Streaming Industry Business, M&A & Strategy News

FreeCast has secured an agreement to become an authorized distributor of DIRECTV's streaming services, specifically targeting the multifamily housing market. Under the deal, forged through the DIRECTV Multifamily business unit, FreeCast will market and sell DIRECTV's streaming packages to property owners of apartments, condominiums, and other multi-resident communities. The partnership is intended to enhance FreeCast's turnkey entertainment solution, which already integrates broadcast channels and free streaming options.

Comcast lost 322,000 subscribers from its legacy cable TV business in the first quarter ended March 31, an improvement over the 427,000 subscribers lost in the same period last year. The segment, which includes Xfinity TV, ended the quarter with 10.95 million subscribers, down from 12.09 million a year prior. The company also narrowed its broadband subscriber losses to 65,000 from 183,000 a year ago.

AJA Video Systems has announced an agreement to acquire Comprimato, a provider of live video encoding and processing software. The acquisition intends to unify the development teams behind AJA's BRIDGE LIVE family of IP streaming products, with Comprimato's team joining AJA. Comprimato will continue to operate as a separate brand, and its software portfolio, including its Live Transcoder and JPEG 2000 Codec SDK, will be acquired by AJA.

Shure has made a minority investment in Edge Sound Research, a start-up company focused on developing experiential audio technologies. Edge Sound Research, founded in 2019 by University of California, Riverside students Ethan Castro and Valtteri Salomaki, aims to redefine how audiences consume sound.

RTL Group has received unconditional approval from the European Commission for its €150 million acquisition of Sky Deutschland, with the deal expected to close on June 1. The acquisition combines the RTL+ and Sky WOW streaming services to create a provider with over 12 million paying subscribers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The combined company will integrate Sky’s sports rights, including the Bundesliga and Premier League, with RTL's entertainment and news brands.

Redge Technologies acquired the intellectual property rights to Austria-based NativeWaves AG’s NativeWaves EXP Event Experience Platform and related patents covering multimedia synchronisation and content distribution. The platform supports interactive OTT features for live events (e.g., multi-view, instant replays, live data integration, personalisation) and includes orchestration capabilities for transcoding and multi-region distribution with low-latency scalability. Redge said it will further develop and expand the platform’s deployment beyond its existing use by a major Polish broadcaster.

Programmatic advertising platform Viant Technology has agreed to acquire TV attention measurement company TVision Insights for $40 million, comprised of $22.5 million in cash and $17.5 million in stock. The acquisition is intended to integrate TVision's second-by-second attention tracking into Viant's ad-buying platform, creating a unified tool for advertisers to plan and measure campaigns across linear TV and streaming. The transaction is expected to close in Q2 2026.

AJA Video Systems announced an agreement to acquire Comprimato, a live video encoding and processing software provider focused on virtualized and cloud-based production and broadcast workflows. AJA says the deal will align Comprimato’s software portfolio—covering live transcoding, standards conversion, SMPTE ST 2110 encoding, and a JPEG 2000 codec SDK—with AJA’s BRIDGE LIVE family of IP streaming products; financial terms were not disclosed. Comprimato will continue as a separate brand under AJA, with its team joining AJA after closing and no stated changes to sales channels or currently shipping products.

AJA Video Systems has agreed to acquire Comprimato, a video encoding software provider. The acquisition aims to integrate Comprimato’s ST 2110 and JPEG 2000 software into AJA’s portfolio to enhance its BRIDGE LIVE product family and accelerate live IP streaming and cloud production workflows.

Upscale AI, an AI infrastructure company, is reportedly in talks to raise its third funding round, aiming for $180 million to $200 million, which would value the company at approximately $2 billion. This follows a $200 million Series A in January and a $100 million seed round in September, despite the company not yet releasing a product. Upscale AI focuses on building custom chips and infrastructure for scalable AI.

The BBC plans to save an additional £500 million from its £5 billion annual operating costs over the next two years, with expected job cuts of roughly 1,800–2,000 roles (around 10% of its workforce). Interim director-general Rhodri Talfan Davies said details will be shared between July and September when incoming director-general Matt Brittin is in post, while union Bectu warned the cuts could harm the BBC’s public-service mission and ripple across the UK creative industries that depend on BBC commissioning.

Facilis Technology announced a partnership with Ortana Media Group. The collaboration aims to provide secure web administration capabilities for Facilis HUB servers, enhancing workflows for their shared storage solutions.

In a conference transcript, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan outlined YouTube’s growth priorities across creators, viewers, and monetization, highlighting connected TV as the primary way people watch YouTube in the U.S. and citing over a billion hours of watch time on CTV globally. Mohan reported ~20% YoY growth in Shorts engaged views (Q1 2025) and said Shorts revenue per watch hour has reached parity with long-form in-stream in some markets, while detailing ad innovations such as shoppable CTV formats, pause ads, and AI-driven Demand Gen efficiency improvements. He also discussed YouTube’s subscription and sports strategy, including YouTube TV’s 8M+ subscribers, 45 Primetime Channels, YouTube Music & Premium at 125M subscribers, and an expanded NFL partnership including Sunday Ticket and an exclusive kickoff-week Brazil game available broadly on YouTube and YouTube TV.

Applicaster’s 2026 OTT trends article argues the industry has shifted from subscriber growth toward sustainable monetization, reliability, and engagement, citing Nielsen data that streaming reached 44.8% of U.S. TV usage in May 2025, surpassing broadcast and cable combined. It highlights hybrid monetization and ad-supported viewing (citing Nielsen’s 72.4% of U.S. TV viewing being ad-supported), renewed aggregation/bundling (Antenna citing higher retention for Disney+/Max bundle vs. HBO Max standalone), and sports-driven scale and low-latency demands (referencing Netflix’s Christmas 2025 NFL livestream averaging 27.5M U.S. viewers). The piece also points to maturing CTV advertising expectations (measurement, transparency, brand safety) and a shift from personalization to more user-customizable UX across devices.

Rumble Inc. has launched an exchange offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Northern Data AG, with the tender offer period ending on May 9, 2026. This proposed combination aims to create a unified video, cloud, and AI growth platform by integrating Rumble's video platform and cloud services with Northern Data's GPU assets and data center footprint. Rumble has secured commitments for approximately 72% of Northern Data's outstanding shares and the offer is not conditioned on a minimum tender threshold.

Paramount (a Skydance Corporation) announced it has commenced an all-cash tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Warner Bros. Discovery for $30 per share, valuing the transaction at an enterprise value of $108.4 billion and including WBD's Global Networks segment. The company said the offer is fully financed via new equity backstopped by the Ellison Family and RedBird Capital and $54 billion of debt commitments, and it plans to pursue antitrust clearance, contrasting its proposal with a recently announced Netflix-WBD transaction that it characterizes as more complex and higher regulatory risk. Paramount stated the combination would unite Paramount+ and HBO Max and create a larger direct-to-consumer footprint alongside studios, sports rights, and linear networks.

Ampere Analysis estimates HBO Max reached 1.5 million UK activated subscribers within five days of its March 26, 2026 launch, and projects the service could reach 6 million UK activations by end-2026, which would make it the fourth-largest streamer in the market. The report says 77% of early activations came from existing Sky or NOW households, with limited near-term substitution from other streamers; where switching occurred, it most frequently involved cancellations of Disney+ and Prime Video. Ampere expects additional growth driven in part by TNT Sports content on HBO Max, including early-April UEFA fixtures, while Sky remains a key distribution partner after prior content exclusivity ended.

Synamedia is promoting its partner ecosystem's presence at NAB 2026. The company and its partners will demonstrate innovations including AI applications by Quortex, sports streaming solutions, and elastic CDN scaling capabilities.

Main Street Sports Group will wind down operations after the end of the 2026 NBA regular season and the first round of the NHL playoffs, after failing to make any 2026 rights-fee payments to its 13 NBA and seven NHL partners. The NBA has told affected teams they can begin signing new in-market deals for 2026-27, with the league urging one-year terms or exit clauses ahead of a potential league-run national streaming hub targeted no earlier than 2027-28. Streamers and tech providers including DAZN, Victory+, ViewLift and Kiswe are pursuing team digital rights, while larger platforms such as YouTube TV, Amazon and the ESPN app are cited as potential bidders for a future national streaming RSN.

A report cited on The Town podcast claims Disney executives are discussing a potential acquisition of Epic Games, following Disney’s $1.5 billion investment in the company. The article notes Disney already uses Epic’s Unreal Engine in film/TV virtual production (including The Mandalorian and The Lion King) and in Disney Parks attractions, and that a deal would also give Disney ownership of Fortnite.

Ampere Analysis reports that global streaming subscription revenue grew 14% in 2025 to $157.1 billion, surpassing $150 billion for the first time, driven by international expansion, price increases, and the rollout of ad-supported tiers. Ampere forecasts subscription revenue will rise a further 29% over the next five years and exceed $200 billion by 2030, with the US accounting for about half of global revenue and Netflix cited as the largest contributor in that market. The share of total revenue from ad tiers is reported to have grown from under 5% in 2020 to 28% in 2025, with total streaming revenue including advertising reaching $177 billion last year.

Ampere Analysis reports global streaming subscription revenue surpassed $150 billion in 2025, reaching $157.1 billion (up 14% YoY) and roughly tripling from about $50 billion in 2020. The firm forecasts subscription revenue will rise to $202 billion by 2030, driven less by subscriber growth and more by price increases and increased adoption of ad-supported tiers. Including advertising, total streaming revenue is estimated at $177 billion in 2025, with ad revenue about $20 billion and ad-tier share rising from under 5% of revenue in 2020 to 28% in 2025.

Disney+ has signed a Spanish content deal with public broadcaster RTVE, making selected RTVE titles available on Disney+ the day after their linear broadcast on La1/TVE, starting 31 March. The agreement includes MasterChef Spain season 14 (and its celebrity version) and upcoming drama Rojo Sobre Blanco, with additional titles to be announced later. The deal aligns with Disney+’s broader European strategy of partnering with free-to-air broadcasters, following similar agreements with Atresmedia, ITVX, ARD, ZDF, and SIC.

The European Audiovisual Observatory’s Key Trends 2026 report says global streamers’ share of spending on European originals rose to 24% in 2024 from 8% in 2020, influenced by regulation such as the EU’s AVMSD and increased demand for local stories. Despite higher streamer spend, public service broadcasters commissioned 56% of European TV fiction titles in 2024 versus 14% for global streamers, while overall TV fiction production fell 5% year over year. The report also notes SVOD viewing time is heavily skewed to series (78%), and subscription growth is being driven more by price increases and ad-supported tier launches than by subscriber expansion.

The article summarizes key takeaways from Series Mania 2026, including reported increases in scripted development activity and indications from Prime Video and Disney+ executives that European originals investment and greenlights will rise, while noting Netflix’s limited presence at the event. It also highlights Europe-focused co-production policy efforts via a Council of Europe convention aimed at clearer rules on contributions, ownership, and rights, and points to microdrama/vertical video as an emerging format area attracting attention from producers such as Banijay.

Digital-i’s "Streaming in Flux: 2025 in Review" reports that total viewing hours across Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video fell from 39.5 billion in Q1 2023 to 36.0 billion in Q4 2025 across 15 countries including major markets in Europe and North America. The decline was led by reduced Netflix usage, though Digital-i analysts say it is beginning to stabilize, while Disney+ and Prime Video narrowed the gap via increased usage metrics. The report also notes broad adoption growth for cheaper ad-supported tiers, with all three platforms up 8–9% year over year and Prime Video having the highest ad-tier share at 86%.

Disney+ EMEA content chief Angela Jain said the service is poised to significantly increase content spending across EMEA and ramp up UK commissioning, with further announcements expected in the coming months. During a Series Mania keynote, Disney+ highlighted new pan-EMEA commissions including documentaries and scripted series from Spain, Italy, Turkey and the UK, alongside a stated push to expand unscripted commissioning to rebalance its recent scripted-heavy slate.

The article states that Xbox and Netflix have "kicked around ideas" regarding potential collaborations, including a possible Game Pass bundle. This information is presented as a speculative consideration rather than a confirmed partnership or deal.

Uefa is reportedly exploring a direct-to-consumer streaming platform for Champions League matches, aiming to have it ready ahead of the 2027–2031 rights cycle. The service could be trialed in markets such as India or Indonesia, either alongside an existing broadcaster deal or potentially as an exclusive distribution method in those regions. The initiative is linked to broader sports-rights experimentation with market-specific D2C strategies, including a planned Premier League D2C app launch in Singapore.

The article discusses Disney’s plan to fold Hulu into Disney+ and shut down the standalone Hulu app in 2026. It frames the change as a consolidation of Disney’s streaming ecosystem into a single platform to centralize content discovery, recommendations, and engagement data rather than operating separate apps.

EchoStar disclosed via an SEC 8-K that it has restructured its agreement with creditors at its Dish DBS unit through a new restructuring support agreement that includes prepaying certain notes and repaying $1.6 billion in term loan and preferred interests, potentially via an out-of-court process or Chapter 11. The filing says the restructuring would improve financial flexibility and strategic optionality, prompting renewed speculation it could enable a Dish-DirecTV business combination after a 2024 deal to acquire Dish’s satellite TV and Sling TV units collapsed when Dish bondholders rejected a related debt exchange.

Paramount is folding BET+ into Paramount+ after acquiring Tyler Perry's equity stake in the BET+ streaming service. The move consolidates BET+'s standalone offering under Paramount+'s broader streaming platform.

Disney is reorganizing its entertainment business to bring streaming, film, television, and games under a unified leadership structure led by Dana Walden, reporting to incoming CEO Josh D’Amaro. The reorg formalizes shared oversight of direct-to-consumer operations, appointing Joe Earley and Adam Smith as co-presidents of Direct to Consumer with responsibility for strategy and financial performance across Disney+ and Hulu. Disney also places its games and digital entertainment group within Disney Entertainment, reflecting an emphasis on cross-platform audience engagement.

Canal+ reported 2025 results with revenue down 2.5% to €6.28bn and adjusted EBITA up 5% to €527m, alongside a 500,000 decline in pay-TV subscribers to 14.4m and a plan to invest €100m to rebuild the base. The company’s shares fell nearly 20%, with the MultiChoice acquisition cited as a key factor, and Canal+ also confirmed the closure of streamer Showmax, calling the DTC effort an “expensive failure.” Canal+ announced new partnerships including a three-year co-commissioning drama deal with Sky (minimum two projects per year) and multiple AI initiatives with Google (Veo3 and Google Cloud indexing) and OpenAI (search/discovery improvements in its app).

NBCUniversal appointed Gus O’Brien as president of its international networks and direct-to-consumer divisions effective 1 April, succeeding Ken Bettsteller, who will move into an advisory role after two decades with the company. O’Brien will oversee NBCU’s international channel brands and streamers including Universal+ and Hayu, while Hendrik McDermott expands responsibilities to managing director of international DTC and EMEA, Canada.

Hub Research’s bi-annual study on sports viewing finds that increasing fragmentation of sports rights across multiple services is making games harder to locate and driving viewer frustration. The survey reports higher interest in “all-rights” services that consolidate a sport’s rights, and cites Paramount’s UFC rights arrangement as an example where avid UFC fans perceive greater Paramount+ subscription value and increased retention likelihood.

A Market Watcher post claims Amazon restructured Prime Video and laid off teams responsible for core streaming infrastructure. The post frames the cuts as part of a shift toward AI-augmented engineering within Prime Video.

A social post promotes viewing the 2026 Formula 1 season on Apple TV, including live coverage of the Australian Grand Prix. It claims viewers can stream every race, practice, and qualifying session in 4K HDR and implies an exclusive broadcaster relationship.

The post discusses Harmonic’s reported exit from its video business, citing recent company metrics including $98.2M in quarterly broadband revenue (+9%), $346.9M in bookings (3.5x book-to-bill), and a claimed 62% market share for CableOS in Distributed Access Architecture. It argues that demand for video/streaming infrastructure remains strong but that growth is shifting toward hyperscalers and cloud-native vendors as operator capex declines (from 26.9% of revenue in 2022 to 22.9% in 2024). The author highlights MediaKind and One Equity Partners’ strategy to combine Harmonic’s video segment into a larger platform, estimating $100M+ in recurring revenue and $150M+ in appliance revenue for the combined business.

The author estimates that Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, Disney, Spotify, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Peacock collectively generated $30B in streaming profits in 2025, up 74% from 2024, and argues that competition continues to intensify despite Netflix remaining the profit leader. The post highlights faster growth in YouTube subscription revenue versus advertising, claims Amazon’s streaming business turned profitable driven by advertising and Channels, and cites Disney streaming growth supported by bundles, advertising performance, an ESPN DTC launch, and Fubo consolidation effects.

Charter Communications said its multi-phase HFC network upgrade is expected to be about 50% complete by the end of 2026, progressing from 1.2GHz/high-split upgrades to DAA/virtual CMTS deployments and eventually DOCSIS 4.0 with 1.8GHz in the remaining footprint. The company also told regulators it plans to accelerate DOCSIS 4.0 upgrades in Cox territories after the Charter–Cox merger, which is targeted to close by mid-2026 pending remaining approvals including California’s CPUC. Charter also highlighted recent pay-TV subscriber additions and the inclusion of ad-supported direct-to-consumer streaming apps at no extra cost as part of video packaging aimed at supporting broadband retention and growth.

ITV said in its full-year 2025 results that it remains actively engaged in discussions with Sky owner Comcast regarding a potential sale of ITV’s Media & Entertainment business, while noting there is no certainty a transaction will occur. The reported deal value is around £1.6 billion and would include ITV’s TV channels and streaming service ITVX. UK journalist union NUJ suggested the talks may be more advanced than publicly stated, with a deal potentially possible in Q2 2026.

Get After It Media and BroadView Software announced a seven-year strategic partnership renewal. This agreement focuses on managing converged linear and FAST/OTT operations for Get After It Media, aiming for operational efficiency across its broadcast and streaming platforms.

Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery have announced plans for a comprehensive merger later this year, which includes the integration of Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon into a single animated content powerhouse. This consolidation aims to combine their extensive libraries of children's animated content and streamline operations amidst financial pressures and shifting audience preferences from linear TV to streaming. The merger is expected to raise questions about whether both brands will maintain their current forms or if they will be combined into a single channel.

Banijay Entertainment and All3Media have agreed to merge, creating a combined company (to be called Banijay) jointly owned 50/50 by Banijay Group and RedBird IMI, with Marco Bassetti as CEO, Jane Turton as deputy CEO, and Jeff Zucker as chairman. The companies say the combined group would have generated over €4.4bn in revenue and €690m in adjusted EBITDA on a 2024 pro forma basis, spanning 170+ labels across 25 countries and roughly 20,000 hours of annual output. The deal is expected to close in autumn, with around €50m of cost synergies targeted within 12 months and RedBird IMI rolling its All3Media stake into Banijay Group alongside related payments and dividends.

DAZN has secured exclusive rights in Italy to broadcast all 104 matches of the FIFA World Cup 2026, running from 11 June to 19 July 2026 across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. FIFA and DAZN executives framed the deal as part of a broader partnership that also references the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 and the ongoing development of FIFA+.

Gracenote reports that U.S.-produced SVOD titles increased 13% year-over-year, while the U.S. share of available titles across the five top streaming services fell to 42% from 45% a year ago. The post highlights Netflix as having 32% U.S. titles, with South Korea (9.8%) and Japan (9.5%) contributing larger shares than Great Britain, alongside international titles appearing in Nielsen Top 10 rankings.

The article profiles Cineverse CEO Chris McGurk and describes Cineverse’s strategy combining a network of 30+ streaming channels with a proprietary streaming technology stack (Matchpoint) that supports distribution, analytics, and AI-based QC/metadata, and is being positioned for SaaS licensing. It highlights Cineverse’s recent acquisitions of Giant Worldwide (media services, localization, OTT testing and delivery) and IndiCue (CTV monetization and ad tech stack including SSAI), along with financial expectations for the acquired businesses and Cineverse’s FY2027 revenue/EBITDA outlook. The piece also notes Cineverse’s experimentation with short-form “micro-drama” content via a joint venture (MicroCo) and its AI-driven search/discovery product Cinesearch, pitched to OEM and smart-TV partners.