This Future of TV Briefing covers the latest in streaming and TV for Digiday+ members and is distributed over email every Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET. More from the series →
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks back at the most significant developments — or non-developments — in the TV, streaming and digital video industry during the first half of 2026.
The mid-year review #
2026 has been a weird year.
In many ways, the TV, streaming and digital video industry has advanced. Disney got a new CEO, YouTube got into pitching creator show sponsorships, Nielsen got a new measurement methodology.
But as significant have been the ways in which the industry did not change. Netflix did not acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, OpenAI’s Sora did not shake up the short-form video market, TikTok did not get banned, Nielsen did not adopt a new measurement methodology.
Which makes for a fun challenge at the year’s midway point to decide what have been the most significant developments in the TV, streaming and digital video industry so far. Here’s what I came up with in reverse order of significance.
5. OpenAI shuts down Sora
Honestly, I thought Sora (or something like it) was going to be a thing. I know there are a lot of people that hate AI, and AI slop is a very real thing. But between the Sam Altman deepfakes and the Disney licensing deal – and the amount of AI slop in my TikTok, Instagram and YouTube feeds – I thought there was a very real chance for an all-AI video platform to emerge and for OpenAI’s Sora to be it.
Nope.
I’m still reluctant to say OpenAI shutting down Sora is a referendum on AI-generated video or the potential for an AI-only video platform. Some of my favorite videos I’ve watched in the past year were AI-generated clips my dad had a coworker create starring one of my dad’s dogs. Besides, OpenAI didn’t seem to try all that hard to make Sora succeed (or maybe I’m just bitter for never receiving an invite to try the app). But the Sora shutdown does indicate that the climb for companies to get audiences to embrace AI-generated video is way steeper than I – or the companies – ever assumed.
4. Nielsen changes its math
Look, I’m tired of writing about Nielsen’s measurement ups and downs, and for all I know, you’re sick of reading about them. Nonetheless, Nielsen is the primary measurement provider for a market worth tens of billions of dollars. So Nielsen changing up how it does its math is a big deal.
Look no further than all the acrimony elicited from streaming services when Nielsen’s updated methodology was set to change how it calculates companies’ shares of TV watch time, which isn’t even a measurement used to charge for advertising. Then look at NBCUniversal’s aggravation when Nielsen decided to delay the methodology change. And now we look to the fall when Nielsen is supposed to actually implement the change, just in time for the new NFL season and the latest upfront deals to take effect. Yay.
3. NBCUniversal sells NFL ads via AI agents
If 2025 was the year that AI agents became a curiosity among ad buyers and sellers, then 2026 would naturally be the year to test AI agents for advertising. But I never would have thought that one of the first tests would involve the most-prized ad inventory on the market. And yet, NBCUniversal opened the year by announcing a deal with RPA and Newton Research to use AI agents to sell ads in NFL playoff games. To be clear, there were humans at the helm, and the AI agents were largely confined to cobbling together an ad sales package across NBCUniversal’s traditional TV and streaming supply. But still, on the progress bar of enlisting AI agents for ad sales, the technology touching live sports inventory makes it hard to describe the adoption status as “early innings.”
2. Fox agrees to buy Roku
Recency bias aside, Roku is the biggest connected TV platform in the U.S. ’Nuff said. OK, more to say. The acquisition should not only help catapult Fox into the upper echelon of streaming companies – the modern equivalent of broadcast TV’s “big four,” though more than four – but also will have ripple effects on streaming’s broader subscription and advertising markets.
Just because Fox has talked about wanting to maintain Roku as an“open, partner-friendly platform” doesn’t mean other streaming companies will take Fox at its word. Historically Roku has received a share of ad inventory from services distributed on its platform, which no one was ever that wild about to begin with, but how are they going to feel when they’re handing over ad slots to a traditional rival? And with Roku potentially locked up in integration work after the sale closes sometime next year, how might Amazon, Google, Samsung, Walmart-owned Vizio and even Apple try to seize CTV platform share? Could this be the moment Ventura has been waiting for? (That’s a joke.)
1. Netflix doesn’t buy Warner Bros. Discovery
I know. Weird to top the list with something that didn’t happen. But consider how significant of a change it would have been had Netflix succeeded in winning WBD. Think about how Disney and NBCUniversal, not to mention Amazon and YouTube would have had to respond. And what would David Ellison have done with all that money? So the fact that it didn’t happen feels pretty significant.
Plus there’s the notion now that Netflix is in the big-game hunt. Netflix reportedly also kicked the tires on Roku as well as Lionsgate. Whether the predominant subscription-based streamer actually secures a major acquisition remains to be seen. But like an apex predator entering a marine sanctuary, the fact that it seems to be in the market at all is meaningful.
And with that, I’m going to go for a surf and take a short summer break. Let me know what you would rank as the top 5 stories of 2026 so far and maybe I’ll include them in the next Future of TV Briefing on July 14. Happy half-year.
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