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.
Paramount-WBD consent decree locks in Pluto TV for five years
The Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger settlement with 12 states requires the combined company to keep operating a free, ad-supported streamer under the Pluto TV brand, at current service and quality levels, for the full five-year term.
States settle Paramount-Warner antitrust suit, clearing last merger hurdle
The Ankler’s Sean McNulty reports that twelve state attorneys general have settled their antitrust suit against Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. No cable networks are to be sold, which he calls arguably the toughest issue for Paramount.
Paramount settles state antitrust suit, clearing path for Warner Bros. Discovery deal
Paramount reached a settlement with 12 state attorneys general just before an Oct. 1 deadline that would have triggered a $7 million daily “ticking fee.”
Ankler hosts live discussion on Paramount’s WBD settlement fallout
Paramount settled with California AG Rob Bonta, state attorneys general and the WGA to clear its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, and The Ankler streamed a live discussion on what David Ellison gave up.
Streamers are rebuilding cable, one FAST channel at a time
The Verge traces how streaming, born to kill cable’s bundle and scheduled grid, is now recreating both through FAST channels, bundled subscriptions, and ad tiers as platforms chase the attention war.
The Ankler’s Wakeup: ESPN locks up Joe Buck, Roku bulks up bundles
The Ankler’s Sean McNulty reports that ESPN signed Joe Buck to a six-year, $108 million extension that bumps his annual pay from $15 million to $18 million and keeps him on ABC/ESPN’s Super Bowl calls through 2031.
EMarketer: AI disruption is speeding advertisers’ shift to CTV
EMarketer reports that advertisers are flooding into connected TV as linear TV continues its decline, and generative AI tools are accelerating that migration by reshaping planning and buying.
Versant’s playbook: use linear cash flow to buy time for digital pivot
Spun out of Comcast in January 2026, Versant now has freedom to invest its cable cash flow into sports rights, digital platforms and tangential assets like golf-simulator maker Full Swing.
Ankler: insiders skeptical of Ellison’s threat to move studios out of L.A.
The Ankler reports growing chatter that David Ellison could relocate Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio operations out of Los Angeles, but sources inside both companies say they aren’t taking the threat at face value.
Paramount, states near deal with CNN monitor, film-release floor
Reuters’s Jody Godoy reports that Paramount and states seeking to block its $110 billion Warner Bros. deal could settle as soon as this weekend. Terms under discussion include independent content monitoring of CNN and a commitment on the number of theatrical releases per year.
Emmys ratings sink 10%, but Apple TV dominates with 29 wins
TVREV’s Alan Wolk reports that this year’s Emmys drew just 6.7 million viewers, down 10% from last year, even as NBCU touted 133 million social video views.
Disney unwinds DTC co-presidency, hands Adam Smith sole control
Six months after naming Adam Smith and Joe Earley co-presidents of direct-to-consumer, Disney has made Smith sole leader as Chairman, Direct-to-Consumer. Earley moves to Disney Entertainment Television to run franchise and content strategy under Debra O’Connell.
New study puts streaming tech spend at 16.4% of revenue
Media War & Peace’s Evan Shapiro reports that Bedrock and DPP surveyed 15 major US and European streaming platforms and found a median “Streaming Platform Ratio” of 16.4% of revenue spent on tech, versus Netflix’s disclosed 10%.
Why performance advertisers should look back to linear TV
Dave Morgan argues CTV’s performance plateau is an inventory problem: only 15% of TV ad viewing time is streamed even though streaming accounts for 50% of content viewing, and most of that ad inventory is locked up in upfront and linear-forest deals.
CTV’s show-level data gains don’t yet translate into show-level buying
AdExchanger’s AdExchanger Guest reports that CTV buyers are getting better show-level reporting, but a Tatari executive writes that major exchanges still don’t offer scaled show-level optimization as a standard product.
CTV set to overtake linear in healthcare and pharma TV by 2028
EMARKETER projects connected TV will surpass traditional TV in healthcare and pharma ad spending by 2028. The shift reflects advertisers chasing targetable, measurable inventory as linear audiences keep shrinking.
Roku launches 30 streaming bundles across Premium Subscriptions storefront
Deadline’s Dade Hayes reports that Roku is rolling out 30 bundle combinations of services like AMC+, Fox One and Starz through its Premium Subscriptions storefront, its first bundles offered there, with savings of up to 30% versus buying each service alone.
Sony pitches PS5 FAST channels as a hard-to-reach ad audience
Variety’s Jennifer Maas reports that Sony TV chief Keith Le Goy says the console’s 40-50 million engaged users are a rare shot at gamers who are traditionally hard for linear channels and advertisers to reach.
Flexcar’s single Netflix ad spikes site traffic 22x
Advanced Television reports that a one-time Flexcar spot during Netflix’s lone Thursday Night Football broadcast drove site traffic up as much as 22 times baseline, crashing Flexcar’s website for about an hour and lifting organic search 156 percent.
Broadcasters admit TV only needs a fraction of their spectrum
TVREV’s Tim Hanlon reports that Sinclair, Nexstar and Gray executives now say ATSC 3.0 lets them deliver core broadcast service on as little as 2 MHz of a 6 MHz channel.
TVREV’s Hot List rounds up 18 think pieces on AI, influencers and fragmentation
TVREV’s newsletter curates 18 original think pieces from its analysts and sister pub The Measure, spanning IBC fragmentation, AI in ad production, influencer marketing and local TV’s political ad boom.
NFL ad revenue stays 80% linear even as streaming catches up elsewhere
EMarketer’s Ross Benes says the NFL still draws over 80% of ad revenue from linear TV, four times streaming’s share, even as converged TV in the broader market nears parity.
Nathanson: Fox-Roku, YouTube TV and Netflix’s ‘eventization’ redraw sports TV map
Puck reports that Analyst Michael Nathanson joins Puck to break down the logic behind Fox’s bid for Roku and why YouTube TV could actually save cable bundles.
Streaming price hikes since 2019: Netflix up 82%, Disney+ up 172%
Digiday charted every major subscription price change since 2019 across nine streamers. Netflix’s ad-free tier rose from $10.99 to $19.99 while Disney+ climbed from $6.99 to $18.99, with Peacock’s ad-supported tier up 160% since 2020.
Disney quietly ramps up its own podcast buying spree for Hulu and Disney+
The Ankler’s Natalie Jarvey reports that Disney is about a year into a podcast push for Hulu and Disney+ and is now in active dealmaking mode, sources tell The Ankler, with several new shows expected to land in coming weeks.