added. “It is providing one of the world's largest sporting audiences as an acquisition channel for the unregulated gambling economy."

The full GCI Illegal Streaming – Global: World Cup 2026 report is available from Gaming Compliance International (GCI).

NEW YORK—Nielsen has announced a number of improvements to its Big Data + Panel currency measurement that the company says will improve its currency methodology before the new broadcast TV season and provide more accurate ratings.

The improvements include better co-viewing data in the runup to the popular fall football season, improved measurement of Hispanic audiences, updates to automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, improved demographic estimates and changes in the way it uses ARF DASH universe estimates.

“We are relentless in our pursuit of delivering the most accurate measurement possible for our media and advertising clients,” said Karthik Rao, CEO, Nielsen. “We’ve spent months working hand in hand with them and industry experts to make Big Data + Panel even more accurate.”

Nielsen said it has been working closely with its stakeholders to prepare the market for these enhancements, sharing preview data with clients to help them understand the potential impacts, while also negotiating the timing and contents of the updates with the oversight of the Media Ratings Council (MRC).

Nielsen described the new enhancements that it plans to incorporate by August 31 as follows:

• Co-Viewing: The co-viewing enhancement better incorporates the use of Nielsen’s proprietary wearable measurement devices. These are worn on the wrists of Nielsen panelists and resemble a smart watch. The wearables capture audio from TV events, shows and movies, allowing for more passive measurement that does not require a formal log in process. Because of the more passive nature of this measurement, including these devices in our measurement process will result in a more accurate picture of how many people are watching a given program.
• Latency Adjusted DASH UE (Universe Estimate): While Nielsen adopted the ARF’s DASH Universe Estimates into its currency earlier in 2026, this enhancement improves accuracy by fixing timing delays in survey data. Universe estimates are, as the name implies, an approximation of the total number of households or persons in a particular category – in this case, media consumption capabilities of U.S. homes. While previous DASH UEs were based on survey data from 2024, Nielsen is now adjusting these UEs to reflect more recent trends in consumer behavior.
• Household Demographic Assignment Model (HDAM) Enhancement: HDAM is a machine-learning tool used to determine the demographic makeup of households from Big Data providers. This update improves the process to ensure the data is more representative and does not artificially skew toward older residents.
• Integrated Weighting: Nielsen improved its weighting process to combine panel and Big Data more effectively, leading to more consistent, accurate, and reliable viewing numbers.
• Hispanic Methodology Enhancement: Nielsen now combines data from two surveys—the American Community Survey, which is conducted by the U.S. Census, and the National Hispanic Enumeration Survey—to better estimate Spanish-language universe estimates. This helps the company create a more accurate and representative picture of Spanish-speaking households.
• ACR Monitored Tuning Adjustment: This update improves the method that Nielsen uses to account for differences in the sources that Nielsen’s ACR (Automated Content Recognition) providers measure versus the sources that Nielsen measures in its panel. This improves the accuracy of the sources measured from Nielsen’s ACR providers.
• Provider B Householding: Improves the model Nielsen uses to group together big data devices into individual households for one of its ACR Big Data Providers. This results in more accurate household information from that provider.

Devoncroft’s 2026 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS) of global media tech buyers has once again ranked `IP Networking & Content Delivery’ as the top media tech trend.

Reflecting the ongoing transition to IP technologies, the result marked the sixth consecutive year (and for the seventh time in eight years) that `IP Networking & Content Delivery’ was the top trend.

Devoncroft researchers noted, however, that the margin between the top trend and the second ranked trend of ‘AI / ML / GenAI’ technologies narrowed versus 2025 BBS Global Trend Index.

‘AI / ML / GenAI’ has received a ranking of second since the 2023 BBS Global Trend Index, according to Josh Stinehour in a blog post announcing the results.

“One of the key outputs from the BBS is the annual BBS Global Trend Index,” he noted. “This is a ranking of the media industry trends that are considered by technology end-user respondents the most commercially important to their businesses in the next 2-3 years. In the 2026 survey efforts, we presented BBS respondents with a list of 23 industry trends and asked them to select the one trend that is `most important’ to their business, one trend that is `second most important’ to their business, and the other trends (plural) they consider `also very important.’

The BBS is the largest annual global study of media technology industry trends, technology purchasing plans, and benchmarking of technology vendor brands.

REMI came in number three, followed by multiplatform content delivery and automated operations, rounding out the top five.

The study reported the following ranking:

More data and information from the study is available here.

Check out TV Tech's extensive IP and Networking coverage here.

As the NBA gears up for the start of the 2026-2027 season on October 20, a new study from Guideline shows that NBA ad revenue hit a record $2.1 billion in the 2025-2026 season.

This growth was helped out by a 39% year-over-year spike in ad revenue during the NBA Finals, with ad spend rising from $183 million to $256 million for five games.

Overall, the regular season generated $870 million in revenue, while the playoffs brought in $1 billion.

Guideline also reported that streaming was up 8,481% YoY, rising to a 41% share in spending, the highest of any league ever recorded.

In addition, streaming-simulcast estimated revenue was also up 3,303% YoY, rising from $10 million in 24/25 compared to $347 million in 25/26.

However the linear ad spend declined 19% YoY, as spending from Warner Bros. Discovery shifted to Peacock and Amazon.

In contrast, playoff spending grew across every round, led by the play-in round, which was up 54% YoY.

NEW YORK—Nielsen’s June 2026 reports of The Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge reveal that the highly anticipated FIFA World Cup 2026 drove remarkable audience engagement with over 84 billion minutes viewed across Fox and NBCUniversal properties.

That viewing also pushed both distributors to June's only viewing increases in the Media Distributor Gauge.

Meanwhile, the combination of World Cup matches and NBA Finals games helped drive a 118% increase in broadcast sports viewing, and led the broadcast category to 19.8% of TV and its first increase during a June interval (+0.6 share pts.) since the inception of The Gauge in 2021.

According to the June Media Distributor Gauge, Fox exhibited the largest gain in share of TV (+0.9 pts.) compared to May, and the largest overall viewing increase among all distributors this month (+18%). The World Cup surge boosted viewing on Fox affiliates by 73%, and Fox Sports 1 was up 232%. FOX concluded the month with 7.4% of total TV watch-time and moved up to No. 5 in the Media Distributor Gauge rankings.

NBCU-Versant represented 9.1% of total TV viewing in June (+0.7 share pts.). That success, the researchers reported, was a result of two drivers: NBCU’s Telemundo served as the exclusive home to all Spanish-language World Cup coverage, which drove a 143% monthly viewing increase to its broadcast affiliates in June. Peacock also benefited from Telemundo’s World Cup coverage, as days with games exhibited a 60% audience increase on the platform over those that did not, and viewing from Hispanic audiences increased nearly 200% compared to the prior month.

Peacock’s 34% total monthly viewing increase was also due to owning June’s most-streamed title, “Love Island USA.” The six-night-per-week appointment viewing for the reality dating series generated 6.8 billion minutes across the month. Overall, Peacock gained half a share point to represent 2.3% of total TV viewing in June, its second-best share of TV to date behind February 2026.

Overall streaming usage was up about 3% compared to May, but due to it being just below the 3.1% increase for total TV usage, the category dropped back 0.1 share point to 48.5% of TV watch-time.

In addition to Peacock, several other streamers also saw monthly viewing increases, including YouTube, Netflix, The Roku Channel and Paramount Streaming (Paramount+ and Pluto TV combined), but similar to the overall streaming category, their shares were flat or down slightly. However, YouTube remained in the lead among media distributors with 13.8% of time spent.

Disney held on to the No. 2 spot among media companies with 9.6% of TV. ABC’s coverage of the five-game NBA Finals showdown between the San Antonio Spurs and eventual champion New York Knicks helped drive a 15% viewing bump for ABC affiliates in June. Each game of the series was the most-viewed broadcast telecast on days played, and Games 3, 4 and 5 were the most watched telecasts over the June interval with more than 20 million viewers a piece.

Cable represented 19.5% of television in June (-0.9 pts.) as viewing was down 2% compared to May. This was largely due to the absence of the NBA and NHL playoffs, which led to a 10% monthly decline in cable sports viewership.

Due to the fact that advertising sales for Versant are still retained by NBCUniversal, and to preserve data trends and insights in these reports, NBCU and Versant are reported together in the Media Distributor Gauge with each company’s respective share included in the Media Distributor Gauge chart.

The June 2026 interval spanned four weeks, from 06/01/2026 through 06/28/2026. Nielsen reporting follows the broadcast calendar, with weekly intervals beginning on Monday.

WASHINGTON—A new Federal Communications Commission report shows that high-speed residential broadband is now more ubiquitous than ever before.

The study found that from June 2024 to June 2025, the number of Americans lacking access to 100/20 Mbps fixed terrestrial broadband service decreased by about 23%.

Over a two-year period, this reduction was approximately 43%. Today, 96.9% of Americans have access to a fixed terrestrial broadband service at 100/20 Mbps, the FCC reported.

The report also cited data showing increased competition. Twenty-three states now have more than 50% of locations served with fixed wireless at 100/20 Mbps, the FCC said.

“President Trump’s policies are delivering great results for Americans in communities all across the country,” Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement. “The data show that speeds are up, prices are down, competition is stronger than before, and the digital divide has narrowed substantially. The FCC is putting policies in place that will further accelerate high-speed builds and extend U.S. leadership.”

The FCC voted Aug. 14 to adopt the agency’s annual Section 706 Report. Section 706 requires the FCC to report on “whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.” This year’s report is the first spanning the current Trump Administration.

Other key findings include:

• Over a two-year period, the percentage of rural Americans lacking access to 100/20 Mbps fixed terrestrial broadband service decreased by over 44%. Further, with the inclusion of satellite, 100/20 Mbps rural broadband deployment is nearly universally available in rural areas.
• The number of Americans lacking access to mobile 5G with a minimum speed of 35/3 Mbps declined by over 30% over a two-year period. Today, almost 95% of American homes and businesses are covered by 5G at 35/3 Mbps speeds.
• The number of competitive options available to Americans also continues to grow. As of June 2025, 77% of Americans have access to three or more fixed services at 100/20 Mbps, and 43.4% of Americans have access to three of more fixed terrestrial services at 100/20 Mbps.

The FCC also cited data from other sources showing that speeds are up, prices are down, and competition is stronger than before:

• Speeds are Up – Wireless download speeds increased by 51% in 2025. Average upload and download speeds for fixed wireless are up 36.9% and 25.1% respectively between late 2024 and early 2026, according to Ookla data. In rural areas, those numbers show upload and download speeds rose 39.8% and 28.7% respectively.
• Actual prices for wireless service have now fallen four times more during President Donald Trump’s first 18 months in office compared to the same time under President Joe Biden. Prices are declining across the board, with postpaid unlimited plans down 10% over the last year. Fixed prices for the most popular services are down 6% over the last year.
• The percentage of homes and businesses nationwide that have three or more service options with at least 100/20 speed increased 4.85% from December 2024 to December 2025.

More data and information is available here.

NEW YORK—Gracenote has announced a deal with Fox’s Tubi Media Group that will see Gracenote supply advanced content discovery and advertising capabilities on Tubi Media Group properties, including Tubi and Fox One.

Gracenote's solutions provide unique identifiers, human-verified program metadata, rich imagery and standardized taxonomy that will provide improved content search and discovery capabilities for natural language queries.

As a part of the partnership, Tubi Media Group will also test Gracenote IDs in programmatic bid streams to improve contextually relevant advertising.

"Gracenote has been a valued partner, and this renewal underscores our commitment to innovation for both consumers and for advertisers across our streaming portfolio," said Paul Cheesbrough, CEO of Tubi Media Group. "As Tubi and FOX One continue to scale, we are excited about the future we're building."

"Tubi Media Group's market-leading streaming portfolio, combined with Gracenote's gold-standard content intelligence, make a powerful pairing," said Jared Grusd, CEO of Gracenote. "As the market embraces data and technology to maximize value for viewers and partners alike, Gracenote's curated and human-verified data provides an essential foundation—a definitive source of truth for entertainment experiences that keep consumers engaged."

Tubi recently announced it has reached 110 million monthly active users, with engagement growing 17% YoY and a record quarter of revenue, up 35% year over year.

In addition to record streaming levels during FIFA World Cup 2026, which saw more than 20 million viewers visit Tubi's World Cup Fox Hub, Tubi also announced that it reached an all-time high of 2.3% share of total U.S. TV viewing, according to Nielsen, and that more than 60% of its audience comprised of Gen Z and Millennials, who spend more time on Tubi than watching traditional broadcast or cable television.

Tubi's simulcast of the opening World Cup matches also delivered the most streamed English language opening match in World Cup history.

NEW YORK—Nielsen Holdings has announced a definitive agreement to acquire DoubleVerify in an all-cash transaction valued at about $2.15 billion.

DoubleVerify is a leading software platform that offers solutions for verifying media quality, optimizing ad performance, and proving campaign outcomes.

The deal comes at a time when Nielsen faces increasing competition from a number of other companies and many industry players continue to express frustration with the state of audience measurement in the streaming era.

The combination, Nielsen said, would to provide clients clear, verified, and independent data and would help advertisers improve their campaigns and outcomes.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027.

“Over the last few years, Nielsen has undergone a fundamental transformation — accelerating product innovation; expanding our platform across the full media lifecycle, from discovery and planning through measurement and outcomes; and strengthening our financial foundation,” Karthik Rao, CEO of Nielsen, said in announcing the deal.

“This combination will unite two organizations focused on strengthening independence and trust in advertising, Rao continued. “Joining forces with DoubleVerify will extend our capabilities deeper into the digital media industry, ensuring that the spend flowing between buyers and sellers is reaching real people in brand-suitable environments, through verified channels. As advertising workflows become increasingly automated, together we can offer publishers, advertisers, agencies, and platforms a truly independent, end-to-end partner that connects trusted audience intelligence with verified media delivery — across every screen, every channel, and every transaction – enabling superior decisions and outcomes.”

“Today’s announcement is an exciting milestone for DoubleVerify,” added Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify. “As a private entity with the support of Nielsen, we will have access to expanded resources to deliver new, market-leading solutions that drive exceptional value for our customers and partners. DoubleVerify’s MRC-accredited quality signals, in combination with Nielsen’s deduplicated cross-screen audience measurement, will fuel genuine market innovation – a single currency that scores media on both audience delivery and media environment quality. I’m proud of the strong momentum we’ve built for DoubleVerify as the leading media effectiveness platform, the strength of our AI-powered measurement and optimization platform, and the exceptional work of our team.

Nielsen described the key benefits of the transaction as follows:

• Extends Nielsen’s Platform Across the Full Media Intelligence Stack: Nielsen’s platform already spans the entire media lifecycle — from content discovery and audience planning through cross-platform measurement and outcome attribution. DoubleVerify adds the layer of independent verification that the impressions underpinning every campaign are real, viewable, brand-suitable, and free from invalid traffic. Today, advertisers must reconcile these signals across separate vendors. The combination unifies them into a single, integrated platform covering audience, context, and delivery quality.
• Expands Nielsen’s Addressable Market into High-Growth Digital Channels: DoubleVerify sits at the operational core of how digital advertising is bought and sold, with integrations embedded into the day-to-day workflows of the platforms, publishers, and agency groups that execute the world’s largest campaigns. Nielsen products already power media decisions across television, streaming, audio, and sports. By coming together, Nielsen will reach across the full breadth of the $240 billion digital advertising segment, giving clients a better partner as budgets continue to shift toward digital channels. The combination delivers global, end-to-end, independent, transparent measurement and optimization across linear TV, CTV, social, mobile and AI platforms.
• Preserves Independent Verification Standards the Industry Depends On: The combined company will continue to support the open, independent standards that are highly valued by global advertisers. This includes preserving DoubleVerify’s industry-leading capabilities in invalid traffic detection, viewability and brand suitability.
• Helps Enable a Reliable, Trusted Shift to AI in Advertising: As AI-driven planning, activation, and optimization shape how campaigns are built and executed, the combined company will help enable the advertising industry to adopt AI with confidence, with the verified data, outcome signals, infrastructure, and platform integrations necessary to execute the spectrum of advertising workflows.

Under the terms of the agreement, Nielsen will acquire DoubleVerify for $13.60 per share in an all-cash transaction, representing a 30% premium to DoubleVerify’s 60-trading day volume weighted average price as of August 5, 2026. The value per share implies an enterprise value of approximately $2.15 billion for DoubleVerify.

The transaction, which has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies, is expected to close by the first quarter of 2027, subject to approval by DoubleVerify shareholders, receipt of required regulatory approvals, and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

The transaction will be financed through a combination of committed debt financing provided by Barclays, BofA Securities and Citi, incremental equity financing and cash on hand at Nielsen.

Upon completion of the transaction, DoubleVerify will become a privately held company as part of Nielsen and DoubleVerify common stock will no longer be listed on any public market. DoubleVerify will continue to operate under the DoubleVerify name and brand.

Funds affiliated with Providence Equity Partners LLC (“Providence”) that own approximately 11.8% of DoubleVerify’s outstanding shares of common stock as of August 5, 2026, have agreed to vote their shares in favor of the transaction. As part of the transaction, Providence will conclude its investment upon close.

A person is scrolling through social media and stops on a video of a real human being making a plausible claim. Nothing about the clip looks obviously fake. The lighting feels normal. The voice sounds right. It may even be genuine footage.

How does that person decide whether to believe it?

That is the real question now: not whether media can be manipulated—we already know it can. Not whether synthetic media will continue to improve; it will. The harder question is how belief gets formed when authentic-looking media is abundant and context is fragile amid constant technological innovation.

Since my column “Content Provenance: Audience Trust Is at Stake” in the December issue of TV Tech was published, confidence in the telecom sector continues to fall. According to a 2025 Gallup poll, a record-low 28% of Americans expressed a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in mass media (see chart below). The conversation around the importance of the verifiability of content authenticity, i.e. content provenance, has become pivotal.

This article does not argue that provenance can solve the trust problem; that challenge depends on a multitude of factors, including effective marketing, brand and customer strategy, as well as human emotion, environment and temperament. Rather, we argue that provenance is now a necessary infrastructure for making digital content more transparent and defensible. The need for authenticity is not coming soon; it is already here.

Over the past two years, meaningful progress has been made on provenance technology. The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) is an industry standard for attaching provenance metadata to digital content so people can verify where media came from and whether it has been edited. It has become the center of gravity for content credentials.

As synthetic media becomes easier to create, and AI-generated images and videos become more commonplace, regulators are beginning to insist on machine-readable transparency. Article 50 of the European Union AI Act becomes enforceable on Aug. 2, and California’s AI transparency rules are moving in a similar direction. For media companies, provenance is more than a best practice. It is a capability they will need to operationalize.

Why Trust Cannot Be Engineered
People trust institutions. They trust familiar people. They trust sources their communities already recognize. They trust what aligns with their prior experiences more readily than what disrupts them. And while technology may modify some of these patterns, it does not replace them.

This is why propaganda still works in a world where authenticity tools are improving. A message does not need to be fake to be manipulative. It only needs to be framed effectively, repeated often enough and delivered by a messenger the audience is predisposed to trust. Conversely, a piece of information can be authentic in a narrow technical sense and still mislead. A real clip can be selectively edited. A true quote can be stripped of context. A genuine image can imply something false.

This is the core limitation that provenance cannot solve.

C2PA is designed to certify the history of content, not its inherent truthfulness. It can help establish where a file came from and whether its recorded history has been altered. It does not determine whether the message is honest, persuasive, manipulative or fair. It is a transparency layer, not a truth engine.

The news industry has been dealing with versions of this problem for years. User-generated content has long been highly valuable and highly risky. It feels authentic because it is often captured by real people in real moments. But that makes it easy to over-trust. “Shot by a real person” is not the same thing as “reliably framed,” “fully contextualized” or “immune from manipulation.” In some ways, that is precisely why provenance matters. In other ways, it is precisely why provenance is not a silver bullet.

AI Makes the Problem More Visible
AI has not so much created the trust problem as made it harder to ignore. For broadcasters, the more immediate issue is not whether AI can generate convincing content. It is how to preserve confidence in the provenance of content as it moves through increasingly complex production and distribution chains.

The healthiest relationship with provenance is pragmatic: use it to strengthen verification, not to outsource judgment.

That becomes especially important in broadcasting because the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Content may be signed at capture, but downstream platforms and intermediaries can still strip or distort metadata during re-encoding or distribution. In practice, that means provenance can disappear before the audience ever sees it. For broadcasters, that means provenance technologies cannot be treated as a point solution. It must be operationalized across capture, editing, publishing, metadata management and governance.

C2PA is not a trust substitute. It is an enterprise capability that supports trust at scale.

The future is unlikely to produce a universal trust layer that makes belief automatic. That is asking too much of any technology. What it can do is provide better information.

For media executives, this creates a practical agenda.

First, treat provenance as infrastructure. Second, start where the risk is highest, especially around UGC and breaking news workflows. Third, build governance around what you capture, expose and retain. And fourth, prepare for provenance to become part of compliance architecture, not just editorial experimentation.

That is where the real opportunity lies. Not in claiming technology can manufacture trust, but in building systems that make trust easier to earn and easier to defend.

Technology can tell us where information came from. It cannot tell us what to believe. Even if it could tell us what to believe, would we?

LONDON—A new survey highlights just how important media consumption has become—with consumers in the U.K. and U.S. now spending almost 11 hours a day consuming media—and just how diverse and fragmented those habits are.

An Ampere Analysis study finds the average consumer in those markets spends more time consuming media than sleeping or working, and that consumers are increasingly selecting from a rich menu of media depending on their mood, age and needs.

“Today’s consumers have more varied media diets than ever before, selecting from an expanding menu of media depending on what they want in the moment,” Ampere Research Manager Sam Nursall said. “Whether they're looking to relax, discover something new or simply fill spare time, each medium serves a different purpose. That's today's attention economy. For advertisers and broadcasters, understanding those different moments is just as important as understanding the audience itself.”

Key findings include:

• The average U.S. or U.K. adult spends 11 cumulative hours engaged with media products every day. This includes overlapping activities, such as using a phone while watching TV or streaming.
• Streaming services (1:57), social media (1:46) and YouTube (1:35) attract the highest levels of daily media engagement.
• Consumers build their media diets around different moods and needs. Streaming services are most often used for relaxation and immersion, YouTube for discovery and lifting users’ mood, while social media is used to relieve boredom or provide distraction.
• Media diets also differ by age. Gen Alpha (age 11–15) spends the most time on YouTube (1:45) and gaming (1:56), while Gen Z (16–29) spends the most time on social media (1:54) and music services (1:20). Generation X and Baby Boomers spend relatively more time with streaming services, TV channels and live sports.
• Consumers in the U.S and U.K. access an average of 11.5 media platforms every week, including pay TV, streaming services, social media, music streaming, gaming and broadcaster VOD. Streaming services like Netflix or Disney+ account for 4.1 of these services per week. Gen Alpha accesses an average of 13.6 platforms, the highest of any age group.
• Mobile devices have expanded where media is consumed. More than half (55%) of music streaming users regularly listen outside the home, alongside 34% of podcast listeners, 20% of social media users and 11% of gamers.
• Mobile devices have also driven higher daily media engagement by making simultaneous media use easier. In the U.S. and U.K., for example, more than one-quarter (28%) of Netflix users regularly watch the service on a smartphone.
• One-third (33%) of YouTube users said they use the platform when they “want something on in the background.”

The Ampere Analysis “Attention Economy” survey was fielded in the U.S. and U.K. among respondents aged 11 to 64.

NEW YORK—Comcast’s FreeWheel has launched Video Content Report, an insight tool available in FreeWheel Buyer Cloud (formerly Beeswax) that provides TV series-level data on where ad campaigns actually appeared.

Fueled by direct connection to FreeWheel Streaming Hub (FreeWheel’s ad server with natively built SSP), the report gives buyers detailed, series-level insight into post-impression delivery from premium publishers, including A+E Global Media, Spectrum Reach, Fuse Media, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Xumo.

By using publisher-sourced delivery data recorded directly through the ad server, Video Content Report gives buyers a clearer, reliable view of where campaigns ran across premium streaming environments, helping increase transparency and confidence in their CTV investments.

“CTV buyers need series-level transparency they can trust and use at scale,” said Jon Mansell, vice president, U.S. demand for FreeWheel. “What makes Video Content Report unique is the direct connection between Buyer Cloud and Streaming Hub, which enables publisher-permissioned, impression-level delivery insights from multiple premium publishers in one workflow. That gives advertisers a clearer view of where their campaigns ran while giving publishers control over how their content data is shared.”

Powered by Buyer Cloud’s connection to FreeWheel Streaming Hub and impression-level delivery data, Video Content Report provides scalable series-level transparency to confirm content alignment and brand safety, at no extra cost, while helping publishers prove the value of their premium content.

In announcing the new tool, FreeWheel stressed that it is designed to address the needs of advertisers.

Over 50% of CTV advertisers say they would shift spend to publishers that provide show- or series-level transparency, according to new research from Advertiser Perceptions. As demand for this level of visibility grows, FreeWheel said it is helping make series-level reporting even easier to access and apply at scale. By bringing publisher-sourced insights into a more consistent workflow, Video Content Report gives buyers a clearer way to understand delivery across partners and use those insights to guide future planning and investment decisions.

Some advertisers and agencies applauded the launch. “As investment in programmatic CTV continues to grow, we as buyers need transparency that is accurate, scalable and easy to access,” said Mike Treon, head of CTV and video strategy for PMG. “FreeWheel’s Video Content Report addresses a real gap in the market by giving us series-level visibility directly within Buyer Cloud, helping us better understand campaign delivery across premium video without relying on one-off reporting requests or adding unnecessary reporting steps.”

The launch builds on FreeWheel’s broader commitment to giving buyers more transparency, control, and customization through Buyer Cloud, in addition to direct publisher connections. As a customizable demand-side platform built for premium video and connected to FreeWheel Streaming Hub, Buyer Cloud gives agencies and advertisers direct access to FreeWheel’s premium supply, robust decisioning tools and exclusive reporting capabilities designed to support more informed, efficient, and accountable media buying.

Video Content Report is now available in Buyer Cloud for all clients at no additional cost.

With cable operators rebranding themselves as “broadband providers,” the term “cable TV” has fallen out of favor in recent years. The impact of cord cutting, increasing retransmission fees, increased competition from streaming services and changing demographics have all contributed to an industry approach that now considers “video” just another service from the local operator.

While the larger providers can often protect themselves from the changes in consumer interests, smaller, independent cable operators have to continuously evaluate the rising costs and routinely ask themselves, “is it still worth it for me to offer a video service?”

That was the focus of a panel discussion, "Video is Evolving: How to Win in a Changing Video Ecosystem" at The Independent Show held by the NCTC at Disney World this week.

I moderated a panel that included Mark Rankin, CFO, of Summit Broadband in Orlando, Geoff Shook, President & GM, Buckeye Broadband in Toledo, Ohio, and Sandra Tilley, senior vice president of Brand Strategies, EPB, Chattanooga, Tenn.-based provider of broadband services.

‘Hard Conversations’
Providers now see offering video as a service as one of numerous options that will attract and keep customers rather than one that will automatically improve a broadband provider's bottom line, the panelists said.

“In and of itself, I don't believe that video is still a strategic product on its own,” Rankin said. “Having said that, though, I think you need to think about where you deploy it, how you deploy it, how it helps broadband, and certainly as a bulk provider in Florida, serving 55-plus communities, it's a strategic product for us in how we go to market and win business.”

Shook agreed that video is still essential, but with caveats.

“Our philosophy is there'll always be a video product as a part of our catalog, [but] I think that we continue to have the hard conversations over what that product looks like and how we make it affordable,” he said.

Shook acknowledged the importance of his shrinking list of “video-only” customers and said “we don't want to walk away from that,” but he also cited the growing costs that have forced Buckeye to reconsider what channels to carry on a regular basis.

“We've made some really difficult decisions regarding carriage because we just cannot afford to continue to take video rate increases from the programmers,” he said. “Our customers push back and when they get a change in their bill they don't just shop video, they shop everything and so we've walked away from several programmers, but we've also provided resources and options for those customers to find another way to to still get the video and still depend on us to help facilitate it.”

EPB’s customer base is primarily older, according to Tilley, so video still plays an important role. Nevertheless, she continues to look for new ways to partner with third parties to maintain and improve their services.

“We've been able to maintain our market share, and we haven't seen any decline in our broadband because of a loss of video,” she said. “But we do have a customer base which is primarily older that has a high value, and we're looking at how we can continue to offer a quality product. We're working with TiVo now to try to see how much cost we can get out of it by going managed, and we think that that allows us to hold our pricing, keep it at a value for our customers, and still make a short, small margin.

“We don't look at video as a big margin producing product, but I will say we are looking for anything that is the right next thing to bundle to protect our broadband market share,” Tilley added. “So we're going to continue to watch what happens with video and look at maybe broadband TV.”

Simple and Seamless
With increased competition from streaming services, particularly in live sports, panel members agreed on the importance of making it simpler for customers to navigate the increasing variety of sources as well as the complexity and fragmentation of the current scenario.

In response to this, Rankin said he isn’t as concerned about the fact that more big ticket sports are now only available on paid streaming services.

“We don't see that as the bigger problem; it's finding it that’s the challenge and the complexity that customers feel,” he said. “It's middleware that's hard to navigate that is a problem. So the more that our vendors can help us with middleware that makes it easy for customers, I think will make a big difference.”

Tilley cited a campaign by EPB to help their customers better understand the changing video landscape and provide the needed assistance, regardless of who they choose to sign up with—whether it’s their video service or a streaming bundle.

“About five years ago, we rolled out what I call our ‘cord-cutting campaign,’ but really the whole point of it was to say, ‘we want you to have TV the way you want it; we want you to have choice, and we're here to help you,” she said. “Whether it's ours that you want to buy, if you do, we want to sell that to you, and we want it to be a product you like. If it's not ours, we want to help you learn how to stream and find what you're looking for.”

Buckeye Broadband offers a program called “Brain and Stream Assist,” that helps its customers consolidate billing, passwords and navigation, according to Shook.

“We have a pay call center that is there to help those that need the help to figure out how to set up their billing and remember their passwords and connect through to the apps that they choose,” he said. “Our positioning is that we've heard from multiple generations that our video consumers wanted choice and control.”

Understanding how their customers consume TV is essential to a better overall experience, regardless of their age, Rankin added.

“The younger generations probably prefer an app-based search experience, and certainly the older demographic, they love the guide and the big remote,” he said.

Rankin pointed to the TiVo Manager app in helping Summit to “marry” those environments.

“TiVo Manager is doing that well for us,” he said. “We can give the grid guide experience and still create that app experience. And it brings deep search capabilities, such that if you are subscribing to Paramount or Netflix or something else, you know your search will present those options to you. And so, so we think that's the best of both worlds right now.”

Tilley summed up the panel’s philosophy by noting the delicate balance small independent operators need to maintain to continue to offer video while keeping an eye on the bottom line.

“We try to keep the price as affordable as possible while covering costs at a small margin,” she said. “That's our philosophy of how we approach video.”

NEW YORK and BELLEVUE, Wash.—Fox Advertising has extended its partnership with iSpot with new features to improve attribution and outcomes of advertising campaigns.

The agreement builds on a relationship between Fox and iSpot that began in 2015, when Fox first adopted iSpot’s real-time TV ad measurement capabilities across its portfolio. Since then, the collaboration has evolved to include creative measurement, audience verification and business outcomes attribution across both linear and streaming environments.

Most recently, Fox Advertising and iSpot worked together to deliver always-on attribution and outcomes measurement through Fox AdStudio, Fox’s recently launched unified data and technology platform. This enables brands to drive business results across screens, platforms and audiences.

“The Fox AdStudio was built to help advertisers do more than simply reach audiences at scale,” said Kym Frank, senior vice president, research at Fox. “Our partnership with iSpot has allowed us to prove how connecting with Fox’s engaged fandoms drives measurable business outcomes across every screen, giving advertisers greater transparency, accountability and confidence in their investments.”

The expanded capabilities come at a time when advertisers are increasingly demanding performance-driven solutions.

To address that need, Fox and iSpot have worked to offer what they call "actionable insights" that go beyond traditional reach and frequency metrics. Through Fox AdStudio’s integration with iSpot’s attribution capabilities, advertisers have access to near real-time measurement that links ad exposures directly to consumer actions, delivering a more comprehensive view of campaign effectiveness.

The two companies also reported that over the last year, the partnership has demonstrated strong performance across multiple categories and campaigns throughout Fox’s portfolio:

• Ads appearing on Fox Networks (Fox, Fox News, FS1, Fox Deportes and Fox Business Network) delivered 142.26 billion TV ad impressions, accounting for over 10% of the total ad market and two of the top six networks by TV ad reach (Fox News, Fox).
• Among top 50 networks by reach, Fox has three of the top 10 by attention or effectiveness: FS1, Fox News, Fox.
• In April 2026, Fox drove strong lift in location conversion rates for some of the top brands in the world. In one instance, Fox helped a quick serve restaurant drive an average lift of 148% vs. a 54% average lift generated from the rest of their linear buy that same month.

“These results reinforce the value of combining premium video inventory with advanced outcomes measurement that is both proven and trusted,” said Stuart Schwartzapfel, executive vice president of media partnerships at iSpot. “Together with Fox, we’re helping advertisers move beyond assumptions and understand exactly how campaigns are performing in the real world.”

IRVING, Texas—A new analysis from Horowitz Research highlights the importance of multicultural audiences for the record viewing seen during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which concluded with a historic final and record-setting audience engagement of nearly 63 million Americans watching the event.

In addition to the 38.9 million viewers turning into the English-language soccer telecast on Fox, an additional 23.9 million viewers watched the Spanish-language telecast on Telemundo.

At the same time, Telemundo and Peacock reported Spanish-language streaming engagement in the U.S, with group-stage digital average minute audience up 251% versus the tournament in 2022. These results reflect a broader transformation in the media landscape, where multicultural audiences and digital platforms are driving growth, Horowitz reported.

Those results confirmed longstanding research from Horowitz highlighting the importance of multicultural audiences, making clear that multicultural audiences are a central part of the sports audience. The scale of Spanish-language viewing and the outsized role of Hispanic fans highlight how deeply soccer is embedded in cultural identity and community connection in the U.S.

Horowitz Research’s latest study, "State of Media, Entertainment, and Tech: Viewing Behaviors", which was conducted prior to the tournament, found that over half (54%) of Latinx consumers intended to watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup, significantly higher than the total market (42%). Those expectations were borne out in the intensity and consistency of engagement seen throughout the tournament.

“What we saw in 2026 is the full realization of trends we’ve been tracking for years,” said Adriana Waterston, executive vice president, insights and strategy lead for Horowitz Research. “The World Cup is where culture, community, and media converge. It is not just about the game on the screen, it is about identity, connection, and shared experience across platforms and languages. Our research at the intersection of cultural insights and sports is focused on helping media brands and their advertisers and sponsors maximize engagement among Hispanic audiences, multicultural audiences, and the sports audience overall.”

The 2026 tournament also marked a turning point for streaming as a primary platform for live sports and highlighted a number of trends that content providers and advertisers will need to embrace if they want to attract these audiences, the Horowitz analysis found.

For starters, digital viewership surged across matches and rounds, with fans seamlessly moving between traditional television and streaming services depending on context and convenience.

This behavior was anticipated by Horowitz’s pre-event research, which showed that a majority of prospective viewers expected to stream matches live and use multiple devices beyond the TV set. The World Cup demonstrated that live sports can successfully operate in an ecosystem where linear and streaming are complementary.

The result is a new model for major sporting events, one that demands integrated distribution strategies across broadcast, streaming, mobile, and social platforms, the Horowitz analysis stressed.

Beyond platforms and audiences, the 2026 World Cup reinforced the idea that sports fandom is inherently social. Fans gathered at home, in public venues, and online, engaging with content before, during, and after matches. Social media, second screens, and shared viewing experiences were not secondary behaviors but, rather, they were core to how the event was experienced.

In surveys prior to the event, Horowitz Research found that large portions of viewers planned to watch with friends and family, attend viewing events, and engage with World Cup content across social platforms. The tournament brought those behaviors to life, with fans using the World Cup to connect across geographies, cultures, and generations.

The scale and nature of engagement during the 2026 World Cup also reinforced the value of live, multicultural sports environments for advertisers. High levels of attention, emotional investment, and cross-platform engagement create conditions that are uniquely powerful for brand impact.

In addition, the momentum from the 2026 FIFA World Cup is already extending into the next chapter of global soccer. Horowitz’s research suggests meaningful continued interest in global soccer events, including the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027.

“If 2026 showed us anything, it is that the playbook has changed,” added Waterston. “The audiences driving growth are diverse, the platforms are fluid, and the experience is shared. The organizations that understand and embrace that reality will be the ones that win in the next era of global sports.”

For more information, visit www.horowitzresearch.com.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H.—New survey data highlights how smart TVs are becoming the most influential gatekeepers in entertainment, playing an increasingly important role in how viewers discover and watch content.

Data from Hub Entertainment Research’s annual “Evolution of the TV Set” indicates that asking "What good TV shows are you watching?" may be less relevant than asking, "What TV set do you own?" in terms of viewing habits and the ability of smart TV operating systems to influence those choices.

Fox's recent $22 billion acquisition of Roku is the clearest signal yet that control of the TV operating system is becoming one of the industry's most valuable strategic assets, the research suggests.

The “Evolution of the TV Set” study, which reveals the growing influence of the TV set in shaping how viewers discover and engage with content, finds that the operating systems powering today’s smart TVs have become the primary doorway for both programming and advertising.

"The conversation around finding great TV to watch is poised to become like the `Mac vs. PC' or `Android vs. iPhone' battles from prior years — as viewers learn that some TV operating systems do better jobs than others at helping them find good stuff to watch," said Jason Platt Zolov, senior consultant at Hub. "The merger of Fox and Roku will be a watershed proof point that some streamers will have more influence than others, depending on what TV set you own."

Key findings from the report include:

• Smart TVs dominate viewing, and streaming households are embracing Roku and Fire TV more than Android, Tizen (Samsung) or webOS (LG) systems that power those sets.
• Most homes have three TVs, and two of those are now smart TVs, making them more dominant than ever.
• For the TV set they use most, streaming TV viewers are no longer flipping channels: they are living in app-centric environments that are increasingly powered by Roku (37%) and Fire TV (17%), well ahead of Android, Tizen or Apple TV users.

The researchers noted that within different TV operating systems, the viewer's goal is clear: "how can I quickly find a specific program I want to watch?"

When asked to rank what matters most, viewers rank "Easy search" as the most valued discovery feature (60% call it “very important”), well ahead of "personal recommendations" (31%) or seeing "trending content" (25%).

AI-powered TV search features are poised to help viewers solve this search problem. When asked to choose the most valuable AI-powered TV viewing features, more than half of viewers want AI features that either help them find similar things they like (27%) or more effectively exclude stuff they don't like (28%).

While quick search is most important, home screen real estate and recommendations still significantly impact what people watch.

Some TV operating systems sway users more than others: suggested titles on the TV home screen within Apple TV, Fire TV, Android and Roku environments are all more likely to be watched than those titles being suggested by Samsung (Tizen) and LG (webOS), the survey found.

As viewers continue to invest in smart TVs, the vital importance of influencing consumers to install apps when they first turn on their new TV cannot be overstated, the researchers stressed.

Half (51%) say they install suggested apps during setup — but more (56%) this year than in 2024 (47%) say they rarely add apps after that first day home with the TV — a reminder that more needs to be done to capture new TV owners with apps they will love.

These findings are from Hub’s 2026 “Evolution of the TV Set” report, based on a survey conducted among 2,500 US consumers ages 16-74. Interviews were conducted in May 2026. A free excerpt of the findings is available on Hub’s website.

FIFA World Cup 2026 has officially become YouTube's most-viewed FIFA World Cup in history, pushing lifetime views for videos related to the current and past FIFA World Cups past 200 billion views, the streamer reported.

Overall, more than 1.7 billion unique viewers globally watched World Cup-related videos on YouTube during the FIFA World Cup 2026, including over 550 million that watched on their televisions.

Official YouTube broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup 2026 final match between Spain and Argentina on July 19 drew over 21 million average minute audience (AMA) across more than 40 markets. Together, they reached a peak of over 27 million concurrent viewers on YouTube.

The data was released in a blog post by Angela Courtin

Vice president of sports and entertainment marketing on YouTube and Justin Connolly, vice president, global head of media and sports, YouTube.

They also reported that FIFA’s official YouTube channel amassed over 4 billion views and added over 7.5 million new subscribers between June 11-July 19. The channel now has over 34 million global subscribers.

The YouTube executives also noted that the tournament also redefined what it means to be a soccer (or fútbol) fan, with a global roster of creators with a combined 350 million YouTube videos related to the FIFA World Cup uploaded by its creator roster accumulated over 2.5 billion views globally.

YouTube also hosted the first YouTube FIFA Creator Cup exhibition match on July 12, live from Central Park, New York. Led by team captains IShowSpeed and Celine Dept, the official live streams for the event drew over 10 million live views globally, including broadcasts from FIFA’s official channel, participating creators and official broadcasters, the blog said.

T-Mobile was found to offer the fastest mobile network and fastest 5G network in Ookla’s latest Connectivity Report on the state of U.S. mobile and fixed networks in the first half of 2026.

Cellphone provider T-Mobile was deemed to have the Best Mobile Network, with a median download speed of 275.55 Megabits per second across all technologies combined, and the Best 5G Network, with a median download speed of 314.38 Mbps, Ookla reported.

The speeds have important implications for broadcast journalists and news organizations in the field who rely on 5G networks to deliver video feeds and stories to newsrooms.

To earn its top rankings, T-Mobile recorded a Speedtest Connectivity Score of 80.12, and a Speedtest 5G Connectivity Score of 73.52. Speedtest Connectivity Score combines key metrics to evaluate a mobile provider’s overall user experience offer. It includes Speed Score, indicators for web browsing performance and Video Streaming Score, Ookla said.

T-Mobile also offered the best gaming and video streaming experiences in the United States during 1H 2026, across all broadband technologies and 5G, according to Speedtest Intelligence data.

Ookla found that AT&T Fiber offered the Best Internet and was the Fastest Fixed Network in the U.S. during the first half, with a median download speed of 374.75 Mbps and a median upload speed of 320.65 Mbps.

Among the most populous cities in the United States, Lincoln, Neb., recorded the fastest median mobile download speed of 395.83 Mbps, while Durham, N.C., outpaced other cities to record the fastest median fixed download speed at 380.47 Mbps.

Ookla is a research firm best known for Speedtest.net, which tests and tracks global internet and mobile network speeds.

More data and the full report can be found here.

STAINES-UPON-THAMES, U.K.—Dynamic ad insertion solution provider Yospace is reporting that it stitched 11.57 billion one-to-one addressable advertisements into live video streams during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

This equates to 297 million advertisements per day during the 39-day tournament, which is a big increase on other recent global events - the Paris 2024 Summer Games saw 41% fewer ads stitched per day.

“The 2026 FIFA World Cup demonstrates the massive scale we’re seeing for ad-funded streaming today,” said Tim Sewell, CEO of Yospace. “The excitement of these moments, when entire nations are tuning in, means that the quality of the experience and the seamlessness of the advertising is absolutely critical. It’s a testament to the experience and dedication of the entire Yospace team that we have such a strong reputation for monetizing major live events. The data tells us that we’re only scratching the surface of the kind of scale that live streaming is set to achieve, and Dynamic Ad Insertion technology must be able to meet that demand.”

The data was collected from Yospace’s global customer base of broadcasters and distributors, of which 14 were streaming the action.

Yospace also reported that the growth is representative of some wider trends. Very notably, viewers are shifting their attention to app-based channels on their Connected TVs rather than traditional linear. Broadcasters responding to that shift are in turn focusing more attention on monetizing their OTT streams more effectively by ensuring as much online traffic as possible has DAI applied.

The 2026 edition of the FIFA World Cup also brought additional value, given the fact that there were 16 more teams compared to the last tournament in 2022, which created 40 additional matches to advertise against.

The introduction of a three-minute hydration break in each half also created an extra opportunity to advertise, which most ad-supported rights-holders utilized.

Yospace’s busiest ad break came at the start of Half-Time when England played Norway in the Quarter-Finals. In that two minute window, 13 million one-to-one addressable ads were stitched, demonstrating the need for DAI systems and the adtech to work together and to scale with very short notice if rights-holders want to achieve the highest possible fill-rates and maximize value.

Yospace’s Advanced Prefetch system was applied throughout the tournament to space out ad requests, giving the adtech the time it needed to respond, and helping to prepare for unscheduled breaks as matches ran into Extra Time and penalties.

Yospace also reported that across the entire tournament, there were 637 ad breaks (including hydration breaks) compared to 326 in 2022, based on how the majority of Yospace customers applied ad breaks.

This was driven by the increase in matches and more ad breaks per match, but also by the nature of play. Fewer matches were decided by a dreaded penalty shoot-out (four) than in 2022 (five), despite there being substantially more matches.

However, five matches were settled by goals during the Extra Time period, whereas in 2022 every single match that entered Extra Time went on to penalties.

Yospace also reported that there were more goals per game (2.96) compared to 2022 (2.69), meaning that, with hydration breaks effectively splitting matches into quarters, there was a far higher likelihood of a goal or a dramatic moment, and a resulting audience surge, occurring near an ad break.

When France was awarded a penalty against Morocco in the Quarter-Finals, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) check that followed took an agonizing three minutes to reach a resolution. Between the penalty being awarded and France’s Kylian Mbappé kicking the ball, there was a 37% increase in stream starts. The hydration break came barely a minute after his miss. Advertisements during hydration breaks benefitted from a lower audience drop-off than other ad breaks. Being only three minutes long, Yospace saw just a 0.4% drop-off rate for some matches, compared to 16.82% during half-time.

Earlier in the tournament, Belgium’s dramatic comeback from 2-0 down against Senegal in the Round of 32 drove a 93% increase in stream starts in the space of two minutes, and rose steadily until the full-time whistle and subsequent ad break. Typically, the final whistle of a match prompts an audience drop-off around 50% within a matter of minutes. With Extra Time coming up next, Belgium’s late goals meant the drop-off was only 11%, meaning the ad break at that point benefitted from an audience surge following the goals and less drop-off than would otherwise have been expected.

Match reports and further tournament data is available on Yospace’s World Cup feed here: https://www.yospace.com/worldcup.

Yospace is exhibiting at the International Broadcast Convention (IBC), Amsterdam, on 11-14 September. You can find out more and request a meeting here: yospace.com/ibc.

MIAMI, Fla.—Telemundo is reporting that its Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2026 set audience records at every stage of the tournament.

Overall, the tournament is the most-watched FIFA World Cup tournament in Spanish-language media history with an average Total Audience Delivery of 6.3 million viewers across the 104 matches, up +143% vs. the 2022 tournament (2.6 million). Each stage of the 2026 tournament set a new Spanish-language World Cup Total Audience record and delivered triple-digit growth versus the 2022 World Cup.

The FIFA World Cup 2026 also delivered impressive growth over 2022 in linear and streaming, with the linear match window average up +79% (3.2 million vs. 1.8 million) and the digital average minute audience (AMA) up +297% (3 million vs. 767K).

In addition, Sunday’s final battle, which saw Spain earn its second title as they dethroned reigning champions Argentina, delivered a 23.9 million Total Audience Delivery (TAD), becoming the most-watched soccer match ever in Spanish-language media history.

It also set numerous records for streaming, digital media and social media.

Combined with the 39.8 million who watched Fox Sports English-language coverage on Fox, 63.7 million Americans watched the final.

Telemundo produced more than 700 hours of original programming through the 39-day tournament.

Other data highlights included:

• The FIFA World Cup 2026 tournament delivered the 15 most-watched soccer matches in Spanish-language media history based on Total Audience, led by Spain vs. Argentina’s 23.9 million viewership in the Finals.
• The 77.2 billion total minutes consumed during the FIFA World Cup 2026 across Telemundo, Universo, Peacock, and Telemundo streaming platforms, surpassed the 43.2 billion total minutes consumed for the combined 2018 and 2022 Men’s World Cup tournaments in Spanish by +79%.
• Mexico vs. England delivered 23.2 million viewers in Total Audience Delivery (TAD), making it the second most-watched soccer match ever in Spanish-language media history. On linear, the full program averaged 10.1 million viewers from 8:25–11:20 p.m. ET, making it the highest-rated telecast in Spanish-language TV history; viewership peaked at 11.7 million viewers at 10:45 p.m. ET.
• The France vs. England Third Place match delivered 7.7 million viewers in Total Audience Delivery, making it the most-watched Third Place game in Spanish-language media history, up +225% vs. the 2022 tournament (Croatia vs. Morocco, 2.4 million).
• 42 games had a Total Audience Delivery of at least 6 million viewers, up from two during the full 2022 tournament.
• Overall, streaming comprised 48% of Telemundo’s Total Audience Delivery for the FIFA World Cup 2026, up from 30% contribution in 2022. With an average minute audience (AMA) of 3 million viewers on Peacock and Telemundo streaming platforms, digital viewership grew +297% vs. 2022 (767,000).
• Spain vs. Argentina Finals on July 19, is the most-streamed World Cup match in Spanish-language history with an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 13.9 million viewers, +370% over the most-streamed match of the 2022 tournament (Argentina vs. France Finals, 3 million AMA).
• There were 21 games that averaged 4 million or more streaming viewers, up from zero in 2022.
• Telemundo ranked as the #1 Spanish-language television network across all 34 matchdays (June 11 – July 19) during Total Day (7A-2A) with 1.9 million average viewers, and a share of 76% of the three Spanish-language networks. This Total Day delivery is up +300% vs. the network’s May 2026 average.
• June 2026 was Telemundo’s highest-performing month in network history with 1.4 million average viewers in Total Day, surpassing the previous World Cup highs set in June 2018 (954K) and December 2022 (837K).
• Sunday, July 5, set a new linear record with the highest Total Day average audience in Spanish-language television history with 3.6 million viewers, driven by the Mexico vs. England and Brazil vs. Norway Round of 16 matches.
• Throughout the duration of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Peacock drew four times its normal share of Hispanic viewers. Those viewers who watched World Cup also watched a variety of Peacock content, including Telemundo entertainment (e.g., El Señor de los Cielos), Peacock originals (e.g., Love Island USA, MIA, Five Star Weekend), Sports (e.g., MLB), and library content (e.g., Yellowstone, The Office).
• Cultural cross-over: While each of these cultural phenomena drew massive audiences on its own, 40% of Peacock viewers who watched Love Island USA also watched the FIFA World Cup 2026.
• On Peacock, one in three FIFA World Cup viewers are Gen-Z, and they are especially receptive to brands: +21% more likely to feel loyal to World Cup advertisers and +24% more likely to view World Cup advertising as more credible than other ads.
• The FIFA World Cup 2026 generated 2.25 billion video views across social platforms, more than 9x the combined total generated during the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.
• The tournament generated 75.1M social actions across social platforms, nearly 3x the combined total generated during the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.
• Round of 16 Match Day 26 became the highest social engagement day in Telemundo FIFA World Cup history, generating 5.28M social actions.
• Round of 16 Match Day 27 became the most-viewed social day in Telemundo FIFA World Cup history, generating 135.6M video views.
• On linear, the 26 Telemundo-owned stations reached 22.3 million total viewers through the FIFA World Cup 2026 Semifinals.
• The Telemundo-owned stations’ average audience through the FIFA World Cup 2026 Semifinals of 2.52 million viewers was +57% higher than the same period during the 2022 tournament (1.61 million) and +64% above 2018 (1.54 million).
• Eight Telemundo-owned stations captured 50 percent or more of the FIFA World Cup 2026 audience share in their markets, including in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, and Phoenix, through the Semifinals.

LOS ANGELES—Fox Sports is reporting record viewing levels for the FIFA World Cup 2026, which culminated on Sunday with a historic Final match that saw 38,937,000 viewers watch on Fox, an all-time high mark for viewership as the new most-watched soccer telecast in U.S. television history and most-watched FIFA World Cup™ final ever in the U.S.

According to Nielsen Media Research the record-breaking Final reached its dramatic peak with 51,685,000 viewers watching from 5:45 to 6:00 PM ET as Spain secured a 1-0 victory in extra time over Argentina.

Overall, FIFA World Cup 2026 finished as the most-watched FIFA World Cup in U.S. history averaging 7,737,000 viewers across 104 matches on Fox, FS1 and Tubi up +116% vs. FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 (3,588,000) and up +179 vs. FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 (2,770,000).

Fox Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage also redefined digital sports consumption, generating more than 17.2 billion content views on Fox Sports digital and social platforms to become the most digitally viewed event in network history.

Across Fox Sports social media, tournament content generated a record-breaking 16.5 billion social impressions with 2,560 of Fox Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 social videos surpassing one million views. During the tournament’s 39-day run, Fox Sports grew its social media audience by more than 10 million followers.

Fox Sports recorded 542 million social video views on Sunday, July 19 around the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Final - the most socially viewed day in its history.

Other key viewing highlights from the FIFA World Cup 2026 included:

• Up +132% vs. FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Final (France vs. Argentina, Sunday morning 12/18/22, 16,784,000 viewers); up +240% vs. FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 Final, (France vs. Croatia, Sunday morning 7/15/18, 11,441,000 viewers).
• Fox Sports’ jam-packed, four-hour "FIFA World Cup Live" pregame show scored 2,873,000 viewers as America gathered in anticipation for the epic closing ceremony and festivities in the leadup to Spain vs. Argentina.
• The 38,937,000 viewers bested the previous record for most-watched soccer telecast in U.S. history set earlier in the tournament by U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) vs. Belgium in the Round of 16 (33,089,000 viewers).
• FIFA World Cup 2026™ finished as the most-watched FIFA World Cup™ in U.S. history averaging 7,737,000 viewers across 104 matches on Fox, FS1 and Tubi up +116% vs. FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ (3,588,000) and up +179 vs. FIFA World Cup Russia 2018™ (2,770,000).
• On Saturday, July 18, the bronze final on Fox between France and England drew 13,130,000 viewers becoming the most-watched FIFA Men’s World Cup third-place telecast in U.S. history (previous record: Uruguay vs. Germany, FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010, 4,755,000 viewers). France vs. England finished up +232% from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 third-place match on Fox (Croatia vs. Morocco, Saturday morning, 3,956,000 viewers) and up +330% from the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 third-place match on Fox (Belgium vs. England, Saturday morning, 3,052,000 viewers).
• France vs. England peaked at 18,529,000 viewers from 6:45 to 7:00 PM ET.
• Two FIFA World Cup 2026 matches surpassed 30 million viewers (the Final and U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) vs. Belgium Round of 16).
• Five broke 20 million viewers (Final, USMNT vs. Belgium, USMNT vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina Round of 32, Norway vs. England Quarterfinal and Mexico vs. England Round of 16).
• 11 matches surged past the 15 million viewers markNine FIFA World Cup 2026 telecasts on Fox eclipsed the previous high mark for most-watched FIFA Men’s World Cup telecast of all-time (France vs. Argentina, FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ Final on Fox, 16,784,000 viewers).
• Two FIFA World Cup 2026 matches surpassed 30 million viewers (the Final and U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) vs. Belgium Round of 16).
• Five broke 20 million viewers (Final, USMNT vs. Belgium, USMNT vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina Round of 32, Norway vs. England Quarterfinal and Mexico vs. England Round of 16).
• 11 matches surged past the 15 million viewers mark.
• Nine FIFA World Cup 2026 telecasts on Fox eclipsed the previous high mark for most-watched FIFA Men’s World Cup telecast of all-time (France vs. Argentina, FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Final on Fox, 16,784,000 viewers).
• Fox Sports’ first-ever "Always On" live stream - available exclusively on the Fox Sports YouTube channel, TikTok (starting Round of 32), Tubi, FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports App - launched June 11 and remained live for 974 consecutive hours over the course of the entire tournament and beyond, generating 1.2 billion total minutes of watch time across platforms. Fans watching on the Fox Sports YouTube channel generated more than two million comments, with half of all live stream viewers choosing to watch with live chat enabled to engage with other fans on a second screen.
• Editorial coverage reached historic levels as FIFA World Cup 2026 became the most-read event in Fox Sports history, with time spent across FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports App increasing +73% compared to FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
• Over the span of the tournament, Fox Sports produced over 300 live-streaming shows, pushed out over 27,000 social media posts and authored more than 1,300 stories around FIFA World Cup 2026, representing the most ambitious and successful digital content operation in the network’s history.

YouTube has released a new study showing that in 2025, YouTube’s creative ecosystem contributed over $60 billion to the U.S. GDP and supported more than 540,000 full-time equivalent jobs.

The economic analysis was done by Oxford Economics for the YouTube Report released on July 16.

The study also stressed that the impact is nationwide for both rural and urban areas. YouTube reported that currently all 50 states have at least 10 channels with over 1 million monthly views. Those views translate into business growth: 76% of small- and medium-sized businesses with a YouTube channel say YouTube played a role in helping them grow their customer base by reaching new audiences.

The study also found that 77% of creators say their media and entertainment career started on YouTube.

Other key findings include:

• 87% of viewers report watching music videos, music festivals, or awards ceremonies on YouTube in the last year and 67% of viewers report discussing a YouTube video together with a friend or family member on a monthly basis, rising to 72% for Gen Z.
• 94% of teachers who use YouTube report using YouTube content directly in their lessons and/or assignments, with 81% stating it provides access to educational content that students would not otherwise have. At home, 78% of parents who use YouTube say YouTube (or YouTube Kids for children under 13) provides quality content for their children's learning and/or entertainment.

The full report is available here.

Netflix is reporting record viewing levels in the first half of 2026, with its subscribers watching more than 97 billion hours of programming.

It also released its 10 most popular movies and shows.

Among the movies, "War Machine" was #1 with 147 million hours of viewing, followed by "The Rip" (136 million hours), "Swapped" (131 million hours), "KPop Demon Hunters" (130 million) and "Apex" (129 million hours.)

The ten most popular shows were led by “His&Hers” (104 million hours of viewing), “Bridgerton” season 4 (100 million hours) and “I Will Find You” (64 million hours).

Other highlights included:

• Netflix audiences love to discover and watch new series. Five of the top 10 most-watched shows premiered in the first half of this year, with I Will Find You (64 million) and Teach You a Lesson (48 million) from South Korea both reaching the top 10 less than a month after their releases. The streamer also reported big audiences for new stories such as His & Hers (104M) — the #1 most watched show in the half — along with Run Away (50 million) and Nemesis Season 1 (33 million), which was recently renewed for a second season.
• New seasons consistently drive discovery and viewing of past seasons of a series. The return of Bridgerton Season 4 (100 million) nearly tripled viewing of every earlier season of the franchise (including Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story), when compared to the second half of 2025. Together, the entire Bridgerton franchise brought 180 million views in the first half of this year. Netflix also saw a boost in viewership for past seasons of series including ONE PIECE (69 million views across seasons), The Night Agent (63 million views across seasons), Virgin River (54 million views across seasons) and The Lincoln Lawyer (59 million views across seasons).
• Netflix original films continue to draw in huge audiences across genres. The action film slate performed particularly well this half, with The Rip (136 million), Apex (129 million) and Thrash (100 million) among the most-watched. War Machine was the biggest title in the half with 147 million views. Animated films are becoming hits. Swapped came in at 131 million views in the half and is on track to become the second most-watched original animated film ever, behind KPop Demon Hunters (130 million) — which came in at #4 despite premiering over a year ago. Book-to-screen adaptations were also popular with successful films including People We Meet on Vacation (78 million) and Remarkably Bright Creatures (51 million). And Rom-coms like Office Romance (58 million) and Voicemails for Isabelle (53 million) also moved audiences.
• Non-English titles represent more than a third of all viewing on Netflix, with titles from South Korea, Japan and Spain among the most-watched. South Korea continues to deliver a strong slate of titles including Teach You a Lesson (48 million), Can This Love Be Translated? (29 million), The Art of Sarah (26 million), My Royal Nemesis (16 million) and the Season 2 return of the hit series Bloodhounds (24 million). Japan continues to drive viewing with original stories like Straight to Hell Season 1 (10 million) and Sins of Kujo Season 1 (9 million). Spain released several popular titles this half including Firebreak (34 million), The Marked Woman (26 million), Oasis Season 1 (10 million), and from the creators of Money Heist — Berlín and the Lady with an Ermine (28 million).
• India had its highest viewing for a half yet with hits like Dhurandhar (37 million) — the most-watched non-English film in this report — Accused (19 million), Made in Korea (18 million) and Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web Season 1 (16 million). South Africa broke through with global successes like 180 (37 million) for film and The Polygamist Season 1 (17 million) for series. In addition, Netflix reported a number of stories that resonated locally and travel globally including Colors of Evil: Black (23 million) from Poland, Radioactive Emergency Season 1 (22 million) from Brazil, A Father’s Miracle (21 million) from Mexico, Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole Season 1 (22 million) from Norway, My Dearest Assassin (18 million) from Thailand, The Big Fake (17 million) from Italy and The Chestnut Man: Hide and Seek (11 million) from Denmark.
• Members enjoy a variety of different programming. Must-watch live events brought audiences together in the first half for everything from Kevin Hart’s comedy spectacle with The Roast of Kevin Hart (21 million) to Alex Honnold’s thrill-seeking climb with Skyscraper Live (13 million) and BTS’ monumental comeback with BTS THE COMEBACK LIVE | ARIRANG (21 million) that thrilled fans around the world.
• More than half of its members today have watched at least one anime title, where we saw breakouts with new stories like BAKI-DOU: The Invincible Samurai Season 1 (8 million), STEEL BALL RUN: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (8 million) and Cosmic Princess Kaguya! (8 million).
• Documentaries of all kinds captivated viewers — from true crime stories like The Crash (65 million), to pop culture sensations like Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model Season 1 (22 million) and epic prehistoric tales like The Dinosaurs Season 1 (32 million).
• Kids & family continues to perform well, with creators like Ms. Rachel, the most-watched kids title at 69 million views across two seasons, plus Mark Rober's CrunchLabs (36 million across four seasons) and newcomers Salish & Jordan Matter (29 million across both seasons) and Danny Go! Season 1 (26 million).

President Trump criticized ABC and NBC for their decisions not to air his primetime address about his claims of “election fraud” live on Thursday night, saying their actions “should mean a revocation of their licenses.”

When the president announced the subject of his speech would be about “election integrity,” earlier this week, media outlets debated about how to cover it. It was expected that he would dredge up old conspiracy theories that have long been debunked and to which the majority of Americans don't share his conclusion that the 2020 election was "stolen."

Much of what he said last night did follow that pattern along with the announcement that the administration would release new unclassified material that would implicate that China meddled in the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.

Cable news channels decided their own path of coverage, with CNN fact-checking Trump’s speech in real-time, while MS NOW ran regular programming but broke in with analysis when warranted. Fox News, stung by a 2022 defamation lawsuit that forced the network to fork over $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems, reminded its viewers that it has seen no proof to Trump’s claims.

“Fox News has not seen that evidence yet and is not in a position to evaluate the accuracy of the president’s statement and claims at this time,” a reporter said during the speech.

Tony Dokoupil, news anchor for CBS News, which has come under considerable criticism from Trump’s opponents, was candid in his response to the speech.

“This is a vitally, vitally important topic, and the president has a terrible track record on it,” he said.

While both NBC and ABC chose not to air the speech live, they did break in when appropriate and held post-speech analysis special reports.

The networks’ decisions on whether to air the speech are not unprecedented. Networks have declined to cover certain speeches by Trump’s predecessors as well.

This didn’t mollify the president, though.

‘“They and others in the media are part of a plot,” he claimed. “They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want to keep it going. They want to protect the radical left. They can’t have a great country. And that’s true. You can’t have a great country without free and fair elections.”

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez criticized the president for his threats.

"It is ridiculous to call for broadcasters to lose their license simply for making the same editorial decisions they've made under presidents of both parties," Gomez said. "Those editorial decisions are protected by the First Amendment, and the FCC has no authority to punish a station for refusing to air a blatantly political speech. This is a naked attempt to bully broadcasters, and the FCC should have no part in it."

PLANO, Texas—New research from Parks Associates' Broadband Market Tracker shows broadband subscriber losses among the largest cable providers continue to lessen as operators strengthen customer retention efforts and expand converged broadband and mobile offerings.

Leading cablecos, including Comcast, Charter Spectrum, and Altice, lost an estimated 280,000 combined broadband subscribers during the first quarter of 2026, an improvement from an estimated decline of 320,000 subscribers in Q1 2025.

During the same period, cable MVNOs added approximately 830,000 combined mobile subscriptions, highlighting continued consumer interest in bundled connectivity services.

"The competitive landscape has shifted from winning subscribers at any cost to keeping existing customers through better pricing, simplified service offerings, and integrated connectivity," said Kristen Hanich, senior director of research, Parks Associates. "Providers are investing in strategies that reduce churn while strengthening the value of broadband through mobile bundles and improved customer experiences."

The research also found that providers are introducing new programs designed to address key causes of customer churn, particularly during household moves and service transitions. Competition is also intensifying around pricing and bundled offerings.

"Optimum introduced a promotion guaranteeing $25 per month for 300 Mbps fiber service for five years for new customers, while encouraging additional savings through mobile and TV bundles," Hanich said. "Starlink replaced its $499 upfront hardware purchase with a monthly equipment fee, lowering the initial cost of adoption and shifting more expense into recurring monthly service."

The data from Park’s Tracker service also found continued momentum toward converged connectivity services. During the first half of 2026, both AT&T and Verizon introduced integrated home internet and mobile offerings that simplify billing and strengthen customer loyalty.

Current adoption of this bundle is now at 26% of all US households, according to Parks Associates. These unified service models reflect a broader industry strategy to increase customer lifetime value while reducing subscriber churn.

The Broadband Market Tracker provides ongoing analysis of broadband subscriber trends, competitive strategies, pricing, fiber, cable, fixed wireless, satellite broadband, and converged service offerings across the US market

While live sports have become a bulwark of broadcast programming, a new analysis of sports viewing shows that viewers of the NFL and other popular sports are skewing older, with more than half of the NFL’s casual viewers being older than 55.

According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, approximately three-quarters of Americans watch live sports, with football dominating viewership at 53%. The analysis reveals that casual sports fans, who watch less than five hours weekly, comprise 44% of NFL viewers and that these casual viewers represent a significantly older demographic, with half being adults over 55 years of age.

After football, the Winter Olympics (41% of Americans), Summer Olympics (38%), baseball (36%) and basketball (38%) were watched by the largest percentage of the population.

Other key highlights include:

• Casual sports fans dominate the NFL viewership landscape, accounting for 44% of all NFL viewers, the highest percentage among major professional sports leagues. These casual viewers, defined as watching less than five hours of sports per week, represent 53% of total sports viewers and demonstrate a distinctly older demographic profile, with 51% being adults aged 55 and older and only 18% being young adults under 35.
• Major league viewership shows consistent patterns across baseball, basketball, and hockey, with approximately one-third of MLB, NBA, and NHL viewers classified as casual sports fans. The NFL attracts 48% of US internet adults for regular-season games, followed by MLB at 34%, NBA at 29%, and NHL at 19%, demonstrating football's substantial lead in overall market penetration.
• Age distribution reveals stark contrasts between casual and engaged sports fans, as moderate sports fans (5-10 hours weekly) and avid fans (over 10 hours weekly) share very similar demographic profiles. Both segments consist of approximately one-third young adults under 35 and one-third adults aged 55 and older, contrasting sharply with the older-skewing casual fan base.
• Total media consumption correlates directly with sports viewing intensity, as avid sports fans spend an average of 7.2 hours per day watching TV and video programming compared to 4.9 hours for casual sports fans. The data indicates that increased sports viewing displaces entertainment content such as movies, TV series, and documentaries, while news programming consumption remains consistent across all fan segments.
• Football maintains its position as America's dominant sport, with 53% of Americans watching football (NFL or NCAA), significantly outpacing other major sports. Baseball and basketball each attract approximately 36% of Americans, while ice hockey draws 20% viewership. The recently-completed Winter Olympics attracted 41% of US internet adults, demonstrating strong interest in major sporting events beyond traditional league play.

NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) Mission Systems and Technology Office has announced that it is working with SpectraRep to evaluate how broadcast television datacasting could serve as a resilient and redundant pathway for delivering NOAA Weather Radio audio and data to transmitters and digital devices.

More specifically, as part of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), NOAA/NWS and SpectraRep, LLC will assess whether existing digital television broadcast infrastructure can enhance the distribution of NWR content, particularly during periods when other networks may be disrupted.

The project will also examine opportunities to expand endpoint delivery options to reach modern digital and mobile platforms without altering or replacing existing NOAA Weather Radio services.

“NOAA/NWS is looking forward to collaborating with SpectraRep, LLC to evaluate innovative approaches for delivering NOAA Weather Radio content via datacasting and other pathways for modernizing access to NOAA Weather Radio content,” says George Jungbluth, Director for NWS Mission Systems and Technology Office.

For more than 50 years, NOAA Weather Radio has been a critical component of the nation’s public warning infrastructure, providing continuous forecasts, watches, warnings, and emergency information to communities, emergency managers, and partner organizations.

Television datacasting uses a small portion of a digital TV broadcast signal to securely transmit data as a one-way service that is unseen by television viewers and the general public. Digital television datacasting is designed for very high availability—exceeding 99.9% annually nationwide—making it a potential candidate for improving continuity of operations during emergencies, NOAA said.

As part of the research, SpectraRep, will also work with NOAA/NWS to better understand the current NOAA Weather Radio workflow, including how content is generated and transmitted.

Using NOAA/NWS content and technical expertise, SpectraRep, LLC will configure a demonstration showing how live NOAA Weather Radio content can be securely transported through a local television broadcast partner and delivered to a NOAA endpoint(s), such as a NOAA Weather Radio transmitter.

SpectraRep, LLC will also share access and seek feedback on their AlertNowM mobile solution which can tap into multiple transport paths—including radio, broadcast datacasting, and internet sources—on a single mobile platform.

The results will be used to develop strategies for strengthening NOAA Weather Radio’s resiliency and expanding access for digital audiences nationwide, NOAA said.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—Although CTV advertising continues to see rapid growth, a new survey indicates that buyers remain skeptical of some of the performance claims and increasingly are asking hard questions about measurement, accountability and business impact of their CTV ad campaigns.

These concerns stand in stark contrast to the longstanding claims that connected TV platforms can provide advertisers with clear and convincing data showing the impact of their ad campaigns.

While those claims have helped CTV platforms grab an every growing share of the ad market, new research from Jamloop, a performance CTV platform that connects streaming TV to real business outcomes, shows that CTV is winning a larger share of marketing budgets but not a lot of trust.

Based on a survey of 120 senior brand and agency marketers, the report, “CTV Is Winning Budget. Trust Is Still Catching Up” found that 50% of marketers say their CTV budgets increased year over year, and 63% say CTV already plays a strong performance role in their media mix or is becoming a more accountable performance channel.

However, only one in three buyers (33%) say they fully trust most platform-reported performance claims, while 62% express some level of skepticism.

Accountability standards also remain uneven: Only 42% say CTV is currently held to the same accountability standards as search and social. And, marketers still struggle to defend the spend internally. Only 39% say they feel very confident defending CTV investment to leadership based on current measurement and attribution.

The researchers suggest that better proof could unlock the next wave of growth: More than 70% say they would increase CTV investment if measurement, attribution, and proof of business outcomes improved. Respondents also said that trust concerns remain part of the performance story. More than 60% say they are concerned about fraud or misrepresented inventory in CTV environments.

“The industry has already proven that advertisers want CTV,” said Jeff Fagel, CMO at Jamloop. “What buyers are asking now is a tougher question: what business outcomes does CTV actually drive? Advertisers don’t need another dashboard. They need proof they can defend. The platforms that can prove business impact in ways marketers can actually see and feel, not just through dashboards showing media metrics moving in the right direction, will be the ones that win the next wave of CTV investment.”

The research also points to a broader shift in the media mix. More than 63% of respondents say they are seeing at least some diminishing returns from lower-funnel channels such as paid search and paid social, creating an opening for CTV to play a larger role in performance-focused strategies.

At the same time, marketers remain divided on what CTV performance should actually mean. While 35% prioritize qualified leads, 30% point to online sales and revenue, 30% define performance through revenue or sales lift, and 24% focus on store visits, appointments, or calls. That fragmentation makes it harder to establish common success metrics, compare results across campaigns, and build broader confidence in the category.

For many buyers, performance now means more than site traffic or media metrics alone. It means proving online sales, offline revenue, leads, visits, installs, or broader business impact in a way leadership teams can recognize and trust.

“CTV no longer needs to prove it belongs in the media mix,” Fagel added. “It needs to prove it belongs in the next wave of performance budgets.”

To download the full report, visit jamloop.com.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—A new research study from CTAM and Hub Entertainment Research highlights the high cost of bad app design and poor user experiences with survey data showing that a poor streaming user experience (UX) is cited by a surprising 36% of viewers, and 43% of viewers under 25, as the sole reason they’ve cancelled a streaming subscription, according to the study.

The result is notable because pricing and the quality of content are often seen as by far the biggest driver of subscription cancellations and churn, which can significantly add to a service's marketing costs.

“This research underscores the extent to which TV apps are compared not just to other TV apps, but to all of the apps consumers use across categories,” said Jon Giegengack, founder of Hub Entertainment Research and one of the research authors. “Viewers have high expectations, and even small moments of friction can quickly accumulate to cause frustration and abandonment. The findings are clear that improving even seemingly small frustrations can have a big impact on satisfaction, engagement and churn.”

The new research report, Value by Design: Building a Better Streaming UX and Discovery Experience, available to CTAM members, examines the importance of the streaming user experience to consumers’ overall satisfaction. Additional notable findings include:

• TV apps are evaluated against all apps across categories. Two-thirds (68%) of viewers do at least some of their decision-making outside of dedicated TV apps. Users judge their experience against all other apps across categories including Instagram and TikTok.
• TV apps are delivering. 90% of those surveyed were very or somewhat satisfied by their user experience. But there is room to improve. 72% experience at least one problem that leaves them “extremely frustrated” and 80% experience one problem that happens “all the time.”
• Hub tested also 20 UX problems to learn how often they happen and how frustrating they are when they do. Then 13 design solutions were tested, with five found to most likely add value to a subscription. The most damaging design and navigation issue was found to be “burying” of common tasks like having to scroll too far for “Continue Watching” and a hard-to-find “Watch List.”

The study identifies some potential solutions, with the two that would most impact viewer behavior including:

• Pinned “Continue Watching” – 46% loved this feature; 63% say they would absolutely use it; 42% think it would make their subscription more valuable; and 48% say it would make them more likely to keep their subscription.
• Pinned Watch Lists – 39% loved this feature; 56% say they would absolutely use it; 36% think it would make their subscription more valuable; and 43% say it would make them more likely to keep their subscription.
• Viewers reward apps that open straight into content – relevant, actionable, and free of decision fatigue.

One survey respondent over age 35 said: “When I open an app, I want it to already be where I left off or already doing what I need. The ones I like don’t make me figure anything out.”

Young viewers have less tolerance when the app experience fails.

For Gen Z viewers, the idea of more relevant recommendations was highly appealing, with 59% of viewers ages 13-24 saying that TV recommendations don’t feel like they are designed for them vs. 45% of older viewers.

Younger viewers also make viewing decisions well before turning on the TV, with 43% reporting they decide what to watch in advance vs. 35% of older viewers.

Plus, they look to social media for those recommendations; 48% of viewers 13-24 said they hear about shows and movies from trailers on social platforms vs. 38% of older viewers.

“This latest research highlights the pivotal role CTAM plays to give our members a big picture perspective on industry-wide challenges,” said Vicki Lins, president and CEO, CTAM. “Consumers by and large are satisfied with streaming apps, but a negative user experience can be a silent killer, quietly eroding loyalty while price and content grab the headlines. The full report for CTAM members reveals the extent of the threat posed by poor user experience, and how the industry can give consumers more clarity and control.”

The CTAM/Hub Entertainment Research study, "Value by Design: Building a Better Streaming UX and Discovery Experience", included both quantitative and qualitative elements: first, an online survey of 3,000 U.S. consumers ages 13-64, with the sample balanced to the U.S. census by gender, age, and race; and second, 24 in-depth interviews with a mix of Pay TV subscribers and cord cutters/cord nevers who subscribed to at least one streaming service. The research was conducted in April 2026.

CTAM members can access the full report on the group's website here.

In my last column, I wrote about what I saw and heard on the exhibit floor at the 2026 NAB Show; this month, I’ll talk about the NAB Show’s Broadcast Engineering and IT (BEIT) Conference sessions as well as the National Television Association (formerly National Translator Association) conference in Reno, Nev., that I attended in May.

Production and streaming sessions at NAB Show focused on content creation and distribution of TV programs. However, several sessions on over-the-air transmission focused on datacasting and alternative uses for our 6-MHz RF channel beyond TV broadcasting.

As in past years, sessions were devoted to the Broadcast Positioning System, showing BPS can be a worthy backup to GPS and the progress in testing and implementation.

In “Real World Coverage Analysis of ATSC 3.0 BPS,” Jim Stenberg and Paul Shulins of Over The Air RF Consulting showed how to calculate coverage from a BPS station using their table of “BPS UHF Reception Planning Factors” (Fig. 1). A map showed excellent coverage from WHUT Washington’s BPS signal. However, the map (Fig. 2) also showed spots blocked by terrain with no coverage. As more stations transmit BPS, these spots will likely have service from another station transmitting from a different location or market.

The Case for SFNs
“Only SFNs Deliver ATSC 3.0 Everywhere: Turning Broadcast Theory into Nationwide Reality,” a presentation from Louis Libin, Sinclair’s vice president of spectrum policy and engineering, showed how important is was for broadcasters to start planning for single-frequency networks now, as coverage from a single high-power, high-tower transmission site will not provide the coverage and reliability customers expect from today’s wireless services whether consuming data or video.

“Optimizing ATSC 3.0 networks requires balancing throughput, robustness, and coverage simultaneously, reinforcing the need for architectures such as SFNs to meet the diverse and competing service requirements at the edge of coverage,” Libin said.

SFNs require additional transmitter sites, many of which are already used by other wireless services. Libin warned that broadcasters will be competing for tower space with 5G and 6G providers, and the window for securing tower access is closing. Broadcasters need to secure critical tower positions and begin building SFNs without delay or risk, as SFNs will determine broadcasting’s long-term survival.

I did not hear any mention of 5G Broadcast (the Long Term Evolution version) in any of the BEIT sessions. A more universal evolution of ATSC 3.0 into and beyond the 3GPP/5G/6G domain called B2X (aka “Broadcast-to-
Everything”) was outlined in “ATSC 3.0 and B2X Interworking with 5G Core and IP-Based Service Discovery for End-to-End Broadcast Integration” by Michael Simon, director of advanced technology at ONE Media Technologies; Rashmi Kamran, senior technical adviser at Free Stream Technologies India; and Sangsu Kim, senior director, One Media.

The Broadcast Core Network component of B2X provides the functions needed to implement a B2X Radio Access Network (BRAN) using Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) features. Use of O-RAN allows easier interworking with other networks using O-RAN principles and interfaces and decouples hardware and software, enabling new applications and reducing obsolescence.

ATSC 3.0 offers broadcasters the opportunity to become a wireless CDN (content delivery network). In “Hybrid Media Distribution Utilizing ATSC 3.0/NextGen TV,” Yuriy Reznik, chief technology officer at Streaming Labs, compared the cost of existing CDN services and the potential revenue from an ATSC 3.0 CDN to see if it is a viable business case. The analysis studied the various available ATSC 3.0 bandwidths and coverage.

In summary, the “main result under the right conditions, ATSC 3.0 offload can deliver meaningful savings and improve one-to-many availability,” Reznik found. But the transition path matters, he noted. “Receiver penetration, gateway adoption, and an eventual ATSC 1.0 sunset could improve the economics.”

Streaming as Backup
Rather than using a broadcast station as a CDN, how about using streaming as a backup to over-the-air reception? That was the theme of “Enhancing ATSC 3.0 Service Reliability By Combining Broadcast and Broadband Services,” by Peter Gogas, director of NextGen technology at Gray Media.

A broadband fallback mode could be useful in areas where the ATSC 3.0 signal is blocked by terrain, degraded by urban multipath or receives interference, as is often the case with indoor reception of VHF channels. Implementing a combined service requires some changes to the ATSC A/331 standard. Refer to the presentation for details.

A key point: Changes would be backwards-compatible, so any ATSC 3.0 set without internet would not lose over-the-air content. Synchronizing content delivery between over-the-air and broadband will be a challenge. It requires aligning media segments and maintaining the same presentation timeline and media segment time span. Gogas recommended formatting synchronization expectations as an ATSC Recommended Practice.

Recruiting New Talent
“Finding and Engaging New Talent for Broadcast/Media Engineering,” sponsored by the Radio Club of America, was hosted by Andy Gladding, vice chair of the Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter 15 and engineering manager for Salem Media’s New York City stations, and Bud Williamson, president and chairman of SBE Chapter 15, leader of Digital Radio Broadcasting Inc. and managing member of Neversink Media Group.

The presentation discussed the challenges facing modern broadcast engineering, including the need for “advanced knowledge of electronic, audio and/or video systems, contemporary production and studio environments, IT systems, troubleshooting skills and communication abilities” and that “pay is often lower than similar technical fields.”

It also showed how to successfully recruit new talent into broadcast engineering by enlisting the help of local college radio stations—in this case, Hofstra University’s WRHU Hempstead, N.Y. The presentation showed students making audio cables, visiting transmission facilities at the Empire State Building, and working together on projects.

Key points were “create programs that the students can drive,” “provide progress reports for the student as well as your corporate leadership team,” “publicize success,” “keep it fun!” “bring friends (your friends and their friends)” and “buy pizza.”

While the focus was on radio, the ideas shown here should work for students interested in TV as well.

The View From Reno
A few weeks after NAB Show, the National Television Association met in Reno, Nevada. This was the first time I attended, and it was a pleasure to be around so many people passionate about over-the-air television.

Mike Schmidt from Heartland Video Systems presented an option I hadn’t thought of for reducing MPEG-2 bandwidth requirements: Rather than coding HD video in MPEG-4, with the resulting compatibility issues, simply reduce the horizontal resolution by half: 960×1080.

Surprisingly, many viewers watching the half-resolution video saw little difference between it and 1920×1080 video.

I gave a presentation on the impact that interference from post-freeze LPTV applications, if granted, will have on existing full-power and low-power station viewers, particularly those near and just outside the station’s protected contour. It is available here.

Have you ever heard the old movie cliché, “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” Those of you who might recognize my name or byline from consumer and residential technology publications over the years might reasonably paraphrase that to ask, “What’s a consumer-centric journalist doing in TV Tech?” That’s a good question, but as an introduction to my new column, “The Other Side,” allow me to explain.

Over the years, I have been involved in exactly what the name of this publication is: TV technology. I’ve worked at post and duplication facilities, helping to initiate and market new technologies; spent more late nights supervising film-to-tape transfers back in the days of 3V film chains and quad recorders; and helped install and bring up and run massive RF distribution networks for early in-room hotel pay TV systems.

On the other side of the technology fence, I led teams that developed and marketed one of the first digitally converged three-tube video projectors; spearheaded one of the first complete home theater systems (including processors, amplifiers and speakers); and, more recently, helped lead product teams for immersive home audio products that play back the content TV Tech readers capture, edit and distribute.

‘Trickle-Up’ Electronics
That has given me a unique view of how both broadcast/professional and consumer electronics products are used and, often, misused for both their intended market applications but also as a physician might say when a drug is used for something other than its main intended use, for “off-label use.” As a good example, one need look no further than the use of DSLRs and even iPhones as production-level cameras for everything from local news to major sporting events and feature films. Let’s call that “trickle up,” as it is the use of consumer market products “off-label” in professional applications.

On the other hand, there has always been the opposite: “trickle down.” By that, I mean the use of professional products in a consumer environment. Back in the day, I recall more than a few high-end consumer installations where one might find those old Tektronix video monitors or “professional” video projectors in home theaters. Perhaps the ultimate trickle-down was the frequent use of the original Altec “Voice of the Theater” speakers in the home, or perhaps JBL and other studio speakers in home theaters. The same for high-end, high-power audio amplifiers or Ampex 300-series reel-to-reel tape machines. The best way to picture that is to do an online search for the classic image of Frank Sinatra’s home listening system.

The digitization of everything has meant that things are clearly blending together from both sides, and my goal here is to have you meet the technology in the middle. On one hand, you get maximum efficiency both in terms of time and costs by using things originally not meant for “pros,” while on the other hand consumers get to reap the benefits of “pro/commercial” products. I’m certain that most of you know nonindustry friends who use Resolve or similar video or audio production software tools for their vlogs, or what now passes for “home movies.”

Both Sides of the Fence
Last bit of my introduction to this space: As an industry professional, it would be astounding if each of you hasn’t been asked more than once by relatives or friends: “Hey, you’re in the TV business. Can you recommend a good display, camera, speaker or amplifier?” By jumping across both sides of the fence in this column, we’ll give you some answers to those questions.

Let’s start with something everyone has and needs, and which you use every day: video displays. For last-mile, precision applications there is still no substitute for a Sony BVM series or monitors from Eizo, Flanders, TV Logic, the Dolby PRM-4220 (as a successor to the now-discontinued Dolby Pulsar) and other brands. However, for noncritical use such as viewing rooms, offices and stages where image quality and price are key, but so is cost, there are new products from consumer brands that may fit the requirements.

You may not be as familiar with TCL and Hisense as you’ve been with the legacy brands such as LG, Samsung and Sony. However, keep in mind that from a global sales perspective, those two brands are right up at the top of the sales charts with LG and Samsung. In particular, the new TCL models with their SQD panel structure and the RGB MiniLED models from Hisense have an excellent price/value benefit. Similarly, the LG and Samsung Micro RGB models will also give higher-priced, “professional” models a run for their money. Just as I’ve seen high-end LG and Panasonic OLED models used as the main and “client” monitors for color grading, expect to see these in non-consumer use sooner than later.

As an aside, the Mini and Micro RGB backlit products—not to be confused with true direct-view LED display technology (dvLED) that is common for video walls, virtual production and staging—may just be the thing to recommend when your nonindustry friends ask you, “What should I buy?” Along with the standard set by OLED, these and the (non-RGB) TCL SQD won’t steer them wrong.

Crossover in Action
As one other example of where From the Other Side will take you going forward, let’s look at one other “trickle up” product drawn from the consumer/home office space that you might benefit from on the job and on the go.

TV technology professionals are often on the go, both traveling to and from gigs, at a remote event, or in recent times possibly even at home doing remote production. Particularly since the pandemic, we’ve all gotten used to multiple screens but what do you do when you have to finish an edit on the go at an airport lounge or coffee shop?

After all, taking a wall of monitors with you just doesn’t work in an era where, to paraphrase another now-obsolete advertising slogan, “bags don’t fly free” unless you have elite-level loyalty status. TSA wouldn’t like that too much, either.

One solution I have tested and used, courtesy of a sample provided by the manufacturer, is the Tri-Screen 3 from a company with the unique name of Xebec. It lists for $699 and consists of two 13.3-inch, 1080p/60Hz screens that fold up against one another to a compact form that isn’t much thicker than some larger laptops. It fits snugly to the laptop’s screen, has one USB-C connection and, after folding out the aluminum kickstand, you fold out the monitors. You then have three screens, counting the laptop or two screens facing you and one facing behind the laptop so others can see what you are working on.

Best example: sitting in a cold Boston airport this winter, having people wonder what I was doing with an edit on three screens. That’s nowhere near as interesting as continuing it with three screens on the plane and then uploading the job as soon as I landed.

These two examples are just a hint of the crossover potential between “work and play” or “home and office/studio/remote shoot” that this column will be bringing you as we all move forward into a future that is not only mixed in terms of media, but with respect to the tools and products we all use to navigate the ever-changing media landscape.

MIAMI—Telemundo and Peacock continue to report record-setting audiences for FIFA World Cup 2026 matches, with the USA vs. Turkey match ranking the most-watched U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) FIFA World Cup match in Spanish-language history. The match attracted 7.4 million viewers in total audience delivery (TAD).

The June 25 match was also +111% greater than the USA’s final Group Stage match in the 2022 tournament (3.5 million TAD) vs. Iran.

With this match, Telemundo and Peacock have now seen three of most-watched USMNT FIFA World Cup matches in Spanish-language history with USA vs. Paraguay delivering a 7.0 million TAD on June 12th and USA vs. Australia delivering 6.8 million TAD on June 19th. Over its three Group Stage matches this year, the USA delivered an average 7.1 million TAD, up +83% over its average Group Stage TAD in 2022 (3.9 million).

In addition, the Ecuador vs. Germany match on June 25th delivered a 4.1 million TAD, becoming the third most-watched Ecuador FIFA World Cup™ match in Spanish-language history, behind the June 14th match vs. Ivory Coast (6.8 million TAD,) and the June 20th match vs. Curaçao (6.0 million TAD). Thursday’s match also delivered +120% growth vs. Ecuador’s final Group Stage match in 2022 (1.9 million TAD) vs. Senegal. Ecuador’s 2026 Group Stage performance averaged 5.7 million TAD, up +90% vs. the average from its Group Stage in 2022 (3.0 million TAD).

Meanwhile, Japan vs. Sweden delivered a 4.7 million TAD, an increase of +104% vs. Japan’s final Group Stage match in 2022 (2.3 million TAD) vs. Spain, while its 2026 Group Stage matches averaged a 4.6 million TAD, surging +230% vs. 2022 (1.4 million TAD).

TVTech and its sister brand TVBEurope and Caretta Research have joined forces to launch an industry-wide survey looking at where the broadcast industry is on the road to IP.

The survey aims to discover how broadcasters and vendors are transitioning to real-world deployments, and understand more about the extent to which operations are transitioning towards IP-based and software-defined infrastructure and live production.

It is open to vendors and broadcasters, with the results due to be published in the run-up to IBC.

“After a long period where the industry’s primary focus was investing in streaming, our market data clearly shows that broadcasters are now doubling down on live production. We are seeing a significant wave of investment in live infrastructure, particularly in IP and software-defined solutions,” said Caretta Research CEO Robert Ambrose.

“As IP technologies like ST-2110 firmly enter the mainstream, we’ve partnered with TVBEurope and TV Tech on this survey to reveal exactly how this shift is translating into real-world deployments across broadcast, production and service companies of all shapes and sizes.”

You can take part in the survey here.

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup moved into the 32-team knockout stage, Fox Sports said viewer interest in the tournament is still strong.

Fox’s June 19 coverage of four matches set an English-language record for the largest full-day audience of men’s World Cup coverage in the U.S., the network said.

The United States-Australia match attracted 16.217 million viewers, making it the second-most-watched English-language group stage telecast in the U.S. ever, followed by 9.174 million average viewers (10.548 million peak viewers) for Scotland-Mexico.

The day also saw 8.741 million viewers (9.894 million peak viewers) for Brazil-Haiti and 2.752 million viewers (3.157 million peak viewers) for Turkey-Paraguay.

Team USA’s 2-0 defeat of Australia had a peak audience of 21.219 million and was the top-rated Friday-afternoon telecast on broadcast TV since Fox’s Christmas Day Minnesota Vikings-New Orleans Saints NFL telecast in 2020.

It was also the second-most-watched U.S. men’s national team game since the U.S.-Paraguay group-stage World Cup match on June 12.

STAMFORD, Conn.—As part of a broader push to capitalize on the potential of AI in its ad sales and other operations, Charter’s AI and data commercialization business unit Spectrum Intelligence Ventures has announced its first product, a household intelligence platform called Latis.

Built on information spanning digital engagement, TV viewership, and connected device activity across approximately 30 million U.S. households and 500 million connected devices, Spectrum said that Latis is designed to transform real-world activity into intelligence that will help companies and organizations better understand consumer intent, context, emerging trends and shifting demand at national scale.

“The transition from data to intelligence is one of the most important shifts happening across technology and business today,” said John Lee, head of Intelligence Ventures for Spectrum. “Latis is designed to help power this next generation of AI-driven systems by transforming large-scale household signals into continuously evolving real-world intelligence that organizations can use to improve decisioning, automation, personalization and business outcomes.”

Spectrum reported that Latis continuously models household activities across digital, video and device signals, transforming household-level data into pseudonymized mathematical and privacy protected representations of household activity patterns.

This will help advertisers, companies and organizations better understand changing consumer intent, priorities, responsiveness and likely future actions across such industries as retail, automotive, financial services, travel, media, telecommunications and consumer goods.

For example, traditionally, a clear sign of a consumer’s interest in travel typically only becomes available only after a consumer has taken a clear transaction-oriented step, Spectrum explained.

Latis is designed to help identify emerging travel-related interests earlier in the consumer journey by transforming household-level activity patterns—such as destination research, engagement with travel-related content, and comparison of vacation options—into a pseudonymized and privacy protected sense of intent, interest, affinities and trends.

Spectrum also reported that Latis is designed to support a broad range of enterprise and AI-native use cases, including:

• Consumer insights and segmentation
• Media targeting, optimization and measurement
• Data clean room collaboration and enhancement
• Personalization and decisioning
• Model training
• Agentic AI acceleration

Spectrum said that Latus was designed with a privacy-forward architecture and governed access framework.

It enables organizations to obtain intelligence through secure collaboration environments, controlled integrations and governed infrastructure models designed to support enterprise privacy, security and governance requirements. Partners may use the intelligence outputs for permitted business purposes, such as advertising, marketing, measurement, research, customer engagement, analytics, personalization, and improving AI-driven tools and services, but the underlying household-level data stays within Latis’ controlled environment and is privacy protected.

Spectrum Intelligence Ventures is currently selecting a limited group of partners for beta participation. Beta programs include collaboration with Spectrum Reach to provide select partners early access to Latis intelligence combined with Spectrum Reach and wider media inventory to improve targeting and business outcomes. Broader availability is planned for the second half of 2026.

NEW YORK—Nielsen’s newest edition of the Ad Supported Gauge shows that the total share of ad-supported TV is holding steady in Q1 2026, representing nearly 73% of overall TV viewing while streaming captured a record share of ad-supported TV viewing.

In the quarter, streaming captured a record-high 46.6% share of ad-supported TV, driven by seasonal events including NBCU’s Super Bowl simulcast, Olympics coverage on Peacock, Amazon’s NFL playoff games, and additional episodes of blockbuster series like Stranger Things on Netflix, Landman on Paramount+, and The Pitt on HBO Max.

Overall, sports continue to be a driving force behind the consistently high share of ad supported TV. The fourth quarter, with its blockbuster sports schedule, retained the high water mark for share of ad supported TV, but there is less than a 1.8 share point difference between the highest and lowest quarter.

Coming off a five-quarter high in Q4, broadcast captured a 28.2% share of ad-supported TV viewing in Q1, down 1.4 share points from last quarter and down 0.5 points year-over-year.

Cable rebounded to a 25.2% share (up 0.4 points from Q4), driven by the February 2026 Olympics and its traditional March Madness ratings surge.

In releasing the data, Nielsen noted that the published version of The Ad Supported Gauge has not migrated to the ARF DASH-based media related universe estimates which is planned for the fall. This is significant because this approach, while consistent with previous months of the Gauge, will have different results than production data.