I wanted to thank everyone this week for being patient as I attended StreamTV. On the upside, I had so many great conversations and learned so much that I am going to be able to use moving forward to making this newsletter more useful.
On the downside, the 12+ hour days made getting this newsletter out in a timely fashion a bit challenging.
And along those lines, a special thanks to all of you who have been able to invest in this newsletter. As an independent journalist, I depend on your support to do things such as this trip. At a time when the economy is unsettled and a lot of people are asking you for money, I appreciate your support more than I can say.
Some Things I Learned At StreamTV Denver This Week
StreamTV Denver was a bit of a firehouse of data and news, and it was challenging to keep track of it all. I have around 20 interviews I did over the week that I’ll be rolling out over the next couple of weeks. But here are some of the things that were on my radar, for whatever reason.
I spoke with Craig Heiting, who is the head of Commercial Strategies & Partnerships for Ad Good, a company which takes unused CTV inventory donated by various platforms and provides it to non-profits for a huge discount.
It’s a fascinating business and this was how he described his biggest challenge:
I thought when we put all this together and I got all these people to donate their unsold inventory, that it would be really easy. I would just put a LinkedIn message out saying, "Calling all nonprofits, come to us." And they'd all come running.
And that's not happening because non-profits are all very segmented and all over the place. And so we've had to learn a lot about it because none of us, although all of us have been involved with nonprofits a little bit, none of us really knew the nonprofit community and the inner workings of nonprofits. And so they don't like to be marketed to because they're very leery about that.
People are always trying to sell them stuff. They always have the same comment. "We don't have any money," but except for like St. Jude's, they can't say that. But they're very hard to connect with.
And so that's been the thing, right? We're growing slower than I'd like because nonprofits don't really all know about us.
So our biggest goal really, this is the only industry show I've got going for it because I know everybody and I'm just continuing to get more and more supply. But we're spending most of our time looking for, trying to have it, how to get into the nonprofits and get involved with them.
Radial Entertainment, along with UK-based indie producer Woodcut Media, announced the latest expansion of the Most Evil franchise with World’s Most Evil Women, a new true crime series investigating the women behind recent history’s most heinous crimes. The series will make its debut later this summer on Radial’s FilmRise channel.
According to a Tivo Q4 2025 Video Trends Report, Of the 77.9% who actively watch sports, only 62.8% of respondents are able to watch all of the games or events for their favorite sport with the sources they currently have. This year, 58.6% of sports viewers note that a Pay TV service is the primary way they consume sports content, up significantly from 40.3% in Q4 2024. 68.6% of sports watchers feel as if it’s gotten harder to watch sports, and 36.0% of sports viewers will skip an event if not available via their video sources. At the same time, 41.8% noted that they have extra budget for, and are willing to pay extra money to obtain, additional services to watch their favorite sport or team (an increase from 37.6% YOY). Only 56% noted that their "favorite team" to watch is a local team.
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The Return Of Shark Week
Secrets Of The Great White Kill
Discovery has announced its lineup for this year’s Shark Week, which premieres on Sunday, July 26th. Here is a look at what you can expect:
Sunday, July 26th:
K-Pop Shark Heroes
After a recent series of shark encounters off the Korean Peninsula, actor and comedian Ken Jeong joins forces with Grammy-nominated singer and lifetime shark lover REI AMI on a mission to reshape the perception of sharks across East Asia and around the globe, fueled by the power of K-POP.
Air Jaws: Red, White And Breach
Across the U.S. coastline, a new phenomenon is emerging as great white sharks are captured on film breaching in California like never before. Filmmaker Jeff Kurr, marine biologist Alison Towner, and cinematographer Andy Casagrande set out to capture this unprecedented behavior and uncover the secrets behind the Great American Breach.
Invasion Of The Mega Sharks
Shark researcher Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, joined by Shark Week expert Paul de Gelder, leads a team on a high-risk mission to track down "Big Rose," a record-breaking great white believed to be one of largest predators in the North Atlantic. Using innovative tagging technology and daring field operations, they venture to a newly discovered shark hotspot off Nova Scotia aiming to transform our understanding of these ocean giants.
Monday, July 27th:
Bull Shark Dinner Bell
Shark attack survivor and advocate Paul De Gelder teams up with apex predator specialist Rosie Moore in Jupiter, Florida to investigate what triggers giant bull sharks to confront humans, testing human behavior in the ocean, extreme weather events and prey preferences to determine what factors ring the loudest dinner bell.
House Of Sharks
Off the coast of New Zealand lies a hidden shark battleground, where three distinct groups of great whites organize into competing “houses” and may be competing with one another to gain control of a major seal feeding ground. Marine biologist Dr. Tristan Guttridge and underwater cinematographer Kina Scollay venture into the middle of the action on an epic expedition, using brand new builds and massive blood bombs to document this new competitive behavior. As they investigate, they uncover the possibility that these clans of great whites recognize kin and return season after season to their ancestral territories, raising the theory that these predators aren’t solitary hunters, but rival dynasties at war.
Biggest Mako On Earth
For decades, rumors have swirled about massive,15 to 20-foot mako sharks patrolling the deep waters off Southern California. Long dismissed as fishermen’s tales, new footage, along with a recently published photo capturing a mako that appears to push 15 feet, is now forcing scientists to rethink everything they know about these oceanic apex predators. Marine biologist Tristan Guttridge, alongside conservationist Kendyl Berna and shark tagger Keith Poe, leads an investigation to determine whether the world’s biggest mako is real - and hunting in the coastal waters of Santa Catalina.
Tuesday, July 28th:
Jurassic Sharks
In a Shark Week first, revolutionary CGI resurrects the ocean’s most bizarre Jurassic sharks, bringing them to life like never before. Guided by the rare living sharks that once shared their seas, real-world expeditions seamlessly merge with cutting-edge visual effects to uncover stories from the deep and prehistoric seas in ways never before possible.
Jaws vs Orca
For millennia, the great white shark has reigned as the ocean's ultimate apex predator. But now, a new challenger is emerging: the killer whale. Around the world, sharks are washing ashore with their livers removed with chilling precision while in the Strait of Gibraltar, orcas are targeting sailboats - ramming hulls, crippling rudders, and sinking vessels. To investigate this alarming shift in behavior, Dr. Tristan Guttridge places himself directly in the path of an orca encounter, using their attacks on boats to reveal how these predators hunt and ultimately, how they may be taking down great white sharks.
Chum Island: Catching A Killer
In this Shark Week whodunnit, a rare surge of highly aggressive shark attacks hit a tight-knit community off Australia’s southern coast, prompting marine biologist Dr. Riley Elliott to find and tag the oceanic suspects. But when he discovers this could be a new, elusive population of sharks, he builds the world’s first “chum island” to lure them in and uncover if they are the ones responsible for the attacks.
Wednesday, July 29th:
Expedition X: Atomic Sharks
Phil Torres and Heather Amaro travel 5,000 miles west of the U.S. to the remote Marshall Islands, home to the world's largest shark sanctuary, where apex predators are exhibiting highly aggressive behaviors and erratic swimming patterns. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States military detonated 67 nuclear bombs around the island, raising questions about their lasting impact on marine life. Now, the team dives into these dangerous waters to investigate reports of “mutant” sharks and uncover whether atomic blasts could be to blame.
Expedition Unknown: Shark Secrets
Global explorer Josh Gates travels back in time and dives into the history behind some of the world’s most infamous shark encounters, from the earliest known shark attack to the mystery surrounding the shark feeding frenzy faced by sailors following the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in remote waters. He also investigates the legendary “Stronsay Beast,” a mysterious creature that washed ashore in Scotland in 1808, long thought to be a sea monster. But could it in fact be the remains of a massive shark?
Alien Sharks: Untamed America
In celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, wildlife biologist Forrest Galante embarks on a nationwide quest to find the nation’s most bizarre and dangerous alien sharks – from glowing swell sharks to elusive sawfish – proving the ultimate shark adventure is right here at home.
Thursday, July 30th:
What Shark Attacked?
Shark attacks are extremely rare, but when they happen, the first question is always the same: what kind of shark was it? Leading shark scientists Tom “Blowfish” Hird and Rosie Moore, alongside conservationist Kinga Phillips, investigate mysterious attacks from around the world using cutting-edge forensic analysis - including bite pattern comparison, geographic profiling, video evidence, and eyewitness testimony – to identify the species responsible and uncover why these life-threatening encounters occur.
How To Train A Great White
Marine biologist Dr. Tristan Guttridge ventures into the shark-infested waters of New Zealand to answer a provocative question: can sharks be trained? Using techniques pioneered by the U.S. Navy to train dolphins in complex cognitive tasks, the team applies similar methods to great white sharks, testing whether these apex predators can learn, solve problems, and respond to cues. If successful, the experiment can potentially redefine shark intelligence and transform our understanding of one of the ocean’s most misunderstood predators.
Ultimate Shark Dive
World-class Red Bull high diver Molly Carlson leaps from a helicopter hovering above the open ocean in a bid to complete the highest freefall dive in Shark Week history, targeting a narrow plexiglass cage surrounded by circling reef sharks, or risking a direct plunge into a chum-filled feeding frenzy where seconds mean survival. From concept to execution, this fearless athlete will push herself to the limit with a record-setting stunt that no high diver has ever attempted.
Friday, July 31st:
Secrets Of The Great White Kill
For centuries, great whites were believed to simply stalk their prey. Now, groundbreaking science believes that these alpha sharks are highly intelligent predators that adapt their hunting techniques in real time. For the first time on Shark Week, the full range of great white hunting tactics will be revealed, reinforcing their status as one of the ocean’s top predator.
Sharkzilla Takes New York
After a wave of mauled marine life washes ashore in New York, conservation biologist Dr. Craig O'Connell launches an investigation to find the culprit. When it leads to an old nuclear dumping ground teaming with great whites and makos, he is left with the chilling theory that the predator may be radioactive. A deeper dive reveals an unexpected hotspot for massive makos off the coast of the Hamptons, suggesting that these waters may be hiding something even bigger beneath the surface.
My Strange Shark Addiction
How far will people go to fuel their fascination with sharks? For four devoted shark “fin-atics,” their obsession shapes every aspect of their lives. From a dentist who spends every spare moment searching for life-size shark replicas that overwhelm his home to a woman who insists she has a special connection with her shark “boyfriend,” and a world-record holder covered in shark tattoos, this special explores how their daily routines, relationships, and finances revolve entirely around the apex predators they can't live without.
Saturday, August 1st:
Great White Highway
Great white sharks are pushing farther up the East coast than ever before and in far greater numbers leading to close encounters, forcing beach closures, and leaving locals wondering where the next attack could happen. Now, a daring team of shark scientists race to install high-tech receivers and tag as many great whites as possible before another harrowing incident rocks the country.
Thresher Shark: Stun To Kill
The physics behind the thresher shark’s devastating tail strike has long remained a mystery…until now. For the first time ever, the discovery of a shallow-water feeding ground has made observing this behavior possible. Now, shark scientist Dr. Craig O’Connell and marine biologist Aliah Banchik dive into the direct line of fire as they attempt to reveal exactly how these predators use their tails to stun and kill.
Odds & Sods
Paris Is Always A Good Idea
Penske Media Corporation has acquired Vox Media‘s brands Vox Studios, Eater, The Verge, SB Nation, PopSugar, The Dodo, Punch, Thrillist and Vox Creative, along with Concert, Vox Media’s ad marketplace, and Forte, Vox Media’s first-party data platform. No financials were disclosed, but given that Penske was Vox Media’s biggest individual shareholder and that they had bought into the company at a valuation much higher than Vox was worth when it was sold, my hunch is that Penske swapped out its shares for the various brands. The data platform and ad marketplace will be helpful for Penske. But given that Vox had been trying to sell The Dodo without success for more than a year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of these go away. And given that these outlets - along with the ones already owned by PMC - are being spun off into a new division, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Penske either eventually sell off or otherwise financially distance the company from the online digital business, which is an increasingly tough industry these days. And btw, given that Jay Penske is notoriously press shy, this 2022 profile in the NY Times is still a must-read.
Season three of The Ark premieres Wednesday, July 29th on Syfy. Here is the official logline: '“Season three of The Ark begins after the crew of Ark 1 have established their new colony, Homebase 1. Captain Garnet and some of her brave team return to space in the hopes of finding other lost Earth survivors. The rest of her team remain on Homebase 1 to explore their new world but an unsettling discovery makes everyone wonder what secrets this new planet is hiding and how safe it really is. “
Peacock has given a straight-to-series order to Dungeon Crawler Carl, a live-action series adaptation of Matt Dinniman’s popular science fantasy role-playing game books.
Eons: Life And Death On Pangea premieres Wednesday, July 29th on PBS. Here is the official logline: “Set during the Permian Period, hundreds of millions of years ago, this six-episode series transports viewers to a world shaped by the supercontinent Pangea, extreme climate shifts, and ecosystems unlike anything seen today. From mega-monsoons and vast deserts to giant terrestrial animals, bizarre marine life, and massive volcanic eruptions, the series traces how Earth reached the brink of ecological collapse, and how life ultimately recovered. The “Great Dying” remains one of the most dramatic examples of how environmental change can reshape life on Earth.”
Football star Neymar has partnered with microdrama platform FlareFlow to launch a 16-part AI-assisted vertical series during the FIFA World Cup.
Comedian Carlos Mencia, who created and starred in the 2005-2008 Comedy Central sketch-variety series Mind of Mencia, was arrested Thursday for allegedly failing to submit his state income tax returns from 2019 to 2024 and failing to report a total of $8.7 million in personal and corporate earnings.
The original limited-series Paris is Always a Good Idea, starring Lacey Chabert, will premiere Thursday, July 30th on Hallmark. Here is the official logline: “Career-driven nonprofit executive Chelsea Martin (Lacey Chabert) travels to Paris to secure a major donor and is shocked when her confident rival-turned-ally, Jason Knightly (Scott Michael Foster) is sent to join her. While in Paris, an unexpected and heartfelt message from her late mother — and a push from her father (Henry Czerny) and her sister (Rebecca Hanssen) — sends her on an unexpected journey to reconnect with the three past loves she once left behind in Europe. From the rolling hills of Ireland to the magic of Paris, and the sun-kissed vineyards of Spain, Chelsea retraces old footsteps and discovers that sometimes moving forward means first looking back.
Roast My Rental, hosted by Leslie Jones, premieres Friday, July 24th on HGTV. Here is the official logline: “Leslie Jones will crash America’s worst short-term rentals, whose viral photos of amenities gone wrong, misleading listings and brutally honest reviews have scared guests away. After Leslie’s hilarious roast of the space and a no-nonsense reality check, she and her experienced design team led by HGTV star and home renovation expert Jasmine Roth (Help! I Wrecked My House) will come to the rescue and help the owners clean up the chaos in just 72 hours. They’ll fix the flaws, transform the houses into top-tier vacation getaways and give the ‘roastees’ a chance at redemption when the next guests come to stay.”
Netflix has bought the rights to stream Ricky Gervais’ next tour before it’s even started. Gervais will tour the new show, titled Legend, from autumn 2026 through to the end of 2027, when it will be filmed and become his fifth in a string of tiresome Netflix specials.
The Matthew McConaughey-Woody Harrelson Apple TV comedy Brothers will premiere Wednesday, September 23rd on Apple TV. Here is the official logline: “After Woody’s daughter’s wedding falls apart, he loads up the family and heads to Austin for an extended stay at Matthew’s ranch,” reads the official description. “But what begins as a healing getaway quickly spirals when Matthew’s mother, Ma Mac (Holland Taylor), accidentally lets slip a long-buried secret that the two friends might actually be brothers. As Woody turns the ranch upside down in pursuit of the truth, Matthew finds himself juggling an entirely different identity crisis: a potential run for governor of Texas. The result is a heartfelt, chaotic, and wildly funny story about friendship, family, fame, and the messy line between myth and reality.”
The spin-off series The Traitors: New Blood, which will feature a cast of non-celebrities, premieres Thursday, September 17th on NBC.
The fifth and final season of Outer Banks will premiere Thursday, August 20th on Netflix.
The German-produced film 23,000 Lives premieres Friday, July 17th on Netflix. Here is a first look at the trailer. And here is the brief official logline: “A group of young people sets sail for the Mediterranean to save the lives of refugees - a mission that puts their ideas of law and justice to the test.”
French broadcaster TF1 went live inside Netflix France yesterday. 5 channels: TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films, LCI. Up to 40,000 titles. Marion Ranchet’s Streaming Made Easy newsletter has a good rundown of the viewing experience.
A Prince In Paradise: A Royal Wedding will premiere Thursday, July 30th on the streaming service Great American Pure Flix.
‘The Boroughs’ Might Have Been Canceled, But There Is A Soundtrack
While Netflix might have announced it is canceling The Burroughs on Thursday, there is still a soundtrack for the show available. Although it’s hard to know who would be interested in the album/CD.
The 20-track release primarily includes a bunch of very familiar songs used in the series, including “Born To Run,” “Do You Believe In Magic?,” “Barracuda,” “Love Train,” “Thunder Road,” “Night Moves” and others. So while it’s interesting there is a soundtrack, it’s not especially useful.
I am fascinated by how many streaming TV shows have released official soundtracks. There are ones available for smaller shows including Ludwig, The Knick, Clark, Peaky Blinders, and Thursday Murder Club, among others.
Peacock Leads Streamers In Number Of Bundles
Here’s an interesting chart from Axios Media:
What’s Coming Tonight And This Weekend
FRIDAY, JUNE 19TH:
Color Book (Netflix)
Husbands In Action (Netflix)
Oasis (Netflix)
Stepfather (Tubi)
Sugar Season Two Premiere (Apple TV)
The Clash Of Nations: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling (History)
The Voices Of Our Mother (Shudder)
Voicemails For Isabelle (Netflix)
Who Killed My Husband's Mistress? (LMN)
SATURDAY, JUNE 20TH:
Don't Trust The Girls Upstairs (Lifetime)
The Love Heist (Hallmark)
The Root Of The Game (Netflix)
SUNDAY, JUNE 21ST:
American Dad! (Fox)
Celebrity Crime Scene: Marilyn Monroe (Fox)
House Of The Dragon Season Three (HBO)
My Husband's Mistress (Lifetime)
The Agency Season Two Premiere (Paramount+)
The Real Housewives Of Rhode Island Season One Reunion Special (Bravo)
The Way Home Series Finale (Hallmark)