Business

Kirby analyzes last week’s biggest stories, highlighting how strategic restraint is outperforming big spending. Netflix and Sony leaned into global windowing for consistency and leverage. Gap’s new Chief Entertainment Officer reflects a move to internalize cultural relevance. Apple licensed AI…

Cineplex has integrated Rokt’s AI into its digital checkout, inserting third-party offers during ticket purchases to unlock new revenue without raising prices or altering the flow. This move monetizes millions of annual transactions and offloads operational complexity to Rokt, while…

Netflix drove its biggest U.S. sign-up spike of 2025 on Christmas Day, adding 430,000 new subscribers during its NFL GameDay broadcast, according to Ampere Analysis. Ampere found that live events, especially sports, drove 60% of major acquisition spikes across services…

Sony's handing operational control of its Bravia TV business to TCL in a new joint venture, selling a 51% stake while retaining 49%. The move shifts Bravia's focus from manufacturing to software, picture processing, and brand positioning, as Sony acknowledges…

OpenAI is testing ads in ChatGPT for free-tier and Go subscribers, inserting sponsored content beneath responses. The move highlights a deeper economic tension: while conversational AI drives high engagement, its cost structures don’t scale like traditional software, forcing new monetization…

Netflix has struck a new multiyear global Pay-1 licensing deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment, making Netflix the exclusive first streaming home for Sony’s theatrical releases worldwide after their initial windows. The deal replaces Sony’s fragmented regional licensing with a unified…

From the Archives shows how Patreon pioneered the “subscribe to a person” model, giving creators a sustainable alternative to ad-based platforms. By turning fandom into recurring revenue, it reshaped the creator economy. Even as it faced growing pains, the core…

CNN is partnering with Lemonada Media to bring video versions of several podcasts to its All Access streaming tier, aiming to boost subscription retention by introducing personality-driven, repeatable content. Rather than chasing hits or IP ownership, CNN's betting on habitual…

Ampere Analysis projects global content spend to reach $255 billion in 2026, with streamers driving nearly all incremental growth. The spend war is effectively settled, as global streamers convert scale into pricing power and strategic flexibility, while broadcasters hit scale…

Skip calls out the industry's reluctance to fully embrace FAST, even as most studios are already operating like FAST companies. The piece argues that denying the model limits innovation and growth, urging companies to design for FAST rather than apologize…