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Peter Jackson at Cannes: “AI Is Just Another Special Effect” — Provided Actor Likeness Is Licensed
At his Cannes masterclass, Peter Jackson framed AI in film as “just another special effect” — welcoming its use in production while making actor-likeness licensing, on the same legal footing as music and book rights, a non-negotiable precondition.
Five Revenue Pillars CNN Built Into Its 'Weather' App
Cable news is pivoting from pure news toward mobile-first, lifestyle-based D2C ecosystems where weather becomes the daily touchpoint that monetizes attention through subscriptions, data, and tech partnerships.
When the Candidate Becomes the Channel: How the 2028 U.S. Race Reshapes Politics-Media Convergence
Local-news collapse and the creator economy are turning politicians into “candidate-owned channels,” forcing media to compete not just over covering candidates but against the candidates’ own media networks.
NBCUniversal's 100th-Anniversary Upfront Lays Out the Next Growth Formula: Sports, Outcomes AdTech, and Franchise IP Expansion
NBCUniversal’s upfront signals a shift toward sports-driven viewing, AI-powered outcome-based advertising, and franchise IP expansion—setting a new playbook for global media competition.
Disney+ Becomes the ‘Digital Centerpiece’ — and the Streaming Game Quietly Changes Rules
Disney is reframing Disney+ from a stand‑alone subscription service into a “digital centerpiece” super‑app that integrates IP, parks, games, advertising and betting to maximize customer lifetime value rather than just streaming ARPU.
A Campus-Less AI Film School Started It — Now NYU and USC Are Following
Curious Refuge, a campus-less AI film school that rapidly attracted working filmmakers worldwide, has pushed elite programs like NYU Tisch and USC to plug directly into Big Tech AI tools, rewiring the talent pipeline even as most U.S. viewers still reject AI actors on screen.
FAST Platforms Turn O&O Channels Into Their Most Strategic Asset — A Digital Replay of the Cable TV Vertical-Integration Playbook
Platforms that can run both O&O IP channels and curated branded O&O channels in parallel — while sitting at the OS layer that controls distribution, data, and ad-tech — will own the next decade of FAST economics
Big Broadcasting on Trial in America: Four Fault Lines Laid Bare by the Nexstar–Tegna Standoff
Nexstar’s record Q1 results highlight strong operating momentum but also expose how its high-debt, scale-driven strategy is now constrained by a court‑ordered standstill on the TEGNA merger and rising legal and regulatory risk.
FAST’s Generational Supply Gap Widens —and Samsung TV Plus Is Quietly Building the Youth-Supply Pipeline
Q1 2026 FAST reveals a 4.5x channel-supply gap between Millennials (770 channels) and Gen Z (171), exposing a structural bias toward older audiences. Samsung TV Plus has spent the last nine months turning that gap into a youth-supply moat via 8+ exclusive Creator channels
"They're Buying Plane Tickets to See What They Watched on Netflix" — Global 'Streaming Tourism' Heads Toward $100B as Korea Lacks the Data Infrastructure
Nevada's Film Nevada partnered with SetJetters to create a "scene→GPS→visit→data" tourism pipeline that Korea—the #2 U.S. TV overseas filming destination (13.5%) with Seoul foreign productions up 164%—lacks, risking loss of the $66B-to-$145B screen tourism market to app-owning platforms.
Ted Turner, 1938–2026: The 4-Layer Business Model
Ted Turner, founder of CNN and the man who created the 24-hour news cycle, passed away on Wednesday at his home near Tallahassee, Florida. He was 87.
As AI 'Performers' Enter Ads: XR Unveils First Payment Infrastructure for AI Talent Rights and Compliance
XR has launched the ad industry’s first large‑scale payment and rights infrastructure that brings AI “performers” under standard SAG‑AFTRA rules, treating digital replicas and synthetic talent as trackable, compensable actors in commercial production.