The moment. Netflix opened talks with Fox and NBC about carrying Fox One and Peacock inside its own app, which is the position Amazon has quietly already won as a channels marketplace. In the same week Wall Street recast Netflix as a legacy stock on weak guidance, its ads chief exited a reshuffled unit, and the streamers eased off price rises while widening ad-tier discounts. California’s attorney general wants Paramount to divest cable channels to settle the merger suit.
The tension. The aggregator layer is being rebuilt on top of streaming, and the company with the most to lose has decided it would rather be the shelf than fight for it. A carriage fee and an app-within-an-app deal are the same instrument with different logos.
Who’s moving. Netflix, negotiating to become a storefront. Amazon, already one. Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, whose settlement is now a state antitrust question. Fox, delaying NFL renegotiation and punting a possible $1.1 billion cost increase to 2029. FAST, where sports programming is growing twice as fast as channels.
What the desk is watching. Whether Peacock and Fox One actually appear inside Netflix, and what that sets as the price of carriage for everyone behind them.
YouTube topped Modern Retail’s Q1 2026 survey of ad-supported streaming placements for a fourth consecutive year. The report, based on 125 brand and agency professionals, warns the CTV landscape faces major shifts over the next 12 months.
Sep 1Sony launched a free ad-supported service on PS5, Paramount+ is testing free mobile content, and Disney’s Josh D’Amaro has floated a free Disney+ tier.
Sep 1Parks Associates research finds live TV access remains a significant factor for consumers when picking a streaming bundle, even as on-demand and ad-supported tiers proliferate across the market.
Sep 1Netflix added all three seasons of HBO Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls” via a non-exclusive licensing deal with Warner Bros. Television, joining Mindy Kaling’s Netflix original “Never Have I Ever.”
Sep 1Sony launched Live TV on PS5, a free ad-supported streaming service with over 100 channels, drawing on content from Lionsgate, Fox, NBCU, Bloomberg, Spotify and A+E. It’s live in the US now, with Canada and other markets planned.
Sep 1HBO Max struck a deal with Howard Stern’s production company and SiriusXM to release filmed episodes of “The Howard Stern Show” weekly, starting Sept. 17 worldwide, as his radio show scales back to one broadcast per week.
Sep 1HBO Max will stream weekly filmed episodes of The Howard Stern Show starting September 17, adapted from his SiriusXM broadcast. The deal pairs HBO Max with SiriusXM and Stern’s own production company for global distribution.
Sep 1Sensor Tower found Netflix’s U.S. app downloads rose 24% the day it posted an extended GTA VI first look, with iOS downloads up 54% as the app jumped to 35th on the App Store’s free chart.
Sep 1Netflix has formally greenlighted a fourth season of Tires, part of its overall deal with Shane Gillis and John McKeever. Season 3 hit its highest-ever Global Top 10 ranking, reaching #5 the week of August 17.
Sep 1TVREV’s sponsored “Making Waves” series features Magnite’s Kristen Williams on data partnerships, Samsung Ads’ Youssef Ben-Youssef on the TV operating system’s expanding role, and Magnite’s Paige Bilins on programmatic buying in live sports.
Sep 1Sony Pictures Television unveiled “Live TV on PS5,” over 100 free ad-supported channels reachable through the console, launching first in the U.S. with Canada and Bravia TVs to follow. Publica and PubMatic will handle the connected-TV ad sales.
Sep 1Microsoft’s Xbox division is quietly pitching Hollywood on a package of more than a dozen game franchises, including Halo, World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls, and Diablo, for a single studio or streamer.
Aug 30Netflix aired an extended GTA 6 preview Thursday, a rare move for the streamer, and viewers hit error messages from overload; Twitch saw similar bandwidth issues.
Aug 30ABC’s 20/20 tribute to Dolly Parton drew 4.05 million live-plus-same-day viewers, its best non-sports 10 p.m. telecast in three months, while CBS’s competing special pulled 2.1 million the same night.
Aug 30Netflix is spending heavily to sign top YouTube creators, but new Apptopia mobile data shows the reach imbalance between the two has flipped since January.
Aug 30Simon Owens’s newsletter previews a paid piece asking why YouTube is chasing Emmy recognition, alongside a companion discussion on whether BuzzFeed and HuffPost’s scale-first model was ever viable.
Aug 30Apple TV’s US monthly price rises $2 to $15, with Apple One climbing to $22 a month, timed just before Ted Lasso’s October 7 finale caps its highest-profile original series run.
Aug 30Apple TV acquired worldwide rights to Mackenzie Crook’s Small Prophets from Sphere Abacus, launching October 7 outside the UK. The BBC Two series drew the best 28-day comedy ratings since 2022 and holds a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Aug 29Apple TV’s monthly price rises to $14.99 from $12.99, with the annual plan up to $119 from $99, effective August 28 for new and existing U.S. subscribers.
Aug 28