Streaming
State of Play
Revised Nov 1, 2026The moment. Netflix delivered its Q3 forecast, revenue up 12% to $12.9 billion at a 34.6% operating margin, and then lowered its own sights: Variety’s Brian Steinberg reports the 2026 ad revenue projection cut to $2.7 billion from $3 billion, blamed on delays to new ad products while a supply glut hands buyers leverage on price. The Pixel and The Trade Desk are the answer it has offered. The house kept moving: Bela Bajaria and film chief Dan Lin are out, Peter Rice is in, 1,000 jobs are gone, David Fincher has exited, and The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield is already handicapping the film job. Skydance closed its $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger and immediately looked like a company under pressure: a five-day office mandate paired with voluntary buyouts, a mandate to make 30 films a year, a reported $1 billion Elon Musk stake that Puck says is causing friction inside Warner Bros., and a review of whether to keep FreeWheel as its ad server.
The tension. Netflix is being asked to prove the ad tier can carry a slowing business while the engagement evidence goes the other way. Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw reports customers opening the app on fewer days per month than two years ago; The Ankler counts Netflix’s share of Nielsen’s weekly originals chart down from 80% of titles in 2021 to 51%; Nobody Wants This opened its third season to 6.2 million views against 10.3 million for its first. Reed Hastings says the answer to YouTube is more and better shows, while YouTube takes a record 15.8% of US TV usage, more than twice Netflix’s share, and Instagram, Disney, Tubi and Amazon chase it into long creator video. Apple TV is running the opposite bet, with 18% of its catalog unscripted against Netflix’s 25% and HBO Max’s 72%. Sports is where the money still behaves: Thursday Night Football averages 17.7 million viewers on Prime Video through Week 7, up 12%, with advertisers up 6%, while automakers pull out of prime time for streaming and regional spots.
Who’s moving. Netflix, cutting its 2026 ad forecast to $2.7 billion. Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw, on fewer qualified play days. Reed Hastings, on out-creating YouTube rather than copying it. Skydance’s David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz, on a five-day office and voluntary buyouts. Elon Musk, with a reported $1 billion stake. Paramount TV Studios, with three of Nielsen’s top four streaming slots in September. Comcast’s Michael Cavanagh, making deeper Peacock-YouTube bundling a priority. Amazon, at 17.7 million Thursday Night Football viewers. Apple TV, holding to scripted. Automakers, leaving prime time for streaming and local deals. Disney+, taking Channel 4’s linear feed in the UK and Ireland in early 2027. TVREV’s Tim Hanlon, on affiliates facing a 6% decline once the political money ends.
What the desk is watching. Whether the $2.7 billion forecast holds once the Pixel and The Trade Desk are live, and whether Skydance keeps FreeWheel or hands its streaming ad tech to Google.
‘Toy Story 5' tops Nielsen’s streaming chart in debut week
The Hollywood Reporter’s Rick Porter reports that Pixar’s Toy Story 5 debuted at No. 1 on Nielsen’s streaming chart with 1.54 billion viewing minutes on Disney+, the second-largest single week for a Disney+ movie this year behind Zootopia 2’s 1.72 billion.
Fox’s ‘Best Medicine’ hits series-high ratings in season 2
TheWrap’s Jose Alejandro Bastidas reports that Fox’s “Best Medicine” drew 11 million total viewers for its Season 2 premiere, the network’s most-watched fall entertainment episode in nearly four years.
Emmys leave broadcast forever, head to Amazon Prime Video
The Ankler’s Katey Rich and Christopher Rosen report that the Television Academy will stream the Emmys worldwide on Amazon Prime Video for free starting next September, ending the broadcast “wheel deal” that rotated the show among four networks since 1949.
Mike Shields: Ellison should rethink TV ad sales, not just restaff it
Next in Media’s Mike Shields argues that David Ellison’s new Skydance-Paramount-Warner leadership team skipped ad sales, and that filling the role with a status-quo hire would waste the newly merged company’s scale.
Zaslav exits Warner Bros. with $606 million and a quiet video goodbye
The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield reports that David Zaslav left Warner Bros. Discovery with a low-key, generic video message to staff after Skydance’s David Ellison took control.
Ellison pitches Skydance as a content spender bigger than Netflix or Disney
The Ankler reports that David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz opened the Paramount lot to pitch Skydance as a studio that will outspend Netflix and Disney, producing roughly 190 series and 30 movies a year.
Netflix renews The Hunting Wives for third season
C21Media reports that Netflix has renewed The Hunting Wives for a third season ahead of season two’s November 26 premiere.
Skydance co-CEOs defend $80 billion debt load as manageable
Deadline’s Jill Goldsmith reports that Skydance co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz pushed back on fears that nearly $80 billion in debt will force cuts to content spending, pointing to plans for $30 billion-$40 billion in annual production budgets.
Why Skydance will sell CBS stations, but not all of them
TVREV’s Tim Hanlon reports that Skydance, carrying roughly $80 billion in net debt after closing the Warner Bros. Discovery deal, is positioned to become a net seller of CBS’s local stations while protecting major-market O&Os and profitable duopolies like Los Angeles’s KCBS-KCAL.
Skydance bonds sink, stock whipsaws as JB Perrette resets top lieutenants
The Ankler’s Sean McNulty reports that Skydance’s bonds slumped after last week’s $41 billion merger-debt offering, triggering a trader sell-off this week that has since partly rebounded.
Ellison: Paramount-WBD merger is Hollywood’s answer to Big Tech
Deadline’s Jill Goldsmith reports that Skydance CEO David Ellison told CNBC the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger fixes Hollywood’s failure to pivot when big tech entered media a decade ago.
Paramount Skydance’s WBD takeover officially closes, rebranded as Skydance
Puck’s William D. Cohan reports that Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery has closed for $111 billion, plus roughly $3 billion more in legal costs, M&A fees and a Netflix breakup fee, with the combined company now named Skydance.
Paramount’s untested chiefs now inherit Warner Bros. too
The Ankler’s Matthew Frank reports that Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, 14 months into running Paramount, now also control Warner Bros., overseeing nine labels, three animation divisions and more than 30 films a year under a mandate to cut deeply amid Skydance’s debt load.
Skydance execs outline $30B content spend, slow streamer merger at kickoff event
TheWrap reports that Skydance co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz used their first press event since closing the $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger to pledge over $30 billion in content spend, keep two separate film slates, and merge Paramount+ and HBO Max only gradually.
Skydance shares fall again as Wall Street waits for proof
Deadline’s Jill Goldsmith reports that Skydance stock closed down 6.8% Wednesday, a second straight losing session after the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger closed, with analysts calling the stock a “show me story.”
Merging Paramount+ and HBO Max will be a subscriber-math headache
Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter argues that Skydance faces a logistical mess in combining Paramount+ and HBO Max, since tens of millions of logins run through third parties like Amazon Prime that don’t share billing data.
Ellison says HBO Max, Paramount+ will merge, contradicting Bloys
The Hollywood Reporter’s Tony Maglio reports that Skydance CEO David Ellison said long term he plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into one service, with bundling available in the relatively short term.
Streaming brand equity needs more than 30-second spots, eMarketer argues
eMarketer’s Gadjo Sevilla reports that premium streaming advertisers are shifting focus from single-spot completion metrics toward sustained brand equity, pushing marketers to rethink creative strategy and measurement across the full viewing experience rather than isolated ad breaks.
HBO moves fast while rest of new Skydance braces for cuts
The Ankler’s Lesley Goldberg reports agency sources say Casey Bloys’ HBO team has been unusually aggressive in the first 48 hours after the Skydance-Paramount-WBD merger closed, even as Ellison must still find six billion dollars in promised synergies.
Fitch cuts Skydance’s debt rating as merger leverage hits 7.8x
Deadline’s Jill Goldsmith reports that Fitch downgraded Skydance’s credit rating, citing “significant execution and integration risks” and leverage of 7.8 times earnings after the $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger closed, following a similar S&P Global cut in late September.
Disney licenses franchise content to Netflix to drive discovery
eMarketer’s Grace Harmon reports that Disney is turning Netflix into a discovery engine for its streaming franchises through content licensing deals.
Vizio loads WatchFree+ with MrBeast, creator channels and original films
Adweek’s Mitchell Parton reports that Vizio is expanding its free ad-supported service WatchFree+ with 40 digital creator channels including MrBeast, plus new studio partnerships and its first original holiday film.
GEICO sponsors Vizio Christmas movie as WatchFree+ adds creator channels
The Measure’s Jon Lafayette reports GEICO is the presenting sponsor of Vizio WatchFree+‘s original holiday film, Jingle Bells Wedding Bells, arranged through Omnicom and Walmart Connect.
NBCU, FreeWheel, Carat and Newton launch agentic buying for streaming TV
AdExchanger reports that NBCUniversal, FreeWheel, Dentsu’s Carat and Newton launched custom buying agents pairing identity and audience data to recommend NBCU inventory against advertiser outcomes, with an unnamed luxury retailer as first user.
Ellison’s AI vision: test 15-20 cuts of a movie before release
The Ankler’s Erik Barmack reports that David Ellison told a March finance conference AI could let Paramount make 15 to 20 versions of a film, test audience reaction, then pick the winner, with Skydance carrying $80 billion in debt.