YouTube TV Viewing Hits Record

Television viewing cooled in August after a two-month World Cup-driven surge, according to Nielsen’s August 2026 Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge reports. Total TV usage fell 4.4%, reflecting the quiet period between the end of the FIFA World Cup 2026 in July and the start of the football season, along with the usual back-to-school drop among kids and teens. Although time spent declined across every Gauge category from July to August, both cable and streaming still gained share, reaching 18.9% and 49.6% of television, respectively.

Streaming usage was down 3.2% month-over-month, but the drop was smaller than the overall TV decline, so the category picked up 0.6 share points. YouTube crossed a critical threshold in August as the social video platform captured more than 15 percent of time spent with television in American households. YouTube stood out by setting a platform record at 15.8% of TV as its viewing rose 6%. While viewing among 6- to 17-year-olds faced back-to-school pressure, YouTube saw a 9% increase among adults 50 and older. Disney Streaming and Paramount Streaming each gained 0.1 share point, finishing at 4.8% and 2.3% of TV. Peacock slipped to 1.6% (−1.0 point) after Telemundo’s World Cup coverage and the latest season of Love Island USA ended in July, though it was still up 0.2 points from August 2025.

Trump Called Musk to Lift Ukraine Starlink Restrictions

Elon Musk

President Donald Trump called Elon Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on a military-grade version of Starlink in Ukraine that the SpaceX chief had throttled, U.S. officials said. The system was working more normally Thursday, shortly after their conversation, U.S. and Ukrainian officials said. Some Ukrainian officials said the system was not restored to full functionality but was operating at higher speeds than under the previous cap.⁠

The restrictions, imposed last week, capped the speeds at which Ukrainian hardware could stay connected to the satellite network at roughly 100 miles per hour (about 160 km/h). This rendered some Ukrainian offensive drones and interceptor drones virtually useless, disrupting attack missions and air-defense operations against Russian forces and sparking panic in Kyiv.⁠

Trump expressed frustration to Musk that the speeds remained limited, according to officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier Thursday that full speeds had not been restored and that he hoped for discussions with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the coming days. Trump later told reporters that Musk had “put it back,” while declining to confirm whether he himself had made the call.

TV Ratings: TODAY No. 1 In Total Viewers and Key Demo

• TODAY’s Ireland Broadcast Drives Audience Growth Across All Four Hours
• TODAY Marks 38 Straight Weeks of Year-Over-Year Total Viewer Growth, Its Longest Streak on Record

NBC News’ TODAY won in total viewers and the key demo A25-54 for the week, while remaining the #1 morning news program across the board season-to-date.

TODAY averaged 2.823 million total viewers, beating GMA by +136,000 (+5%) and CBS by +1.017 million (+56%). The show has now posted 38 consecutive weeks of total viewer growth compared to prior year, its longest streak on record.

Katz: Here's How Radio Drives Digital Engagement

A summer 2026 radio advertising campaign generated more than 16,000 radio-attributed website sessions and hundreds of modeled purchases, according to a new Katz Radio Group insights report that quantifies radio’s ability to drive measurable online consumer activity.

The study, “From the Airwaves to Action: How Radio Drives Digital Engagement,” examined a campaign for a leading experiential brand and found that its 15- and 30-second commercials produced an estimated 16,000-plus website sessions from nearly 10,000 unique visitors during the tracking period.

CBS Sports Extends JJ Watt As Lead NFL Analyst

Future Hall of Famer and current CBS Sports announcer JJ Watt has been named lead analyst for the NFL ON CBS in a new multi-year agreement. The announcement was made Thursday by David Berson, Chairman, Global Sports Group, Skydance.

Watt will continue to call the Network’s top games alongside Jim Nantz and Tracy Wolfson as CBS Sports’ lead NFL announce team, including next season when they call Super Bowl LXII in Atlanta.

“I’ve had a front-row seat to JJ’s growth as a top-tier broadcaster, watching him tackle this role just like he did his hall-of-fame playing career,” said Berson. “He’s insightful, entertaining, passionate, meticulous in his preparation, and the ultimate teammate. He has a unique ability to see things and communicate to fans of all levels. We are thrilled to have him leading our NFL coverage.”

America's News Sources On Social Media

Facebook and YouTube continue to outpace all other social media sites when it comes to news consumption: 40% of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on Facebook, and 34% say the same about YouTube, according to as Pew Research Center survey.

Smaller shares of Americans regularly get news on Instagram (23%) and TikTok (20%). Fewer say they get news on X, formerly known as Twitter (10%), Reddit (9%), Nextdoor (8%), LinkedIn (6%), WhatsApp (5%), Rumble (2%), Truth Social (2%) or Bluesky (1%).

CNN Losing Another News Anchor

CNN anchor Bianna Golodryga is leaving the network after nine years, announcing her departure Thursday for an opportunity she said she “couldn’t pass up” and teasing more details soon.⁠

Golodryga, co-anchor of CNN International’s One World alongside Zain Asher since 2023, posted on X that she was exiting after “nine wonderful years,” thanking colleagues for the experiences and support while promising “exciting news to share very soon.” A CNN spokesperson confirmed the departure; her final day is Friday, when she is expected to sign off on air. Asher will continue anchoring the program.⁠

Elon Musk Invests $1B In Skydance

Elon Musk has invested roughly $1 billion in Skydance, the media company formed after Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNBC reported Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter.⁠

The investment, first reported by Semafor, provides a financial boost as the newly combined company seeks to cut costs and support its stock price amid a heavy debt load. Paramount completed its roughly $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6, renaming the entity Skydance. Co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz are integrating two major film studios, the Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming platforms, a portfolio of television networks (including CBS, CNN, and others), and supporting corporate functions.⁠

Spotify And Disney Deals Could Reshape Podcasting

Podcast rights are increasingly mirroring television broadcasting, as shown by major deals that treat audio and video shows as licensable intellectual property rather than one-time content drops.

Spotify’s estimated $250 million renewal with Joe Rogan and PAVE Studios’ licensing of two true-crime video podcasts to Disney+ and Hulu illustrate the shift. Under this rights-based approach, creators and rights holders can continue generating revenue long after a show’s initial release by licensing episodes or series across multiple platforms and developing adaptations such as documentaries, scripted series, or other formats.

If podcasting more fully adopts a broadcast-style model, several industry changes are likely. 

R.I.P.: Matt Hanlon, Veteran Radio Executive

Matt Hanlon

Veteran radio executive Matt Hanlon, former Midwest Division President at Citadel Broadcasting, died Tuesday, October 20, after suffering a heart attack. He was known for overseeing large station clusters and for helping expand a local sports talk program into a statewide radio network.

Hanlon spent decades in radio management, sales and operations. At Citadel, he directed 85 stations across 14 markets and approximately 1,500 employees. During that tenure he played a key role in developing Michigan’s statewide sports radio network by recognizing the potential to grow Bill Simonson’s local show, “The Huge Show,” into a broader offering that became a prominent sports brand and generated new revenue.

In November 2016, Hanlon was named Vice President and Market Manager for Entercom’s newly acquired Charlotte cluster, which included WFNZ-AM (The Fan), WLNK-FM (The Link) and WBT-AM/FM. He later held leadership positions with Townsquare Media and Saga Communications, most recently serving as Director of Sales for Saga in Des Moines, Iowa. Earlier in his career he spent a decade with Katz Media Group and held sales leadership roles with AM/FM.

Hooray For Friday! The Pulse Has Your Briefing for Oct 23

Radio Broadcasting

Podcasting Evolving: Podcast rights are increasingly mirroring television broadcasting, as shown by major deals that treat audio and video shows as licensable intellectual property rather than one-time content drops. MORE

Radio Drives Digital Engagement: A summer 2026 radio advertising campaign generated more than 16,000 radio-attributed website sessions and hundreds of modeled purchases, according to a new Katz Radio Group insights report that quantifies radio’s ability to drive measurable online consumer activity. MORE

RIP: Veteran radio executive Matt Hanlon, former Midwest Division President at Citadel Broadcasting, died Tuesday, October 20, after suffering a heart attack. MORE

Media Industry

CBS Goes With JJ: CBS Sports announcer JJ Watt has been named lead analyst for the NFL ON CBS in a new multi-year agreement. The announcement was made Thursday by David Berson, Chairman, Global Sports Group, Skydance. MORE

YouTube Share Spikes: Television viewing cooled in August after a two-month World Cup-driven surge, according to Nielsen’s August 2026 Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge reports. MORE

Musk Backs Sykdance: Elon Musk has invested roughly $1 billion in Skydance, the media company formed after Paramount’s acquisition of WBD. ⁠MORE

Time To Get Serious About MLB

The 2026 World Series opens tonight as the Milwaukee Brewers host the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 (FOX, 8 p.m. ET), guaranteeing a first-time champion and marking the first Fall Classic between two teams in the bottom half of MLB payrolls since 1991.⁠

Neither franchise has ever won a World Series title. Milwaukee, seeking its first championship since its only previous appearance in 1982, and Tampa Bay, appearing for the third time after losses in 2008 and 2020, will face off in a best-of-seven series that begins at American Family Field. The matchup pits two of the league’s most efficient, small-market clubs against each other after both entered the postseason as top seeds.⁠

Out of 30 teams, the Brewers ranked 19th in player salaries and the Rays ranked 28th. Their combined payrolls were less than the individual rosters of the Los Angeles Dodgers or the New York Yankees, underscoring the gap between big-market spending and the success of these lower-payroll squads. The series highlights a rare postseason outcome in which on-field performance and roster construction overcame the usual advantages of higher payrolls.

Trump Ordered to Sit For BBC Deposition

A federal judge on Thursday ordered Donald Trump to sit for a deposition by December 11 in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, which has accused the president of stalling to avoid answering questions under oath.

Reuters reports U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjolique Lett issued the order from the bench at a hearing in Florida federal court, according to a spokesman for Trump’s personal legal team. Trump had canceled an earlier deposition scheduled for October, citing conflicts with his presidential duties and security needs.

SAS Confronts The View About His Trump Dinner

Stephen A. Smith confronted The View on Wednesday, defending his White House dinner with Trump. When Sunny Hostin questioned meeting a president she called “disgusting and abhorrent,” Smith fired back: “He’s the president of the United States, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to try.” He pushed HBCU funding, Black women’s unemployment, and college sports issues. Trump later followed up. Smith: “I’m not apologizing to anybody.”

NAB Says 6700 Attended New York Show

NAB Show New York 2026 wrapped up Thursday at the Javits Center, drawing roughly 6,700 attendees over two days for sessions and demos centered on artificial intelligence, streaming, live sports, and other emerging media technologies.

Preliminary figures from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show the event drew more than 9,000 registrants. Fifty-seven percent of those who attended were first-time participants, and representatives from 72 countries took part.

Radio History: Oct 23

➦In 1904...David Ford Bond born (Died at age 57 – August 15, 1962). He was the announcer for several popular radio shows in the 1930s and 1940s, earning him a spot on the This Is Your Life television show.  For his work on radio, Bond has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6706 Hollywood Blvd.

Bond began working on radio at WHAS in Louisville, Kentucky, and joined NBC in 1928. For 20 years in the 1930s and 1940s, he was the announcer for several radio soap operas and other shows, including the advertising voice for a sponsor's product called Bab-O. He was also a sports announcer for NBC radio in the 1930s, calling college football games as well as the 1934 Major League Baseball All-Star Game and 1934 World Series.

For almost 30 years, Bond was the spokesman for Cities Service petroleum company, "the longest sponsor-announcer association in the history of radio".

➦In 1928…RCA announced the creation of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum holding company, more commonly known as RKO, with David Sarnoff (general manager of RCA) as its chairman of the board.

➦In 1932...the "Fred Allen Show" premiered on radio.  Allen's radio show (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the Golden Age of American radio.