|
TOGETHER WITH |
|
|
It's Monday and if you had an extra $1M to spare last week, you might have had enough to win the auction for C-3PO's head from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. |
|
Today's News |
⚾ Netflix covers MLB Opening Night 📱 Bluesky gets into AI 👻 Snapchat hops on the bandwagon 🖥️ CTV shopping hits the NewFronts 🎙️ This week on the podcast…
|
|
|
|
STREAMING BIG |
 | It was an interesting opening night for America's Pastime. |
|
Netflix's "Opening Night" MLB coverage was a swing and a miss |
The broadcast: On March 25, Netflix broke new ground by serving as the exclusive broadcaster for the MLB's season-opening matchup between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees. |
With legends like Barry Bonds in the studio and stars like Aaron Judge on the field, Netflix had a chance to disrupt sports media in the same way it disrupted TV and movies. Instead, Opening Night was heavily derided by baseball fans and casual viewers alike. |
The first strike: Netflix didn't seem to trust that the MLB itself was interesting enough to hold viewers' attention. Instead of placing the game front-and-center, there was a constant flow of interviews, overlong segments, and broadcaster tangents. |
Comedian and Netflix star Bert Kreischer introduced the teams, football player Jameis Winston was a guest in the studio, and WWE star Jey Uso announced the first pitch—all before the game even started. Later on, when the first-ever ABS challenge in MLB history occurred, viewers missed it because Netflix was too busy hitting Giants manager Tony Vitello with softball questions. |
The quality: The broadcast's production was no less disappointing. Factors like image quality, graphics, and sound mixing are often the difference between a beloved broadcast and a dud—but high-quality production didn't seem to be a top concern for Netflix. The picture looked hazy at times, and some of the digital ads clashed with player uniforms. |
Even the "scorebug" (a graphic designed to show details like the score, count, and baserunners) was hard to read—despite there apparently being enough room to jam the Netflix logo in there. |
The end result was a distraction-filled broadcast that treated MLB like a second-class product while encouraging viewers to divide their attention. If Netflix wants advertisers to believe that its subscribers are leaning in, it might want to begin treating them that way. |
|
|
|
Tribeca X has unveiled a sneak peek of its 2026 speaker lineup: |
From June 8 to 9, Tribeca Festival's flagship program for brand storytelling—aka Tribeca X— will unite leading experts in NYC for two full days of panels and cross-industry networking. |
That program will culminate with the Tribeca X Awards, which honor impactful brand storytelling across film, series, podcasts, social, and traditional commercial work. (Awards submissions are open now through April 8.) |
Without further ado, here's a preview of the 2026 Tribeca X speaker lineup… |
Spin Master CEO Christina Miller will dive into the process of building brand universes through cross-platform storytelling.
Elizabeth Rutledge, CMO of American Express, will explore how the brand is evolving into a cultural access platform.
Creator and Challenge Accepted host Michelle Khare will reveal how she transformed her channel into a full in-house production company.
Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan—the screenwriting duo behind Netflix's K-Pop Demon Hunters—will explain how intentional, authentic writing creates stories that scale globally.
Dhar Mann (Forbes #2 Top Creator 2025, TIME100 Creator) will join Dhar Mann Studios CEO Sean Atkins to discuss how they are pioneering a new model of entertainment built around direct audience relationships.
|
Passes to Tribeca X 2026 are on sale now. Visit the website to learn more: |
|
|
HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰 |
 | There's a lot of space to innovate. |
|
|
|
NEWFRONTS NEWS |
 | Snapchat's map for marketers. |
|
Snapchat is hopping onto the "full-funnel" bandwagon |
The pitch: At the 2026 NewFronts, one marketing buzzword loomed large: "full funnel." The term refers to strategies that engage with consumers at each step of their journey, from discovery to intent to conversation. That's no easy task, but nearly every major platform seems to believe it can be a one-stop shop for forward-thinking advertisers. |
TikTok, LinkedIn, and Samsung have all embraced the full-funnel approach—but Snapchat was arguably the NewFronts presenter that placed the strongest emphasis on the event's most common catchphrase. Its pitch centered around a "full-funnel advantage" powered by a mix of new and preexisting ad formats. |
One of those formats is Total Snap Takeovers. Like TikTok and Meta, Snapchat is aiding attention-based strategies by putting brands at the top of the feed. Buyers who invest in Total Snap Takeovers will ensure that their ads are the first ones Snapchat users see when switching to a new tab. |
Snap's argument is that immediacy is key for brands hoping to break through the clutter of today's social media environment. According to a blog post, U.S. Snapchatters open the app 30 times per day, and 97% of them access multiple tabs during their visits. Those behaviors give Total Snap Takeover buyers more chances to make a strong first impression. |
The retail solution: Snapchat also has new solutions for advertisers looking to convert impressions into retail-related outcomes. One format currently in beta is Offers, which integrates IRL promotions into Snap ads. Gen Z is getting more spending power to distribute across social media, and the platform that calls itself "the key to Gen Z" is building the tools that will bring more of that revenue to its shores. |
Ultimately, Snapchat's self-characterization as a full-funnel specialist is a product of its impressive scale. More than a decade after its initial debut, it claims to attract nearly one billion monthly active users. |
|
TV TALK |
 | Platforms and advertisers are hoping lean back purchases become a big thing. |
|
Connected TV shopping got the limelight at NewFronts |
The YouTube reveal: Full-funnel advertising wasn't the only running theme at this year's NewFronts; connected TV was also top of mind for many presenters. |
CTV has, of course, been a primary focus of YouTube for quite some time. It's now spent three years as the most-watched streaming service on TVs, and more recently became the single most-watched provider of content, beating out all traditional television networks. YouTube, of course, would love to turn all that watch time into a shopping channel. |
YouTube announced during the week that it's expanding its Shopping affiliate program to creators with as few as 500 subscribers. The video sharing site also highlighted Kantar data that showed 78% of U.S. viewers agree YouTube has the most trusted creators for product recommendations. The Shopping update will allow for more of those creators to capitalize on that credibility by recommending products sold on YouTube's own platform (à la TikTokers and TikTok Shop). |
The move aligns with Neal Mohan's 2026 letter to creators, in which the YouTube CEO said the video hub is "focused on" becoming a "premier shopping destination" where viewers can buy creator-recommended products without ever leaving the YouTube app. |
The other players: Amazon & Samsung and Walmart & Vizio each revealed expanded partnerships aimed at CTV advertising opportunities. |
Amazon and Samsung's NewFronts pitch focused on a "couch to cart" pipeline with a shoppable ads integration set for launch in July 2026. The feature will let viewers shop Amazon products directly through Samsung's smart TV AVOD service, Samsung TV Plus. |
Walmart and Vizio, meanwhile, unveiled performance data for their long-running CTV relationship. According to the two companies, joint CTV campaigns deliver a median 44% view rate, and 65% of surveyed Walmart customers said CTV ads helped them discover new products. Some campaigns, like the one they ran for Cuban-style coffee brand Café Bustelo, "drove 98% incremental household reach beyond linear TV." |
|
LISTEN UP 🎙️ |
 | Rich Bloom, GM Creator Programs & EVP Business Development at Tubi, is on the pod. |
|
This week on the podcast… |
The episode: On the latest installment of Creator Upload, hosts Joshua Cohen and Lauren Schnipper sat down with Tubi's Rich Bloom for a closer look at the streaming hub's massive new partnership with TikTok. |
Also on the agenda: Cohen called in from NYC to give listeners the inside scoop on all things NewFronts, from LinkedIn's swanky party to YouTube's AI search announcements. Check out the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for more details. |
The survey: Creator Upload wants your opinion! Take this survey to help us understand who's tuning in and what you want more (or less) of from the show. |
|
Want to introduce your brand to Tubefilter's audience? Sponsor the newsletter. |
Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here. |
|
Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, James Hale, and Josh Cohen. |
