Top Stories

TikTok Shop’s U.S. Sales Improve but Still Fall Short of Goals

TikTok is reporting that TikTok Shop’s U.S. sales have increased 120 percent in 2025 compared to the same period last year. However, this announcement was made as reports surfaced that TikTok owner ByteDance is disappointed that the U.S. performance of TikTok Shop is falling far short of its original tenfold growth goal to $17.5 billion in 2025. The company reportedly moved to “drastically lower that objective” prior to touting its performance this month. Meanwhile, President Trump recently extended the deadline for ByteDance to sell the U.S. operations of TikTok, pushing the cutoff to September 17. Read more

Streaming Viewership Tops Cable & Broadcast for First Time

U.S. streaming viewership exceeded cable and broadcast audiences combined in May, an industry first. Streaming amassed a record 44.8 percent of total U.S. television usage, inching past cable and broadcast’s combined 44.2 percent of audience according to Nielsen. In the four years since Nielsen launched The Gauge measurement report in May 2021, U.S. streaming viewership grew by 71 percent while cable and broadcast viewing declined by 39 percent and 21 percent, respectively, with traditional TV showing “surprising resilience,” the current report notes. During those four years, “Netflix has gone wire-to-wire as the leading SVOD provider,” according to The Gauge. Read more

Netflix Expanding into Live TV in France with TF1 Group Deal

Netflix has struck a first-of-its-kind deal to carry live TV in France. Beginning in the summer of 2026, subscribers in France can view TF1 Group live channels as well as on-demand content from TF1+ on Netflix as part of their existing subscriptions. TF1 and Netflix have long worked together on co-productions including “Les Combattantes” and “L’Agence.” “This new kind of partnership will provide audiences in France with exciting new ways to enjoy TF1 programming and offer Netflix members in France even more variety and choice,” Netflix said. The agreement will see Netflix carrying all five of TF1’s broadcast channels in addition to some 30,000 hours of on-demand content. Read more

Disney Integrates Real-Time Ad Exchange with Amazon DSP

Disney has become the latest entertainment giant to put ad inventory on offer through Amazon DSP, the tech giant’s demand-side platform that connects advertisers to channels for programmatic as well as premium ad purchasing and analytics. The integration, to be implemented in the coming months, links the Disney Real-Time Ad Exchange (DRAX) with Amazon DSP, providing direct access to inventory across platforms including Disney+, ESPN and Hulu along with data insights from both companies. The deal is one of many such alliances announced in proximity to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where Roku, Netflix and Yahoo also signed up with Amazon DSP. Read more

CineSearch Is a New AI Discovery Tool for Streaming Content

A little over a year since the beta release of its conversational AI search and discovery tool, Cineverse is making cineSearch commercially available to business customers. The Los Angeles startup says its AI-powered framework “solves” the content-hunt quandary for digital networks and streaming services, finding programming across all streaming platforms. Cineverse is making cineSearch available for commercial licensing to OEMs and streaming platforms via the company’s own sales team and through Google Cloud Marketplace. CineSearch was developed using Google’s AI ecosystem — specifically Vertex AI platform and the Gemini 2.0 Pro model. Read more

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