Mediagazer: Sources: OpenAI begins offering its chatbot ads to dozens of advertisers, initially charging per ad view, not per ad click, and asks them for <$1M commitments (The Information)

11:25 AM ET, January 21, 2026

Top News:

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan publishes his annual letter, saying YouTube aims to reduce “AI slop” and has strengthened parental controls, and teases Shorts updates — The executive published his annual letter to the YouTube community Wednesday, outlining his priorities for the video platform.

Discussion: YouTube Official Blog, Variety, The Wrap, TechCrunch, Deadline, Dexerto, Music Ally, @kylebrussell, Tubefilter and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Jay Peters / The Verge:

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan says creators will be able to generate Shorts using their own AI likenesses starting in 2026 — The capability is launching sometime in 2026, though YouTube isn't sharing details about how it will work. … Your YouTube Shorts feed might soon be filled with a lot …

Discussion: CNBC and The Indian Express

Emma Roth / The Verge:

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan says YouTube TV plans to launch “fully customizable” multiview for non-sports channels and channel packages focused on various topics — You'll soon be able to watch whatever you want side by side. … YouTube TV is getting ready to launch two major updates …

Discussion: How-To Geek and Cord Cutters News

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Netflix reports Q4 revenue up 18% YoY to $12.05B, vs. $11.97B est., 325M subscribers, 2025 revenue up 16% to $45.2B, and will spend 10% more on content in 2026 — Netflix Inc. delivered fourth-quarter results that largely beat Wall Street estimates but issued a cautious forecast for the months ahead …

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:

Greg Peters says Netflix plans to include new types of content, like video podcasts, in its vertical video feed, and will roll out a new mobile UI later in 2026 — The streamer plans to add video podcasts into its mobile feed and upgrade its mobile user interface.

Discussion: TechCrunch, TVBEurope, PCWorld, 9to5Google, The Streamable, Cord Cutters News, Engadget, The Indian Express, WebProNews, Forbes, @js@podcastindex.social, Deadline and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos outlines increasing competition for customers' attention from YouTube, Instagram, linear networks that also do streaming, and more

Discussion: Yahoo Finance, Business Today and Media Play News

Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Netflix says ad revenue hit $1.5B in 2025, up by over 2.5x vs. 2024, and that viewing hours grew 2% YoY in H2 2025, driven by viewing of branded originals up 9%

Discussion: The Wrap, MediaPost, Cartoon Brew, The Motley Fool, Broadband TV News, @xpangler, Dow Jones Newswires, Yahoo Finance, Axios, Business Insider, Adweek, The Information, Variety and The Verge

Alex Ritman / Variety:

The BBC confirms a “strategic partnership” with YouTube to produce exclusive content, including news and kids shows, a landmark deal for the UK broadcaster — The BBC has confirmed what it is billing as a “strategic partnership” with YouTube that will see the British broadcaster …

Discussion: Advanced Television, The Guardian, Deadline, TVBEurope, BBC, The Hollywood Reporter and Telecompaper

The Information:

Sources: OpenAI begins offering its chatbot ads to dozens of advertisers, initially charging per ad view, not per ad click, and asks them for <$1M commitments — OpenAI has started offering its new chatbot ads to dozens of advertisers, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: MediaPost, Computerworld, WebProNews, Reuters, Proactive, PCWorld, 80 Level and Digiday, more at Techmeme »

Alex Heath / Sources:
Demis Hassabis says there aren't “any plans” to put ads in Gemini and, in response to OpenAI testing ads, says “maybe they feel they need to make more revenue”

Discussion: The Hans India, Mashable, The Information, Axios, Fortune, WebProNews, Digit, @alexeheath.com, @carnage4life.bsky.social, BleepingComputer, Search Engine Roundtable and BMI, more at Techmeme »

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

NYT launches Crossplay, its first two-player competitive word game, as a standalone iOS and Android app, as it seeks a bigger share of the mobile gaming market — The game will be familiar to Scrabble or Words with Friends players, but the Times is adding a few twists of its own.

Discussion: TechCrunch and The New York Times Company

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

Mediaite launches One Sheet, a daily media newsletter curated by reporter Colby Hall that aggregates media news from other media newsletters, for $8 a month — A new daily email from Mediaite intends to cut through the cacophony of online media news. — The media news site Mediaite …

Discussion: Mediaite, @katie_robertson and @grynbaum

Ellise Shafer / Variety:

Prince Harry testified at London's High Court in his privacy case against Associated Newspapers, saying many articles made him “paranoid beyond belief” — Prince Harry took the stand at London's High Court on Wednesday in his privacy case against the publisher of U.K. tabloid Daily Mail …

Discussion: Deadline, CNN, The Hollywood Reporter, Chicago Tribune, Mirror, The Guardian, GB News, Just Jared, The Sun, HELLO!, Cele|bitchy, WBAL Baltimore News and InStyle

Bill Bradley / Adweek:

Paramount launches guaranteed programmatic ad placements for live sports, debuting with Paramount+'s UFC debut on January 24 — The company takes a big swing with guaranteed placements in live moments — Paramount is taking a big advertising swing by bringing guaranteed programmatic placement to live sports.

Discussion: Variety

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:

UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy says she is “minded to” intervene in DMGT's takeover of The Telegraph and may ask Ofcom to look at the impact on media plurality — Culture secretary ‘minded to’ intervene and ask Ofcom and CMA whether the £500m deal harms media plurality

Discussion: Press Gazette, National Union of Journalists …, The Times, The Independent, Telegraph and Reuters

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Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
WAN-IFRA: news publications globally had an estimated combined revenue of $125.7B in 2025, down 0.01% YoY; print still accounted for 65% of total revenue

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@erikwemple:
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Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
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Discussion: Mercury News, Newser, TechCrunch, BBC and @justinhendrix.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »

Bloomberg:
Sources: banks including Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas, and HSBC began selling an extra $8.2B of short-term loans to help Netflix fund its WBD purchase

Discussion: New York Post

Mark K. Miller / TVNewsCheck:
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Discussion: @bselena.bsky.social, Fox News Network, LLC, TheDesk.net, The Wrap and Barrett Media

Earlier Picks:

Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:
Nielsen: Christmas Day 2025 set a record for US streaming usage with 55.1B minutes, or 54% of all TV viewing for the day, beating Christmas 2024 by 3.9B minutes

Discussion: Nielsen, Telecompaper, TheDesk.net, MediaPost, Awful Announcing, Reuters, Barrett Media, Media Play News, Front Office Sports, Deadline and The Wrap

Dade Hayes / Deadline:
A US jury finds Edo, a TV ad measurement company, liable for breach of contract and says Edo must pay $18.3M in damages to rival iSpot; Edo plans to appeal

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, AdExchanger and Adweek

Katie Atkinson / Billboard:
Penske Media names Leila Cobo and Jason Lipshutz as co-chief content officers of Billboard, overseeing editorial content and newsroom operations

Discussion: Variety, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Netflix adds a real-time voting feature for its Star Search reboot, available on mobile, smart TVs, and streaming devices, but not on a browser

Ted Johnson / Deadline:
MS NOW hires Mike Nizza as VP of digital to focus on building out the network's subscription-based content

Discussion: Radio & Television …, Talking Biz News and Mike Nizza on LinkedIn

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Adobe pledges ~$10M in grants and product donations in 2026 to support filmmakers, including funding creators directly for the first time

Discussion: Analytics India Magazine, Brycie Jones on LinkedIn and @davelee.me

From Techmeme:

Lora Kolodny / CNBC:
Elon Musk announces an xAI reorganization that “required parting ways with some people”, after two xAI co-founders announced they were leaving this week

Z.ai:
Z.ai launches GLM-5, its flagship open-weight model, saying it has best-in-class performance among open-source models in reasoning, coding, and agentic tasks

New York Times:
Social media addiction trial: Adam Mosseri says social media is not “clinically addictive” and that Meta was careful to test features used by young people

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