This week, we cover the news from the Upfronts, with Netflix and Amazon announcing updated ad-tier user numbers, YouTube disclosing ad conversions on Shorts, and some of the new ad formats coming to OTT platforms. We also detail the upcoming DTC offerings from ESPN and FOX and YouTube's plans to stream an exclusive NFL game for free in September. Finally, we highlight Charter's announcement of its plans to buy Cox Communications, Warner Bros. Discovery rebranding Max to HBO Max this summer, and Sony announcing updated Crunchyroll subscriber numbers. 

Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we highlight the key Q1 earnings numbers from Disney, WBD, Paramount, AMC Networks, Altice, EchoStar, Vimeo, Kaltura, Akamai, Fastly and Cloudflare. We detail the numbers tied to DTC subscribers additions/losses, profitability, bundling, capex and content spend, and the impact of earnings on stock prices. We also break out the 1.73M cord cutters across pay TV providers and vMVPDs, along with sports news from MLB, NFL, MLS, FanDuel Sports Network, JioStar, Disney and Comcast.

Correction: Disney has not announced a spinout of its linear assets.

Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we detail Roku's revenue growth of 16% YoY, with the number of streaming hours growing by 5.1B hours YoY. We also highlight Roku's announcement that more than a third of streaming households in the U.S. streamed monthly from its content row in Q1, with a total of more than 125 million people every day. We detail Fubo's earnings, with North America subscribers declining 2.7% YoY to 1.47M and a net profit for the quarter of $188.5M, due to the positive impact of the Venu Sports litigation. Finally, we touch on revenue numbers tied to AWS and Harmonic, some new TikTok data, and why Nielsen's new Gauge chart tied to ad-supported streaming services is flawed and misrepresents the streaming market. 

Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we detail Comcast's Q1 earnings, including Peacock's sub gains, thanks to the Charter bundle, with revenue up 16%, on an EBITDA loss of $215M, down from $639M YoY. We also cover all the pay TV losses from Comcast, Verizon, and Charter in the quarter, as well as Comcast's worst broadband losses ever in a quarter. We highlight MSG Networks deal with its lender JPMorgan that allows the RSN to avoid bankruptcy, and the NFL's Commissioner stating that he expects the NFL to return to scheduling a Christmas Day tripleheader in the future. Finally, we discuss Max's password sharing crackdown, YouTube's announcement of 20 million videos uploaded daily, and Twitter having been found guilty of patent infringement relating to streaming technology involving Vine and Periscope. 

Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we detail Netflix's Q1 earnings, including its free cash flow, content spending, and 2025 guidance forecast of $43.5-$44.5 billion. We highlight all of Netflix's comments around its ad tech platform, Netflix Ads Suite (NAS), and why Netflix says owning the tech stack is foundational to its long-term ads strategy. We also mention Netflix's comments about video podcasts and why it doesn't see YouTube as a competitor, saying Netflix is a "better service for a certain class of creators and certain types of storytelling." Finally, we cover the latest sports news from the NFL, Formula 1, MLB, and ESPN, and funding and acquisition news from FloSports, Hydrolix, Touchstream, and Simply TV.

Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

For this special podcast, Mark Donnigan and I recap key takeaways from the 2025 NAB Show in Las Vegas, discussing what we heard on the show floor and in sessions. We detail the NAB’s attendance numbers and the impact I saw on the number of attendees due to the uncertainty in the financial market. We also highlight the many different metrics that exhibitors, sponsors and attendees use to determine the success of shows. We discuss what messaging we think worked best from vendors and key points made by speakers and presenters around CDN, AI, CTV, niche OTT services and where we see the need for improvement in transparency across the industry. 

Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we highlight DIRECTV's expanding RSN bundling options, which cover 18 MLB, 16 NBA, and 10 NHL franchises and the addition of Max Basic with Ads to its MyEntertainment Genre Pack. We also highlight the MLB TV streaming outage on opening day, JioHotstar's announcement that JioHotstar now has over 100 million subscribers, and Netflix's news that it is now streaming HDR10+ content for AV1-enabled devices. Finally, we detail the launch of EdgeCast Cloud Services from Parler Cloud Technologies and Bitmovin's news of reaching free cash flow in 2024, with 2025 revenue expected to be in the $30M+ range.

Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we discuss JioHotstar's live stream of the ICC Champions Trophy Final, with a reported 60 million concurrent streams and why the industry needs to stop putting so much clout on concurrent or AMA numbers without any other details on the quality of the stream. We also detail the F1 TV Premium tier, offering 4K video and multiview functionality for an additional $6 monthly, and Comcast's deal with the International Olympic Committee to keep NBC and Peacock as the U.S. TV and streaming home of the Olympic Games through 2036. Finally, we detail some new platform improvements rolled out by Max and why it doesn't matter if Apple loses money on its Apple TV+ service.

Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we talk about the problems with Hulu's Oscars live stream and why streaming cannot take the place of broadcast distribution in terms of scalability and dependability. We also point out the likelihood of MSG Networks and/or its affiliates declaring bankruptcy and the potential consequences for their streaming business. We discuss the announcement that all Elite Wrestling PPV events will soon be available on Prime Video, and Netflix plans to live stream another boxing match later in the year. Lastly, we discuss Fox Nation's new subscriber figures, the largest CTV device botnet ever discovered and made public, and MLB's commissioner's difficulties in getting all the teams to cooperate for a new DTC MLB service without blackout restrictions.

Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we discuss the Q4 earnings numbers tied to subscribers and profitability from Fubo, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and EchoStar. We also highlight the latest sports news from Disney, DAZN, LALIGA, Fox, LFP, and Sky. We detail the new $35 entertainment package from DIRECTV, which includes 43 linear channels and Disney+, Hulu+ and Max streaming services. Finally, we cover the news that Amazon will launch a live, linear TV channel for Prime Video members in Germany and Austria and highlight how CDN77's revenue grew to $175 million in 2024 while being cash-flow positive.

Podcast produced by Security Halt Media