Recent articles
July 16, 2026
Beehiiv Bets New Suite of ‘Community’ Tools Will Forge Stronger Connection Between Creators, Subscribers
David Begnaud reaches thousands of people with newsletters and podcasts, all part of his new creator venture “Do Good Crew,” which highlights stories of kindness, generosity and inspiration. If onl...
variety.com
July 16, 2026
MS NOW Taps Brian Swarth as Senior Vice President of Marketing
Brian Swarth, a veteran of promoting series such as Showtime’s “Billions,” Audacy’s “Fly on the Wall with David Spade and Dana Carvey” and AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire,” will join MS NOW as it...
variety.com
July 16, 2026
NBC Sports Uses World Cup Fever to Spark Interest in Premier League Return
NBC Sports hopes to keep the nation’s summer of soccer alive, harnessing the interest in its World Cup telecasts on Telemundo and Peacock for its annual focus on Premier League play. NBC Sports and...
variety.com
July 15, 2026
MS NOW Prepares to Woo Red-State Crowds With Texas Live Event
You wouldn’t think MS NOW has a deep pocket of fans deep in the heart of Texas, but the cable-news network is going there anyway. The Versant Media backed news outlet will on September 26 offer a f...
variety.com
July 15, 2026
FCC Moves to End Cap on National Broadcast Ownership
The Federal Communications Commission signaled it will vote on August 6 to repeal the longstanding cap on ownership of TV stations, replacing a limit that keeps owners from controlling stations in ...
variety.com
July 15, 2026
Amazon Says Ad Commitments Grew in 2026 Upfront
Amid what has been described as a tepid “upfront” market, Amazon says its Prime Video service was able to notch gains in volume as more advertisers gravitated to sports and streaming. The digital g...
variety.com
July 15, 2026
Kenan Thompson Tests Directing Commercials With Sweet Spots for Mike & Ike Candies
Kenan Thompson has a long history with the fruit-flavored candy pellets known as Mike & Ike. “It’s one of those candies I remember grabbing at the movies or on a road trip, so there was already...
variety.com
July 14, 2026
TV’s Upfront Market Has Nearly Wrapped, Even if Big TV Won’t Say So (EXCLUSIVE)
TV’s annual “upfront” sales market has largely closed, but not with much of the fanfare that typically accompanies its end. TV networks and big media agencies have wrapped the bulk of their discuss...
variety.com
July 13, 2026
NBC’s Best Chance to Boost Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers May Come During TV’s Slow Summer Cycle
Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers on Monday evening start several weeks of late-night broadcasts aimed at reaching summer audiences, one of TV’s smallest pools of viewership. And yet, the two hosts have...
variety.com
July 8, 2026
John Lasker, a Top ESPN Streaming Executive, to Exit in September
John Lasker, who helped ESPN launch itself into the direct-to-consumer era, with oversight of an area that will likely grow in importance and more video consumers abandon cable for streaming, plans...
variety.com
July 8, 2026
Nexstar’s ‘The Hill’ Launches ‘Insider’ Subscription Tier
Nexstar’s “The Hill” hopes to get a bump from offering a new tier of content to hard-core subscribers. The Washington, D.C. publication, which analyzes politics and policy for people focused on ins...
variety.com
July 7, 2026
Disney’s ABC Asserts ‘The View’ Qualifies for News Exemption in New Filing
Joy Behar looks and acts nothing like David Muir or Robin Roberts, but ABC asserts her program, “The View” is entitled to the same protections as program such as “World News Tonight” or “Good Morni...
variety.com
July 6, 2026
Versant Extends Golf Game With Plans to Acquire Full Swing for $530 Million
The New York Times Co. has games. Disney has theme parks. And Versant Media has golf. In an era when more traditional media companies are looking beyond the usual flows of revenue, Versant on Monda...
variety.com
July 3, 2026
Disney Spent More Than A Year Devising 24 Hours of July 4th Sesquicentennial Coverage
Stephanie Ramos will help the Walt Disney Co. and ABC News deliver more than fireworks during a weekend that many TV companies are devoting to celebrating the Fourth of July. During a special Satur...
variety.com
July 2, 2026
Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions Builds Line-Up Tied to Women’s Sports
Roku launched a new look at top female athletes Thursday that includes a relative newcomer to the field. Omaha Productions is best known for the programs it produces for ESPN — particularly the so-...
variety.com
July 1, 2026
Paula Reid Expected to Move to MS NOW After Leaving CNN (EXCLUSIVE)
Legal-affairs journalist Paula Reid is expected to take up new duties at MS NOW, according to a person familiar with the matter, leaving behind a top job at CNN in part due to the uncertainty of it...
variety.com
July 1, 2026
Paula Reid, CNN’s Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent, Will Exit Ahead of Paramount Takeover
Paula Reid is laying down the law at CNN. The Warner Bros. Discovery-backed outlet’s chief legal affairs correspondent has decided to leave ahead of an expected takeover of the news giant by Paramo...
variety.com
June 29, 2026
Bruce Springsteen Goes to PBS for Half-Hour Conversation With ‘NewsHour’ Co-Anchor Geoff Bennett
Bruce Springsteen once decried TV as a venue that offers “fifty-seven channels and nothin’ on.” He apparently doesn’t feel that way about PBS. “PBS NewsHour” co-anchor Geoff Bennett recently interv...
variety.com
June 26, 2026
MS NOW Will Expand Video Podcasts on Weekends, While Veteran Alex Witt Plans Exit
The divide between so-called “creator media” and mainstream TV news continues to narrow — and quickly. Starting on Sunday, June 28, MS NOW will move away from featuring live, hosted hours after 6 p...
variety.com
June 25, 2026
NBC News’ Chief Digital Officer Chris Berend to Exit
Chris Berend a digital-media executives who has had a hand in helping to create new distribution platforms for NBC News journalism and properties including “Today,” is leaving the company after a s...
variety.com
June 24, 2026
Jill Schlesinger Offers Frank Financial Talk in CBS News’ ‘Money Moves’ Podcast
Jill Schlesinger isn’t afraid to tell you how to really handle your dollars and cents. The former head of an investment advisory firm, Schlesinger has served as a business analyst for CBS News sinc...
variety.com
June 23, 2026
Walmart to Acquire Vibe.co in Bid to Win More Advertising to Its Platforms
Walmart is one of the nation’s more prominent advertisers, but, increasingly, it’s looking to become a bigger sell of advertising as well. The retailing giant, which offers video-advertising invent...
variety.com
June 23, 2026
Walmart’s New TV Shows, ‘Join the Club,’ ‘Backyard Escapes’ Spur Vizio Users to Go Shop
Walmart hopes to get customers shopping before they arrive at the company’s stores or visit its website. The retailing giant is launching its own series of programs that feature goods viewers can b...
variety.com
June 23, 2026
Amazon Teams With Papa Johns, Beck, Jill Scott, Omar Courtz For New Alexa Ads Using Agentic AI
Alexa, buy me the pizza I just saw in that commercial. Amazon will harness agentic AI, which can determine the steps needed to solve a problem or come up with a solution, to create a new ad format ...
variety.com
June 22, 2026
Disney’s ABC Urges ‘View’ Audience to Get Involved With Company’s FCC Debate
Disney wants to bring another element into its ongoing squabble with the Federal Communications Commission: its fans. In a new campaign that launched Monday, the entertainment conglomerate urged th...
variety.com
June 22, 2026
Disney Plans to Open ESPN Fan House to Help Advertisers Reach Sports Fans in New Ways
Disney wants to help advertisers reach more of the sports fans under its own roof. The entertainment giant this August will launch a new interactive hub called ESPN Fan House that aims to bring fan...
variety.com
June 18, 2026
TelevisaUnivison Lures Media-Buying Veteran Mike Law as EVP, Brand Partnerships
Spanish-language broadcaster TelevisaUnivison has hired Michael Law, a longtime media-buying executive who was most recently CEO of Dentsu’s Carat North America, as its new executive vice president...
variety.com
June 18, 2026
Fox Scores Upfront Ad Dollars in Tough Market. The Trick? Lots of Sports, Less Traditional Cable
The overall market is down, but Fox is up. Despite Madison Avenue pressures on TV’s annual “upfront” ad-sales market and a projection that advertisers’ budgets will be tighter than in years past, F...
variety.com
June 16, 2026
Inside ESPN’s Big Bet on Women’s Sports for Sunday Nights (When Baseball Once Ruled)
Plenty of media companies are filling their schedules with all kinds of women’s sports, ranging from WNBA games to League One Volleyball match-ups. ESPN wants to do them one better. When the Disney...
variety.com
June 16, 2026
Samsung Galaxy Gets Starring Role in ‘Spider Man: Brand New Day’
One of the stars of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s latest entry in its “Spider-Man” franchise has little spoken dialogue, but may end up stealing a few scenes. Samsung’s Galaxy phones are used by ch...
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