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.

DALLAS—In the wake of the news that Fox plans to pay $22 billion to acquire Roku, a new survey from Horowitz Research highlights how important streaming platforms have become in the connected TV ecosystem and reaffirms Roku's position as the most commonly used streaming platform among U.S. consumers.

According to "Horowitz Research’s State of Media, Entertainment, and Tech: State of Subscription’s 2026" report, nearly four in ten U.S. streaming platform users choose Roku to stream content, outpacing top competitors Amazon Fire TV and Samsung’s Smart Hub interfaces, each of which are used by almost one in three streamers.

While Roku leads in penetration and usage, the study also shows that consumers rate competing platforms more favorably across key experience measures.

For example, Amazon Fire TV outranks Roku on ease of finding content within the platform as well as lagging time, the ability to cast to screens, and the ad experience. Samsung outperforms on Wi-Fi connectivity and reliability. Both these systems outrank Roku on start-up speed and smart home integration.

While Google TV and Apple TV have less penetration within streaming households, both platforms fare better on key attributes compared to Roku.

“Roku’s acquisition by Fox is a strategic move designed to deliver younger viewers to the aging Fox demographic,” noted Adriana Waterston, executive vice president of insights and strategy for Horowitz Research. “But as the market for smart TV’s continues to evolve, we anticipate that consumers will increasingly choose their smart TV interfaces scrupulously, much like they do with their mobile devices. To continue to dominate the market, Roku will need to look not just as driving penetration but finessing their interface to meet the demands of Gen Z and younger consumers who will expect a robust, highly personalized, and tech-forward user experience.”

The study also found that “Roku’s new Ad Manager, which will enable smaller businesses to leverage hyper-local TV ads, is exciting because it democratizes access to CTV advertising for local and emerging brands,” she added. “However, it runs the risk of over-saturating the Roku viewing experience with repetitive, lower quality ads which could further alienate the younger audience that already has low tolerance for advertising.”

For more information about the "State of Media, Entertainment & Tech: Subscriptions 2026" report, visit: https://www.horowitzresearch.com/syndicated-research/state-of-media-subscriptions/.

In Australia, the patch bay is called a tail board. In the United Kingdom, the engineer responsible for matching cameras is often called a “racker” rather than a shader.

At the FIFA World Cup, those differences disappear remarkably fast.

The world’s largest sporting event brings together hundreds of broadcast professionals from different countries, cultures and technical traditions. Within days, engineers from Australia, England, the United States and beyond must operate as a single crew delivering one of the most recognizable sounds in sports.

They arrive speaking slightly different technical languages. The same piece of equipment or role can have multiple names. Yet by kickoff, those differences largely vanish. The audience hears one broadcast, not the dozens of production cultures working behind it.

What viewers remember is the roar after a goal, the tension before a penalty kick, the swell of a national anthem and the eruption of a stadium after a dramatic winner. They remember how the World Cup feels. Audio is a major part of that feeling.

Australian broadcast veteran Tim Stapleton, audio guarantee for Host Broadcast Services (HBS) in Kansas City, is one of the people responsible for creating that experience. A veteran of UFC, cricket, combat sports in the Middle East and the recent Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, this is his first World Cup. The scale stood out immediately.

"The World Cup is unique because of the sheer number of moving parts," he said.

Big Event, Big Undertaking
Commentary facilities are handled by a completely separate company, with 10 dedicated booths inside the stadium. Outside, the production compound fills a parking lot with mobile rack rooms and support units from multiple vendors.

The biggest difference from a normal match is the atmosphere. “The crowd makes it sound like a magical moment, not a regular weekly game,” Stapleton said. “You can tell it is something special.”

HBS deploys a standardized audio plan across all venues while adapting to each stadium's characteristics. In Kansas City, the bowl design allows crowd noise to rise naturally, giving the mix team exceptionally clean audience capture.

Capturing that atmosphere requires far more than the standard soccer microphone package. The foundation remains familiar: pitch microphones positioned around the field to capture ball strikes, player movement and referee whistles, along with microphones mounted on cameras to follow the action.

Beyond that foundation, the World Cup expands significantly. Additional crowd microphones and immersive audio arrays are deployed throughout the venue to capture the atmosphere that defines the tournament. In Kansas City, ambient microphone arrays are positioned on the roof, camera deck, and pitch level, allowing the team to capture everything within the roar of the stadium.

The goal isn't simply to make the crowd louder. It's to make viewers feel present.

GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium (or, FIFA is calling it during the tournament, Kansas City Stadium) presents a unique advantage in that regard. Stapleton noted that the stadium's bowl design allows crowd noise to rise naturally through the venue, creating excellent opportunities to capture clean audience reaction.

A Mix That Tells a Story
For Stapleton, however, the technical design is only part of the equation. His approach to mixing is rooted in storytelling. Rather than simply balancing levels, he actively follows the action around the field, searching for sounds that draw viewers deeper into the match. The crowd remains a constant emotional foundation while individual moments are allowed to breathe naturally. "You're telling a story," he said.

Goals are allowed to build organically rather than exaggerated artificially. As the action moves around the field, microphones mounted on handheld cameras, Steadicams and other mobile systems help bring viewers closer to the moments they are seeing on screen. There is even a microphone mounted on the referee, though it is only used during specific review situations.

The Lionel Messi hat trick in Kansas City was a perfect example. “The reaction inside the stadium was immediate and overwhelming,” Stapleton said. Moments like that are exactly why so much effort is placed on crowd capture. The goal isn't simply to hear the reaction; it's to transport viewers into the stadium and allow them to experience the emotion of the moment alongside the fans in attendance.

The technology behind those moments may be sophisticated, but for many of the visiting engineers, the most memorable part of the World Cup has been adapting to life in the United States.

For Felix Harris, an HBS A2 from London with extensive Premier League and Club World Cup experience, the technical approach feels familiar, just on a larger scale. American stadiums, compounds, and travel distances are noticeably bigger than what he's accustomed to in the U.K.

"It's really tomato-tomah-to as far as nomenclature goes," Harris said. "But it's definitely a bit more." A lot more.

Andrew Lilley, another U.K.-based HBS A2, pointed to one practical difference: U.K. vehicle-length restrictions limit how much equipment can fit in a mobile unit. American trucks simply have more room, allowing for larger technical footprints and expanded microphone deployments. “A good tech sheet keeps everyone on the same page,” Lilley said.

Teamwork Comes Quickly
While terminology and workflows may vary, crews quickly find common ground. According to Stapleton, the real key to building a successful crew has nothing to do with technology.

“The first few days are essential,” he said. Crews learn each other’s strengths. They figure out how people communicate. They discover who works best in which roles. Shared meals, a drink after work and long production days help transform a group of strangers into a functioning team. “You spend so much time together that you become a family.”

Harris described the welcome from U.S. crews as warm and accommodating. Lilley joked about adjusting to the food, the lack of public transportation and a level of humidity that felt different from anything he experiences at home. “You do not do green vegetables in the States,” he joked. “And everything is on a bun.”

Stapleton has been impressed by Kansas City itself. “The best part is the locals,” he said. "Everyone has been friendly and willing to help.”

By kickoff, the terminology has been sorted out. The accents have become familiar. The workflows have aligned. Engineers who arrived from different continents are now focused on a single objective, helping billions of viewers feel connected to a match happening thousands of miles away.

Shared meals, long production days and countless hours spent solving problems together have transformed a group of strangers into a crew. The microphones, trucks and technology make that possible. The people make it memorable.

Together, they create the sound of the World Cup.

ATLANTA—Hoping to tap into growing political ad spending on digital platforms in what promises to be a record breaking election year, Gray Media has launched a new political digital advertising platform powered by Aristotle, a provider of political data and analytics.

The offering integrates Aristotle's political and consumer data into Gray's Political 360 go-to-market strategy that aims to provide candidates, issues, and advocacy organizations ways to reach constituents with greater precision across digital channels.

"We're excited to bring this advanced capability to our stations and to the candidates and media buyers we serve," said Mike Braun, Gray’s chief digital officer. "By combining Gray's local market strength and expertise with Aristotle's trusted, continuously updated voter intelligence, we can help campaigns engage their right voters at the right time with the right message."

The new Political 360 strategy is designed to help advertisers to move beyond broad demographic targeting and activate more precise voter audience segments. The data-driven approach improves campaign efficiency across devices and platforms and reduces wasted impressions, which Gray hopes will set it apart in the competition for what promises to be a record setting political advertising year.

"Successful campaigns depend on reaching the right voters with the right message at the right time," said Aristotle executive vice president of data Andrew Tavani. "By combining Gray's unmatched local market presence with Aristotle's trusted voter and consumer data, Political 360 gives campaigns a smarter, more efficient way to connect with the audiences that matter most."

Through Political 360, Gray leverages Aristotle's large national databases, including:

• The National Voter File, covering more than 235 million registered U.S. voters and sourced from more than 4,000 election jurisdictions.
• The National Consumer File, built from more than 267 million consumer records and enriched with demographic and lifestyle attributes.

These datasets enable Gray to support campaign strategies such as targeting party-specific voters within a district during a primary window. Gray’s Political 360 helps campaigns focus their spend where it matters most, drive frequency, and build awareness and advocacy in the runup to Election Day.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H.—A new study finds the long-term rise in ad acceptance continues, with ad intolerance falling to a record low across all age groups, and that viewers are supportive of AI tools if they are used to improve discoverability and the viewing experience.

In particular, Hub Entertainment Research’s semi-annual "TV Advertising: Fact vs. Fiction" study found that Gen Z viewers are more accepting of ads when they help reduce the cost of streaming services. Younger viewers also place a higher value on ad relevance and are more open to targeted ad experiences even though they are more likely to be multitasking and potentially distracted while watching TV.

Overall the study found that ad acceptance has reached a five-year high. As subscription prices have risen and ad-supported options have proliferated, the numbers of viewers who would pay to avoid ads, and the number who say they cannot tolerate ads are at all-time lows.

Just under one third of viewers expressed a preference to pay an extra $4-5 dollars per month to avoid ads.

“In the past few waves of this TV Advertising study, we’ve seen viewers concerned with costs and the general direction of the economy,” said Mark Loughney, senior consultant at Hub. “Those concerns have led to more viewers looking for ways to reduce costs. The TV advertising marketplace stands to benefit from consumers’ increased openness to advertising as a means of saving money on subscriptions. If streamers can continue to use tools at their disposal to make the ad experience better by including AI, it’s a win for both them and their viewers.”

At the same time, in the most recent wave, only one in ten viewers said they “can’t tolerate” ads.

When presented with a higher ad load in exchange for lower subscription costs, Gen Z viewers are significantly more likely than older audiences to choose savings over fewer ads.

Gen Z viewers are more likely to prefer fewer, but more targeted ads.

Just over a third of Gen Z viewers say they would prefer to see fewer ads that are targeted to them, significantly higher than older viewers.

Among all viewers, comfort levels vary significantly depending on the type of data used for ad targeting. Audiences are most willing to share information related to their viewing habits, as well as basic demographic details such as age and gender. In contrast, there is considerably less willingness to share more personal information, including social media activity, income, and AI chat history.

Although Gen Z viewers are more likely to multitask during ad breaks, they remain aware of the ads that play.

Nearly all Gen Z viewers report using another device at least occasionally during commercial breaks – significantly more than Gen X and Boomers. The good news for advertisers is that despite this divided attention, eight in ten say they continue listening to ads while engaging with other screens.

As a result, Gen Z viewers are more likely than Gen X or Boomers to report that they are aware of TV ads during breaks.

Across all ages, TV advertising holds a trust advantage over social media when it comes to the use of personal data, with older audiences expressing higher levels of trust.

The majority of Gen Z, Gen X, and Boomer viewers believe TV services will be more responsible than social media platforms in using personal data for targeting. In turn, the targeted ads viewers see on TV feel more appropriate than those that appear in social media.

However, when it comes to ad impact, TV ads deliver better for older viewers. Gen X and Boomers are more likely to say TV ads are more memorable, attention-getting and fun to watch, while Gen Z viewers rate TV and creator videos equally.

AI tools that improve the ad experience are welcome, especially among young viewers. Gen Z are more likely than older viewers to consider generative AI tools as a positive thing.

Regarding TV advertising, the majority of all viewers believe AI can be used in a positive way if it makes the viewing experience better by reducing ad repetition, or making ads feel less interruptive.

Viewers are also positive toward the use of AI if it enhances other aspects of the TV viewing experience by improving content suggestions or making ads more relevant and contextually appropriate.

However, when it comes to the use of AI to create advertising messages, viewers are more skeptical. Over a third are somewhat or very negative toward the idea of commercials or trailers generated by AI tools.

These findings are from Hub’s 2026 “TV Advertising: Fact vs. Fiction” report, based on a survey conducted among 3,000 US consumers age 16-74, who watch at least 1 hour of TV per week. Interviews were conducted in April, 2026 and explored consumers’ attitudes toward advertising, how it differs across video platforms, and how ad strategy affects viewer engagement. A free excerpt of the findings is available on Hub’s website. This report is part of the “Hub Reports” syndicated report series.

NEW YORK, NY—WunderKIND Ads has released a new study analyzing the impact of Pause Ads compared with traditional CTV spots that show Pause Ads delivered nearly two times higher attention than standard 60-second CTV ads.

Pause Ads are ads that appear when users pause programming on CTVs.

Utilizing TVision attention data, the study analyzed millions of programmatic CTV impressions from WunderKIND Ads campaigns run via the OpenGlass platform. The data spanned top verticals—including Auto, QSR, CPG, and Travel—and covered hundreds of premium publishers across Dish, Philo, Plex, and more.

When broken out by category, Pause Ads outperformed traditional 60-second CTV spots across all 13 verticals analyzed. Automotive delivered the strongest results, generating 34.2 seconds of Attention Time versus 12.2 seconds for standard CTV video (+180.3%), followed by Technology at 33.3 seconds versus 12.8 seconds (+160.2%) and Restaurants at 34.0 seconds versus 13.5 seconds (+151.9%).

"Yes, these benchmarks are based on our campaigns, but the scale of the measurement analysis makes it incredibly valuable to the industry at large,” said Adam Gendelman vice president, head of sales, supply and operations at WunderKIND Ads. “We’re moving into the next phase of CTV advertising, where user-first formats are undoubtedly more effective than the historical foundation of interruptive fifteen- and thirty-second video spots.”

WunderKIND Ads’ programmatic solution, offered through OpenGlass’ advanced CTV platform, expands the company’s advertising footprint. These units seamlessly appear the moment a viewer pauses content, transforming a passive screen into an intentional, high-attention ad experience without disrupting the user experience.

More information is available at www.wunderkindads.com/

New data from Nielsen shows the New York Knicks triumph over the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals attracted the largest audiences since the Michael Jordan era in 1998, with all five games averaging 20.6 million for ABC and ESPN. That was up 157% over last year.

Saturday’s NBA Finals Game 5 on ABC delivered an average audience of 24.5 million viewers and peaked with 33 million viewers watching the closing moments of the New York Knicks Championship victory, the teams first in 53 years. It was the most-watched NBA Finals Game 5 since 1998 as well.

Game 5 also generated the largest viewing audience of the day across all of television and in every key male and adult demo, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel.

The Game 4, which saw the Knicks make a record breaking comeback from a 29 point deficit, was up 123% from last year’s Game 4 with 20.9 million viewers and peaked with 23.2 million viewers at 11:15 p.m. ET.

Fox Sports is reporting record viewing for early matches in the FIFA World Cup 2026, with 15,986,000 people watching the U.S. men’s national team beat Paraguay 4-1 across Fox, Fox One and Tubi on Friday June 12.

That made it the most watched USMNT FIFA World Cup English-language telecast in U.S. history, Fox reported, beating out the 7,763,000 people who watched USMNT playing Wales on November 21, 2022.

The 2026 match audience peaked at 18,860,000 viewers at 10:45-11 p.m. ET.

It was also the most streamed English language USMNT match on record, with 1,130,000 people viewing it on Tubi.

Fox also said Mexico beating South Africa 2-0 was the most watched opening English-language FIFA World Cup telecast in U.S. history with 6,309,000 viewers. The match peaked at 8,014,000 viewers.

With the FIFA World Cup 2026 now underway, a new study from Harris Poll finds that half of Americans plan to watch at least one match on TV, streaming, or social media over the next 39 days and that the World Cup is driving increased interest in soccer among Americans.

Slightly more than half (52%) of Americans say hosting major international sporting events in North America is making them more interested in sports they would not normally follow, a figure that is much higher among millennials (70%) and Hispanics (70%).

In the case of soccer, the presence of the FIFA World Cup 2026 in North America is driving a large new fan base for soccer. More than one quarter (26%) said they only recently started getting more interested in soccer and that their interest was specifically as a result of this year's World Cup.

Of this new U.S. fan base, 72% said it was because they watched matches on TV or streaming and 65% said they wanted to support the U.S. team.

The study also found that even before the start of the World Cup this summer, 39% of U.S. adults are already interested in the 2026 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.

Overall the study found that 27% of Americans are more interested in soccer than they were a year ago. Among this audience, millennials are the core audience, with 62% interested in the World Cup compared to 57% of Gen Z and only 24% of boomers. Hispanics are the most engaged group, with 63% interested compared to 37% of white Americans.

A policy scholar at a prominent conservative think tank says the government needs to rethink the philosophy behind the public interest obligations of U.S. broadcasters, criticizing the current rules as outdated and incompatible with current media technologies. The author even doubts the validity of using the “scarce spectrum” as a valid argument.

In a blog post titled “The FCC’s Public Interest Notice Is a House of Cards,” the Cato Institute's David Inserra says the commission’s recent revival of invoking “public interest” obligations when criticizing late-night comedians like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel threatens broadcasters’ freedom of speech and ignores the current media landscape.

“The FCC can cite decades-old laws and precedents and pretend that its public-interest standard is necessary because broadcast spectrum is technically scarce,” Inserra writes. “But that argument ignores the radically abundant media options available to modern consumers.”

Inserra says the commission’s insistence of requiring broadcasters to provide equal time to opposing political candidates—as illustrated by its recent battle with Colbert, former host of CBS’s “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” over a planned interview with a Texas Democratic politician—highlighted the current dilemma facing broadcasters when it comes to free speech.

“This has resulted in frankly ridiculous outcomes, such as when Stephen Colbert was unable to air his interview with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico because of concerns over the FCC’s equal-time rule,” Inserra wrote. “This rule generally requires broadcasters that provide airtime to one legally qualified candidate to give opposing candidates for the same office an equal opportunity to seek comparable airtime.

“In response, Colbert told viewers that he had posted the interview to his YouTube channel, where it received over 5.3 million views in less than 48 hours, about double the 2.7 million viewers who tuned in on average to his show on CBS,” Inserra continued. “FCC regulations are now the butt of jokes, with comedians mocking how antiquated and censorious they are.”

Inserra doesn’t buy the argument over spectrum either, citing the famous 1969 Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, in which the Supreme Court affirmed that FCC regulation was justified by spectrum scarcity,

“Just because a resource is finite and geographically limited does not mean that markets cannot operate; real estate is the most obvious counterexample,” he wrote. “Second, the Court was blind to the broader media landscape. Newspapers, theaters, movies, and other forms of communication were not subject to the same technical constraints as broadcast spectrum, but they were substitutes.”

Inserra suggests that steps be taken to restrict or better define broadcasters' public-interest obligations, including ending rules on news distortion and equal time.

“The FCC does not need to micromanage spectrum, and it certainly does not need to use spectrum licenses as a lever for editorial control,” Inserra writes. “With the FCC’s control over licenses removed, broadcast speech would be far freer from government manipulation and jawboning.”

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be one of the most-watched sporting events in streaming history. It will also be one of the most complicated for viewers to navigate.

For fans, the question sounds simple: where do I watch the match? But across connected TV, the answer is no longer as straightforward as turning on a channel. Viewers may encounter the tournament through a smart TV home screen, sports hub, streaming app, platform search, voice navigation, YouTube preview, or AI-powered recommendation.

With 104 matches and 48 teams, combined with multilingual coverage across multiple platforms, YouTube’s first 10-minute viewing window, and connected TV operating systems playing a larger role in content discovery, the tournament is shaping up to be a major test of the modern streaming experience.

The Home Screen Is the New Sports Guide
Today, the TV home screen is becoming the front door to live sports. The apps a viewer sees first, the events promoted in hero banners, the matches surfaced in live sports rows, and the results returned through search can all influence where audiences go and what they watch.

That matters because live sports discovery is different from entertainment discovery. A movie can be found later. A series can sit on a watchlist. But a live match has a start time, a halftime, and a final whistle. If fans cannot quickly find the right destination, the moment may be missed.

Because of that urgency, placement, timing, accuracy, and context all matter. A World Cup match prominently promoted on a TV home screen has a very different discovery advantage from one buried behind multiple clicks or unclear app navigation.

Live Sports Merchandising Is More Complex
The scale of the World Cup will make this even more complex. The tournament will include multiple daily matches, different kickoff times, national teams with varying levels of audience demand, and different viewing preferences across language, region, and platform. FIFA has predicted that 6 billion viewers will watch the tournament.

A fan searching for “Mexico live,” “World Cup highlights,” “soccer on now,” or “watch Argentina” may expect an instant answer. Whether that answer appears clearly will depend on how well platforms organize, tag, promote, and surface live sports content.

Apps still matter, but operating systems increasingly shape the path viewers take before they ever open an app. Sports hubs, recommendation rows, search tools, voice assistants, and AI-driven prompts can all guide fans toward one viewing path over another.

YouTube Could Reshape the Funnel
For the 2026 World Cup, match discovery could increasingly begin on YouTube, where official media partners will have the option to stream the first 10 minutes of every match on their YouTube channels.

That model adds an important new dimension to the viewing journey. By giving rights-holding broadcasters a way to showcase the opening minutes live on YouTube, FIFA is creating a new top-of-funnel entry point for fans who may encounter matches through previews, clips, creators, search, or algorithmic recommendations.

YouTube could become a powerful discovery channel, particularly for younger viewers and casual fans. But the real test will be the handoff: once the preview ends, can viewers easily find the full match on the correct app, language feed, or platform destination?

The more friction involved, the greater the risk that viewers drop off before reaching the full match experience.

Small UI Errors Can Create Big Problems
The 2026 World Cup will also expose the operational challenges behind live sports merchandising. At Looper Insights, our data has found an average of 1.3 user interface errors per live sports event. These can include incorrect tiles, incorrect start time listings, outdated promotions, missing event information, broken navigation paths, or inconsistent placement across devices.

For general entertainment, these issues are frustrating. For live sports, they can be costly. When a fan is trying to find a match already underway, even a small error can mean missed viewing time, confusion, or abandonment.

The impact extends to advertisers as well. If fans miss the opening minutes of a major World Cup match because the game is difficult to find, brands lose access to some of the most valuable live viewing moments: pre-game build-up, kick-off, early in-game attention, and the shared urgency that makes sports advertising so powerful. For sponsors and media buyers investing in marquee matches, discovery friction can weaken the value of campaigns that depend on audiences arriving on time and at scale.

That is why verification will matter as much as promotion. Broadcasters, streamers, rights holders, and platforms will need to know whether placements appeared as planned, whether event information was accurate, and whether issues were resolved before they affected viewers. At the World Cup scale, a missing tile, outdated promotion, or incorrect start time can affect tune-in, advertiser value, and the overall fan experience.

The Winners Will Make Discovery Effortless
The companies that perform best during the World Cup will not simply be those with the biggest campaigns. They will be the ones that make the viewing journey effortless: surfacing the right match at the right time, guiding fans from previews to full-match viewing, and ensuring promotions accurately reflect what is live now.

As streaming becomes more fragmented, visibility becomes more valuable. For live sports, visibility is not just about awareness. It is about access, timing, and conversion.

The match may start on the pitch, but for millions of viewers, the journey will begin on the home screen.

NEW YORK—Nielsen has released a new study documenting the growing influence and size of the North American soccer fan base with data showing there are over 136 million soccer fans in North America, up 10.9% from 5 years ago, and that the U.S. now has the fourth largest soccer fanbase in the world with 62.5 million fans.

“The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition” report examines audience, engagement, content and format and utilised trended data to explore the current fan landscape in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Key findings include:

• Over the past 5 years soccer fandom in North America has experienced significant growth - with a 10.9% leap from May 2020 to May 2025, marked by surging viewership of TV broadcasts.
• The US has the fourth largest soccer fanbase in the world with 62.5 million fans
• 64% of fans expect their interest in soccer to keep climbing
• Soccer is the world’s most popular sport and the most popular sport in Mexico (63%) with the average Mexican fan following the sport for around 14 years. In the US and Canada, soccer faces more competition. It ranks 3rd (37%) in Canada and 4th (31%) in the USA, trailing to domestic sports like ice hockey, and American football.

• About a quarter of soccer fans in North America became a fan in the last 5 years, with the majority (68%) of fans claiming their interest has increased in the last 3 years as the build up to the FIFA World Cup 2026™ intensified.
• Soccer fans in the U.S. are younger (33) and more affluent than the US general population.
• 76% of U.S. soccer fans are Millennials or Gen Z
• Higher female engagement is a key differentiator in North America vs Europe (43% vs 36%)
• Across North America, soccer plays a significant / extremely significant role in the livelihood of individuals including personal enjoyment (29%), social connection and community (14%), family bonding and tradition (12%), and physical fitness and health benefits (11%).
• North America follows similar media engagement patterns to Europe, with 72% watching the game via TV or streaming platforms (47%) with social media (47%) being the next most popular.
• More Mexicans (51%) are likely to watch broadcasts of live matches - usually with family and friends (the ones that brought them into the sport) at home.
• Canadians lean into short-form content (33%), preferring to watch highlights and social media content.

The report also delved into the economic impact FIFA can create.

For example, the FIFA Club World Cup last summer (June 14 to July 13, 2025) in major U.S. cities was a huge commercial success with the economic outcome generating a Gross Output of $17.1 billion and contributing $9.6 billion to the Gross Domestic Product in the U.S. The research shows the event created 105,000 Full-Time Equivalent jobs and generated $5.8 billion in Labor Income. The event is projected to generate $1.9 billion in direct and indirect taxes for the government.

More information on “The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition” can be found at Nielsen.com.

NEW YORK—While U.S. interest in soccer continues to grow and viewing of the FIFA World Cup 2026 is projected to rise, new survey data across seven major markets shows the nation still lags the Europe and Asia-Pacific regions in men’s World Cup viewing, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Only 13% of U.S. online adults surveyed said they “typically” watch World Cup matches, compared to nearly half of U.K. respondents and 28–43% of respondents in other surveyed markets.

Demographic patterns reveal a male-heavy audience, with splits approaching 70% men and 30% women in the U.S. and China and 57%-43% in India.

Cross-sport engagement is extensive. U.S. World Cup fans heavily favor football (78%) and basketball (70%), while cricket dominates India (89%), baseball peaks in South Korea (64%) and European markets show the strongest overlap with tennis viewership.

Younger cohorts show a more balanced gender mix, but the gap widens substantially among older viewers

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Despite current economic pressures, consumers are watching more video entertainment than in the previous five years, but in a more fragmented media environment, according to TiVo’s Q4 2025 Video Trends Report.

Consumers are watching more video daily than at any time since the 2021 pandemic era, with households returning to an average of more than 10 video services in Q4 2025, TiVo said. This represents peak media consumption following a brief decline in 2024. For the quarter, viewing surpassed five hours per day and monthly entertainment spending rose to $161, reflecting year-over-year growth after a post-pandemic dip.

Looking at consumed content, local programming accounts for nearly 30% of total viewing time, an increase of approximately five percentage points year over year. Sports also remain a key driver of engagement, with nearly 60% of sports viewers relying on pay TV as their primary source. Live and local content continues to anchor viewing behavior in a notably fragmented environment.

“The findings reinforce that video serves as a historically resilient, high-priority category, even as the entertainment landscape grows increasingly fragmented and competitive,” TiVo said.

As entertainment ecosystems continue to expand, viewing preferences remain relatively stable. About half of respondents prefer that streaming services release an entire season at once, compared to roughly 20% who favor a weekly episode rollout, underscoring continued demand for convenience and flexible viewing experiences.

“Consumers are watching more video than ever before, but they’re enjoying that content across an increasingly fragmented mix of platforms and services,” said Geir Skaaden, chief products and services officer at Xperi. “As the entertainment ecosystem continues to expand, helping viewers easily discover and access the content they want has become more important than ever. For advertisers and platforms alike, delivering simple, seamless viewing experiences will be critical to reaching audiences and keeping them engaged.”

While viewing continues to expand across platforms, content discovery remains a growing challenge. As households manage more services, viewers are navigating a complex content ecosystem, with 40% of consumers checking two to three different apps before deciding what to watch. Discovery is also shifting beyond the platforms themselves, with word of mouth (49%) and social media (40%) most often influencing viewers. This reliance on external inputs, combined with increased fragmentation, is making content discovery less efficient and more frustrating for viewers.

“The number of viewing options available to consumers continues to grow, but what is most notable is how audiences are responding to that expansion,” Alan Wolk, TVREV’s co-founder and lead analyst, said. “Consumers are becoming more selective about where they spend their time and money, and entertainment services remain a priority. Live sports and local programming serve as important anchors, while the broader market is shifting toward simpler, more value-conscious viewing choices. The industry is entering a phase where effective curation and discovery matter just as much as scale.”

Additional report highlights:

• Ad-supported growth: More than half of consumers (54%) now use ad-supported subscription tiers, while AVOD/FAST adoption rose to 70% in Q4 2025, up five percentage points year over year. AVOD and FAST services now account for 13% of total viewing time.
• FAST audiences are watching more: The average FAST user now watches 7.5 channels, up more than two channels year over year. Pluto TV, Tubi, Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video remain the leading FAST destinations.
• Discovery extends beyond apps: Smart TV home screens are becoming increasingly important gateways for content discovery and advertising, with owners spending 57% of their non-viewing time on the home screen.
• Consumers are prioritizing value: More than 35% of consumers routinely reassess subscriptions and viewing choices to balance cost, access and content availability.
• Fragmentation fuels discovery challenges: As the number of services grows, 40% of consumers report checking multiple apps before deciding what to watch.

The latest TiVo Video Trends Report (available here) surveyed 4,493 adults 18 and older living in the U.S. and Canada during the fourth quarter of 2025.

RESTON, Va.—As media companies continue to grapple with the impact that AI is having on digital audiences and traffic, Comscore has released its first AI Intelligence Report for 2026 with new data highlighting a number of emerging trends.

The report shows the scale of breakout growth from Anthropic’s Claude platform. Based on Comscore’s panel data, the Q1 report revealed that Claude recorded 1,858% growth in desktop conversations between March 2026 and October 2025. While ChatGPT continues to lead the AI assistant category up 55% year over year, the report shows consumers are using a wider range of options.

The report also found that women are emerging as key drivers of mobile AI adoption across major generative AI tools. In March, women posted mobile index scores of 113 for ChatGPT, 123 for Copilot, and 118 for Gemini, the data showed. Men across those respective platforms had scores of 87, 77 and 82 over the same period, Comscore found. These findings further highlight the influence AI is having on a consumer’s on-the-go and day-to-day behavior.

“Comscore is providing some of the industry’s first visibility into AI-influenced intent behavior, as AI rapidly becomes the prime gateway for consumer awareness, attention, and decision-making,” said Smriti Sharma, executive vice president of analytics and managing director of Custom IQ at Comscore. “For brands and publishers, understanding how AI shapes discovery, which sources it references, and how those interactions translate into measurable business outcomes will be increasingly critical in the evolving digital landscape.”

Other key findings from the Comscore Q1 2026 AI Intelligence include:

• ChatGPT remained the category leader, reaching 244 million desktop conversations in March, up 55% year over year.
• ChatGPT also led in March with 87 million desktop visitors, compared to 44 million for Copilot and 30 million for Gemini.
• Claude reached 22 million desktop conversations in March, up 1,858% compared from October 2025, signaling growing consumer interest in alternative AI assistant experiences.
• In Q1 2026, AI assistant tools reached 36% of desktop users and 23% of mobile users.
• AI search is becoming a new discovery layer. U.S. desktop searches reached 76 billion in Q1 2026, up 10% versus Q1 2024, as AI search experiences became more integrated into traditional search behavior.
• AI is influencing high-consideration purchase journeys. In consumer credit cards, AI Overviews appeared alongside 46% of paid search ads in Q4 2025, up from 21% in Q2 2025. Over the past three quarters, approximately 25% of credit card applicants were exposed to AI Overviews, and roughly 5% applied directly from pages where AI Overviews appeared.
• Prompt behavior reveals how consumers refine decisions. In March 2026, users averaged 4.9 prompts per conversation on ChatGPT, 4.6 on Gemini and 7.1 on Copilot, showing that AI interactions are often multi-turn journeys rather than one-off queries.

The full AI Intelligence report for Q1 2026 is available for download here.

NEW YORK—A new study from S&P Global Market Intelligence is predicting that FIFA World Cup 2026, the first three-nation-hosted and expanded-format tournament, is projected to generate $9 billion in revenue, including $3.9 billion in media rights.

The record levels of revenue are being driven by an enlarged 48-team, 104-match schedule, premium US-hosted ticketing, and strengthened global media partnerships across major markets according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The researchers noted that FIFA World Cup 2026 introduces the first format expansion in 28 years, increasing participation from 32 to 48 nations and total matches from 64 to 104, while being hosted across 16 cities in the US, Canada and Mexico.

That will drive projected revenue of approximately $9 billion for FIFA in the 2026 World Cup year, anchored by about $3.9 billion in broadcasting rights and complemented by strong growth in marketing rights and a substantial uplift in hospitality and ticketing.

For the four year cycle between 2023 and 2026, total revenue will hit $13 billion, up from $6.5 billion between 2019 and 2022.

The report also predicts global viewership and engagement are expected to reach unprecedented levels, with FIFA forecasting 6 billion engagements across TV, streaming and digital platforms, building on the 1.5 billion viewers for the Argentina–France 2022 final and surging digital consumption. In addition, more than five million in-stadium attendees are anticipated.

Other key highlights include:

• Non-men’s World Cup properties significantly bolster FIFA’s commercial cycle, with the Women’s World Cup, youth tournaments and the FIFA World Club Cup elevated through deals such as a $1 billion rights contract with DAZN in 2025 and a new USA–Canada streaming agreement with Netflix from 2027
• Strategic four-year planning and tier 1 marketing rights allocation across cycles enable FIFA to lock in long-term commercial partners, while confidence in US, Canada and Mexico as hosts supports forecasts that ticketing and hospitality for 2026 will outperform Qatar 2022 and exceed World Cup 2030 ticketing by $950 million.

LONDON—A new study from Ampere Analysis highlights a pain point for consumers as streaming services push to increase profits—audiences are waiting longer than ever for the return of their favorite original shows.

The average gap between seasons of scripted originals has almost doubled from 12 months in 2020 to 21 months in 2025, according to Ampere.

The U.K. researcher also found that while audiences remain loyal to hit titles such as Apple TV’s “Severance” and Netflix’s “Wednesday,” longer waits could fuel more subscriber churn if platforms fail to keep viewers engaged.

At the 2022 height of the streaming boom, the study found, major platforms released some 599 seasons of scripted original shows, compared to a combined 591 from 2015 to 2019.. But the demand for high-end, blockbuster-style content has significantly extended production timelines. In 2020, major SVOD platforms took an average of 12 months to release new seasons of original scripted shows. By 2025, the average wait had almost doubled to 21 months.

"Many original shows build highly dedicated audiences that remain loyal despite increasingly long waits between seasons,” Ampere Senior Analyst Christen Tamisin, said. “However, streamers need to balance blockbuster production timelines against a steady flow of content. Extended gaps may generate anticipation around flagship titles, but they can also encourage audiences to cancel subscriptions and return only when major shows are back on screen."

Other key findings include:

• Original shows with gaps of over 30 months between seasons have achieved the highest engagement in the premiere month of the new season. Shows including Apple TV’s “Severance” and Netflix’s “Wednesday” generated almost twice the average engagement levels despite lengthy waits between seasons.
• Genre matters. Sci-fi and fantasly titles, often involving complex, high-budget productions, perform strongly despite long waits between seasons. By contrast, comedy audiences are less willing to tolerate extended gaps, while crime and thriller content performs consistently across a range of release patterns.
• The long gaps between seasons may actually lead to higher engagement. Existing audiences often rewatch earlier seasons to refresh their memories, while new audiences continue discovering shows during the gap between releases.
• Viewing of Netflix megahit “Stranger Things” rose by 300% in the second half of 2025 ahead of the release of its fifth and final season. Particularly strong viewing for Season 1 suggests both new viewers discovering the series and existing fans revisiting earlier episodes.
• Despite strong engagement around returning shows, long gaps create risk. In Q1 2026 in the U.S., 54% of respondents said they would be likely to cancel a service subscription if they were not using it often enough. Long waits between seasons leave streaming platforms vulnerable to churn and encourage audiences to subscribe only when their favorite shows return.

NEW YORK—The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) has released a paper that explores how all ad impressions are not created equal, and how signals like attention and context have become increasingly important as buyers rethink how media should be valued in a signal-constrained ecosystem.

The “Quality Matters: Navigating Quality in Media Buying and Measurement” report advances the thesis that Media Quality (MQ) signals—the non-user-specific attributes of an ad placement such as attention and situational context—are becoming a critical link for valuing media in an increasingly signal-constrained ecosystem.

Authored by ad tech veteran Erez Levin, strategist Gabriel Dorosz and CIMM Managing Director Jon Watts, the paper contends that quality signals can better distinguish mere delivery from meaningful exposures.

At a time when traditional metrics like viewability and completion rates offer only partial insight, particularly in CTV, the paper calls for clearer, industry-aligned definitions and frameworks for Quality in media buying and measurement. It also outlines how these signals can be operationalized to better align media cost with true value across outcomes.

Based on those findings, CIMM said it will launch a structured program of industry consultation to identify practical pathways for applying Media Quality in real-world media buying and measurement.

This initiative will engage advertisers, agencies, publishers, and ad tech companies to surface key barriers, align on priorities, and define actionable next steps for advancing quality-based approaches across the marketplace, the group reported.

"CIMM’s mission is to illuminate emerging opportunities and challenges within the marketplace and help the industry make more informed decisions,” Watts said. “With CTV as the proving ground, this paper is intended as a catalyst for debate and action, providing the industry with the necessary structure and rigor to rethink the role and importance of quality signals in a fast-changing media marketplace. We believe this paper is an important contribution to the ongoing debate about media effectiveness and are excited to explore the opportunities to advance quality-based buying with the industry.”

Key takeaways from the paper include:

• Not all impressions deliver equal value: The attributes of a media placement such as visibility, context, and user experience materially influence outcomes and are currently underutilized in media valuation.
• Media Quality is becoming essential in a signal-constrained world: As identity-based targeting and attribution become less precise, Media Quality provides a scalable, privacy-safe way to assess the likely value of an impression.
• Effectiveness requires balancing short- and long-term outcomes: Over-optimizing for short-term performance can undermine brand growth and profitability. Media decisions must account for both.
• Better signals enable better pricing and allocation: Quality indicators such as attention and contextual factors can allow buyers to differentiate inventory and allocate budgets toward higher-value impressions.
• Quality is measurable and should be treated that way: Defining quality as “predictive efficacy” shifts it from a subjective concept to something that can be tested, validated, and optimized over time.
• Value exists on a spectrum, not a threshold: Moving beyond binary metrics like “viewable or not” can enable more precise alignment between cost and expected performance.
• CTV is the immediate opportunity: With wide variation in inventory quality and high CPMs, Connected TV is the clearest near-term use case for applying quality-based buying and measurement.

The paper was developed with input from marketing professionals and industry executives focused on attention and other quality metrics, both within and beyond CIMM.

To move Media Quality from theory to operational market practice, CIMM now plans to launch a structured industry initiative focused on practical implementation, validation, and standardization. The initiative will initially focus on connected TV (CTV), where variation in inventory quality, rising CPMs, and evolving programmatic infrastructure create the clearest near-term opportunity for quality-based buying and measurement.

The program will explore:

• The opportunities for greater alignment around the definitions, taxonomies, and core signals used to assess Media Quality across media buying and measurement workflows.
• The influence of Media Quality signals on campaign outcomes, pricing, allocation efficiency and long-term effectiveness.
• The need for practical guidance and operational frameworks to help stakeholders incorporate Media Quality into planning, buying, optimization, measurement, and reporting processes.
• The work will begin with a public industry webinar on June 8 introducing the paper and its findings, with ongoing working sessions facilitated through CIMM’s Innovation in Media Metrics Working Group.

CIMM expects to publish additional findings, implementation recommendations, and proposed industry frameworks later this year.

Download the full paper here.

Fuse Media has announced a deal with iSpot for the cross-platform measurement and outcomes company to provide measurement and outcomes data for its CTV and FAST inventory.

“We’re excited to partner with iSpot in order to help Fuse Media drive clear value around CTV and FAST for our advertisers,” said Yasmin Mitchell, head of business intelligence & insights, Fuse Media. “Our channels reach over 85% of multicultural homes in the U.S., so helping brands not only reach these audiences – – who are often tech-savvy, early adopters – but convert ad messages into consumer action is a critical opportunity for customers.”

The agreement also enables Fuse Media to deliver at-scale outcomes-based campaign measurement for advertisers by directly linking cross-platform ad exposure to real-world consumer actions, such as website visits or in-store purchases.

Fuse Media currently has 84 million monthly unique viewers across CTV, linear and FAST.

By leveraging iSpot’s ad-centric measurement capabilities, Fuse Media will be able to immediately provide advertisers with industry-leading reach, frequency and incrementality against key growth audiences, alongside outcome-driven performance tied to channels like Billboard Español TV, LOL! Network, Fluffy TV, El Rey Rebel and Complex TV.

More specifically, iSpot’s Unified Measurement and Outcomes at Scale solutions will allow Fuse to provide advertisers with:

• Deduplicated cross-platform campaign audience performance across linear, streaming and FAST environments in a unified view.
• Incremental reach beyond linear TV, capturing audiences traditional broadcast might overlook, validating the impact of media on behavior beyond simple exposure and spike analysis.
• Closed-loop attribution that connects ad exposure to outcomes such as web visits, app installs, foot traffic, and purchases.
• In-flight optimization at scale using real-time conversion and audience signals.

“It’s no secret that modern buyers and sellers are navigating the most complex and splintered video landscape in media history,” said Stuart Schwartzapfel, executive vice president of media partnerships, iSpot. “Kudos to Fuse Media for investing in transparent and trusted third party measurement in order to prove the unique reach and impact of their CTV & FAST programming. Now, Fuse Media will be able to showcase how effectively and uniquely their inventory reaches & converts coveted multi-cultural audiences.”

“All-IP” is often framed as a clean modernization: fewer cables, more flexibility, and infrastructure aligned with mainstream IT practice. Inside real broadcast facilities, the experience has been more complicated. As media moved onto shared network fabrics, complexity redistributed itself into configuration, timing, segmentation, discovery, and the places where engineering and IT overlap.

Modern facilities blend IP-native and legacy equipment, and their behavior depends as much on commissioning decisions and vendor maturity as on the standards themselves. The result is an environment that looks simpler from a distance but demands a different kind of day-to-day understanding.

When Wiring Disappeared, Complexity Found New Places to Live
In SDI facilities, physical layout expressed most of the design. Signal flow could often be understood by following a cable between devices. Routing was predictable, and faults left visible clues in the rack.

IP systems compress those visible paths into a handful of fibers capable of carrying dozens of HD streams plus associated audio and metadata. The environment looks simpler from a cabling perspective, but the design logic did not vanish — it moved into configuration.

Address plans, multicast ranges, naming rules, VLAN boundaries, timing hierarchies, and orchestrator behavior now determine how a facility behaves. Small inconsistencies in any of these areas can produce wide-ranging effects that are difficult to interpret without a shared view of the fabric.

Responsibility for that fabric now sometimes resides with IT. Security policies often restrict direct switch access, leaving broadcast engineers working at the edges of systems they once controlled end-to-end. Diagnosing issues now depends on both groups and on how well system behavior is understood across teams.

Hybrid architectures sit on top of this reality. Many endpoint devices still process video and audio internally as SDI or HDMI. Cameras, monitors, playback servers, and audio processors often add IP interfaces only at the perimeter. As a result, most modern facilities consist of an IP core surrounded by SDI-to-IP gateways.

Those gateways are long-lived elements — frequently FPGA-based and later repurposed as converters, multiviewers, or audio tools as the environment matures. Hybrid operation reflects endpoint maturity, available budgets, and legacy workflows, not a lack of commitment to IP.

How Modern IP Systems Actually Behave — and Why It Often Surprises
Once configuration becomes the design, system behavior depends heavily on vendor interpretation. Two facilities built on the same standards can still act very differently.

Traffic models provide a clear illustration. Some fabrics rely on IGMP joins initiated by endpoints. In these environments, an endpoint requests a multicast stream and the switch forwards it, often applying bandwidth expectations based on address ranges — for example, one block for 1.5 Gb/s flows, another for 3 Gb/s, and a third for 12 Gb/s UHD.

Other platforms lean on controllers that explicitly authorize flows before the fabric forwards anything, placing the logic in software rather than in address plans. Both approaches are valid, but they require different troubleshooting instincts.

Device maturity introduces further variation. Common patterns include HD-only ST 2110 support with UHD still on the road map, a lack of redundancy, or inconsistent HDR support across levels. Discovery and NMOS behavior can deviate from orchestration expectations, creating situations where advertised capabilities exist but cannot be used as intended.

Earlier IP deployments often worked around such limitations by having external devices subscribe to the desired multicast and translate it to a single address that a problematic endpoint device could statically subscribe to — a pattern that can still surface when systems rely on older discovery implementations. Many of these gaps first appear during commissioning rather than design.

Timing follows a similar pattern of divergence. Traditional SDI systems relied on black burst — a single, stable reference that kept everything aligned in a straightforward way. PTP, by contrast, distributes timing over multicast and depends on the placement of boundary clocks, redundancy models, and a GPS source.

A facility may appear synchronized even as timing asymmetries accumulate. When they finally surface, the loss of alignment can be sudden and broad. Understanding what happened depends on visibility into how the switches handle timing and on coordination between engineering and IT teams responsible for the underlying network.

Where Hidden Complexity Emerges: Audio, Metadata, and Security Boundaries
Many of the thorniest issues in IP environments arise in places that attract less attention in early planning. Audio and metadata are prime examples.

Under SDI, video, audio, and ancillary data traveled together. In ST 2110 environments, they are carried as separate essences. A single video stream is paired with one or multiple audio multicasts, each carrying multiple audio channels within the stream, while a workflow needs only a subset.

Isolating those channels typically involves mixers, routers, or audio shufflers. Some manufacturers handle this automatically, which reduces operator burden but can obscure the paths signals actually take. Metadata introduces comparable decisions: Captions, multiple languages, SAP, and descriptive audio often require timing adjustments or reinsertion points to keep everything aligned. Early design choices determine how manageable these relationships become later.

Security and segmentation introduce their own hidden dependencies. Production VLANs must support performance while limiting exposure. Some segments cannot reach the internet; others must stay isolated from corporate networks. Contribution devices — bonded cellular receivers, remote encoders, cloud gateways — often require dual network paths to keep external risk from crossing into internal workflows.

WAN circuits add another dimension. Multicast contribution may share bandwidth with monitoring or file‑transfer workflows, and bottlenecks often appear only under actual load rather than during design.

As equipment is brought online, these layers surface most clearly. Commissioning becomes the point where theoretical design meets real system behavior. Discovery issues, timing mismatches, unsupported combinations, and vendor‑specific patterns emerge only when systems are exercised in practice.

Engineers present at this stage gain insight into why certain exceptions exist; those who join later inherit decisions without that context. Once a facility is live, operational caution limits the ability to revisit early changes. A small adjustment made under deadline can shape behavior for years if not examined before launch.

The Human Impact at the Center of the Transition
The shift toward IP reshapes engineering roles in uneven ways. SDI’s deterministic behavior created expectations that do not always match IP’s conditional, policy-driven workflows. Some engineers adjust slowly as long-familiar tools behave differently in an IP environment.

Others anticipate continuity and then face situations that require new diagnostic habits. Engineers newer to the industry often adapt quickly, while experienced teams bring operational judgment that remains essential even as the foundations shift.

Experience continues to influence outcomes, though its expression changes. As environments grow more interdependent, responsibilities expand toward interpreting workflow needs, coordinating across vendors, mentoring newer staff, and explaining why specific design decisions matter. Familiarity with on-air requirements provides context that purely theoretical knowledge cannot replace.

Organizational structure also shapes how teams adapt. Some facilities place most control within IT, reducing the level of direct access broadcast engineers once had. Others rely on engineering leads who serve as system stewards and primary points of contact for IT and security groups. Clearly defined responsibilities help teams navigate the shift with fewer surprises.

The transition to IP continues to redraw familiar boundaries inside facilities, and engineering teams absorb much of that change. Tools, standards, and roles will keep evolving, but the work of making systems understandable and supportable still falls to the people who stand between design and day-to-day operation. That is where the real continuity lives.

NEW YORK—As the political debate over the amount of major sports on streaming platforms continues to heat up, a new analysis by Gracenote shows that sports has quickly become a foundational part of the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) content mix and now makes up 5% of overall programming on leading services.

That is a major change from just 18 months ago. In November 2024, sports made up just 1.4% of the Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+ catalogs, according to the inaugural Gracenote Data Hub analysis. In the past 18 months, these five providers have more than doubled that distribution to 3.3%. With HBO Max now included in Gracenote’s analysis, sports rises to 5% of all content. There are now nearly 38,500 sports shows, episodes, sports games and events on the leading global SVOD services.

HBO Max currently offers the most sports content among major global streamers tracked by the Gracenote Data Hub, accounting for 35% of available sports. At the individual game and event level, HBO Max offers 42% of sports content.

After HBO Max, the next most sports-heavy destinations are Amazon Prime Video (25%), Netflix (16%) and Disney+ (14%). Focusing on the individual game and event level, Paramount+ emerged as the leader in sports programming in the Q1 2026 Data Hub, released in February. Now, Paramount+ is home to 30% of games, events and sports show episodes.

Newly added HBO Max jumps ahead of Paramount+ by offering 42% of this sports content. Paramount Skydance’s impending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery should make the new combined company a key player for streaming sports content globally.

Another key finding from the Q2 update is the number of FAST channels has increased by 19% year-over-year. Entertainment, sports, news and reality are the most predominant channel genres, with news channels exhibiting the most annual growth (57%) year-over-year. At the same time, FAST serves as a significant distribution channel for live sports from all over the world. More than one-third of content on sports channels on FAST (37%) is live sports events.

The Gracenote Data Hub analysis was expanded to include HBO Max as of the just released Q2 2026 update. Going forward, the service’s programming will be tracked quarterly alongside that of Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+.

Launched in November 2024, the Gracenote Data Hub provides insight into the content available on the now six leading global SVOD services and 2,120 FAST channels. The resource taps Gracenote Global Video Data, the industry’s most comprehensive trove of content intelligence powering advanced content search, discovery and recommendations capabilities. Updated quarterly, the resource tracks how leading SVOD catalogs and FAST channels are evolving over time and what these shifts signal.

For more information, visit Gracenote.com.

NEW YORK—As more government regulators and digital platforms start to require disclosure of AI-generated content, a new study from MediaScience found that labeling a video ad as AI-generated does not hurt how it performs.

The results showed no decline in any performance measure and increase in AI creation awareness across all four labeling conditions tested. For well-made ads, disclosure is not the threat the industry assumed it was, the researchers reported.

The study comes at a time when the regulatory pressure around AI in video advertising is ramping up.

New York's AI Transparency in Advertising law takes effect June 2026. The EU AI Act introduces binding disclosure obligations in August 2026.

These developments raised important questions for advertisers, who have been wondering if compliance and labelling would impact ad performance.

To address those issues, the study tested four labeling approaches across 900 U.S. respondents, reflecting frameworks under active consideration by U.S. and EU legislators: a text label in the first three seconds of the ad, a delayed text label from seconds four through six, a full-duration text label and a full-duration icon. Each was tested against a control with no labeling.

The data shows no adverse change in ad performance across any of the labeling conditions. Brand choice, ad memory, brand recognition, brand attitude, ad liking, and perceived production quality all showed no significant difference from the no-label control, the MediaScience survey found.

"There has been a lot of anxiety in the industry about what happens when you tell people an ad was made with AI," said Dr. Duane Varan, CEO of MediaScience. "The data gives us a clear answer: if the creative is good, disclosure does not hurt it. Advertisers do not need to be afraid of the label."

Displaying a disclaimer during the first three seconds increased viewers' awareness that the content was AI-generated by 28%. Running the label continuously throughout the ad increased awareness by 36%.

While 42% of respondents preferred the visual icon, it was the least effective at increasing AI awareness. On ad memory, text labels outperformed the control score of 36 across all conditions: 46 for the 3-second label, 40 for the delayed label, and 49 for full-duration. The icon scored 38, near the control.

The study also found that audiences feel the strongest need for AI labeling when it generates humans (60%), followed by animals (46%), product placement (45%), and voices (45%).

The study was conducted by MediaScience in collaboration with the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute at Adelaide University, a marketing science academic center, and MediaPET.ai, an AI video content platform developed by MediaScience.

NEW YORK—A new study, timed to mark World Accessibility Day (May 21), finds that captions are now an important part of mainstream viewing—particularly among younger viewers and in the United States.

Data from a survey conducted by XR Extreme Reach and M8 Labs shows that advertisers and content providers who fail to caption their content are missing large audiences who are watching more video with captions than ever before. The survey of more than 3,000 people across the U.S., U.K., France, Spain and Germany found that captions have become a mainstream viewing behavior in every market.

But by nearly every measure, U.S. viewers are emerging as a caption-heavy audience. Eighty-seven percent of Americans say they use captions at least sometimes, while nearly half say they use them always or often when watching video.

Among U.S. audiences, 87% use captions at least sometimes, 49% use them often or always, 21% always have them on, and just 13% never have them on.

“Captions started as an important accessibility feature for audiences with hearing impairments, but they’ve evolved into something much bigger,” said Graham McKenna, chief marketing officer of XR Extreme Reach. “Captions are now part of how we watch movies, streaming series, social content, and advertising. For many of us, captions have become as important as the picture and sound, helping people follow dialogue and stay connected to the story.”

“Always or often” caption use by country:

• 49% U.S.
• 47% Spain
• 46% France
• 23% Germany (Among German caption users, 75% identify non-native language content as their single most important reason for using captions)/

XR’s research also debunks the idea that captions are mainly for older or hearing-impaired audiences. Nearly 60% of 18-to-24-year-olds say they use captions always or often, compared to just 27% of viewers over 65. Caption viewing is being driven by a generation raised on TikTok, Instagram and short-form video, where captions aren’t optional, they’re expected.

• 59%—18–to-24-year-olds / always or often use captions.
• 64%—25-to-34-year-olds / always or often use captions.
• 47% —45-to-54-year-olds / always or often use captions.
• 38%—55-to-64-year-olds / always or often use captions.
• 27%—65-plus / always or often use captions.

The top reasons people use captions cuts across all age groups and goes far beyond accessibility. Viewers say they turn on captions to better understand dialogue and accents, deal with unclear audio or noisy rooms, or simply because they like watching video that way. Surprisingly, 42% of U.S. viewers prefer to watch video with captions even when the audio is perfect.

• 44%—understand dialogue better.
• 43%—catch details they might otherwise miss.
• 36%—improve attention to the screen.
• 21%—multitask when watching.

Most viewers are using smart TVs to watch video with captions, with 86% of viewers across all markets using such sets to watch at home. Smartphones follow at 46%, with laptops at 36%, tablets at 24% and gaming consoles at 15%. Yet caption usage remains remarkably consistent across every screen and content genre.

Younger audiences aren’t just using captions more than anyone else, they’re also paying more attention to ads because of them. 61 percent of 25-34-year-olds say captions and subtitles make them more likely to pay attention to ads, the highest lift of any age group and the exact audience most brand advertisers are trying to reach.

• 45%—18–to-24-year-olds /increased attention.
• 61%—25-to-34-year-olds /increased attention.
• 20%—55–to-64-year-olds /increased attention.
• 14%—65-plus year-olds /increased attention.
• U.S. advertisers still lag with caption adoption.

“For brands, agencies, and ad creative leaders, captions are no longer something that can be treated as an afterthought,” McKenna said. “Whether it’s designing video ads for readability, accounting for on-screen text, or making sure key moments still land with captions on, marketers need to start building creative for the way audiences actually watch today.”

More information about the report is available here.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H.—As consumers face mounting costs and higher inflation rates, with some major streaming services now costing more than $20 a month, new research indicates that consumers are paying more attention to bundles as a way of controlling their streaming costs.

Hub Entertainment Research’s annual “Best Bundle” study indicates that streaming prices are rising and consumers are feeling the pinch. Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max have all raised their prices $1-$2 a month since 2025, focusing consumers to be more budget-conscious.

In response, the Hub survey found that half of consumers "strongly agree" that budget is the main factor they consider when buying entertainment services, up significantly from 41% last year.

In addition, more consumers believe that streamers are raising their prices more often compared to last year (49% vs. 44%).

"Studios know that bundles deliver stronger retention and reduce churn, giving them huge incentives to get consumers to sign on to these stickier bundles," says Jason Platt Zolov, Senior Consultant at Hub. "While saving money is the key driver, reminding consumers of the expanded content options and simplified billing can help to grow these bundles into the ideal TV packages of tomorrow."

The survey also found that for consumers, streaming bundles are not just about saving money—they also expand viewing options and simplify billing. Nearly half of consumers (44%) cited the simplicity of having one bill for multiple subscriptions as a top value driver for bundles.

Being able to "try more services" (32%) and bringing together "popular & niche services in one plan" (20%) are also key value drivers.

But the researchers also cautioned that bundle awareness has room to grow.

At most, only half of consumers have heard of the major streaming bundles, led by the Disney and HBO Max bundle variations. Second-tier streamer and sports bundles are recognized by just 1 out of 5 consumers.

As Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery more towards merging their operations and streaming offerings, the research found that consumers are split on how they might buy a Paramount+ and HBO Max bundle in the future. A third (32%) say they would subscribe to both services separately if offered together as a discounted bundle

Only one-in-five (19%) say they would subscribe to a single, combined service that had HBO Max and Paramount+ content in one app.

These findings are from Hub’s 2026 “Best Bundle” report, based on a survey conducted among 1,600 US consumers ages 16-74 with broadband access. Interviews were conducted in March 2026. A free excerpt of the findings is available on Hub’s website.

LONDON—Global connected TV (CTV) advertising revenue will surge from $44 billion in 2025 to $81 billion by 2030, with CTV ad revenues expected to surpass traditional linear TV advertising during the 2030s, according to new research by Omdia.

The researchers also reported that Google, Amazon and Netflix will dominate the TV landscape in the upcoming years. As the fight to “own the living room” enters a new phase, Google, Amazon and Netflix are projected to capture 50% of the global connected TV advertising market by 2030.

“The battle for the living room is no longer only about streaming content,” said Maria Rua Aguete, head of media and entertainment at Omdia. “It is increasingly about controlling the platform, the advertising layer, the operating system, the data and ultimately the consumer relationship.”

Aguete noted that television is becoming one of the most strategic gateways for digital advertising, retail media and commerce integration, with tech companies increasingly competing to control the TV interface itself.

The findings also highlight how the center of power in television is rapidly shifting away from traditional broadcasting toward streaming platforms, TV operating systems and advertising ecosystems. By the end of the decade Omdia reports that:

• Google is forecast to command 26% of global CTV advertising revenue.
• Amazon is expected to account for 13%.
• Netflix is projected to represent 9%.
• Combined, Google, Amazon, and Netflix will account for half of the entire global CTV advertising market by 2030.

The shift comes as media companies, streamers, retailers and technology giants race to secure premium positioning in connected households. Amazon is leveraging Prime Video and retail media integration to expand its TV advertising footprint, while Netflix continues to scale its advertising business globally through its ad-supported tier. Google remains dominant through YouTube’s massive connected TV reach and broader advertising infrastructure.

Omdia expects several trends to accelerate the transformation of television advertising over the next five years:

• Expansion of ad-supported streaming services
• Convergence of retail media and television advertising
• Growth in programmatic and targeted TV advertising
• Increasing importance of TV operating systems and smart TV ecosystems
• Greater competition for consumer attention and platform ownership

Omdia also revealed that the European TV operating system landscape is shifting rapidly. According to the research firm, VIDAA is becoming Europe’s third-largest TV operating system this year after Android TV and Tizen, overtaking several established competitors as manufacturers seek greater ownership of the smart TV experience.

“CTV companies are at risk of losing incredibly valued ground to these tech giants and many cannot afford to do so as the hardware business becomes increasingly unprofitable,” added David Tett, principal analyst at Omdia. “Strategies are needed to fight for their own advertising revenues in the new-look landscape and avoid ceding too much ground to players such as Google and Amazon.”

As the political debate heats up over sports rights shifting to streaming services like Netflix, analysts at LightShed Partners have released data showing that streaming has actually lowered the cost of accessing all the games on NFL by breaking up traditionally costly pay TV bundles into more affordable packages.

"Yes, NFL games are now spread across more services than ever," Richard Greenfield, Brandon Ross and Mark Kelley at LightShed Partners argue. "But streaming competition has splintered the old cable bundle, giving consumers the ability to pay only for what they want. The $1,000-to-watch-the-NFL figure being thrown around by President Trump, regulators, and members of Congress is not grounded in reality."

Their data, shown below, indicates that fans can “watch every NFL game this season, a total of 272 games, for as little as ~$600, or under $3 per game. Strip out Sunday Ticket and you can catch all national matchups plus your local games for $217 with an antenna, or under $400 entirely via a la carte streaming,” they argue.

Their analysis shows that all the games could be watched on an a la carte bundle of streaming services for about $618, or accessed on some of the skinnier bundles available from a streaming pay TV service (vMPVD) like YouTube TV or DirecTV for $806.

All of those options are much cheaper than the traditional pay TV bundles costing about $1005 on Charter's Spectrum.

LightShed partners released their analysis at a time when President Trump and FCC Chair Brendan Carr complained about the high cost of streaming NFL games and the FCC has opened a probe into major sports rights.

In response to the FCC's request for comments on the issue, the NAB and a number of major broadcasters have complained about the complexity high cost of streaming sports on streaming services.

In meetings with FCC staff, the NFL has attempted to rebut those views by arguing that its current policy of distributing media rights “benefits fans and local broadcasters in many ways” and that attempts to end league’s antitrust exemption would mean “higher costs and confusion” for consumers.

"To be fair, watching the NFL is more complicated than it used to be, as no single service has everything," the analysts concluded. "But consumers now have real choice, and for those willing to navigate multiple apps, the savings are meaningful. It is also worth remembering that before 2023, the ONLY way to watch every NFL game was DirecTV with a satellite dish bolted to your house, unless you could prove one would not work at your location. Streaming has been unambiguously pro-consumer."

Mounting demand for a next-generation video streaming solution that surpasses the latency and unidirectional limitations imposed by the currently dominant streaming architecture is generating strong support for a new standard known simply as "MOQ" (Media over QUIC).

While by all accounts, it will take at least a few more months before the Internet Engineering Task Force finalizes the MOQ specifications, there are now multiple projects underway allowing producers to try out this new multidirectional, multi-latency approach to streaming.

“There’s a buzz and excitement in the air about MOQ we’ve never seen before,” says Will Law, chief architect for the cloud technology group at Akamai and a leader in the IETF MOQ initiative.

HEIGHTENED INTEREST AT NAB
This was evident at the recent NAB Show where MOQ demos abounded on the exhibit floor and an overflow crowd filled the large meeting room devoted to the NAB’s first-ever session on the standard. Entities announcing infrastructure support for MOQ included public CDN operators Broadpeak, CacheFly, Cloudflare, and CDN77 as well as cloud compute platform providers Akamai, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

Streaming software system suppliers demonstrating delivery of payloads and advanced features over MOQ-enabled facilities included Ateme, Bitmovin, EZDRM, Nomad Media, Norsk Media, Oracle Media, Synamedia, Red5 and Wowza,.

While proprietary real-time streaming systems supporting video conferencing and a host of other applications have been around for several years, MOQ is meant to satisfy the need for a standardized, ubiquitously available two-way superhighway over which video flows in any direction at any scale with latencies attuned to specific use-case requirements. That’s why Red5, a successful provider of a highly scalable WebRTC-based streaming platform, is throwing its weight behind MOQ, says Red5 CEO and co-founder Chris Allen.

“WebRTC was designed as a peer-to-peer protocol, which means there’s no standard for scaling the way we do by building out clustered cloud resources,” Allen says. “MOQ was designed from the get-go as a scalable broadcast technology for the internet, which we believe will accelerate adoption of next-generation streaming.”

The foundational set of MOQ specifications, known as MOQ Transport (MOQT), marks an incompatible break with conventional streaming modes like HLS and MPEG DASH that are based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). As a so-called connectionless platform, MOQT employs a simple publish/subscribe approach to streaming by signaling the start and end points of a session while avoiding the thousands of request/response exchanges that transpire between clients and servers in HTTP streaming.

QUIC is a modern transport protocol built on UDP that is designed to make web connections faster, more secure, and more resilient. It was originally developed by Google and later standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force as RFC 9000

Moreover, the new standard provides a way to automatically tune end-to-end latencies to whatever levels meet user requirements, including real-time 200-400ms latencies that are imperceptible to humans as well as what Law calls “interactive live” at 2 seconds for use in sports betting, online casino gambling, banking and similar applications and “conservative live” supporting ironclad HD, 4K, and, eventually, 8K quality persistency at 5 seconds.

ALL YOU NEED IS CACHE
With decoding and other device rendering processes managed through leading browsers, MOQ in most instances doesn’t require client plug-in software. And depending on how MOQ-ready CDNs are designed, MOQ can also support recording live content for short-term replay and catchup and long-term storage for VOD archives and cloud DVR applications. “VOD just means my cache is big enough to hold stuff that was live a while ago,” Law says.

Paralleling MOQT development, there are other initiatives within IETF and through the closely affiliated ad hoc organization known as the OpenMOQ Software Consortium that are aimed at creating a practical operating environment for the transport protocol. They include media layer streaming formats emerging from IETF, a new client player template developed by Red5 and endorsed by the consortium, and several ready-to-deploy players, , including a MOQ-based plug-in for Bitmovin’s new multi-purpose Player Web X platform.

“We have an array of features we enable, and each is treated as an individual plug-in,” says Bitmovin product manager Jacob Arends, who describes Player X as the latest, completely rebuilt version of its popular Web X player. “From a player [configuration] perspective there’s not much more to it than that,” but with MOQ playback departing from the HTTP norms, “it takes a lot of heavy lifting on the cloud side.”

While much of the focus on MOQ has to do with overcoming the limitations of conventional B2C streaming, the protocol also needs to be accommodated in post-production playouts to producers’ broadcast and OTT affiliates, notes Gwendal Simon, senior director for video network technology at Synamedia. “We’re bringing MOQ into our Quortex PowerVu multitrack contribution management system,” Simon says.