☀️SONY TV Exec Shakeup; HULU’s ’26 TV Pilot Heater
FOCUS eyes Billie Eilish / How the UFC fared on CBS / LGF + Brandon Sklenar
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 Thursday, March 12, 2026.
Where it’s nice to see YOUTUBE finally joining the dark side.
Yes, the home of consumer-friendly skippable ads and 15-second ad units is finally adding good ol’ 30-second, nonskippable ads to its YOUTUBE app on TVs. Aka, TV commercials. YOUTUBE generation — you had a good run, welcome to 2003.
Keep in mind YOUTUBE is doing so about 2 months before Upfronts, so yeah — that should take competition for streaming ad dollars up a notch come May on top of a coming WARNAMOUNT combo for almost all of the 2026-27 TV season (🤞) and an even more advanced NETFLIX ad product.
I’ll leave the debate over whether the in-the-works foldable iPhone screen that will open up to a screen about the size of an iPad Mini counts as CTV or not for the 2027 Upfronts.
Either way, AMAZON PV going ad tier — you’re so two years ago 🙄. See you all in NYC come May.
SO: DIS+ is launching that Verts product this week (the ESPN app already has a version of this) — essentially TIKTOK using DISNEY shows/movies inside of DIS+.
ALTHOUGH: The product will expand to include some kinds of creator content, and we’ll see if any of that SORA content makes its way in there (remember that deal made just 3 months ago with the app that no one talks about anymore?).
YEAH: NBC SPORTS is parting ways with Tony Dungy on Sunday Night Football, as previously rumored.
ALSO: Of the roughly $20B that SPOTIFY made in revenue in 2025, $11B was paid out to the music industry. Now, this is money paid to labels and publishers, not directly to artists . . . whose cuts are likely notably lower (save for indie artists who run their own businesses).
13.8k artists grossed over $100k in 2025, up 1.4k from 2024.
1.5k artists generated over $1M in royalties in 2025
SO: At least $1.5B or a little over 10% of SPOTIFY’s music biz payouts went to 1,500 artists.
At least $800M of that $1.5B+ went to just 80 of those 1,500 artists.
$700M+ was split among the remaining 1,420.
YAH: Ben Affleck and his INTERPOSITIVE AI investors at REDBIRD could earn up to $600M if future performance targets are met, according to our favorite sources (those familiar with the matter) cited by Bloomberg.
The actual cash NETFLIX paid this month for the company is less . . . but no hard number was indicated by those “familiar” folks.
David Fincher has already used AI tools on his upcoming Cliff Booth pic with Brad Pitt.
Eric Barmack also has a new Reel AI column looking at the ways Hollywood is already embracing AI tech like INTERPOSITIVE.
AND: SXSW begins with I Love Boosters today.
OH: Gayle King’s new lauded CBS NEWS contract is only for one year, according to Status.
AH: A #goodread here from Peter Kiefer at Page Six Hollywood diving into the unsettling ripples unleashed at CAA among those with equity after the $40M+ RANGE court ruling.
PLUS: Nikki Glaser will unsurprisingly be back to host the Globes in January.
THEN: Here are how the best picture noms stack up in NIELSEN U.S. streaming views in their respective first 30 days on their respective services — or at least 6 of the 10 pics (The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value and Marty Supreme have yet to hit streaming, and Hamnet just got on PEACOCK):
Frankenstein (NETFLIX): 21M views
Sinners (HBO MAX): 12.2M
Note that this film has returned to the NIELSEN charts a few times in early 2026 as Oscar heat fired up, so it has significant additional viewership on top of this First 30 Days total from its summer HBO MAX debut month.
One Battle After Another (HBO MAX): 8.4M
Train Dreams (NETFLIX): 5.1M
Bugonia (PEACOCK): 4.8M
F1 (APPLE TV): 3.5M
NOTE: Sinners & One Battle and Bugonia will also get new life before new streaming audiences in their respective Pay1B windows on AMAZON PV and NETFLIX this year.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
UNI is stepping up to the plate on Oscars weekend with a new Colleen Hoover pic, Reminders of Him. Looks like a pretty broad $10M to $15M range, though some think it could come in a bit lower.
Hoover’s last effort, Regretting You, launched with $13.6M in the fall.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
