“Understanding generational shifts is vital for the financial sustainability of the news industry, which depends on a pipeline of younger consumers who will keep coming back to news,” said the Reuters Institute. “It also matters for the democratic health of our societies, which requires individual citizens, including young people, to be informed and collectively share a basic understanding of the world.”

Sixty-two percent of advertisers expect to increase spending year over year, with social media leading the charge (63%), according to Keen Decision Systems. Retail media networks (56%) and AI chatbot advertising (50%) are also poised for strong gains, while CTV lags significantly at just 19%, behind linear TV, search and digital audio. The reallocation of spend is already in motion. While 26% of retail brands plan to scale back investment in retail media to fund other channels, 72% of tech brands are moving in the opposite direction – boosting retail media spend, with 36% reallocating dollars from AI/chatbot advertising to do so.

At the same time, generative AI is gaining traction as an ad channel. More than a quarter (26%) of marketers are already testing or investing in ads within platforms like ChatGPT or Gemini, while another 23% are in the research phase. Today, AI is most commonly used for brainstorming campaign ideas (47%), media planning (47%) and campaign creation (44%).

Office space in the Pentagon used by journalists is closing after a federal judge sided with The New York Times in a lawsuit challenging limits on reporters’ access to the building. Rather than allow banned journalists back in, Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said a “new and improved” press workspace will be established in an annex facility outside the Pentagon and will be “available when ready.”

Spectrum News and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications have teamed up to give students real-world, hands-on experience along with career-building opportunities in journalism and media production. The collaboration will also bring student-produced stories to Spectrum News, with the goal of adding fresh perspectives and showcasing how the next generation is covering today’s issues.

Law&Crime is going even deeper into true crime with the launch of Law&Crime+, a new interactive subscription service designed to pull back the curtain on the justice system. The platform gives its audience a more immersive, behind-the-scenes look at high-profile cases, and a space to engage with verified information.

NBCUniversal Local announced the return for the ninth consecutive year of the NBCUniversal Local Impact Grants. The 2026 competitive grant challenge will award $2.5 million to eligible nonprofits located in and servicing one of the 11 NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations’ markets across the US.

In more NBCU Local news, the Telemundo Responde and NBC Responds consumer investigative units, in coordination with the Consumer Investigative Center (CIC), have recovered more than $100 million to community members with consumer-related issues since the program’s 2014 inception. “We created our consumer teams 12 years ago so those facing challenges have a trusted source to get the expertise and resources they need when it matters most,” said Valari Staab, Chairman of NBCU Local. “This milestone speaks to the trust our consumer teams have earned and the great impact they’ve made in advocating for our audiences.”

The BTS concert streamed live on Netflix drew 18.4 million global viewers in Live+1, by Netflix’s calculations. The broadcast from Seoul reached the weekly Top 10 in 80 countries and secured the #1 spot in 24 countries.

Crunchyroll announced its Spring 2026 anime lineup. First among the dozens of shows to drop will be “Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring,” on Saturday, March 28.

Franchise extender “Belle Collective: Birmingham” is set to debut Friday, April 10 at 9p on OWN. The new series will debut immediately following “Belle Collective” on April 10 and that show’s season finale on April 17, before moving into the 8p timeslot beginning Friday, April 24.

Former Warner Bros. Group chairman Toby Emmerich and former Snapchat Head of Global Series Amanda Krentzman have launched Fireside Access TV in partnership with Access Entertainment, reports Deadline. The company hits the ground running with scripted series in development at HBO Max and NBC, and is collaborating with creative partners including Noah Pink, Justin Spitzer, Dave Bautista, Judy Greer, and Anthony Anderson.

Also launching a production company is reality show executive producer Charles Wachter (“Beast Games,” “Got to Get Out”), with Spain’s The Mediapro Studio. Toronto-based Stopwatch Media will produce unscripted TV content.

During its IAB Newfronts presentation, Tubi announced YA thriller-mystery film “Remember Me,” meant to appeal to its young audience – 58% of the streamer’s viewers identify as Gen Z and Millennials, according to a 2025 MRI study. “Tubi has become a destination for YA audiences seeking relatable stories, compelling themes and character-driven storytelling,” said Adam Lewinson, Chief Content Officer, Tubi. The platform also announced a partnership with Apple TV for alternative broadcasts of select Formula 1 races during the 2026 season.

Box to Box Films has entered into an exclusive production partnership with Canelo Media calling for Box to Box to serve as the production partner for all of Canelo’s entertainment projects across all platforms. Content is expected to include documentaries, unscripted and scripted originals, long-form and short-form projects and live event specials.

“Criminal Minds: Evolution” has been renewed by Paramount+ for a fifth season (20th season in the franchise), ahead of its season four (or 19) premiere on Thursday, May 28.

“School Spirits” scored a season four order from Paramount+. The supernatural drama follows a teen girl trapped in the afterlife investigating her own disappearance.

Disney+ has renewed Marvel series “Wonder Man” for a second season, with Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley returning as leads. Season one dropped January 27.

LG Ad Solutions is also deepening its partnership with Streamr (now part of Magnite) to streamline CTV creative production, and introduced Anoki ContextIQ for Live News – a contextual intelligence tool designed to surface brand-safe ad opportunities within live news. On the sports side, the new LG Sports Playbook app offers an interactive hub to boost fan engagement. The company also teased upcoming original series, exclusive FAST launches, and new partnerships with creator networks, including Jubilee Media.

At its IAB NewFronts presentation, Samsung Ads unveiled a partnership with Amazon Ads that will bring Amazon’s remote-enabled Interactive Video Ad (IVA) technology directly to Samsung TV Plus. Samsung TV Plus will be the first external CTV device partner to offer this capability through Samsung’s integration, starting in July with Amazon DSP. Samsung Ads is also expanding its capabilities with new formats via Creative Canvas, a solution for brands to update their ad creative for CTV.

A new report from AdRoll notes a widening gap between retargeting and prospecting cost per mille (CPM). The Q1 2026 edition of State of Digital Advertising Report reveals Display retargeting CPMs jumped 18% in January and February compared with the same period last year, while display prospecting CPMs declined 11% year over year. “The widening gap between retargeting and prospecting costs signals a structural shift in how advertisers build demand,” said Vibhor Kapoor, CEO of AdRoll. “Digital advertising is moving beyond the browser and into a multi-screen environment where awareness and performance tactics must work together. As programmatic access expands across connected TV and digital out-of-home channels, marketers have new opportunities to build reach while maintaining the precision and accountability they expect from digital campaigns.”

Marketing measurement company Lifesight has launched Mia, a marketing intelligence agent that adds an agentic AI layer to its Unified Measurement OS – helping teams move beyond static dashboards to faster, AI-assisted decision-making. Key capabilities include:
· Continuously evaluates marketing performance data across channels using Lifesight’s unified measurement framework
· Generates multiple strategic scenarios, which may include aggressive growth strategies, balanced optimization approaches, or conservative investment options depending on a brand’s goals and risk appetite
· Visibility into the reasoning behind its suggestions
· Reduced manual analysis

“For years, marketing teams have been buried in dashboards but still struggling to answer a simple question: what actually drove growth,” said Tobin Thomas, Co-Founder and CEO of Lifesight. “Agentic AI changes that dynamic.”

Pinterest is making promotion plug-and-play for small businesses with Promote a Pin – no tech skills needed. Powered by its Taste Graph, a proprietary multimodal AI trained on billions of images, videos, and text, the tool automatically puts Pins in front of the users most likely to convert.

Open AI is pulling the plug on Sora, its short-form generative AI video platform. According to The Wall Street Journal, CEO Sam Altman told his staff the company is winding down video model projects, and the Sora team will focus on longer-term bets like robotics. “We’re saying goodbye to Sora… we know this news is ​disappointing. We’ll share more soon, including timelines for ​the app and API and details on preserving ⁠your work,” said the Sora team on X.

As for Disney’s announced $1 billion investment in OpenA!? In December, Disney reached an agreement to become Sora’s first major content licensing partner. “The deal is not moving forward,” a source told Deadline. A Disney spokesperson responded to the Sora news by saying, “As the nascent AI field advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere. We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators.”

An Original Six matchup between the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings handed ABC its third most-viewed NHL game this season, averaging 1.3 million viewers, +51% vs. last season’s NHL on ABC average.

USPA Global is expanding its relationship with ESPN for the 2026 high-goal polo season. Chris Fowler is set to host both the USPA Gold Cup Final (March 29) and the US Open Polo Championship Final (April 26) for the first time. Both events will air across ESPN platforms, including ESPN2.

The American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB) announced new and renewed broadcast agreements with RYZ, Bally’s Corporation, NLSE, FTF Sports (For the Fans), and SLVR Sports and Entertainment, expanding the league’s national and international media footprint across digital and linear platforms. Under the terms of the agreements, RYZ, NLSE, FTF Sports, and SLVR will carry a slate of AAPB regular season and postseason games, along with coverage of the Baseball Champions League (BCL). Bally’s Corporation will exclusively feature Baseball Champions League broadcasts on their Bally Sports Live apps.

A limited edition Harlem Globetrotters™ trading card set from Keepsake Trading Cards will debut this summer. It’s the first trading card set for the club in over 25 years.

Philo has added six new channels from Lionsgate and Blue Ant Media: Heartland, The Conners, Nash Bridges, Caught in Providence, True Crime and Shockwave. The free service now counts over 130 live, ad-supported channels.

David Dugan has joined OpenAI as VP and Head of Global Ads Solutions. Dugan was previously VP of Global Clients and Agencies for Meta.

Plimsoll Productions has tapped executive producer Paul Wright to develop live programming across all genres including adventure, factual entertainment, and natural history. Wright joins from “Skyscraper Live with Alex Honnold.”

Today’s Trivia Question
Which series had an episode focused on the search for a dolphin serial killer? (Email your answer to trivia@cynopsis.com and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone – a limit of four answers per time zone.)