One quarter of American households have streaming services alone, while more than half of consumers have a combination of traditional TV and streaming services, according to a survey from Optimum. Additional findings include:
· On average, consumers spend 24 hours watching TV in a typical week.
· Almost all consumers typically do something else while watching TV. Eating is the number one behavior, while browsing the phone and internet, texting or talking on the phone, and looking at social media ranked in the top five most common behaviors.
· Word of mouth remains the strongest influence when it comes to choosing content, with nearly 40% of consumers relying on suggestions from family members and friends to decide what to watch.
· Nearly three-quarters of Americans use Amazon Prime and Netflix over any other streaming service. And 77% of consumers who use both traditional TV and streaming prefer to use a streaming service when watching movies and shows, more than when watching sports or political news.

Paramount is cutting 3.5% of its staff this week. “As we navigate the continued industry-wide linear declines and dynamic macro-economic environment, while prioritizing investments in our growing streaming business, we are taking the hard, but necessary steps to further streamline our organization starting this week,” said Co-CEOs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins in a note to staff. “These changes are necessary to address the environment we are operating in and best position Paramount for success.” Last year, Paramount reduced its workforce by 15%.

HBO Max will launch direct-to-consumer in multiple new countries, including Albania, Armenia, Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, and Tajikistan, next month. Sports on HBO Max will be available in select countries. “Our continued global expansion of HBO Max is helping fuel the great momentum we continue to see for the service,” said JB Perrette, CEO and President of Global Streaming & Games at Warner Bros. Discovery. “These 12 countries will be followed by a few additional markets later this year, and launches in Germany, Italy and the UK early next year. Each new market further positions HBO Max as a worldwide destination for the best in entertainment.”

Netflix plans to invest $1.1 billion in Spanish originals by 2029, shared Co-CEO Ted Sarandos at an event at the streamer’s Tres Cantos Madrid facility. Sarandos noted Spanish titles have generated over 5 billion hours of viewing on Netflix, saying, “Dali masks, red jumpsuits, Bella Ciao – all of them have become instantly recognizable parts of the global culture.”

Turkish drama “Bahar: Esencia de Mujer” premieres Monday, July 14 at 10p on Telemundo. The series tells the story of a housewife who goes back to complete her medical residency.

A&E competition series “WWE LFG” is back for season two on Sunday, June 22 at 10p.

TripleLift announced the launch of programmatic Pause Ads in partnership with DirecTV Advertising. “We’re witnessing the emergence of advertising moments that didn’t exist five years ago,” said Dave Helmreich, CEO at TripleLift. “Pause ads exemplify our mission to transform standard placements into meaningful brand experiences. …We are creating a premium x-CTV publisher pause ad offering to delight both advertisers and viewers with a beautiful and efficient advertising experience.”

Havas Media Network has launched its Health Equity Marketplace. Built in partnership with healthcare advertising technology company DeepIntent, Health Equity Marketplace enables pharmaceutical and healthcare and modern wellness companies to reach patients and healthcare providers in underserved communities across North America. “Healthcare marketing has the power to save lives, but only if it reaches the right people at the right time,” said Greg James, CEO of Havas Media Network, North America. “Our Health Equity Marketplace doesn’t just help brands check a box; it creates a direct pathway for life-changing health information to reach patients who have been systematically underserved.”

Comscore, Adelaide and PubMatic have teamed up to expand access to attention-optimized, high-quality curated deals. Comscore-Certified Deal IDs now include Adelaide’s attention-based metric across PubMatic’s premium supply including CTV, enabling advertisers to target top-tier inventory, maximize engagement and drive real business outcomes.

TV outcomes company EDO has integrated its Convergent TV measurement with The Trade Desk. The partnership marks the first time advertisers on The Trade Desk platform can access EDO’s data across all brand categories. “Marketers are under increasing pressure to prove the value of their CTV investments — and they demand predictive outcomes to do so,” said Kevin Krim, CEO of EDO. “This partnership with The Trade Desk is a major step forward for our industry, bringing investment-grade outcome measurement directly into the platforms where decisions are made.”

The IAB unveiled a new system-agnostic API framework that standardizes invoice data exchange between buyers and sellers. Highlights include:
· IAB has introduced the first open, system-agnostic API specifications for digital advertising invoices, aimed at solving long-standing inefficiencies from inconsistent formats to delayed payments.
· The API offers a machine-readable, standardized format that reduces manual processing, accelerates payment cycles, and improves invoice accuracy and transparency.
· Developed with Mediaocean and adapted from Prisma’s proven architecture, the initiative demonstrates industry-wide collaboration to modernize digital advertising infrastructure.

“This initiative reflects the kind of partnership IAB fosters – bringing stakeholders together to solve practical, systemic issues,” said Alexander Tsai, SVP of Prisma Product Management, Mediaocean. “By aligning around a standardized API framework for invoice automation, we’re helping ensure that digital advertising keeps pace with the broader media landscape.”

Circana is expanding its partnership with LiveRamp to increase advertisers’ access to Circana’s aggregated, multi-outlet retailer transaction data. “LiveRamp and Circana’s growing partnership continues to enhance advertisers’ ability to plan, target, activate, and measure effectively,” said Vihan Sharma, CRO at LiveRamp. “Integrating clean room intelligence and standardization empowers data to become more connected, measurable, and adaptive, enabling more actionable insights and faster time-to-value.”

Advertising automation platform Basis Technologies announced a suite of new capabilities for omnichannel reporting, data visualization, paid search activation, and task management. Basis’ reporting and insights hub automatically unifies campaign data from more than a dozen sources and channels to power analysis and reporting of performance with unmatched agility, clarity, and customization. “Advertising has grown increasingly fragmented, involving a multitude of teams using disconnected software to support different aspects and channels,” said Tyler Kelly, President, Basis Technologies. “Campaign reporting is uniquely challenging when data is scattered across ad buying platforms. As company leaders evaluate business costs, marketers need insightful data to justify advertising spend and staff.”

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” star Rachel Brosnahan will lead season two of Apple TV+ legal drama “Presumed Innocent,” from David E. Kelley and J.J. Abrams.

Felicity Huffman has joined the season two cast of Fox drama “Doc.” The “Desperate Housewives” alum will play a physician rebuilding her life after a car crash that erased eight years of her memory.

Jessica Alba, Rita Ora, Andrew Scott, Kit Saunders and Kit Harrington have joined the cast of upcoming Netflix comedy “Too Much,” starring Megan Halter (“Hacks”) as a New Yorker with a broken heart and a bad reputation who moves to London.

Gloria Reuben (“E.R.”) is onboard CBS spinoff “Boston Blue,” starring Donnie Wahlberg in his “Blue Bloods” role.

Sayce Holmes-Lewis and Leon Wright, co-founders of Mentivity, will be honored with the 2025 BET International Global Good Award, recognizing their commitment to youth empowerment, social justice, and community transformation through their work with mentoring organization Mentivity.

The Start TV Network is launching a programming block for “Gilmore Girls” featuring five back-to-back episodes of the 2000-07 comedy drama every Saturday from 5-10p, beginning June 14.

VICE Sports shared its game schedule, on-air times, and announcers for its first season of Big3 Basketball coverage on VICE TV. The action begins Sunday, June 14 from Allstate Arena in Chicago, as the Houston Rig Hands take on the DMV Trilogy, followed by the Boston Ball Hogs versus the Dallas Power. Brian Scalabrine will call the play-by-play, with Jim Jackson serving as analyst. Chris Haynes and Rachel DeMita provide sideline coverage.

Monumental Sports will broadcast “Stanley Pup,” a 90-minute special, on Sunday, June 15 at 5:30p, featuring local rescue dogs. Produced in partnership with Michael Levitt Productions, NHL Productions, and Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the show celebrates the 2025 Stanley Cup® Final.

New England sports network NESN’s streaming platform, NESN 360, established a new record for highest unique audience for any live event during Roman Anthony’s highly anticipated debut for the Boston Red Sox on Monday night. The total audience was 18% higher than the previous record for NESN 360, set on the Red Sox opening day this season. Additionally, more than 80% of all NESN 360 subscribers tuned in at some point to see the first game for MLB’s top prospect.

All Sports Television Network says it is opening its ownership to the public with a fundraising campaign through the crowdfunding platform Wefunder. “We built All Sports Television Network to celebrate athleticism in all its forms — from traditional sports to niche competitions,” said Roger Neal Smith, President of All Sports Television Network. “We believe in giving fans access — not just in what we broadcast, but in how we grow.”

Fremantle is partnering with Nacelle to represent their FAST channel, Comedy Dynamics. Fremantle will support the channel with its Global Sales teams and Channel Marketing, Programming, Data, Partnership and Ad Sales teams, and deliver dedicated marketing scale and support and operating efficiencies, including advanced data and insights.

Film and TV studio Fifth Season has inked a deal with Channel 5 and Paramount+ (UK) for seasons one and two of “Wild Cards,” a procedural from Blink49 Studios, Front Street Pictures and Piller/Segan in association with The CW for commissioning broadcaster CBC in Canada. The series launched on Paramount+ UK in May this year.

Fueled by the debut of “Pase a la Fama” and “Miss Universe Latina, El Reality” on Sunday, Telemundo delivered a primetime average of 231,000 A18-49 and 794,000 total viewers.

Fox’s “Baseball Night in America” drew 3.045 million viewers, the network’s best performance for a Saturday MLB telecast since June 2018, and up 61% over last year’s telecast.

Newsmax reported May ratings for streaming channel Newsmax2 increased 25% in total viewership year-over-year, with more than 21.5 million cumulative viewers, according to third-party data.

Basic Cable Top 10 for the week of June 2
P2+ AA (000)
Primetime
Fox News 2378
ESPN 1454
MSNBC 965
TNT 764
CNN 619
HGTV 609
TBS 496
USA 485
History 442
Hallmark Channel 437
Total Day
Fox News 1460
MSNBC 584
ESPN 506
TNT 425
CNN 391
HGTV 325
USA 265
TBS 262
Hallmark Channel 258
GSN 239
Source: Nielsen

Jen Faraci has been promoted to Chief Intelligence Officer at Digitas; Adam Birkenhead has stepped into the role of Chief Systems Officer; and John Kahn is Chief Transformation Officer.

Media group and rights owner Coolabi Group has named Neil Court as Chairman. Court was Executive Chairman of 9 Story Media Group until it was sold to Scholastic Inc. in 2024.

Today’s Trivia Question
How many seasons did original “American Idol” judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul stay with the show? (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.)