It's a happy Monday for em dash lovers. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT will now exclude em dashes from responses if asked—meaning writers can once again embrace the punctuation mark without fear of being confused for AI.

Today's News

🤝 Disney and YouTube make a deal
💬 X launches chat
🏦 American Express taps Keith Lee
🎙️ This week on the podcast…

THE BIZ

Disney and YouTube TV have finally reached an agreement over carriage rights

The big announcement: The longest government shutdown in U.S. history has come to an end—and now, a bitter dispute within the streaming world has also reached its conclusion.

After a 15-day blackout that deprived YouTube TV subscribers of ESPN and ABC favorites like Monday Night Football and Dancing With the Stars, Disney and YouTube have at last agreed on a multi-year carriage deal.

According to a press release, that agreement will provide YouTube TV subscribers with "Disney's marquee sports, news and entertainment programming—along with greater choice and value." The release added that Disney's "full suite of networks and stations—including ESPN and ABC—have already begun to be restored to YouTube TV subscribers."

The context: That's good news for YouTube TV subscribers. But why did the standoff drag on for so long to begin with?

According to most reports, the carriage dispute revolved primarily around the rate Disney expected YouTube TV to pay for its networks. As CNBC noted, "Disney's most valuable channel, ESPN, charges carriage of more than $10 a month per pay-TV subscriber, a higher fee than any other network in the U.S." With YouTube TV's reported 10 million subscribers, that works out to roughly $1.2 billion a year in carriage fees to Disney for ESPN alone.

In essence, YouTube found itself in a lose-lose situation: on the one hand, the video platform indicated that meeting Disney's demands would "force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers." For consumers already concerned about regular YouTube TV price hikes, additional costs would be a possibly intolerable grievance. But if YouTube allowed its dispute with Disney to drag on, ongoing outages would rankle subscribers who feel they already pay too much for inconsistent coverage.

At the same time, Disney's recently launched $30-per-month ESPN streaming service added another layer of complexity to the negotiations. The Mouse House could've held out on YouTube TV, foregoing carriage fees to bank on more users signing up for their standalone service.

But ultimately - while financial terms of the deal were not disclosed - the global mass media and entertainment conglomerate opted to cash YouTube's checks and preserve ESPN's scale. With the new agreement, YouTube TV subscribers will have access to the whole suite of ESPN programming for the foreseeable future. Check out our full article here to find out more.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

X has launched "end-to-end encrypted chats and file sharing" with messages that can be deleted, edited, or set to disappear. (X)
TikTok is offering Shop sellers multiple incentives in the form of both cash payouts and ad credits to encourage more sales during the holiday season. (Digiday)
Twitch has introduced mandatory facial recognition scans for U.K. viewers looking to watch mature content—and some users aren't happy. (Rolling Out)
Meta reportedly plans to make "AI impact" a "core expectation" for employees beginning in 2026. (Business Insider)

CREATOR COMMOTION

American Express is putting a fresh twist on Small Business Saturday with Keith Lee

The partnership: Since its creation by American Express in 2010, Small Business Saturday has become a valued part of post-Thanksgiving shopping sprees everywhere. This year, AmEx will build hype around the big day—which falls on November 29—by collaborating with TikTok food critic Keith Lee on a series of stories celebrating small businesses.

Those vignettes will draw attention to hard-working vendors ahead of Small Business Saturday, when AmEx customers will be able to use a Shop Small Map to find deals at local spots.

Lee's partnership with AmEx reflects the transformation of his approach to food content. Once upon a time, the former MMA fighter leveraged his fast food hacks to land shoutouts on Chipotle's menu. In recent years, however, Lee has begun using his food reviews—and the increasingly influential "Keith Lee effect"—to bring attention to the little guys. Now, the critic's support for independent, family-owned restaurants makes him the perfect partner for Small Business Saturday.

The context: As for AmEx, the opportunity to work with a creator as influential as Lee is too good to pass up. The credit card company's 2025 Shop Small Impact Study found that 82% of small businesses that use social media for marketing see their sales spike when creators post about them.

AmEx isn't the only company in its field paying attention to that phenomenon. Visa has already encouraged creators to turn their hustles into small businesses, and is now deepening its existing relationship with the creator banking firm Karat through a pilot program that will "focus on leveraging agents to help resolve common friction points for creators" (per a press release).

LISTEN UP 🎙️

Last week on the podcast…

The podcast gold rush: The creator economy is buzzing about a "podcast gold rush," and platforms are racing to stake their claim. Is TikTok the latest video giant to set its sights on audio?

On the latest installment of Creator Upload, hosts Joshua Cohen and Lauren Schnipper break down the massive new partnership between iHeartMedia and TikTok, which will result in a 25-creator podcast network.

Tune in to discover how TikTok's latest move and new initiatives from platforms like Netflix and Threads signal a major shift from "scale" to "curation." It's all right here on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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