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Inside The Heartthrob Industrial Complex

Streaming, social media, and luxury brands have changed how Hollywood creates heartthrobs. Inside the formula behind today's biggest internet crushes.

Aug 4 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • nylon.com

Here's How To Watch The Nintendo Direct For Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

The livestream starts today at 10AM ET/7AM PT.

Aug 4 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • engadget.com

The Steam Frame Might End Up More Expensive Than the Steam Machine

In a now-deleted stream, Valve leaker Tyler McVicker suggests the Steam Frame could be more expensive than the Steam Machine.

Aug 3 • 2:20 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com

If Not AOC, Then Who?

What do we do if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decides not to run for president in 2028? It makes sense that many leftists are currently focused on calling on her to take the plunge. But the absence of a Plan B, or even much discussion about one, is worrisome. The US Left can’t afford to sit out the 2028 Democratic primary. Doing so in 2024 was a disaster: our abstention self-marginalized anti-billionaire politics from the national conversation and thereby gave space for Harris to pivot to the “center” (i.e. the policy preferences of corporate donors, establishment hacks, and AIPAC). Abstaining again in 2028 would be especially counterproductive since democratic socialists now have so much wind in our sails after our big electoral wins in NYC and across the country. It’s time to deepen our momentum, organization, and profile — not to retreat to the margins during America’s single most important political battle. Even more urgently, keeping Trump’s heir out of the White House may depend on whether leftists and the party’s unprecedentedly disenchanted base can force the Democrats in 2028 to take meaningful steps towards a very angry electorate and away from the corporate-consultant blob that has helped get us into this mess. If AOC (or Abdul El-Sayed) decides to run, we should enthusiastically go all in — DSA, fighting unions, progressive organizations, anybody who wants to see a better country and world. But, as far as I can tell from the outside, there’s a real chance that she doesn’t run. And we can’t just wait and see where she lands before discussing alternatives, since AOC’s decision might not come for quite a while, giving us little time to scramble at the last minute for an alternative. So we should start working now on getting a Plan B into motion, and recruiting a good candidate for the role. Here’s one idea. A Worker Candidate — Healthcare Not Warfare 2028 Run a union worker Leftists don’t need to always run experienced, well-known socialist politicians for high-profile contests. Lula, the current president of Brazil, began his political career as a metalworker militant who ran for governor of São Paulo in 1982. Especially in an era of institutional distrust, it’s possible to lean hard into making a virtue out of a working-class comrade’s distance from traditional politics. Experience abroad shows this clearly. Rachel Kéké — an immigrant hotel housekeeper — ran as the candidate of the leftist La France Insoumise for the National Assembly in 2022, defeating a former minister in the Macron government. The Belgian Workers’ Party in 2024 won its first Flemish seat in the European Parliament by running Rudi Kennes, a three-decade veteran of the Opel Antwerp auto factory. And the South Korean left in 2024 elected auto factory militant Yoon Jong-oh to the National Assembly. If a tiny French Trotskyist organization could make such a big splash in 2002 and 2007 by running a well-spoken postal worker cadre for office — the LCR’s Olivier Besancenot received about 1.5 million first-round votes — it’s not far-fetched to expect that a much larger organization like DSA, together with a broader coalition of the willing, could run this playbook to much greater effect. This is especially the case now that almost everything DSA does immediately becomes a national news story. We don’t need someone famous. We just need a charismatic, well-vetted comrade who works in a relatable working-class occupation — e.g. a nurse, or a worker in auto or construction, or at Amazon. Ideally, they have a compelling personal story or have been part of a significant strike or organizing campaign, but even those criteria don’t necessarily have to be deal-breakers. The main lesson of the Graham Platner fiasco isn’t that we should never run outsiders for office (the momentum he generated proves the exact opposite), but that they need proper vetting and roots in democratic membership organizations like DSA or a union. In any case, there are plenty of ways to signal working-class authenticity without resorting to Platner’s or Fetterman’s performative macho white dude affect. Better to have someone of any gender or race who is actually working class, with firm socialist politics, who can speak from experience about the day-to-day realities of trying to make it in America. There are surely at least a dozen such worker leaders in our movement nationwide; we just need to sit down and convince one that their personal sacrifice for the greater good (i.e. running for president) will be worth it. If we don’t have a frontrunner with a clear path to victory like AOC (or El-Sayed, were he to win Michigan), it’s better to embrace someone whose decision to run in itself tells an important story about US politics: workers have been iced out of our political system and are now fighting hard to break back in. The novelty factor, in itself, would generate press. And it would help democratic socialists signal to the American public that our movement’s defining characteristic is that we represent workers vs. bosses, not that we’re “the furthest left” force in American politics — a framework that suggests we’re extremists and that helps our opponents isolate us from non-college-educated voters by highlighting extremely minoritarian (and misguided) stances included in DSA’s platform like prison abolition. We don’t get many opportunities to speak to tens of millions of Americans; we need to use these opportunities to broaden our appeal beyond those already in our orbit. Run to polarize the 2028 primary and general election around “Medicare for All” and “End All Aid to Israel” Why should democratic socialists use our scarce time and volunteer energy to run in a race we’re unlikely to win? Running in the 2028 primary will not only recruit us scores of members (imagine having a DSA member intervening in eleven nationally televised primary debates!), but — more importantly — it has the potential to be a decisive leap forward towards an America that finally starts meeting the needs of working people instead of HMO and AIPAC billionaire donors. Polarizing litmus tests are good, actually — as long as they’re fought for around popular demands in a thoughtful and strategic way. Democratic socialists have an opportunity and responsibility to make the 2028 primary about two of the most widely and deeply felt issues of our moment: domestically, America’s unaffordable, family-breaking private healthcare system; internationally, America’s bankrolling of the genocidal Israeli government. A candidacy relentlessly demanding Medicare for All and No Aid to Israel would pose a sharp question to the American public, the Democratic Party, and other 2028 contenders: Why can’t working-class Americans afford their healthcare bills at the same time that our government is spending at least $3.8 billion yearly to fund an Israeli regime eager to keep dragging us and the world into more forever wars? Our candidate can agitate around a clear message: I’m running to give voice to all those working-class Americans who are struggling to get by. No matter what state you live in, who you voted for in 2024, or your background, it’s just plain common sense that we should make healthcare more affordable instead of spending billions to enable the Israeli government’s crimes against humanity. Every American who agrees with me when I say ‘Medicare for All — Not a Dime for Israel’ should make their voice heard through our campaign. Racking up a high number of votes for this agenda is a crucial way to show the Democratic Party and the country as a whole that we can’t keep supporting a life-destroying status quo in our healthcare system and in the Middle East. If we want to defeat Trump’s handpicked crony this coming November, we need to speak to ordinary people’s frustrations with the status quo — we can’t keep running the same tired establishment playbook and expecting a different result. For those highly engaged voters (or skeptical media pundits) who raise concerns about wasting votes, the candidate can take the time to explain why this isn’t the case: It's true I'm a long shot. But Zohran showed anything can happen — and voting for me is a pragmatic decision, not a wasted vote. In a heavily divided primary with a large number of candidates and a very discredited establishment, my campaign and the democratic socialist movement I’m part of are positioned to be the balance of power if we can get a large enough number of voters to loudly demand Healthcare Not Warfare. Since there’s a high chance no candidate will get to 50% in the 2028 primaries, the Democrats could very well be heading towards a brokered convention, where a disciplined, principled current committed to breaking from corporate donors can play an outsized role in making sure whoever ends up with the nomination raises the banner of single-payer healthcare and cutting aid to Israel. How exactly could running this sort of primary campaign be translated into actual leverage? The candidate replies: I’m aiming to win the nomination, but if I don’t achieve that goal, my delegates and I will pledge our support in the primary only for a candidate who agrees in the general election to call for ending US aid to Israel and establishing Medicare for All at home. These are both winning planks for November against the Republicans, and the only reason I can see that other candidates haven’t yet raised these is that they’re still more scared of the donor class than they are of the people. That needs to change. If Democratic leaders want young people, workers, and those sick of the status quo to show up in big numbers this November, they need to meet us halfway. In this way, whether or not we win the nomination, democratic socialists could still play a decisive role in 2028. The approach outlined here is similar to what radical left parties periodically do in parliamentary democracies like Denmark or Sweden when they find themselves as a junior partner electorally: they dictate to center-left allies what their terms would be for enabling, from the outside, the formation of a new government. Running a Healthcare Not Warfare candidate will make it significantly more likely that the 2028 Democratic candidate stands with ordinary people instead of donors on these two pivotal planks — a shift that will, in turn, make it easier to achieve the existentially important task of defeating MAGA’s heir in November. Look at how much popular traction the Uncommitted movement got with a similar strategy in 2024 with so little on-the-ground organization — surely we can go much further with a working-class candidate, a much bigger DSA, and a Democratic Party base that has turned against Israel, billionaires, and the hacks in the party who prop them up. Objections and Responses There are quite a few objections to this proposal, many of which are very reasonable. Let me briefly address each here. Socialists shouldn’t waste their scarce time and resources on a candidate unlikely to win. This is a good rule in general, but there are important exceptions, and presidential elections are the main one. There’s no other political contest that gets anything like this level of attention and engagement in the US, so if you want to be a serious force in nationwide politics, you basically can’t afford not to have a candidate. Far from being an overall drain on our resources, running a dynamic 2028 campaign would likely result in a major net increase in members and capacity. In that spirit, the very pragmatic Milwaukee sewer socialists — who mostly ran to win at home in Wisconsin — supported Eugene Debs’s propagandistic presidential campaigns, which they correctly saw as a crucial means of recruiting to the Socialist Party. And now that the (post-1972) Democratic Party gives more weight to voters than party operatives in determining its presidential nomination, it’s become feasible to run as a socialist in primaries without risking a split in the vote against the Republicans in November. We should just support Ro Khanna, who also supports M4A and ending aid to Israel. I like Ro Khanna and would enthusiastically vote and canvass for him for president were he to get the nomination. But there’s a real chance that Khanna’s bid for office doesn’t catch on; he lacks the grassroots organizational apparatus of DSA, and, because he’s not really of the Left or labor (despite his current very good positions), he’s unlikely to generate the type of buy-in and enthusiasm that a DSA candidate would. Moreover, Khanna would be running as an individual, not as someone emerging from and building an organized movement — his campaign would not likely focus on building sustained power from below, nor would it likely polarize the 2028 primary around M4A and Israel aid. Also, and not inconsequentially, the poor electoral results for Tom Steyer and Saikat Chakrabarti this spring suggest that there’s perhaps not much of a popular appetite in the Democrats’ base to support multi-millionaire class traitors. Much better, then, to run a democratic socialist worker. If by Super Tuesday it’s clear that our campaign has captured the main left lane in the primary, Khanna should drop out and endorse us; conversely, if he’s managed to capture this lane, DSA could at that point transform its Healthcare Not Warfare campaign into an independent campaign to elect Ro Khanna focused on winning (and holding him accountable to) those two critical planks. An openness to consolidating an anti-corporate candidate by Super Tuesday is a necessary component of the strategy I’m proposing, because otherwise we risk splitting the primary votes (per DNC rules, you need at least 15% to get any delegates to convention). We should convince Shawn Fain or Sara Nelson to run for president instead. I agree it’d be great if either ran for president, but my impression is that there’s basically no chance that will happen in 2028, because both are firmly focused on their union leadership duties (and, in the case of Fain, beating back a federal witch-hunt). This plan could have DSA end up endorsing a non-socialist, non-DSAer for president. That’s against our principles. It’s a myth, and bad politics, that socialists can’t ever support candidates who aren’t members of their organization and/or who don’t call themselves socialists. Bernie, after all, was not a DSAer. And socialists abroad regularly make tactical decisions about if and when supporting a non-socialist candidate makes sense from the standpoint of promoting working-class interests, defending democracy, and building a socialist current in the process. If your “principles” prevent you and DSA from helping achieve the momentous stride forward of having a Democratic candidate in 2028 run on Medicare for All and ending aid to Israel, those “principles” are not very good. In fact, they actively undermine the causes they’re aiming to support. We shouldn’t confuse principles (working-class independence) with tactics (the best way to advance this in a given context). In my recent article in Catalyst on Milwaukee sewer socialism (I’ve uploaded the full text here), I have a section showing how similarly rigid rules about endorsements had to be eventually discarded in the old Socialist Party nationwide after WWI because they tended to lead socialists towards a sectarian abstention from broader anti-corporate electoral insurgencies beyond their party’s control. For what it’s worth, Lenin’s current under Tsarism frequently backed bourgeois candidates in the second round of elections and Lenin himself advocated that British Communists support Labour Party candidates; for his part, Kautsky in 1912 defended the German Social Democracy’s electoral pact with the Progressives in the runoffs. If our predecessors could be that tactically flexible in an era before the limits of their underlying strategic assumptions about intransigent class politics in capitalist democracies were made clear, then there’s no need to insist on being more tactically rigid today, after a century’s worth of accumulated experience. As long as you maintain your own political profile and organization while engaging in broader coalitional efforts, there’s zero inherent contradiction with the principle of political independence. More specifically: DSA and allied organizations should enthusiastically back Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed if AOC declines to run and he throws his hat in the presidential ring. (I have no idea whether he’s even considering this path, but there’ll surely be chatter about it if he wins his Senate race this November.) Though he doesn’t call himself a socialist, El-Sayed is a principled Berniecrat, a consistent fighter for Palestine, and would have a clear path to victory. Using the “s” word is far less important than whether a campaign fights for the interests of working people at home and abroad — and whether actively participating in it can grow the organized working class and the Left. And the same holds true if a less anti-corporate candidate were, under pressure, to adopt our two Healthcare Not Warfare planks. Why focus only on M4A and ending US aid to Israel? There are so many other important issues to fight for! Obviously there are many pivotal issues beyond healthcare and Israel, and our candidate — and especially our organizations involved in the campaign — should be prepared to speak on all of these. But one of the crucial lessons of the Zohran campaign is that you have to relentlessly stay on message if you want to cut through the noise. CNN and Fox News will want to talk about DSA’s views on Venezuela and abolishing the police; we need to polarize the debate on the widely and deeply felt issues that are most favorable for growing the Left, isolating our opponents, and winning urgently needed changes. One recent poll found 63% of Americans support M4A, even after respondents were told it would raise taxes and eliminate most private insurance. Another found that 74% of Democrats opposed “providing additional economic and military support to Israel.” And focusing on two demands sets the campaign up to be able to leverage its mandate to make clear demands upon other candidates (which we can’t do if we run with a laundry list of demands). Talking about a Plan B is a distraction from the more urgent work of building a groundswell of calls on AOC to run. It’s good for DSAers, fightback unionists, and progressive organizations to try to convince AOC to run. This proposal is meant as an addendum to pushes to get AOC to run and to line DSA up for that eventuality, not as a substitute for those efforts. But I’m worried that, like in 2024, we might eventually find ourselves with no time to find a viable alternative unless we start now. DSA, with its abundant deliberative processes, moves slowly. The approach you’re suggesting seems risky. If a DSA candidate runs but doesn’t receive a lot of votes, it’ll undercut our current national momentum. This is a reasonable worry. All big initiatives always carry risks, and the path I’m advocating is certainly not free of these. That said, if a Healthcare Not Warfare campaign doesn’t catch on like we envisioned, it’s a pretty simple pivot in March 2028 to explain that in the future we really need our standard-bearers like AOC, or our growing bench of national electeds, to step up in presidential primaries. Moreover, it’s worth noting that the risk of my Plan B proposal is on the whole significantly less than the risk entailed by an AOC run. We should all back her if she runs, since she’d fire up the base, provide huge openings for organizing, have a real shot at defeating a Republican (especially given MAGA’s unpopularity), be a great standard-bearer for our issues, particularly M4A and ending aid to Israel, and be less willing than mainstream candidates to capitulate to any anti-democratic machinations from Trump and co. But it’s also true that AOC could lose, which would be a devastating setback to the country and the Left. Or she could win and find herself unable to pass much, if any, of her (and our) program, a demoralizing prospect. So if we’re willing to take these risks with AOC (and we should), it follows that we should be able to take lower-level risks if she doesn’t throw her hat in the ring. What’s Your Plan B? The US Left is facing its biggest opening for growth and influence since the 1930s. Initiatives that would have been impossible a few months ago are now potentially feasible. A President AOC is now easier to imagine, but if she ultimately assesses that the risks aren’t worth the potential reward in 2028, we can’t be left flat-footed. So even if you’re not convinced by the specifics of my Plan B, I hope you can at least agree that it’d be a disaster for us not to have one — and not to start getting a Plan B into motion. Hopefully other organizers and political currents will put forward their responses and alternative ideas ASAP. The stakes are too high to just wait and see. More As always, please share this article widely. This newsletter depends on all you lovely people to get the word out. Thank you! I uploaded the full text of my Catalyst article on Milwaukee sewer socialism here (it’s updated and 3x as long as the version published earlier on this substack). If you haven’t yet, please make sure to subscribe to Catalyst here; I read every issue front to back, highly recommend. 🌹🎵 Ivan Lins (arranged by Arthur Verocai) — “General da Banda” 🌹🎵

Aug 3 • 12:50 PM EDT • Politics • laborpolitics.com

Edgestream Partners L.P. Buys Shares of 84,184 Caesars Entertainment, Inc. $CZR

Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:CZR - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 84,184 shares of the company's sto

Aug 3 • 4:08 AM EDT • Entertainment • marketbeat.com

Fantasy Baseball Week 20 Preview: Two-start pitcher rankings highlight Troy Melton, Logan Henderson

Two-start pitchers for Week 20 including top fantasy baseball streaming options.

Aug 3 • 3:05 AM EDT • Sports • cbssports.com

How to live stream Yankees vs Cubs: MLB, TV channel

The New York Yankees (62-49) and Chicago Cubs (63-48) decide their three-game series on Sunday after the Cubs evened things up with a win on Saturday night at Wrigley Field. How to Watch New York Yankees vs Chicago Cubs Pete…

Aug 2 • 1:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

The Forensic Science Lab at Columbus Arts Council

A STREAM program for ages 5–13 meets at 9 a.m. at the Columbus Arts Council, 501 Main St. Students will investigate mock crime scenes, examine fingerprints and footprints, and use clues to solve a mystery, with instruction from forensic science professionals.

Aug 1 • 12:30 PM EDT • Science • cdispatch.com

WNBA games today: Schedule, times, how to watch for Aug. 1

Here's the full WNBA schedule for Aug. 1, including game times, TV channels, scores and how to stream.

Aug 1 • 6:12 AM EDT • Sports • usatoday.com

The Streaming Bubble Keeps Popping

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) One of my rules is “never bet against PE [private equity]”. This isn’t to say that I agree with their methods or tactics or strategies or financial innovations (aka shenanigans). Just that in the long arc of financial history, they’ve tended to return very good returns to their shareholders. That said, their forays into entertainment have left me...skeptical. I’ve written before about PE’s production company/celebrity production company roll ups, and those haven’t really worked out. Some PE groups tried to “roll up” an industry that isn’t “roll-up-able” for lack of a better term—since the barrier to entry for starting a production company is very low—often paying top dollar for celebrity production companies at the height of streaming valuations. So yeah maybe we can bet against PE when they venture into filmed entertainment. I’ve also noted that studio lots seemed to be a bubble back in 2022. Sure enough… Yikes! That sure sounds like some private equity guys lost some money. The only caveat being that holding a lot of land in Los Angeles is always valuable. But that wasn’t the pitch and likely real estate investment companies overpaid for said land. I mean, Goldman Sachs had to repossess it after all. (Technically, I’m not sure these buyers were traditional private equity, but PE was buying LA studio lots earlier this decade.) All to say: I call out bubbles when I see them, and they often pop. Anywho, my most famous bubble call was the “streaming bubble”, specifically that the major streamers were making too many shows and films. And that it could all come crashing down. Notably, I made this call before the strikes of 2023, but those strikes potentially accelerated the popping. And now it has indeed popped. One of my most popular articles of last year made that exact case. A year later, it’s time to update that analysis. The bottom line is that the streaming contraction continues. Credit where credit is due, Luminate—an analytics company whose data I use weekly in my streaming ratings report—called this out in a recent report I saw highlighted in both Bloomberg and The Hollywood Reporter. But I’m adding my data to their look, including streaming films and kids TV shows. I’ll also provide some other data that all tells the same picture. Let’s dive in! Subscribe The Number of Streaming TV Shows, Films and Specials Is Declining AGAIN in 2026 Let’s get right to the data, starting with my dataset. Specifically, each week I track every “notable” title to come out on streaming. I try to grab every title on every major streamer, meaning if it’s a first run or original or exclusive, I track it. This helps me call out the “dogs not barking” and the misses/flops each week. So that will be our first series of charts, my weekly collection data. Let’s start with the raw TV show, film and special data, by week. Note: As the years have gone by, I have actually added more sources (going from just one source to five sources) to find new titles, meaning that this data collection is, likely, more accurate now than in the past. Which means my team and I are more likely to have undercounted titles in the past rather than today. I like to cut the data several different ways. Here’s that same look, by quarter, to more sharply show the trends: And here’s the data just looking at the first half of each year. That’s the same data, just cut three different ways with three different time periods. Note that films, TV shows, and specials are all down by 25%, 42% and 17%, respectively, from 2022. The good news is that the number of films and specials actually increased year-over-year from 2025 to 2026, but not enough to offset the 25% decline in TV shows. Now, I also look at kids shows, and here they are pulled out on their own: And here’s that by quarter: This really seems to be a notable area of pullback by the streamers. Kids shows are down 80% from 2022. This reflects some formerly Disney+ shows going to cable TV first, but also pullbacks from HBO Max, Prime Video and Netflix. I also categorize the TV shows by English language and non-English language, and that also reveals a lot of where the drop comes from: And here is by the half-year: In this look, the good news is the drop for English language shows seems to have stabilized in the last year. But the bad news is the long term decline from the 2022 peak. Other Data So I wasn’t the only person to notice this decline in the number of shows. I have a few other data sources for this, though most only go through the end of 2025. As I said, Luminate beat me to the punch, so let’s look at their data. We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… What TV loss streaming didn’t make up for... How Netflix has changed their programming slate over time… Ten more images charting the decline of production... What type of films aren’t being made anymore... The good news (for movie theaters)… And more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support.

Jul 31 • 2:43 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

‘Project Hail Mary’ and More Science Fiction Movies to Stream Now

From the Ryan Gosling hit “Project Hail Mary” to the psychosexual alien rom-com “Touch Me,” explore this month’s eclectic picks.

Jul 31 • 11:00 AM EDT • Science • nytimes.com

New movies to watch this weekend: See 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' in theaters, rent 'Supergirl,' stream 'The Devil Wears Prada 2' on Disney+

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day," "I Want Your Sex" and "The Devil's Mouth" are out now. Are they worth watching?

Jul 31 • 9:34 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

DirecTV Will Carry NFL Sunday Ticket for Bars, After All

DirecTV and EverPass announced a multiyear agreement Friday, allowing for bar owners to continue showing NFL Sunday Ticket via satellite or streaming, after months of discussion about the league’s out-of-market package for commercial establishments. The agreement goes beyond Sunday Ticket, making DirecTV the go-to sales, marketing and distribution partner for all of EverPass’ content, including …

Jul 31 • 9:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

NFL SUNDAY TICKET AVAILABLE ON DIRECTV FOR BUSINESS THROUGH NEW AGREEMENT WITH EVERPASS

/PRNewswire/ -- DIRECTV today announced a new multi-year agreement with EverPass Media to distribute NFL Sunday Ticket via satellite and streaming to bars,...

Jul 31 • 9:00 AM EDT • Business • prnewswire.com

BP Puts Its North Sea Drilling Business Up for Sale

The plans are part of the energy giant’s efforts to streamline operations, but BP has deep roots in the region.

Jul 31 • 8:08 AM EDT • Business • nytimes.com

August sports streaming guide: ‘Ted Lasso’ returns, new Premier League season, CFB Week 0

Soccer seasons start. Engines rev from the Dutch Grand Prix to Daytona. The U.S. Open is back, and so are "Ted Lasso" shenanigans.

Jul 31 • 7:00 AM EDT • Sports • nytimes.com

FDA clears RadNet’s breast ultrasound AI solution

The product works by automating lesion detection, characterization and reporting, helping streamline workflows for both radiologists and sonographers.

Jul 31 • 2:40 AM EDT • Business • radiologybusiness.com

Makers of unreleased Nicolas Cage movie sue Netflix for $105 million after theft of film

The filmmakers behind an unreleased Nicolas Cage movie have sued streaming giant Netflix for $105 million, after a copy the company had been given to screen was stolen.

Jul 31 • 1:10 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

What is Disney?

Founded in 1923, Disney operates theme parks, film studios, and streaming services across more than 40 countries

Jul 30 • 3:54 PM EDT • Entertainment • qz.com

A&S Earth Sciences Professor Honored as 40 Under 40 Rising Star

Tao Wen has been recognized for his innovative, data-driven research on water quality, open environmental data, community engagement and policy-relevant environmental science.

Jul 30 • 2:01 PM EDT • Science • news.syr.edu

Brooklyn Nets Streaming Shifts From Gotham to DAZN

Brooklyn Nets fans will soon have a new way to stream local games. YES Network and MSG Networks are moving from the Gotham Sports App to DAZN, marking another major shift in the changing regional sports media landscape.

Jul 30 • 11:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

First look: Gemini could soon help you set up your new Android phone

Google is testing a Gemini AI setup assistant to streamline onboarding for new Android devices. Check it out in action!

Jul 30 • 10:02 AM EDT • Technology • androidauthority.com

Global sports streaming service eyes Charlotte Hornets coverage

According to the Sports Business Journal, DAZN is interested in streaming Charlotte Hornets coverage beginning during the 2027-28 campaign.

Jul 30 • 10:01 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

What to stream in August 2026: ‘Ted Lasso,’ ‘Lanterns,’ ‘Michael’

Here's what's coming to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+ and other streaming services in August.

Jul 30 • 9:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • yakimaherald.com

Get a LOTT out of Summer at the WET Science Center in Downtown Olympia

Visit the LOTT Clean Water Alliance WET Science Center or wade in the stream at East Bay Public Plaza with fun August activities for kids.

Jul 30 • 8:33 AM EDT • Science • thurstontalk.com

What's new to streaming this week? (July 31, 2026)

What’s new on Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and more? We've got you covered.

Jul 30 • 5:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • mashable.com

Live shopping startup Whatnot eyes massive $20 billion valuation

Whatnot, a live shopping startup, aims for $20 billion valuation in financing talks, driven by livestream sales in fashion and collectibles.

Jul 29 • 10:09 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Netflix and AMC Global Media Announce Global Streaming Licensing Agreement for All Series in AMC’s The Walking Dead Universe

Netflix and AMC Global Media announced a multi-year global licensing agreement for The Walking Dead series and all six spin-off series that make up The Walking Dead Universe.

Jul 29 • 8:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • about.netflix.com

Google TV is reportedly the #3 streaming OS in the US

According to new data, Google TV is apparently the #3 streaming platform in the US market, barely behind Fire TV.

Jul 29 • 12:25 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5google.com

DAZN replacing Gotham Sports as YES Network, MSG streaming home

DAZN will replace Gotham Sports as the streaming home for YES and MSG Networks beginning this fall.

Jul 29 • 10:51 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Young entrepreneurs turn sports card collecting into charitable business

Cards2Tuff founders plan charity livestreams benefiting Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota and DeSoto Counties

Jul 29 • 10:18 AM EDT • Business • mysuncoast.com

YES, MSG Networks Will Move Their Streaming Sports to DAZN

YES, MSG Networks Will Move Streaming Sports to DAZN

Jul 29 • 8:18 AM EDT • Sports • variety.com

YES Network, MSG Networks to exit Gotham app for DAZN streaming service

The regional sports networks that air games for local New York and New Jersey teams, including MLB's Yankees and NHL's Rangers, will have a new streaming home.

Jul 29 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • cnbc.com

Beyond Content Creation: How Wizstar Helps Enterprises Scale AI Across Business

As AI adoption continues to expand across enterprises, businesses are seeking more efficient, intelligent, and scalable ways to create content and streamline operations. Addressing these evolving needs, Wizstar provides a comprehensive AI digital human solution covering AIGC video generation, real-time interactive avatars, and AI-powered live streaming. Designed for marketing, customer service, training, and live commerce, the platform helps organizations improve content production efficiency, e

Jul 29 • 4:05 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com

Seattle’s Michelle Barboza-Ramirez a host on PBS’ new ‘Eon’ series

Seattle educator Michelle Barboza-Ramirez is one of four hosts on PBS’ “Eons: Life and Death on Pangea,” streaming its first episode Wednesday.

Jul 28 • 1:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • yakimaherald.com

Seattle educator used cosplay to help explain science. Then PBS called

Seattle educator Michelle Barboza-Ramirez is one of four hosts on PBS’ “Eons: Life and Death on Pangea,” streaming its first episode Wednesday.

Jul 28 • 1:00 PM EDT • Science • seattletimes.com

How to watch 'Jurassic Sharks' online – stream 'Shark Week' 2026 from anywhere

The "Shark Week" special brings prehistoric predators to life with the power of CGI

Jul 28 • 11:00 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com

The CW Network and ESPN set Aug. 4 launch date for CW Sports live streaming on the ESPN App

The CW Network and ESPN have set an Aug. 4 launch date for CW Sports live streaming on the ESPN App for ESPN Unlimited subscribers.

Jul 28 • 9:06 AM EDT • Sports • nascar.com

15 years ago, 4 letters changed Magic forever — and one new ability backfired

Magic 2012’s designers reveal how “dies” streamlined the game and why hexproof eventually gave way to ward

Jul 28 • 9:00 AM EDT • Technology • polygon.com

The CW Network, ESPN set August 4 launch for CW Sports live streaming on ESPN App

The CW Network and ESPN today announced that their highly anticipated streaming agreement to bring CW Sports’ live events to the ESPN App will officially launch on Tuesday, August 4.

Jul 28 • 9:00 AM EDT • Sports • jayski.com

The CW Network and ESPN set August 4 launch for CW Sports live streaming on the ESPN App

The CW Network and ESPN today announced that their highly anticipated streaming agreement to bring CW Sports’ live events to the ESPN App will officially

Jul 28 • 8:59 AM EDT • Sports • espnpressroom.com

A single sauna session sends immune cells surging

A single 30-minute sauna session may briefly put the immune system on higher alert. Finnish researchers found that sauna heat, paired with a short cold shower, increased every type of white blood cell circulating in the bloodstream, including key infection fighters such as neutrophils and lymphocytes.

Jul 27 • 8:52 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

'Michael' movie to get exclusive streaming, TV debut

"Michael," the film that takes the audience on the rise of the "King of Pop," is making an exclusive streaming debut.

Jul 27 • 11:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com

Our expanded partnership with NBCUniversal: Redefining the modern entertainment subscription

YouTube Premium is expanding its partnership with NBCUniversal to give subscribers access to ad-supported Peacock Premium streaming.

Jul 27 • 11:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • blog.youtube

How to watch Lollapalooza live from home: Stream Charli XCX, Olivia Dean, Smashing Pumpkins, and more

Catch sets from Charli XCX, Olivia Dean, The Smashing Pumpkins, Lorde, and more without leaving your house.

Jul 27 • 10:55 AM EDT • Entertainment • mashable.com

Alukunyang Named Track Runner of the Year at HBCU Sports Awards

CROSS ROADS, Texas – North Carolina Central standout Aaron Alukunyang was named the 2026 Men's Track and Field Runner of the Year at the third annual HBCU Sports Awards, which were streamed online Saturday afternoon.

Jul 27 • 8:31 AM EDT • Sports • nccueaglepride.com

Business briefs, July 27

New CMS voting memo sparks concerns over resident assistance in nursing homes … Initial jobless claims decline 22K week over week, falling to a seasonally adjusted tally of 187K … House Energy and Commerce Committee passes package to streamline Medicare Advantage prior authorization … 1 in 4 US workers sticking with a job strictly for health insurance … Fitch Ratings affirms Greenwood Village South at BBB-; outlook stable

Jul 26 • 8:01 PM EDT • Business • mcknightsseniorliving.com

Splash and Science Day Camp III—new location at Buttonwood

Kids can splash in the stream and learn about local waterways during a summer day camp offered by Buttonwood Nature Center. The Splash & Science day camp will be offered […]

Jul 26 • 6:44 PM EDT • Science • fcfreepresspa.com

SCC, Appalachian Ink Health Science Agreement

By Kaylie Simmons Southeastern Community College Southeastern Community College students pursuing careers in healthcare now have a new pathway to earn a bachelor’s degree through a transfer agreement with Appalachian State University. A memorandum of understanding between Appalachian State and participating North Carolina community colleges creates a streamlined transfer option for eligible SCC graduates to continue their education…

Jul 26 • 3:00 PM EDT • Science • columbuscountynews.com

Collectable popcorn buckets are big business for movie theaters

Theaters that are always in search of revenue streams have clearly hit upon a winner in those very lucrative collectable popcorn buckets that seem to be ubiquitous with blockbuster movies. KTLA's David Lazarus explains.

Jul 26 • 11:02 AM EDT • Business • kget.com

TV and streaming viewing picks for July 26, 2026: How to watch Yankees-Phillies

All Times Eastern Baseball Banana Ball World Tour Game 3, Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL Savannah Bananas vs. Firefighters — ESPN/ESPN Unlimited/Disney+, 4 p.m. Basketball Big3 Week 6, Toyota Center, Houston, TX DMV Trilogy vs. Miami 305/Houston Rig Hands vs. Dallas Power — CBS, 1 p.m. The Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals Alumni Semifinal, Memorial Coliseum, University of…

Jul 26 • 7:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

AI’s getting all up in our business travel

From reimbursements to booking trips, companies are turning to AI to streamline the process of heading out of town.

Jul 26 • 12:39 AM EDT • Business • morningbrew.com

Duke-Michigan rematch scrapped over broadcast rights

The rematch was slated for Dec. 21 and was supposed to be streamed on Amazon Prime as part of Duke's three-game deal.

Jul 25 • 3:02 PM EDT • Sports • spectrumlocalnews.com

WNBA games today: Schedule, times, how to watch for July 25

Here's the full WNBA schedule for July 25, including game times, TV channels, scores and how to stream.

Jul 25 • 6:13 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Roku Is Increasing Prices Across Its Hardware Range

Roku’s streaming devices got a price hike, and it’s reportedly because of industry-wide memory shortages.

Jul 25 • 4:30 AM EDT • Technology • engadget.com

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Movie slumps are the worst. You know when you’re looking through the titles on your streaming services, but nothing sounds quite right? And as you continue to look with little success, you get

Jul 24 • 4:33 PM EDT • Science • mcgill.ca

Roku raises streaming stick prices by up to 60 percent

Roku blames RAM shortage after CEO called it "great" for business in May.

Jul 24 • 3:41 PM EDT • Technology • arstechnica.com

#paramount #streaming #entertainment

Paramount Skydance isn't waiting around for its planned merger with Warner Bros. Discovery to bolster its flagship streaming service. Paramount's streaming leaders have told employees that they're planning major upgrades to Paramount+ in the coming weeks. An internal presentation, which was unveiled during a streaming town hall this week and viewed by Business Insider, shows "Product Priority Highlights" for Paramount's streaming business this quarter. These initiatives are part of Paramount CEO David Ellison's plan to improve the tech of a 114-year-old media company that trails Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney in streaming subscribers. Buying WBD would help Paramount catch up quickly and give it over 200 million streaming customers, the company has said. Read more about Paramount’s streaming projects on Business Insider: https://lnkd.in/eKfn9wyH (Credit: Getty Images) #paramount #streaming #entertainment

Jul 24 • 2:30 PM EDT • Entertainment • linkedin.com

Tomb Raider Chronicles - AMAZON GAME STUDIOS REPORTEDLY DELAYS TOMB RAIDER CATALYST TO 2028

Amazon Game Studios has reportedly delayed Tomb Raider Catalyst until 2028, according to comments made by Amazon Games boss, Jeffrey Gattis, during an interview with The Game Business on the topic of Amazon's cloud streaming service, Luna, coming to Prime Video.

Jul 24 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • tombraiderchronicles.com

Streaming Maple Leafs Games Just Got More Expensive... Again

Jul 24 • 7:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Sweeping, strafing and suppression: Total War: Warhammer 40,000 threatens to blow up Total War's combat fundamentals

Creative Assembly show off Total War: Warhammer 40,000's ranged combat and unit behaviour in detail in a new livestreamed battle.

Jul 24 • 6:05 AM EDT • Technology • rockpapershotgun.com

HSBC to Sell Singapore Insurance Business to Allianz for $2.1 Billion

HSBC has been undergoing a broad revamp, cutting costs and streamlining operations as it accelerates its pivot to Asia, where it generates the bulk of its profits.

Jul 23 • 7:42 PM EDT • Business • wsj.com

Hunter hunting.

Amazon’s Blade Runner streaming series has been in the works for ages, but it’s starting to feel a little more real. Entertainment Weekly just dropped the first images from the show, featuring stars Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer, while also confirming that Blade Runner 2099 is expected to come out this year. [Image: https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Hunter-Schafer-as-Cora-in-Blade-Runner-2099-Credit-Clay-Enos-for-Prime-2763-07172026-146c1bfb01944712ae548b76600b0ab4-1.webp?quality=90&strip=all]

Jul 23 • 3:58 PM EDT • Entertainment • theverge.com

Top Horror Movies Streaming This Week

Fans paid tribute to one of horror's greatest actors in thetop horror movies on streaming this week. Sam Neill, the universally beloved actor who starred in several classic scary movies, passed away l...

Jul 23 • 2:38 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

The Athletic brings video content to Fubo in expanded partnership

The Athletic is partnering with Fubo to bring the outlet’s video content to a streaming platform for the first time. The announcement expands on an October 2024 agreement which named Fubo as The Athletic’s first streaming partner by integrating the service into live game blogs and other content on The Athletic’s website. This time, the…

Jul 23 • 1:30 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Xbox Is Now Testing Its Free, Ad-Supported Streaming Tier

'Up to two' minutes' worth of ads in exchange for an hour of gaming

Jul 23 • 12:51 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com

Amazon puts Luna cloud-streamed games like Fallout 4 inside Prime Video

Watch Fallout, then play Fallout.

Jul 23 • 12:39 PM EDT • Technology • theverge.com

Amazon and Microsoft pivot cloud gaming strategies to target different players

Amazon is bringing Luna to the Prime Video streaming service, while Microsoft will test an ad-supported streaming of titles that people own.

Jul 23 • 12:00 PM EDT • Technology • cnbc.com

Xbox Tests Ad-Supported Game Streaming

Xbox is rolling out a test for ad-supported cloud gaming that will be available for a limited time on a voluntary basis for members of its fan-testing community, Xbox Insiders.

Jul 23 • 12:00 PM EDT • Technology • variety.com

Microsoft is testing free, ad-supported cloud gaming for Xbox Insiders

Would you watch ads to stream your games for free?

Jul 23 • 12:00 PM EDT • Technology • theverge.com

Microsoft Launches Test for Ad-Supported Xbox Game Streaming, Promises the Ads Will Not 'Interrupt the Flow of Gameplay'

Ad-supported Xbox game streaming is here, Microsoft has said. Here's how it works and how you can try it out.

Jul 23 • 12:00 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com

Critics Choice Association launches Creator Awards to honor podcasters, streamers, and digital storytellers

The new ceremony will celebrate podcasters, digital series, and social creators, with the first winners revealed in April 2027.

Jul 23 • 12:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

What's new to streaming this week? (July 24, 2026)

What’s new on Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and more? We've got you covered.

Jul 23 • 5:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • mashable.com

FloSports Launches Free Streaming Channel on Prime Video in the U.S.

The FloSports Channel To Showcase Entire FloSports Portfolio Of More Than 25 Sports To Passionate Fan Communities.

Jul 22 • 3:21 PM EDT • Sports • flowrestling.org

AMC Entertainment CEO says one long-running entertainment debate is finally over

For six years, the entertainment industry has been locked in a debate that touched everything from studio strategy to real estate valuations to the future of a 106-year-old American institution. The question was simple and existential: did streaming permanently replace movie theaters? July 20, AMC ...

Jul 22 • 1:47 PM EDT • Entertainment • sg.finance.yahoo.com

On the Move: Laureano-Rikardsen Takes Sphere Entertainment Post

Sphere Entertainment Co. names Karen Laureano-Rikardsen global head of corporate marketing and communications.

Jul 22 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • odwyerpr.com

Trinity Group Strengthens Nevis Business Solutions Through Strategic Collaboration with Hamilton Reserve Bank

Supporting international entrepreneurs through Nevis company formation and offshore bank account opening within 24 to 48 hoursDUBAI, United Arab Emirates, July 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trinity Group has entered into a strategic collaboration with Hamilton Reserve Bank to support international entrepreneurs and businesses, establishing a Nevis International Business Company (IBC) with a streamlined pathway from company formation to international banking. Through the collaboration, eligible cl

Jul 22 • 4:32 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com

Business in Oak Creek Canyon worried about impact of flooding threat

Last week’s flooding turned Oak Creek dark as water carried charred debris downstream after the Pocket Fire. Forest Houses Resort says floodwaters rose about 5 feet at its crossing, leaving it impassable until crews cleared sediment. Owners say continued flash flood concerns have prompted guest cancellations, even as their private property remains accessible. Businesses say open trails, restaurants and other attractions still give visitors reasons to come to Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon.

Jul 21 • 8:19 PM EDT • Business • azfamily.com

Patty Garcia responds to allegations of machine politics after opponents removed from ballot

‘The Point’ airs on WGN and streams on WGN+ each weeknight at 6:45 p.m. CT.

Jul 21 • 8:11 PM EDT • Politics • wgntv.com

Apple raises prices on some streaming services as licensing costs climb

Apple Music individual plans rise to $11.99 and family plans jump to $19.99 as the company cites rising licensing costs for the subscription hikes.

Jul 21 • 3:53 PM EDT • Technology • foxbusiness.com

Hailup Is Building the Digital Future of the Caribbean Entertainment Industry

ATLANTA, Georgia , July 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hailup Influencers Inc., founded by Byron Aris, is transforming how Caribbean influencers, artists, and creative professionals connect with fans and generate income worldwide. Designed exclusively for Caribbean talent, Hailup enables creators to monetize their brands through personalized video messages, premium fan experiences, live streaming, and exclusive digital content while strengthening authentic connections with audiences across the Car

Jul 21 • 2:25 PM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com

What to stream: ‘The Dink,’ ‘Stuart Fails to Save the Universe’

Charli xcx's new album and a pickleball movie starring Jake Johnson are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

Jul 21 • 9:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • seattletimes.com

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Songs of the Past Reveal Date Confirmed

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Songs of the Past will be revealed at gamescom 2026 during Opening Night Live, CD Projekt has announced.

Jul 21 • 7:31 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com

2026 FIFA World Cup

2026 FIFA Men's World Cup news, live scores, schedules, live streams, stats, standings, bracket and more from NBC Sports

Jul 21 • 6:50 AM EDT • Sports • nbcsports.com

£100,000 of TikTok sales in a day: The business of live shopping

Buying on social media livestreams is fast becoming regular consumer behaviour for many.

Jul 20 • 7:06 PM EDT • Business • bbc.com

UFC Freedom 250 Fails to Knock Out The Ratings

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) If UFC fans wanted one image to say, “Hey, Paramount+ is crushing it with their UFC rights deal,” I could provide that image. Here it is: (Reminder: this is my creation of the Nielsen Top 30, since Nielsen doesn’t combine the lists or include sports. I take all three lists and combine them. Some streaming TV shows probably have higher ratings than many of the films on this list.) Look at that! UFC Freedom 250 is number one! It topped the Nielsen “Top 30” list for shows and films that made the top ten the week of 15-June. So if you’re a UFC fan or supporter of Paramount+, that’s the good news for you this week. This program topped the ratings charts for one week. Everything else is bad news, or at least a huge caveat to that story, which I’ll explain today in the first part of this week’s Streaming Ratings Report—for the weeks of 8-June and 15-June—which is a double issue since I’ve been writing on a bunch of topics recently. UFC Freedom 250 is one of the biggest streaming events of the year, and super relevant to Paramount+’s strategy, so it merited its own article. Let’s dive in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of June 8th to June 21st 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Check Out My Interview on UFC 250 at MMA Draw After you read this article, if you want even more thoughts on UFC and Paramount-Skydance/Paramount+, I did a written interview with MMA Draw. They asked me to answer some questions about UFC Freedom 250, and I was happy to chat with them. Find it here: [ The MMA Draw Newsletter Did Paramount really overpay for the UFC? What the data tells us so far If you know the history of American television, you also know that combat sports is often a leading indicator of the future… Read more a day ago · 10 likes · 1 comment · Nate Wilcox and Zach Arnold ](https://www.themmadraw.com/p/did-paramount-really-overpay-for?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web) I never thought I’d need a combat sports newsletter in my life, but the good folks at MMA Draw publish an excellent one on UFC, MMA, pro wrestling, boxing and more, analyzing both the sports themselves and the politics, economics and antitrust issues that impact them. Check the article and their newsletter out! Paramount+ Has Its Best Sporting Event of All Time…But Was It Worth It? Before we look at the UFC Freedom 250 data in particular, let’s talk about what we can’t say. Namely, let’s start with the lack of comparisons. First off, I’d love to put a chart out comparing this fight to past UFC fights on Paramount+…but we don’t have the data. This is the first time we’ve gotten Nielsen data about a Paramount+ UFC fight. As far as I can tell, Paramount provided data for the first fight, but it was a proprietary datecdote (saying it had “an average minute audience” of 5 million “views”) and then, for two fights, we got the linear viewership numbers when they aired on CBS, but no streaming data. Everything else was crickets. We also can’t compare this fight to other fights/combat sports on streaming, in particular the MMA and boxing, because Netflix also didn’t use Nielsen to track those events, opting for TVision and VideoAmp, respectively. (This isn’t Paramount’s fault, but does still suck.) We also can’t compare to UFC’s fights that used to be on ESPN+, since we don’t have any data for that, plus Disney+ didn’t have marquee fights. The comparisons would not be apples-to-apples. Can we compare to past Pay-Per-View fights? Absolutely not. The comparisons would absolutely NOT be apples-to-apples. That didn’t stop Paramount+, though, who bragged that their UFC events have reached drastically more people than past PPV fights. Duh. Sorry, but I gotta make this point again. A basic tenet of economics is that the cheaper something becomes, the more people consume or buy it. That’s Econ 101. (Sometimes pundits call things “Econ 101” that are actually like Econ 210 or even PhD-level economics, but no, this is really like first or second class basic economics.) Yet I still see one analytics firm consistently say that more people watch films on streaming than PVOD proves streaming which means that the streaming window is more valuable than the PVOD window. No, it’s not! Same thing here. Pay-Per-View events back in the day could be really, really, really expensive! So whole groups of people pitched in to buy them. That increased the perceived value of, say, the Mike Tyson fight. Or a UFC numbered event. So yes, the fact that Paramount+ makes numbered UFC fights essentially “free” if you’re already a Paramount+ member means consumption will go up. Obviously. Same for Netflix and their boxing matches. They’re talking about fights that used to cost consumers, in some cases, $50 in 1996…which is over $100 in today’s dollars. Over 1.6 million people paid that to watch the Tyson-Holyfield fight! Again, streaming is essentially “free”. Or $10 to $20, depending on what streamer we’re talking about and what tier you’re on. No wonder more people are “watching”. (Plus, Nielsen’s out-of-home viewing also helps these numbers.) UFC Freedom 250 Did Well…But I Have A Lot of Worries So what can we compare the fights to? Well, the good news is Nielsen put out that the fight averaged 7.0 million viewers for UFC Freedom 250, which is a solid number for a fight. We also know the length, at roughly 4 and a half hours. (I saw different run times, but this seems to be the consensus considering it started at 8 pm, had a delay and then finished after midnight on the East Coast. If you assume a shorter run time, then yes, the total hours viewed would go down.) That means I have the two numbers needed to add this to my Nielsen database. And then…I can compare this viewership to the NFL: And, uh, not great. But also within striking distance, mainly because the runtime for this event was so long. I’d also add that this event had viewership equal to a regular season NFL game on streaming, but if anything, it was more comparable to an NFL playoff or Super Bowl-esque event. And you can compare viewership to the top football games on broadcast, cable and streaming, and it’s not impressive at all: We can also compare it to other sports that week, including the NBA Finals and start of the World Cup: Again, not great. The NBA generated roughly four times as many average viewers each game for its NBA Finals. The World Cup has similarly big numbers. Also, that’s just a tiny fraction of the 25 most watched sporting events each week. The NBA, NHL and FIFA World Cup had many, many more games racking up hours. We could also compare this to other streaming programs to get an idea of “is this a good investment?” and here is how it ranks compared to other top Paramount+ programs: The worry here? Well, unlike scripted programming, which has rewatchability, older fights/sporting events have very little library value. Very, very few people are rewatching these fights, especially years from now. Paramount has also released datecdotes bragging about their subscriber numbers. Earlier this year, they claimed that the first UFC fight on Paramount+ brought in 1 million subscribers. Then, in their quarterly earnings report, they only ended up with 700K subs. Not great! They claimed they dropped lower-value international subscribers, but that’s why I tend to discount subscriber additions when they’re leaked to the press.1 I expect we may see a bump again for UFC Freedom 250, but I’d caution using subscriber growth so soon after these events to judge the success, since new subs with high churn (see Peacock) aren’t great either. Also, analysts often want to attribute all subscriber growth to their favorite/pet show, and that just doesn’t make sense. The biggest caveat for UFC Freedom 250 and Paramount’s very first UFC marquee event is that these could be high watermarks for the sport. UFC Freedom 250 had an incredible amount of earned media coverage compared to most UFC fights. I mean, it had wall-to-wall national news coverage in the lead up to the event. (The first fight also had a lot of promotion from Paramount since it was first.) Other fights could reach this bar—say the Conor McGregor return to the Octagon—but they’ll be fewer and far between. Was This Deal Worth It? All to ask: is this Paramount deal worth it? In this case, I think the UFC Freedom 250 numbers are more distracting than helpful. This fight did well and compares well to other top sporting events. But we know that the first marquee event was at least a third smaller, if Paramount’s own data is to be believed. And it’s likely the other fights are much, much, much smaller. And then you get to the paycheck that Paramount-Skydance paid. FIFA’s World Cup cost about the same for Fox, but clearly generated multiples more total viewership. (Though it’s only every four years.) The NBA is much more expensive, but until the playoffs, they likely didn’t pay for itself. Even still, Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video likely overpaid. So, in that context, the NBA may be an overpay that makes the UFC look not so bad. But two overpays don’t make an underpay, to paraphrase the old cliché about wrongs and rights. And looking at UFC Freedom 250 as the likely ceiling of MMA on Paramount+, Paramount-Skydance likely paid too much. Share 1 I would love regular reports on subscriber additions by programs, but as is, it’s mostly leaked or rumored in haphazard ways.

Jul 20 • 6:48 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Vanderbilt Health-led registry identifies gaps, aims to improve outcomes for aortic stenosis patients

The registry tracks the quality of upstream care processes for patients with aortic stenosis — the most common type of heart valve disease.

Jul 20 • 11:18 AM EDT • Health • news.vumc.org

How Fox News, MS NOW and CNN Are Building Beyond the Cable Bundle

Fox News, MS NOW and CNN are using profitable linear TV businesses to invest in streaming, memberships and digital products.

Jul 20 • 9:15 AM EDT • Business • thewrap.com

Digital Safeguards: How To Safely Vet Virtual Entertainment Platforms In The Modern Era

Virtual entertainment used to be easier to separate. Streaming was streaming. Gaming was gaming. Betting and casino content sat somewhere else. Now the lines are messier. A single platform can

Jul 19 • 7:45 PM EDT • Entertainment • yesweekly.com