Shareholders for FuboTV Inc. (formerly the FaceBank Group) have approved a plan for The Walt Disney Company to acquire the sports-centric Fubo live streaming service to merge with its Hulu + Live TV business. The combined entity would be second in size only to YouTube TV among OTT TV providers and will operate under the Fubo name, with the Fubo team running the company and Disney owning a roughly 70 percent stake. Earlier this year, Fubo executives told investors that together Hulu and Fubo are expected to generate more than $6 billion in annual revenue. Continue reading Fubo Shareholder Approval Propels Merger with Hulu + Live TV

The Walt Disney Company and Fox Corporation are joining forces to market their sports streaming services. In addition to being sold separately, ESPN’s upcoming direct-to-consumer platform and FOX One will be offered as a $39.99 monthly bundle starting October 2. Both individual services debut August 21, with ESPN charging $29.99 per month and FOX One priced at $19.99 monthly. FOX One will include Fox’s NFL and MLB telecasts as well as FOX News, FOX Weather, FOX Business, FOX Broadcasting and more, while the ESPN DTC service will include access to ESPN’s linear networks, ESPN+ and ESPN on ABC. Continue reading ESPN DTC and FOX One Merging into Mega Package This Fall

The Walt Disney Company concluded its Upfront advertising sales with notable increases in sports and streaming commitments and an overall figure consistent with 2024’s number. Sports was a bright spot, generating close to $4 billion through both linear and addressable platforms including ESPN and others, propelled by double-digit growth in volume for “Monday Night Football” and College Football and a “high single-digit” increase in NBA volume driven largely by the NBA Finals and the half-time and post-game analysis series “Inside the NBA” that ESPN landed starting this year. Continue reading Disney’s Upfront Ad Commitments Led by Sports, Streaming

Fox Corporation found a receptive audience among advertisers during the 2025-26 upfront cycle, where its Tubi streaming service, sports franchise and FOX News operations drew attention and assurances of revenue. Having principally wrapped negotiations, the Murdoch operation won a vote of confidence from Madison Avenue, which promised new spending highs. NBCUniversal, the first company to conclude negotiations, also had a record upfront propelled largely by sports, including what was said to be a sell-out on the Super Bowl inventory across linear, Peacock streaming, and Spanish-language Telemundo platforms (30-second spots reportedly reached $8 million). Continue reading Fox, NBCUniversal Share Results of Successful Upfront Cycle

Amazon Ads has entered into an exclusive deal with Roku that will provide “advertisers access to the largest authenticated CTV footprint in the U.S.” The offering will be powered by Amazon DSP — the company’s omnichannel marketing solution. The integration combines Amazon Fire TV users with Roku’s customers for logged-in reach to what Amazon estimates is 80 million Connected TV households, which equals just over 80 percent of CTV households, according to Comscore data. Addressability will also be enhanced across top streaming services integrated with the two operating systems. The deal was announced during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Continue reading Amazon Teams with Roku for Exclusive CTV Advertising Deal

Fox Corporation’s Tubi free ad-supported streaming service has partnered with Kickstarter to support independent filmmakers raising funds on the crowdfunding platform. The deal will bring more than 20 Kickstarter-funded films to Tubi for an exclusive period beginning this fall. As part of the arrangement, Tubi has joined with Kickstarter to launch the FilmStream Collective fund, which will channel completion funds to filmmakers active on the platform. Tubi reaches over 97 million monthly active users worldwide with FAST entertainment in the form of on-demand movies and TV episodes, including original content. Continue reading Tubi Is Joining Forces with Kickstarter to Support Indie Films

FOX One is the brand name of the aggregated portfolio of FOX’s direct-to-consumer streaming products, due to launch this fall as a subscription service ahead of the NFL and college football seasons. The package bundles FOX sports, news and entertainment content including cable and local stations and the FOX broadcast network. Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch floated the news during Monday’s earnings call, also reporting that revenue was up 27 percent year-over-year to $4.37 billion. A launch date and pricing for FOX One will be shared at a later date. Continue reading All-In FOX One Streaming Platform to Launch Later This Year

At CES on Monday, Comcast unveiled Universal Ads, an advertising platform aimed at being an “easy button” for small- and medium-sized businesses to buy ad time on traditional TV’s streaming businesses, with the goal of luring them away from social media and digital outlets. In addition to Comcast’s own NBCUniversal, additional partners include DirecTV, Fox Corporation, Paramount, Roku, TelevisaUnivision and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNBC Senior Media & Tech Correspondent Julia Boorstin moderated a panel with Comcast and some major partners who explained why they signed on to the new platform. Continue reading CES: Comcast Debuts Universal Ads, Inks Media Partnerships

Tubi has come up with a unique way to showcase its catalog of 250,000 movies and TV episodes: a feed of short-form videos similar to TikTok content. Called “Scenes,” the feature is available via Tubi’s mobile app for Android and iOS. Tubi, the Fox Corporation free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service, hopes Scenes will help Tubi viewers find what to watch as part of a “strategy to provide effortless entertainment on mobile.” Tubi already leverages machine learning and AI models to help personalize its recommendation experience and encourage discovery. Continue reading Tubi Introduces Short-Form Video Clips with Scenes Feature

Fox Corporation’s ad-supported video-on-demand streaming service Tubi is launching in the United Kingdom with a content library of 20,000 movies and TV shows. With almost 80 million monthly active users, Tubi has grown quickly in the U.S. since its debut on the Nielsen Gauge just over a year ago and it is exporting the formula overseas. The new UK service will rely primarily on content from companies including Disney, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures Entertainment, as well Tubi Originals, arthouse fare and films from Bollywood and Nigeria, known as “Nollywood.” Continue reading Fox Streamer Tubi Seeks to Replicate its U.S. Success in UK

Alphabet is rolling out the Google TV network, an advertising platform that will for the first time allow media buyers to slot ads across the entire Google TV platform of more than 125 channels with one transaction. Google says those ads will reach the 20 million monthly active users who use Google TV and other Android TV OS devices to watch live sports, full-length TV shows, movies and more. Initially offering “staple connected-TV ad formats” — including non-skippable and 6-second bumpers ads — placed in-stream, Google says there are more formats to come. Continue reading Google TV Network is Alphabet’s New In-Stream Ad Platform

The Atlantic and Vox Media are the latest publishers to sign deals with OpenAI allowing its editorial products to be used with its artificial intelligence products. The agreements allow OpenAI to use content from The Atlantic and Vox (owner of The Verge and New York Magazine) to train AI models and display news within ChatGPT. Financial details were not disclosed. The publishers said the deals will expose their content to a broader audience as well as provide access to OpenAI technology to help create new products for readers. Continue reading OpenAI Media Push Continues in Pacts with The Atlantic, Vox

Venu Sports (pronounced “venue”) has been selected as the name of the new streaming joint venture launching this fall from Disney/ESPN, Fox Corporation and Warner Bros. Discovery. Although pricing has yet to be announced (some estimate it will run $40-$50 per month), the partners are underway in branding their bundled package, unveiled in February as an effort to reach sports fans who don’t already subscribe to pay TV. In March the group announced the new venture’s CEO would be Pete Distad, who spent six years at Hulu followed by a decade at Apple in positions including running global distribution and business ops for Apple TV+. Continue reading Venu Sports Is Name of New Streamer from ESPN, FOX, WBD

Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced that a new triple-play streaming bundle that includes popular services Disney+, Hulu and Max will launch this summer in the U.S. with both ad-supported and ad-free plans. “On the heels of the very successful launch of Hulu on Disney+, this new bundle with Max will offer subscribers even more choice and value,” said Joe Earley, president of direct to consumer for Disney Entertainment. While no specific pricing has been revealed, the release promises that “additional details regarding the bundle offer will be shared in the coming months.” Continue reading Disney+, Hulu, Max: Streaming Bundle Coming This Summer

Fox Corporation’s FAST service Tubi has launched a development hub for aspiring filmmakers called Stubios — “a fan-fueled studio” that promises to “put the power to greenlight content” in the hands of fans via this non-traditional feeder system for diverse talent. Working with actress-producer Issa Rae’s ColorCreative management company, Stubios is television’s take on UGC and the social media influencer pipeline, a path for trending creatives “to find success in Hollywood,” according to Fox. “Stubiorunners,” as creatives accepted into the program are called, will have the ability to get audience feedback on “everything from casting to key art.” Continue reading Tubi Development Hub ‘Stubios’ Lets Fans Greenlight Content