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.
CNN’s $1 billion subscription goal looks nearly impossible, analysis finds
Simon Owens reports that the Financial Times says CNN hopes to reach $1 billion in digital subscription revenue by 2030, which Owens calculates would require 14 million paid subscribers in three years.
TVREV’s Alan Wolk: live sports ads are the monoculture’s last stand
TVREV’s Alan Wolk recaps two Jupiter Festival sessions, one on his book “Welcome To The Age Of Feudal Media” with The Rebooting’s Brian Morrissey, another on sports advertising with Transmit’s Scott Young, WPP’s Alex Willats and PMG’s Dan Conti.
‘60 Minutes’ viewership falls 12% without NFL lead-in boost
Variety’s Brian Steinberg reports that “60 Minutes” drew 6.06 million viewers for its Lesley Stahl episode on Israeli settlers, down 12% from the same episode a year earlier and down 41% from the prior week, which had an NFL lead-in.
Streaming ad loads jump 18% as subscription prices also climb
MediaPost’s Wayne Friedman reports that leading ad-supported streaming tiers added 18% more ad minutes per hour between January and August 2026, with Paramount+, Hulu and Disney+ running heaviest.
Witherspoon buys back Hello Sunshine from Candle Media at steep discount
TheWrap’s Jose Alejandro Bastidas and Lucas Manfredi report that Reese Witherspoon, partnering with Mediawan, is reacquiring a majority stake in Hello Sunshine for “low- to mid-eight figures.”
Study: 73% of advertisers plan live sports streaming investment
Advanced Television reports that Premion and Advertiser Perceptions research finds 73 per cent of advertisers plan to allocate budget to live sports streaming and CTV advertising over the next year.
Netflix’s layoffs cut costs but don’t fix its growth problem
Business Insider’s Peter Kafka writes that Netflix’s levers from its 2022 subscriber crisis — ads, live sports — are now spent, while engagement slips and the real competition is free, unlimited content from YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Ampere: ad tiers to outearn premium streaming by 2029
Advanced Television reports that Ampere Analysis CEO Guy Bisson told MIPCOM that ad-supported streaming revenue will overtake premium subscriptions by 2030, projecting $60 billion versus $55 billion.
Reese Witherspoon buys back Hello Sunshine at a steep discount
Axios’s Sara Fischer and Kerry Flynn report that Reese Witherspoon has teamed with Paris-based Mediawan to buy back Hello Sunshine from Candle Media for low- to mid-eight figures.
Rushfield: Hollywood’s merger wave is strip-mining, not saving, the industry
The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield argues that Hollywood has adopted a private-equity playbook of acquire, consolidate, slash costs and extract value, pointing to Warner Bros. employees enduring cuts through the AT&T, Discovery and now Skydance eras while executive pay climbs.
Advertisers want sports streaming, but cost and ROI proof hold back spend
AdExchanger reports that Premion and Advertiser Perceptions found 73% of advertisers plan to fund live sports streaming and CTV within a year, yet cost (44%) and measuring ROI (41%) remain the biggest barriers, not scale.
Vizio adds 40+ creator channels to its FAST platform
eMarketer’s Marisa Jones reports that Walmart-owned Vizio launched more than 40 creator-led channels, including one from MrBeast, on its free ad-supported WatchFree+ service, following YouTube’s similar push into linear-style creator series on CTV.
Fox Entertainment and Hartbeat strike microdrama development deal
Deadline’s Max Goldbart reports Fox Entertainment Studios will get first look at film and TV projects from vertical series under Hartbeat’s Codeblack, Essence and Revolt brands, with Fox Entertainment Global distributing them worldwide via Holywater’s My Drama platform.
Omdia: Latin America’s media market to hit $62bn in 2026
Advanced Television reports that Omdia forecasts Latin America’s media and entertainment market will grow 15.4 percent to $62 billion in 2026, with online video reaching $35 billion, over half of total revenue, Netflix leading with 63.8 million subscriptions.
WNBA Finals ads sell out across NBC, USA Network
Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter reports NBCU sold out WNBA Finals inventory on NBC and USA, with nearly 80 brands buying WNBA time this season and women’s sports spend nearly doubling year over year for 2026-27.
eMarketer: pause ads give streaming video a purchase-intent boost
eMarketer’s Marisa Jones reports that pause ads complement video spots by catching viewers at a moment of attention, turning the awareness built by video into purchase intent.
Netflix layoffs land alongside new engagement worries
The Ankler’s Sean McNulty reports that Netflix layoffs have hit the company, accompanied by new, troublesome engagement data, as the newsletter also tracks how Ben Affleck’s second Netflix movie this year performed and Disney’s big week on the service.
TV comedy’s collapse: Ankler maps the decade-long crash in scripted laughs
The Ankler’s Lesley Goldberg reports that U.S.-produced scripted comedies fell from 210 series in 2021 to just 122 in 2025, a nearly 30 percent drop in share since that peak.
Study: viewers increasingly favor highlights over full episodes
TV Tech’s Tom Butts reports that a new study finds a growing share of viewers now prefer watching highlight clips rather than sitting through entire episodes or games.
Netflix’s growth problem runs deeper than its layoffs
Business Insider’s James Faris reports that Netflix’s 1,000-person layoff follows slowing viewership growth, a failed $82.7 billion Warner Bros. bid, unproven games and podcasts bets, and rising free competition from YouTube, Tubi and Roku Channel.
Skydance’s expanded media empire brings only modest ad revenue growth
eMarketer’s Marisa Jones reports that Skydance’s combined portfolio, now spanning Paramount’s networks and studios alongside its own assets, is producing only modest ad revenue gains despite the company’s much larger scale.
Study: gaming is young fans’ social hub, boosting franchise crossover
Advanced Television reports that Hub Entertainment Research’s Gaming 360 study finds games function as a social platform for young fans, fueling discovery of movie and TV franchises.
Disney, Google TV execs map CTV’s shift from linear proxies to home-screen ads
Adweek’s Seth Simons reports that at an ADWEEK House panel with Google TV, Disney Advertising’s Jamie Power and Google TV’s Lisa Siskind Bilgrei discussed how streaming layers audience targeting atop linear TV’s broad show-based proxies.
CoComelon leaves Netflix for Disney+, adds DreamWorks movie
The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin reports that CoComelon’s flagship series will exit Netflix for Disney+ next year, part of a franchise push that also includes a theatrical film with NBCUniversal’s DreamWorks.
Glance: SVoD catalogues grow via broadcaster deals as new content shrinks
Advanced Television reports that Glance’s MIPCOM keynote found new series fell 12% on linear TV and Netflix, and 41% on Disney+, through September 2026. Yet catalogues still expanded, with Netflix France up 61% in content hours via TF1+ partnerships.