Exec Briefing

FIFA's combined-language World Cup rights package could give advertisers more negotiating leverage without generating proportional revenue growth for broadcasters. Telemundo's strong standalone ad performance highlights the need to protect Spanish-language inventory's pricing power, while Peacock's thin profitability and Netflix's ad…

Hello Sunshine's steep valuation reset captures a fundamental shift in media investment: buyers are prioritizing revenue they can control over speculative growth tied to future hits. Across streaming, capital is increasingly flowing toward recurring revenue, proven audiences, and flexible partnerships,…

This week's Exec Briefing examines how media companies can profit from audiences they don't own or retain. Flexible licensing, cross-platform advertising, and event-based access create opportunities to monetize consumer demand without relying on long-term subscriptions. The economics increasingly depend on…

Bango, Paramount, and AT&T show how growth gets more profitable when companies can reuse infrastructure, systems, and customer relationships they’ve already paid for. The real leverage comes from adding revenue without adding another stack, vendor, workflow, or team.

Infillion, Best Buy and Google show how expensive it’s getting to connect CTV ads with store visits and sales. Closed-loop measurement can help win more ad spend, but sellers that don’t own the necessary purchase, location and identity data have…

Roku, Amazon and JustWatch are turning streaming discovery into a performance business where distributor cuts can be measured against incremental subscribers, viewing and transactions. As home-screen placement, bundles and FAST distribution become easier to audit, programmers have more leverage to…

Media companies are forcing costs that once hid inside broader growth strategies to justify themselves as slower growth makes cross-subsidies harder to defend. Microsoft, Warner Music, Netflix, Channel 4 and The Trade Desk are all tying spending more directly to…

Streaming services are increasingly becoming retention tools for partners whose economics extend well beyond streaming. These deals can expand reach and lower acquisition costs, but streamers risk underpricing their content when distributors capture the broader value it creates across broadband,…

Meta’s roughly $10 billion legal expense shows how recommendation systems are becoming direct P&L issues, while YouTube, the BBC, Flipboard, and Roku are fighting over who controls discovery. As algorithms increasingly shape audience, ad revenue, rights value, and distribution, recommendation…

Amazon and Charter are increasing their streaming leverage by owning the discovery, billing, and checkout infrastructure that turns audiences into paying customers, while MS NOW is moving the other way by building a direct membership business. As churn and acquisition…