Discovery Inc. is gearing up for its upfront, in which media companies look to sell linear and digital schedules to media buyers and their agencies ahead of the upcoming TV season. Ahead of its May 18 virtual presentation to advertisers, S&P Global Market Intelligence recently caught up with Discovery Chief U.S. Advertising Sales Officer Jon Steinlauf to discuss the company's new streaming service, Discovery+, and the ad market amid COVID-19. Steinlauf also addresses the programmer's burgeoning TV Everywhere business and opportunities beyond linear TV's traditional demographics.

S&P Global Market Intelligence's tech reporter Anser Haider, Kagan Research's Neil Barbour and Panjiva's Chris Rogers discuss the state of video game hardware, including continuing stock shortages for the new consoles released by Microsoft and Sony last year.

CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus discusses production difficulties posed by the pandemic, sell-through and pricing levels for the NFL championship game, and the integral role sports will play in driving subscriptions for streaming service Paramount+.

S&P Global Market Intelligence reporters from the company’s technology, media and telecom news team review and preview key developments impacting various TMT sectors.

Disclaimer: This podcast was taped on December 15. Since then, several developments related to regulatory and legal activities against one or more tech companies have occurred.

In this episode, we'll focus on the current state of the global video game industry, which is on the cusp of a brand-new generation of hardware, software and services. We'll also talk about the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the industry, which experienced significant growth as stay-at-home orders saw many consumers turn to gaming.

In Part 2 of the episode focusing on broadcasters, we zoom in on the latest broadcast technology as well as trends in retransmission consent, a major part of the broadcasters’ revenue streams. Justin Nielson, a Kagan analyst tracking the broadcast and media industry, and Davis Hebert, a senior high-yield research analyst at Wells Fargo, are in the house again.

In Part 1 of this episode, hear from Justin Nielson, an analyst tracking the broadcast and media industries at Kagan, a research unit within S&P Global, and Davis Hebert, a senior high yield research analyst at Wells Fargo, on how broadcast ad sales have suffered during what has been projected to be a banner year for the presidential election cycle.

U.S. antitrust enforcement agencies could file lawsuits against big tech companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon as soon as this summer. A former DOJ antitrust official talks to us about how the summer and fall might bring a movement from "talk to action" on antitrust issues.

Sheltering in home has led to a surge in internet usage.

In this episode, John Fletcher, a media analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan Research; and Craig Matsumoto, senior analyst at 451Research, a research unit now within S&P Global Market Intelligence, talk to us about how higher streaming media consumption and increase use of collaboration applications have impacted network infrastructure. We will also delve into what might happen if there was a second wave of the virus come fall.

S&P Global Market Intelligence acquired 451 Research in December. The acquisition expands S&P Global's intelligence research offerings and technologies such as AI, IoT, information security, data centers, cloud and DevOps.

The coronavirus pandemic has put unprecedented stress in the media sector. Since early March, in the media sector alone, S&P Global Ratings has updated ratings outlook on close to 75% of its covered companies. In this episode, we will discuss with two S&P Global Ratings analysts on how has COVID-19 impacted theater operators’ operations and finances as they prepare to reopen in the U.S. and U.K. This episode was recorded on May 27.