Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LINKEDIN here if ya like or email me at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Tuesday, August 18, 2026.
Where good news — YOUTUBE view counts are getting increasingly meaningless!
Yes, YT is “doing what everyone else is doing” and adjusting view counts to begin as soon as a frame of a video plays on its platform, matching the incredibly accurate and entirely self-serving view count metrics that TIKTOK and INSTA use.
At least creators will still be able to see who’s actually watching their videos in the YT “Engaged views” metric (which is also the private metric they are paid on).
So, be sure to get the extra deep eye roll ready next time you’re pitched how successful a creator business is based on their view counts, with no revenue metrics attached.
OH: DISNEY is now officially suing the FCC for infringing on its First Amendment rights through the FCC’s attacks on DISNEY’s O&O local TV station broadcast licenses.
- It’s asking the federal courts to stop the FC from continuing it’s aggressive moves against ABC, which DISNEY says are an “existential threat” to its operations.
- So, if you had any questions about Josh D’Amaro’s resolve, I think we have a pretty good sense of it.
SPEAKING OF: SCRIPPS — a large local TV station owner (as well as the owner of ION network) that just laid off 12% of its staff — is now doing 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts at its Baltimore ABC affiliate, WMAR, without live news anchors.
- It’s literally just 30 minutes of pre-taped packages stitched together from local reports and generic national coverage via SCRIPPS headquarters.
- Aka basically a YOUTUBE channel broadcast “live.”
- SCRIPPS is doing this at 12 of its stations to start, with hopes to roll it out to more, as part of its “transformation plan” announced earlier this month . . . yes, enabled by AI (although not a lotta details there — not sure how strong the local TV station company’s “AI expertise” game is in 2026).
- Um, SCRIPPS, you have TEGNA and NEXSTAR on line 2 asking you how much money this is saving you.
- So yes, Brendan Carr, I’m sure this impending TV station consolidation will totally end up better serving local communities, enabled by your elimination of TV ownership restrictions (or, at least deals you approve of).
YUP: The Buss family may now be exiting its LAKERS ownership, as HBO’s Winning Time does a special crossover episode with Succession.
- 5 of the 6 Buss siblings agreed to sell the family’s remaining 18% stake to Kushner and Iger, giving the duo an 83% ownership stake of the team. FWIW, still no real details on how the duo is financing this (Kushner also still needs to sell his small stake in the MIAMI HEAT).
- The 6th sibling was (very likely) Jeanie Buss, who says this vote to sell the stake is void because a 2017 court order made Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss the co-trustees of the stake, and thus counts Jeanie among the controlling shareholders of the group. So, if she votes no, nothing can happen.
- Jeanie needs the family to retain at least a 15% ownership stake to keep her Governor team leadership role that she’s had since 2013.
- We’ll see how the legal proceedings . . . proceed, but it’s certainly a fun sideshow for Iger & Kushner to be around now. Can’t wait for Jay Mohr’s guest spot in next week’s episode.
- OH: The Mark Walter’s sports fire sale continues, as he’s now looking to liquidate his stake in CHELSEA F.C. in the PREMIER LEAGUE, as he and Todd Boehly look to sell their ownership to majority owner CLEARLAKE CAPITAL. Don’t worry, nothing to see here folks.
WELL: Gotta love #BigTech’s sense of irony, as OPENAI launches “ChatGPT for Teens” today . . . just as META’s $1.4T state AG-led trial begins today, alleging harms to youth mental health.
- Oh, as for how OPENAI will know who’s a teen — it’s using an age-prediction model relying on about 2k user signals including chat content and times of day to suss out anyone trying workarounds . . . which I’m sure will become a humble brag in Hollywood in no time (“My chatbot thinks I’m 17!”).
PLUS: New Yorker staff writer Ariel Levy is joining 60 Minutes as a contributor.
THEN: Here are your 2026 MTV VMA Nominations. The show is back in L.A. this year on Sept. 27 on CBS and MTV.
HEY: PLUTO, I’m available if you need me to dust off my old HBO/CINEMAX promo editing skills from 2003 for the new PLUTO Double Feature Fridays programming stunt. Then again, I’m guessing the AI just creates those now.
- It’s an old-school linear TV stunt, with fresh interstitial segments wrapped around pairing a licensed studio theatrical film with a new indie film having its free streaming premiere every Friday at 8 p.m.
- Or, Dinner and a Movie for the FAST world.
- It starts this Friday with Gravity, followed by a pic called The Outer Threat with Constance Wu.
ALSO: Here’s your June Gauge report from NIELSEN, with the World Cup / Love Island giving a nice boost to PEACOCK . . . which saw its 2nd-highest share number ever behind the Winter Olympics-driven Feb. 2026.
Streaming also saw its 2 largest share months in the past 12 months in May and June.
PLUS: ANTHROPIC made $11.5B in Q2, 14x YoY and about 2.5x what it made in . . . Q1.
- That Q2 revenue is only about $1B less than NETFLIX and roughly equal to what YOUTUBE made from ads globally in the quarter.
💻 The Media Biz
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