Sayonara, Sora! Say Hello to Hollywood’s Uncertain Future Licensing to AI Giants
When what seems to be a groundbreaking partnership implodes just three months after its announcement, it’s only natural for the parties involved to get all the attention. And when the companies in question happen to bring the baggage that is their own endless supply of palace intrigue, as OpenAI and Disney do, losing sight of […]
Appreciating the Appeal of Premium vs. Social Video Means Looking Beyond Audience Age
A recurring narrative in the media industry suggests that younger, digitally native audiences are steadily abandoning premium film and television in favor of social video. However, new research conducted by Sony Pictures Entertainment complicates this assumption, revealing that age alone is an insufficient lens through which to understand evolving consumption patterns. As explained by Tania Missad, […]
Keeping Young Demos Could Prove Key for Roblox
If anyone knows Big Tech’s worst nightmare — seeing a once massively scaled platform hemorrhage audience — it’s Chris DeWolfe. The co-founder and former CEO of MySpace had a front-row seat in the early aughts to how easily the most popular social media destination can go from sensation to disaster. Now a gaming executive, he […]
The Spending Ceiling Stifling U.S. Video Consumers
With so many factors accounting for audience behaviors, it’s easy to lose sight of what matters most. But sometimes a statistic can surface that clarifies the perspective: U.S. consumer spending on video is stuck in a period of structural stagnation after decades of steady growth. For much of the modern media era, consumers increased their […]
How ‘Love Island’ Helped NBCU Reinvent the Lead-in for the Streaming Era
With the latest season of Peacock’s Love Island crowned the most-watched streaming original series of 2025 in Luminate’s annual Film & TV Year-End Report, it’s clear that NBCUniversal has an asset on which to build. And in the latest episode of the Luminate podcast In the Lab, Dave Kaplan, NBCU’s head of content analytics for entertainment, sports and Peacock, explained how […]
Vice TV’s Pivot Playbook: A Brand-First Approach to Sports
The breakthrough success of ESPN’s Michael Jordan documentary series The Last Dance back in 2020 paved the way for a wave of sports-themed unscripted content that has shown little sign of abating. This subgenre is actually one of a few within the broader unscripted TV sector that hasn’t seen significant declines in production volume versus year-ago numbers, […]
Curiosity Stream Isn’t Just an SVOD Venture — It’s an AI Licensing Pioneer
When it comes to competitors, 10-year-old streaming service Curiosity Stream has more than its fair share in the factual entertainment category. From giants such as Netflix to niche players including MagellanTV, nonfiction content has no single source that dominates the way, say, Crunchyroll does in anime. But what separates Curiosity Stream from the pack is something not […]
The One Quibi Mistake Hollywood’s First Microdrama Venture Must Avoid
Perhaps one of the unlikeliest success stories to come out of Hollywood in recent years was the surprise hit Terrifier 3, a horror film that cost just $2 million to make yet topped the box office in October 2024 with $19 million in its opening weekend.
The Oscars on YouTube? Don’t Bet on It
And the Oscar for least likely to end up with the TV rights to the Academy Awards goes to … YouTube?