Television remains the dominant driver of conversations about the news of the day, weather, sports, traffic, and politics, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising’s new Media & Conversations study. That’s compared to ad-supported streaming platforms, social media, print, radio, podcasts, and direct mail. Key findings include:
· Eight out of ten respondents are having daily conversations about topics covered by local broadcast TV station newscasts.
· Of all digital choices, conversations about news of the day are most affected by local TV stations’ websites/apps.
· Respondents reported that broadcast TV news is their primary news source. They found local broadcast news assets to be the most shareworthy, trustworthy, and believable.
· Across the spectrum of professional and college sports, respondents overwhelmingly chose linear TV over streaming sources as their viewing source.
· Regardless of political affiliation, respondents chose TV as the biggest impact on their daily conversations about news.

In related news, sort of, Zeam Media announced the launch of ZeamCast, a new marketplace that simplifies the connection between streamers and local broadcast stations. The new offering enables streamers to add local content to their line-up, while offering local broadcast stations another way to grow their digital audience. “The need and demand for local broadcast news continues to grow, but many streamers are facing the challenges of cost and complexity in delivering this content to their audiences,” said Zeam Media founder Jack Perry. “With ZeamCast, we offer a solution for streamers and broadcasters that also helps our team work towards our earliest goal of connecting every broadcaster to every viewer.”

TelevisaUnivision and Disney Entertainment inked a new distribution deal that has TelevisaUnivision’s US Networks – including Univision, UniMás, TUDN and Galavisión – launching on the Hulu + Live TV core channel line-up on June 3, just ahead of the FIFA Club World Cup and Concacaf Gold Cup. TelevisaUnivision channels including N+FORO, TLNovelas, Bandamax, De Película, De Película Clásico, Telehit and Telehit Música will be added later to the Español add-on for Hulu + Live TV subscribers.

Fifty-nine percent of Americans plan to stream more at home and cut back on out-of-home entertainment if the costs of out-of-home entertainment become more expensive, according to a new LG Ad Solutions survey focused on how economic conditions are impacting US. CTV viewership/behaviors. Additional findings include:
· 66% of respondents are planning to stream more live events at home instead of buying tickets to attend, in order to reduce costs.
· Nearly 70% expect to stream more live events instead of attending in person.
· Over 65% plan to use more free, ad-supported streaming platforms.

“As consumers brace for potential economic headwinds, many are already staying in and streaming more,” said Tony Marlow, Chief Marketing Officer at LG Ad Solutions. “CTV viewership continues to accelerate, creating a prime opportunity for brands to invest in advertising that connects with highly engaged audiences on the biggest screen in the home.”

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OpenAI is buying io, a star-up founded by the designer of the iPhone, Jony Ive, for $6.5 billion. The goal is to create “a new family of products” for the age of artificial intelligence. Ive and his team will take creative and design responsibilities across OpenAI and build hardware to help people better interact with the technology. “I hope we can bring some of the delight, wonder and creative spirit that I first felt using an Apple Computer 30 years ago,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Apple TV+ has ordered a docuseries about filmmaker Martin Scorsese. The project comes from director Rebecca Miller (“Personal Velocity: Three Portraits”). “I am so grateful to have been given the artistic freedom and access to create a cinematic portrait of one of our greatest living artists, Martin Scorsese,” said Miller. “His work and life are so vast and so compelling that the piece evolved from one to five parts over a five-year period.”

Lifetime has ordered a reality series focused on the Chrisley family (“Chrisley Knows Best”), with Savannah Chrisley and Chase Chrisley executive producing. The show, from Bunim/Murrary Productions, focuses on the Chrisley kids as their parents, Todd and Julie, sit in prison after being found guilty bank fraud and tax evasion.

Season 15 of Discovery’s “Expedition Unknown” kicks off Wednesday, June 18 at 9p. “I’ve never been more excited to share a new season of Expedition Unknown,” said host Josh Gates. “Every year, we try to set a new bar for adventure, archaeology, and action, and I think these may be our biggest expeditions yet.”

“Secrets of the Bunny Ranch,” exploring the impact the infamous brothel had on the women who worked there, launches Thursday, June 12 at 9p on A&E.

Season four of Canadian drama “Family Law” premieres Wednesday, July 23 at 8p on The CW. The season wrapped in Canada last month.

HBO’s “Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Buffalo Bills” debuts Tuesday, August 5 at 9p, premiering on subsequent Tuesdays through September 2. “Hard Knocks: In Season with the NFC East” kicks off in December.

Crime drama “The Madame Blanc Mysteries” returns to Acorn TV for season four on Monday, July 17 with two episodes.

Google aims to make life easier for marketers by increasing agentic capabilities in Google Ads, Google Analytics, and Chrome. Agentic capabilities “will help marketers with everything from onboarding and campaign creation to reporting and troubleshooting, enabling more confident campaign optimization,” said the company in a blog post. The agentic tools learn from inputs, including datasets, landing pages, assets and real-time performance. In Google Ads, the agentic expert will offer advertisers personalized recommendations for their new and existing campaigns; in Google Analytics, the data expert will proactively show insights and trends, plus enable easy data exploration. Google said it is also building Marketing Advisor, an AI agent that lives inside the Chrome browser, designed to help advertisers manage marketing tasks across different places.

OpenX Technologies, the omnichannel supply-side platform, unveiled Results by OpenX, a suite of AI capabilities. With Engagement Models, the first capability in the Results by OpenX suite, OpenX reports a leading tech brand saw a 23x higher click-through rate and improved their cost per acquisition by 11x. “We believe that approachable AI is the future of programmatic curation,” said Ana Calabrese, VP, Head of Data Science at OpenX. “AI’s true value lies in recognizing patterns humans can’t. Eventually, all inventory curation will be powered by machine learning. Today, our proprietary models help advertisers improve performance and efficiency by analyzing billions of bid requests and privacy-conscious signals.”

New platform Audyns (pronounced “audience”) brings independent linear TV inventory together in a centralized, data driven solution to streamline planning, buying, and execution. Through an exclusive partnership with datafuelX, Audyns will be deploying its advanced forecasting, optimization, and stewardship to power smarter, audience-based linear campaigns across all partner networks. “We believe the future of linear TV is audience-first,” said co-founder Michael Strober. “With Audyns, we saw an opportunity to connect agencies and networks through a curated marketplace of premium independent inventory – offering the data-driven precision and operational simplicity today’s advertisers expect.”

ViewLift announced the launch of two AI-powered solutions for business intelligence and customer support operations. ViewLift Data Insights Pro is a conversational AI analytics tool that delivers personalized, real-time insights via text to content owners’ executives, while ViewLift FanAssist AI enhances customer support.

FOX Sports shared its broadcast schedule for the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup. Taking place in 14 stadiums across 11 US and Canadian cities from Saturday, June 14 to Sunday, July 6, Group Stage play starts at 9:30p on FS1 with defending Gold Cup champion Mexico vs. Dominican Republic from SoFi Stadium in LA.

Kickboxing event “Glory 100” will air Wednesday, June 14 on DAZN. The event takes place in the Netherlands.

FOX Sports is partnering with non-profit Purple Heart Homes to renovate and restore the homes of US military veterans in Indianapolis ahead of the network’s inaugural coverage of the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday, May 25.

The Catchy Comedy Network will celebrate actor George Wendt with a 24-hour marathon of “Cheers,” starting Sunday, May 25 at 6a. Wendt died May 20 at age 76.

Five years after George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, Fox Television Stations will present “After George Floyd” on Sunday, May 25. The special was produced by Fox 9 Minneapolis.

Today’s Trivia Question
What show replaced the original version of “CBS This Morning” (1987-99)? (Email your answer to trivia@cynopsis.com and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four answers per time zone.)