Disney is getting an edge with an NFL-ESPN deal that protects it against digital video pressure from rivals like YouTube.

YouTube TV's win against Disney shows marketers that platform scale now shapes where premium sports ads live.

Latin America’s video market is hitting peak penetration as streaming dominates media time. Mobile-first behaviors, platform concentration, and the popularity of short-form video are reshaping media consumption habits.

Last week, Amazon announced it would shut down its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go locations. While this doesn’t signal a full retreat from physical retail, it does underscore Amazon’s growing emphasis on digital grocery, which has clear implications for its retail media strategy. Instead of prioritizing advertising tied to physical stores, Amazon is doubling down on media formats that can scale well beyond its owned retail footprint.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the new Disney-OpenAI deal: why Disney did the deal, what's in it for OpenAI, and everything that might happen next. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Senior Analyst Ross Benes, and Principal Analyst Max Willens. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

AI was everywhere at CES 2026, from robots to toilets and toys. The race to define the next computing interface is on, agentic ad tech is emerging, and health wearables are pushing further into physiological data. Best in show: Lego’s Smart Brick.

TikTok Shop's low prices came with shaky trust, but the budget retailer is maturing into a serious marketplace and attracting partnerships.

Regulatory pressure and political alignment are now influencing programming stability, deal viability, and advertiser confidence one year into Trump's second presidency.

As streaming services capture an increasing share of both viewership and subscription revenues, this FAQ will help marketers understand the terminology and dynamics shaping video advertising in 2026.

At CES, Amazon is repositioning Amazon Ads as a full advertising ecosystem rather than a commerce-adjacent channel, emphasizing unified reach across TV, streaming, live sports, audio, and programmatic partners.

On today’s EMARKETER Miniseries—AI-Driven Media Management—we explore how to break down the media manager role into workflows that can be automated or augmented by agentic AI, what agencies misunderstand about AI, and which agency tasks are ripest to hand off to AI right now. EMARKETER Senior Director of Content Jeremy Goldman speaks with Adam Epstein, co-founder and CEO of Gigi. Listen everywhere you find podcasts, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

Disney will invest $1 billion in OpenAI and allow Sora users to create short-form videos featuring more than 200 Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars characters. User-generated material opens a new potential spigot of low-cost content for Disney+, which is under increased pressure to compete with YouTube. The move marks a major shift for a conglomerate that has historically held its IP close to the chest.

NBC News is introducing an ad-free, subscription-based streaming platform that consolidates its full lineup of content, spanning linear broadcasts, podcasts, live channels from NBC-owned stations, and original exclusive reports, into a single application, per Variety. Multiple platforms appeal to user preferences but cause more difficulties for advertisers who are struggling with an increasingly fragmented TV ecosystem.

Global sports rights costs across streaming and TV will increase 20% by 2030, per an Ampere Analysis estimate. That growth will send the total cost of sports media rights to over $78 billion. Marketing around live sports is paramount because sporting events deliver reliable audiences and high ad effectiveness, especially on streaming platforms. Advertisers with tighter budgets might struggle as costs increase—but there are still opportunities to advertise around live sports without breaking budgets.

GenAI adoption in Asia-Pacific is outpacing the rest of the world. The region’s soft power is expanding quickly, highlighted by K-pop’s unstoppable global rise and China’s AI push bringing humanoid robots to daily life.

Live sports is drifting from linear TV to fragmented streaming. That’s raising costs, confusing viewers, and forcing leagues and advertisers to navigate new tradeoffs between reach, revenues, and shifting time spent.

Disney and YouTube TV struck a new carriage agreement late Friday, ending a nearly two-week clash that made more than 20 Disney channels, including ESPN and ABC, unavailable on the pay TV service. The outcome reinforces that YouTube is one of the most powerful forces in digital video, pay TV, and streaming. With a pay TV audience that eclipses its competitors and a viewership that is increasingly moving to digital platforms, YouTube TV is well positioned to capture sports-hungry audiences and the advertisers eager to reach them.

Amid an ongoing YouTube TV blackout and linear declines, Disney missed analyst estimates in fiscal year Q4. Despite Disney’s streaming growth, the loss of YouTube TV presents a meaningful risk to advertisers because it fractures access to millions of viewers who relied on YouTube TV to watch Disney-owned networks.

Amazon’s Prime Video maintains an average monthly ad-supported reach of more than 315 million viewers globally, the company announced at its 2025 unBoxed event. Amazon’s high-intent shopper base and ability to lead users through the entire marketing funnel offer a distinct advantage.