|
|
| Tuesday, September 15, 2026 |
|
|
Good morning and welcome to the media’s first morning read! Here’s what’s in store today:
- What Live Sports And Social Influencers Have In Common
- Apple TV and HBO Won Big At The Emmy Awards
- Netflix, Amazon And YouTube Are Getting A Team Together
|
|
|
|
| Partner content |
|
|
Philo Ads is an innovative and effective way to reach CTV audiences.
Philo Ads offers scalable, brand-safe campaigns built for performance. Ready to capture the attention of our highly engaged audiences? Launch your next campaign with Philo Ads today!
Visit ads.philo.tv to learn more.
|
|
|
Creator Sports Network Is On A Mission To Help Brands Reach Younger Viewers
 |
By Alyssa Boyle
|
Creator Sports Network is trying to monetize the ad industry’s two biggest buzzwords: creators and sports.
Creator Sports Network, which launched in 2023, helps influencers livestream sports events on their social media pages. The platform doesn’t livestream the actual sports games; it acquires sports airing rights and shares them with influencers, who then stream the games for their own followers.
“We look at our creators as digital affiliates,” not dissimilar to national networks with local affiliate stations, said Barrick Prince, co-founder and chief product officer. In other words, Prince said, “the scale of creator-led distribution creates new engagement opportunities for brands.” And those opportunities are growing as Creator Sports Network snags the rights for more popular sports leagues.
“When we started this business three years ago, our rights partners were primarily up-and-coming leagues that [many people] had not heard of,” Prince said. Now, he said, the company boasts deals with more popular leagues, such as Division One football and basketball teams and the Savannah Bananas, an exhibition baseball team also known for their high-energy performances and choreographed dances on the field.
For brands, collabing with Creator Sports Network gives them on-screen ad placements and live mentions during the broadcast. “Advertisers are looking at us as incremental spend to [reach] a younger demographic that they’re not [reaching] from traditional TV distribution,” Prince said.
Play (Banana) Ball!
Running campaigns in traditional sports broadcasts can be not only cost-prohibitive but fail to effectively reach younger audiences, said Laurel Boyd, EVP of creative media at MissionOne Media, which sits within the BarkleyOKRP indie agency. That audience is increasingly choosing to engage with social media influencers rather than traditional sports broadcasts, she added.
In contrast, the creator economy has such “sheer scale” that influencers are “almost media networks in their own right,” Boyd said.
Creator Sports Network has more than 2,000 influencers in its network, and each brand gets 100% exclusivity in a broadcast. The scale expands when Creator Sports Network deputizes, say, a handful of influencers to livestream a game with Applebee’s ads while another handful livestreams a game featuring Samsung ads. Creators also livestream sports games across multiple platforms where they have channels, including Twitch, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Kick, to name a few.
Paired with scale, Boyd said, Creator Sports Network brings “more opportunities to weave the brand into the conversation” compared to traditional media buys. Viewers and fans can participate in live chats during the livestream, both with the creator and with each other.
For brands, they get static product ads that remain on-screen throughout the duration of the stream. And the creator cheers or chants the brand’s advertised product during impactful moments of a game for memorability. In one recent example, when Twitch streamer Brendan Hofmann (who has one million followers on Instagram and TikTok) livestreamed a Savannah Bananas Banana Ball game featuring Applebee’s ads promoting the limited-time Dollarita drink, Hofmann cheered “Dollarita” throughout and after a high-impact catch during gameplay.
These shoutouts are hard to quantify, but brands that appeared in creator livestreams of Banana Ball games over the summer saw an overage of 65% impression delivery during and after the livestreams, according to Creator Sports Network. Impressions post-livestream typically take place throughout the platform’s audience extension network, which includes app environments hosting sports-related content, such as ESPN, Yahoo and Barstool Sports, said Josh Kaufman, head of sales.
From the agency perspective, “we’re always looking for unique formats where we can go beyond a 15- or 30-second spot in a traditional sports broadcast” to drive more engagement, Boyd said.
As for the measurement piece, Creator Sports Network uses a variety of first- and third-party brand lift metrics to help brands optimize their media plans moving forward, Kaufman said. The company specializes in upper- and mid-funnel growth, such as brand awareness and lift, he said, which is no surprise since streaming video is still largely considered a reach vehicle.
What matters more, Boyd said, is driving improved engagement and results with a “more modern way to incorporate sports” in a campaign media plan.
|
| Partner content |
|
|
Make an Impact with Our Fan-Favorite Content in Q4
Whether it’s big personalities from A&E’s Storage Wars, the romance of Lifetime’s microdramas and original holiday movies, dream homes on HOME.MADE.NATION’s Lakefront Luxury, or the most bizarre stories from HISTORY’s The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd — our portfolio gives every viewer something to love all season long.
Connect with Us
|
|
|
FAST Channels Could Prove Their Value If Platforms Would Quit Hiding Their Data
AdExchanger Guest Columnist
|
FAST’s credibility gap is structural: Platforms are sitting on audience data that would validate the inventory they’re selling, and they are choosing not to share it.
Continue Reading ▷ |
| Partner content |
|
|
Forward 2026: A Forum for the Future of TV Advertising—Oct. 29, NYC
Join us at Forward 2026, where Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman will deliver the keynote and marketing leaders from MANSCAPED, Liquid I.V., Avocado, and Jones Road Beauty will share how they’re using TV to reach new audiences, measure impact, and drive real business growth.
Attendance is free, but space is limited.
RSVP Now
|
|
|
| In The News |
|
Stephen Root, Matthew Rhys and Kate O’Flynn in “Widow’s Bay”
The 78th Annual Emmy Awards were a huge win for Apple TV. The streamer secured the most Emmy Awards thanks in no small part to “Widow’s Bay,” which won for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Supporting Actress (Kate O’Flynn), Outstanding Supporting Actor (Stephen Root), Outstanding Lead Actor (Matthew Rhys), Writing (Katie Dippold) and Directing (Hiro Murai). “Slow Horses” and “Pluribus” also secured major wins for drama series: “Slow Horses” for Directing (Saul Metzstein) and “Pluribus” for Outstanding Lead Actress (Rhea Seahorn) and Writing (Vince Gilligan).
- In second place was HBO and HBO Max. For the second year in a row, “The Pitt” and star Noah Wyle won for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, respectively. Similarly, Jean Smart won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for “Hacks,” her fifth straight win. “DTF St. Louis” also won for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, as well as a number of other awards that were not televised in Monday’s broadcast and instead handed out at last week’s Creative Arts Emmys.
- Meanwhile, the only broadcast network show to win a televised award on Monday night was CBS with “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” for Outstanding Variety Series. (NBCUniversal technically also won with “The Traitors” for Outstanding Reality Competition Program, but the show airs on Peacock, not NBC proper).
Netflix, Amazon and YouTube have joined forces on a lobbying group to advocate for policies that will benefit the streaming entertainment industry, Axios reported on Monday.
-
- The Streaming Access and Choice Alliance, as it’s now called, is led by a trade group called TechNet, which bills itself as a “national, bipartisan network of technology CEOs and senior executives that promotes the growth of American innovation.”
- As Axios notes, the move may be related to recent government inquiries into sports broadcast rights. Back in February, the Federal Communications Commission began seeking public comments about the impact of sports broadcast rights moving from free TV to subscription streaming platforms. In April, the Department of Justice also opened an investigation into the NFL for similar reasons.
- Netflix in particular has beefed up its lobbying efforts in recent years, Puck reported in August. Unlike other parts of the entertainment industry, the company has traditionally focused on telecommunications and broadcast policy rather than other popular topics like trade, copyright or consumer issues.
- The Takeaway: For the average consumer, following televised sports has become a quagmire of overlapping subscriptions and blackouts. It’s no guarantee that government intervention will improve this situation, but clearly, streaming broadcast companies have a vested interest in maintaining their ability to generate revenue from it.
SkyShowtime, Comcast and Paramount Skydance’s joint European streaming service, might be in danger of shutting down. According to a memo circulated to employees on Monday, both parent companies have launched “a review of strategic options” for what to do with the service.
- SkyShowtime, which was first launched in 2021, offers a combination of films and television series from CBS, Paramount Skydance, Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, Nickelodeon, Showtime, NBCUniversal and Sky Studios, among others. It operates in more than 20 European countries, such as Spain, Poland, Portugal and the Netherlands.
- The media landscape has changed significantly since SkyShowtime was first launched. Since then, Paramount was acquired by Skydance in 2025 and now plans to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Meanwhile, Comcast announced plans to spin off NBCUniversal and Sky into a separate publicly traded company.
- In the memo, SkyShowtime’s board stresses that “No decisions have been made” and that employees should continue to operate as usual “into 2027.”
|
|
|
| STATISTICALLY SPEAKING |
|
On average, adults now subscribe to six streaming services, and 37% have access to at least one streamer as a perk through another purchase or subscription, according to Erdos Media Research‘s 2026 Basic Cable Network Study.
|
|
|
|
| New & Returning Series |
|
For sneak peeks, check out Cynopsis Trailer Park.
Linda Cardellini and Gwendolyn Sundstrom
“Crystal Lake,” the “Friday the 13th” prequel series starring Linda Cardellini (“Freaks and Geeks”) as Pamela Voorhees, will premiere on Peacock Oct. 15. Brad Caleb Kane (“It: Welcome To Derry”) serves as creator, writer, executive producer and showrunner for the A24-produced series.
A new season of the TLC series “Sister Wives” airs on Oct. 4. Christine, Janelle and Meri return to the show to explore life after polygamy on their own separate journeys.
AMC+ dropped a first look at “Yaga.” The mystery thriller and Crave Original series is based on the stage play of the same name by Kat Sandler, who also serves as showrunner, writer and executive producer. Carrie-Anne Moss (“The Matrix”), Hudson Williams (“Heated Rivalry”), Noah Reid (“Schitt’s Creek”) and Clark Backo (“The Changeling”) star in the eight-part drama, which is slated to premiere Oct. 23.
TODAY’S PREMIERES
ABC: “Dancing with the Stars” Season 35 at 8 p.m.; “RJ Decker” Season 2 at 10 p.m.
BritBox: “Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence”
HGTV: “A Very Haunted Renovation” at 8 p.m.
ID: “Toxic” Season 2 at 10 p.m.
Shudder: “The Creep Tapes” Season 3
|
|
|
| In Other News |
|
The BBC and Irish broadcaster RTÉ ordered Season 2 of “The Walsh Sisters,” a comedy-drama series based on the novels by Marian Keyes.
The second season of the BBC thriller series “Nightsleeper” has added a new lineup of leads, including Colin Morgan (“Merlin”), Madeleine Mantock (“Charmed”) and Christian Cooke (“The Promise”). The series is currently filming in Belfast, UK.
A new animated “Sonic” series for children is in the works at Netflix, along with a slate of films based on other Sega-owned game franchises. Carlos Stevens (“Love, Death & Robots”) and Toru Nakahara (“Sonic the Hedgehog”) are attached, although it’s unlikely that the show will have any connection to Nakahara’s Paramount-produced film series or “Knuckles” spinoff.
Owen Thiele, Lucy Freyer, Jack Innanen and Amita Rao in “Adults”
Is there such a thing as a reverse sophomore slump? Season 2 of the FX series “Adults” saw a 40% increase in viewership compared to Season 1 after just 12 days of global viewing, according to Disney. Meanwhile, streaming viewership of the first season is also up 50%.
Hispanic viewers consumed approximately 149 billion minutes of sports programming in the first half of 2026, according to a new Nielsen intelligence report. The research suggests that soccer led Hispanic audience consumption of sports on broadcast television, with nearly 50 billion viewing minutes.
Byron Allen’s Local Now streaming service has added 111 free, ad-supported streaming channels from Gray Media’s local TV network, Allen announced on Monday. The streamer now has access to almost 600 local news channels in the US, and is still planning to incorporate video from BuzzFeed and HuffPost somewhere down the line.
As part of its pursuit of profitability, sports entertainment platform DAZN appointed Patrick Delany as chief operating officer, Alex Gersh as chief financial officer and Darren Waterman as chief business officer.
|
|
|
| TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION |
|
Name two of the five performers from the streaming platform Dropout who appeared on a recent crossover (and surprisingly controversial!) 2026 episode of “The Rookie.”
Email answers to Trivia@Cynopsis.com and include your name, company and city/state (don’t forget!). Only the first four correct responses from each time zone will be included.
YESTERDAY’S TRIVIA ANSWER
Which actress briefly filled in for Mariska Hargitay when she took maternity leave from “Law & Order: SVU” in 2006? Connie Nielsen, who played Detective Dani Beck
Congrats to: Andrew Goldman-Phanes Funding Group/NYC; Greg Moloznik-Focus Media 121/Lakewood Ranch, FL; C. David Schneider-PTC Digital Media/St. Petersburg, FL; Roger Furman-Sports Marketing Communications/Greentown, PA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA
|
|
|
|
|
|
