Newsletter – August 7th, 2026

OTT.X NEWSLETTER AUGUST 7TH, 2026

The Menu Is the Business

The most consequential streaming decisions are increasingly happening outside the catalog.

NBCUniversal is putting Peacock inside YouTube Premium. Smart TV operating systems are turning device setup into a critical acquisition window. HBO Max is testing vertical clips and conversational search. Starz and Crunchyroll are using Prime Video to test audience overlap. AMC is licensing 371 episodes of The Walking Dead to Netflix. Amazon is preparing to take greater control of Thursday Night Football production, while YES and MSG are moving their direct-to-consumer products to DAZN.

Each deal places a different company between the content owner and a valuable customer action, including discovery, billing, setup, search, production, authentication, and data collection.

The Menu Is the Business

The most consequential streaming decisions are increasingly happening outside the catalog.

NBCUniversal is putting Peacock inside YouTube Premium. Smart TV operating systems are turning device setup into a critical acquisition window. HBO Max is testing vertical clips and conversational search. Starz and Crunchyroll are using Prime Video to test audience overlap. AMC is licensing 371 episodes of The Walking Dead to Netflix. Amazon is preparing to take greater control of Thursday Night Football production, while YES and MSG are moving their direct-to-consumer products to DAZN.

Each deal places a different company between the content owner and a valuable customer action, including discovery, billing, setup, search, production, authentication, and data collection.

The Take

The streaming business is moving downstream.

Content still creates the asset, but the menu determines whether that asset becomes viewing, advertising demand, subscriptions, retention, and usable customer data.

Partnerships can reduce costs and expand reach. They can also create dependency when the partner controls the action that produces the value.

Media executives need a clear operating map for every distribution relationship. Who controls discovery? Who owns the billing relationship? Who can message the customer, sell the next offer, reduce churn, and measure behavior?

The central strategic question is no longer limited to which content a company owns. It now includes which parts of the customer journey the company can still control.

Read the Full Analysis: The Streaming Wars

Paramount-Warner Bros. Trial to Start in March 2027

The judge overseeing a lawsuit from a coalition of 12 states looking to block Paramount‘s $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery has scheduled a trial to start in March.

The decision marks a blow for the studio, which pushed to start the trial in November. Starting on Oct. 1, Paramount will have to pay a ticking fee of roughly $7 million per day to Warners shareholders until the deal closes. It’ll likely be on the hook for upwards of $1.5 billion, accounting for the time it takes for the court to issue a ruling on the antitrust trial.

“We respect the court’s decision and continue to believe a trial on the merits is the best and most direct way for us to prove what we’ve said from the start – this transaction is lawful, pro-competitive, and raises no antitrust concerns,” a Paramount spokesperson said in a statement. “The lawsuit against us has no basis in fact, economics or antitrust law. We will continue to vigorously defend the transaction and remain committed to closing as soon as possible so its benefits for the creative community and consumers can be realized.”

Last week, Paramount urged the court to start the trial in November while the states proposed to set it for April.

The trial will last 12 days, beginning on March 2 and ending on March 19. It will run from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm. The final pretrial conference will be held in February, with both sides completing briefing by the beginning of April.

Read the Full Story: The Hollywood Reporter

Disney Announces Content Pact with TikTok

The Walt Disney Company and TikTok have struck a global partnership that will bring curated fan-created TikTok videos into Disney Plus, the companies said on Wednesday.

The announcement coincided with the release of Disney’s latest financial earnings report, which showed overall revenue was boosted in part by strong interest in its entertainment franchises and direct-to-consumer streaming products.

The partnership with TikTok aims to improve those businesses: It will start in the United States, where videos from participating TikTok creators will appear on both TikTok and Verts, the new short-form platform within Disney Plus.

The videos will feature characters, franchises and stories from across Disney’s portfolio, including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and FX. TikTok will also give creators access to assets tied to hundreds of Disney films and series, allowing them to create content using scenes and moments from the company’s library.

Disney said the videos will be refreshed regularly to reflect timely fan conversations and encourage Disney Plus subscribers to engage with the company’s stories in different formats.

“The best storytellers are fans first,” Disney’s Chief Marketing and Brand Officer Asad Ayaz said on Wednesday. “That has always been true at Disney, and today, fans are celebrating our stories in entirely new ways. This collaboration creates a new bridge between the stories we tell and the creativity they inspire, giving creators a bigger stage to share what they’ve made, and audiences more to discover on Disney Plus every day.”

Read the Full Story: TheDesk.net

NBCUniversal, Peacock Tap into YouTube Under Multi-Year Pact

NBCUniversal is cozying up to YouTube with a new multi-year global pact that aims to expand distribution for its Peacock streaming service and other content and calls for deeper collaboration on ad tech and sports production.

As part of the strategic partnership and deal, starting early next year NBCUniversal’s Peacock Premium streaming service content will be included in a YouTube Premium (the ad-free subscription option for music and videos on the platform) bundle in the U.S. for subscribers of the Google-owned service.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Peacock’s ad-supported tier is included at no extra charge or if the YouTube Premium price will increase, but it appears to be a more of an integrated bundle and distribution deal with Peacock content accessible via YouTube’s paid subscription. An NBCU spokesperson wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Individually, ad-supported Peacock Premium currently costs $10.99 per month while mostly ad-free YouTube Premium costs $15.99 per month. *Update: A YouTube spokesperson confirmed to us that the price of YouTube Premium in the U.S. will not change when Peacock content becomes available in early 2027.

"We will continue to introduce additional offers and options that allow subscribers to easily customize their viewing preferences and select the plan that works for them," the YouTube spokesperson added.

Per NBCU the agreement broadens reach by making Peacock immediately available to millions of existing YouTube Premium subscribers in early 2027 and marks “Peacock’s largest wholesale distribution partnership to date.”

Read the Full Story: StreamTV Insider

Next Week - A Timely Mid-Year Look at the State of Streaming

The streaming industry is moving quickly, with major developments in AI, live sports, advertising, corporate consolidation, and platform innovation continuing to reshape the competitive landscape.

Join us next week for OTT.X BUZZ: State of Streaming – Mid-Year Review, a timely executive conversation examining the industry developments that have defined 2026 and what organizations should be preparing for in the months ahead.

With so much happening across the industry, from the continued growth of ad-supported streaming and the expanding role of AI to the impact of the World Cup and other major live sporting events, this discussion comes at an important moment for the streaming ecosystem.

The conversation will explore:

Corporate consolidation and its impact on the competitive landscape
The continued growth of ad-supported tiers
Live sports on streaming, particularly the World Cup
Changes in the types, formats, and genres of content being produced
The innovations and shifting consumer expectations shaping what comes next

Hear perspectives from executives representing leading streaming platforms, technology providers, and media analysts as they examine the opportunities, challenges, and developments driving the next phase of streaming.

Next Week - Register Now

Ampere: Consumers Spend Half Their Day With Media Platforms

Consumers in the United States and United Kingdom now spend almost 11 cumulative hours per day using differentiated media platforms like streaming video, gaming, audio and social video, according to new research released by Ampere Analysis on Monday.

The company’s latest Attention Economy study found that media consumption is no longer centered on one dominant platform or format. Instead, consumers are building varied media routines based on mood, age, location and specific needs.

The daily total includes overlapping activities, such as watching television while using a smartphone. Ampere said that behavior has become more common as mobile devices make it easier for consumers to use multiple media services at the same time.

Streaming services accounted for the highest level of daily engagement at 1 hour and 57 minutes. Social media followed at 1 hour and 46 minutes, while YouTube accounted for 1 hour and 35 minutes.

Ampere said each format serves a different role in consumers’ daily routines. Streaming services are most often used for relaxation and immersion. YouTube is more closely associated with discovery and improving users’ moods, while social media is frequently used to relieve boredom or provide distraction.

“Today’s consumers have more varied media diets than ever before, selecting from an expanding menu of media depending on what they want in the moment,” Sam Nursall, a research manager at Ampere Analysis, said on Monday. “Whether they’re looking to relax, discover something new or simply fill spare time, each medium serves a different purpose. That’s today’s attention economy.”

Read the Full Story: TheDesk.net

AdGood Provides Affordable CTV Advertising For Nonprofits

There are some ideas that make perfect sense once your hear about them for the first time.

That’s certainly the case with AdGood, a company that takes excess Connected TV (CTV) ad space and provides it to non-profits at a steep discount. The companies donating the excess ad space get a tax break on time that would otherwise go unused. And non-profits not only get cost-effective television advertising, AdGood also provides help creating the ads as well as managing the ad campaign and tracking performance.

Forbes' Rick Ellis recently spoke with Craig Heiting, Chief Revenue Officer of AdGood when at StreamTV in Denver for an overview of the company’s business model, the challenges of working in a non-profit space and where he sees the company heading in the next few years.

Rick Ellis: One of the reasons I wanted to talk to you was that I wasn’t familiar with the business. And I think it’s a fascinating story. Can you talk about the origin of it?

Craig Heiting: So it’s really the brainchild of Kris Johns, who is our CEO. We worked together. He was the creator of all of the ad tech solutions at Wurl. And I was in charge of business development at Wurl in the early days. And our CTO was also an engineering fellow at Wurl as well. So we were all working together at that company, all great friends. And we sold that company to AppLovin. And AppLovin blew up.

So that was good. It was good for us.

So we all left Wurl. And we thought, what can we do to give back? And Kris came up with this idea because he was giving blood or something. And he asked them “Why don’t you advertise the Red Cross on TV?” And their response was that it was very expensive.

For the Full Interview: Forbes

In Case You Missed It

Ask Skip: Automation Made Advertising Faster. Not Necessarily Smarter. The Streaming Wars
Spotify Wants Fans to Pay Twice for the Same Song. Artists Still Don’t Know Their Cut. The Streaming Wars
Sony Is Building a Premium Entertainment Business That Doesn’t Depend on Streaming. The Streaming Wars
Amazon and Walmart Are Coming for Streaming’s Ad Dollars. The Streaming Wars
The Smartest Streaming Strategy May Be Knowing What Not to Keep Exclusive. The Streaming Wars
Eleven Hours of Media. Almost None of It Has Your Full Attention. The Streaming Wars
What It Really Takes to Run a DTC Streaming Service. The Streaming Wars
Inside the Starz-Crunchyroll Bet on Power Fans Watching Anime. The Streaming Wars
Netflix’s Reported $500 Million Walking Dead Deal Is Really a Bet on Predictable Viewing Hours. The Streaming Wars

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