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.
NBC’s ‘Traitors: New Blood’ is network’s best unscripted premiere in 6 years
TheWrap’s Loree Seitz reports that “The Traitors: New Blood” premiere averaged 6 million viewers across NBC and Peacock over three days, ranking as NBC’s top new unscripted premiere in six years among adults 18-49.
Apple TV’s Emmy haul can’t hide its streaming math problem
Puck’s Julia Alexander reports that Apple TV racked up 28 Emmys this year, roughly 90 over six years, even as its acclaimed shows still struggle to draw ratings.
New TVOD platform lets indie filmmakers keep IP and most revenue
Variety’s Alex Ritman reports that RecDek and Hiway are launching The Drive-In, a TVOD service inside the RecDek app, letting filmmakers set prices, keep receipts from first sale, retain IP and pull territories instantly if sold to distributors.
‘Dateline’ turns 35 by out-distributing rivals off the broadcast hour
TheWrap’s A.J. Katz reports that NBC’s “Dateline” enters its 35th season leading true-crime rivals in multiplatform reach, with its showcast podcast surpassing 2 billion lifetime downloads and its “Dateline 24/7" FAST channel on 12 U.S. platforms, twice ABC’s “20/20.”
WNBA’s 2026 season was ESPN/ABC’s most-watched ever, third straight record year
Awful Announcing’s Sean Keeley reports that ESPN/ABC’s WNBA coverage averaged 1.37 million viewers across 29 games this season, up 17% year over year.
Luminate data: long gaps between seasons sink streaming series viewership
Variety’s Andrew Wallenstein reports that Luminate analyst Tyler Aquilina found long breaks between seasons hurt viewership, citing Netflix’s “Wednesday” dropping nearly 60% after a three-year gap.
The Ankler ranks Hollywood’s 67 superheroes by box office and cultural clout
The Ankler’s Adam B. Vary ranks 67 superhero characters by box office, streaming performance, cultural footprint and studios’ willingness to keep betting on them, spanning Marvel and DC’s biggest hits and its most memory-holed flops like Eternals and Morbius.
A24 pushes theaters for major-studio cut on Backrooms terms
The Ankler’s Alison Brower reports that A24, fresh off Backrooms becoming its biggest hit ever, is demanding theatrical terms closer to a major studio’s rather than the 40 to 45 percent indies typically take.
Paramount+ plans a free ad-supported tier post-WBD merger
Simon Owens reports that Business Insider found Paramount streaming leadership telling employees this summer that Paramount+ will add a free tier, micro dramas, interactive ad formats, and a TikTok-style feed with comments and AI clipping.
Paramount-WBD streaming merger faces 28% subscriber overlap, Morgan Stanley says
MediaPost’s Wayne Friedman reports that Morgan Stanley pegs subscriber overlap between HBO Max and Paramount+ at 28%, complicating plans to merge the platforms as the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal proceeds.
Reacher and spinoff Neagley take top two Samba streaming spots
TheWrap reports Prime Video’s “Reacher” topped the Samba Weekly Wrap Report chart for a sixth straight week, while spinoff “Neagley” debuted at number two, a rare one-two finish for Amazon’s streaming service.
Parks Associates: 10 US streaming apps folded into bigger platforms in Q2
Advanced Television reports Parks Associates’ Streaming Video Tracker found ten US streaming service profiles phased out in Q2 2026, with Paramount Skydance folding BET+ into Paramount+ under a dedicated BET Hub.
Leaked memo warns Disney TV staff of a ‘much smaller organization’
The Ankler’s Lesley Goldberg reports that an internal Disney memo tells television staffers to stop “clinging to the old way” as the company pushes to get “more efficient and cost-effective,” warning one division could shrink sharply.
Federal film & TV tax credit bill introduced in Congress
The Ankler’s Sean McNulty reports that Congress has introduced legislation for a federal film and TV tax credit: a 20% credit on labor costs, including above-the-line costs, stacked on top of any state incentives, with projects needing a $1 million budget minimum and 75% U.S. shooting.
Netflix takes pause ads programmatic across UK and EMEA
eMarketer’s Marisa Jones reports that Netflix will make pause ads available programmatically across the UK and wider EMEA region starting next month, unveiled at its first UK Upfront, with expanded demographic targeting by household composition and income.
AHS reruns racked up 7 billion Hulu minutes during the 29-month gap
Nielsen reports that Americans streamed more than 7 billion minutes of “American Horror Story” on Hulu during the 29-month wait between installments, the equivalent of 13,000 years. Coven and Murder House alone drove a third of all that engagement.
Netflix’s ad tier heads to nine more European markets next March
VideoWeek’s Tim Cross-Kovoor reports that Netflix used its first UK Upfront to confirm its ads tier launches in nine new European markets next March, plus programmatic pause ads and expanded income and consumption targeting.
California AG drops opposition to Paramount-Warner deal
TVREV’s Alan Wolk reports that California AG Rob Bonta backed off his antitrust challenge to the Paramount-Warner merger after unions, theater chains and state political figures sided with the deal over fears of losing 30,000 jobs to another state.
The CW is becoming Nexstar’s affiliate insurance policy
TVREV’s Tim Hanlon reports that Nexstar has pushed its CW ownership stake past 81 percent and swapped CBS affiliations for CW ones in four markets, while citing the network’s contribution to distribution revenue growth in SEC filings.
Disney+ ad tier expands to Austria and Poland
Advanced Television’s Nik Roseveare reports that Disney+ will launch its Standard with Ads plan in Austria and Poland in November, alongside existing Standard and Premium tiers.
Paramount weighs Musk as equity investor amid $80B debt load
The Hollywood Reporter reports Paramount executives are exploring an Elon Musk investment as part of a syndicate backing the Warner Bros deal, per a Semafor report citing unnamed sources describing preliminary talks with no confirmed investment size.
CNN’s digital pivot stalls as merger clock runs out on Mark Thompson
Simon Owens reports that nearly three years into Mark Thompson’s tenure as CNN CEO, the network still “fundamentally operates like a TV network” despite a paywall launch, and now faces a Paramount-WBD takeover with no assurance David Ellison will keep him.
Samsung TV Plus adds creator-led FAST channels across six markets
C21Media reports that Samsung TV Plus is expanding its creator-led lineup in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, launching three UK channels with 208 Studios built on Fearne Cotton, Golf Life and JOE Media, while extending existing channels to Brazil and Mexico.
Mike Schur calls Paramount-WBD merger a ‘nightmare scenario’ for Hollywood
The Ankler reports that Mike Schur, on the Ankler Agenda podcast with Elaine Low, warns Paramount’s Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition is “gasoline on a fire,” questioning who enforces the antitrust consent decree’s concessions to state AGs.
Judge delays ruling on Paramount-Warner Bros. settlement with state AGs
TheWrap’s Lucas Manfredi reports Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin held off approving Paramount Skydance’s settlement with 12 state attorneys general over the $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery merger.