2 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Streaming

Established streaming industry leaders like Netflix and Amazon are facing more competition than ever. Now legacy entertainment giants are in the game with their own subscription services, like Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount Plus, and the Disney Plus / Hulu / ESPN Plus bundle, while Apple TV Plus attacks around the edges. Meanwhile, the rise of ad-supported free platforms like Roku Channel and Pluto TV has attracted enough attention that Plex, YouTube, and Amazon’s Freevee are trying to get a chunk of the action too.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Netflix will host the NFL’s first “Thanksgiving eve” game.
  • Season opener in Australia: 49ers vs. Rams
  • Thanksgiving eve: Packers vs. Rams
  • Two Christmas Day games
  • Week 18
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
VisionQuest finally has a release date.

It’s been a while since we heard anything new about Disney’s Agatha All Along followup, VisionQuest, but Disney has just pegged the series for an October 14th premiere.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
“I feel like I used to have a parakeet.”

The new extended scene from episode 4 of Pluribus doesn’t include any major revelations, but it is an entertaining three minutes of Rhea Seehorn tripping out.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Returning, Ahsoka is.

Star Wars is making its long-awaited return to theaters with The Mandalorian and Grogu next week, but the galaxy far, far away still has a home on streaming. Disney announced that season 2 of Mando spinoff Ahsoka will premiere in early 2027. That’s more than three years removed from when the show debuted.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Pandora will burn on Disney Plus this summer.

During its annual upfront presentation today, Disney announced that Avatar: Fire and Ash will stream on Disney Plus beginning June 24th.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
“The Netflix Effect.”

Netflix launched a new website in an attempt to highlight the impact of its films and TV shows over the past decade. Some stats shared by the streamer say Netflix contributed $325 billion to the global economy and created over 425,000 jobs for actors, writers, directors, researchers, and VFX artists.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Amazon is making a Fourth Wing TV series.

Prime Video hasn’t mentioned how many episodes its ordered to adapt the Rebecca Yarros dragon-riding romantasy novels that are so widely beloved by BookTok, but Meredith Averill (The Haunting of Hill House, Locke & Key) will serve as showrunner and executive producer. An expected release date also hasn’t been announced yet.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
There’s a new Westworld on the horizon.

Though HBO’s Westworld has come and gone, Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has tapped Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp to pen the script for a new Westworld movie that probably won’t have much to do with the show.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
A whole lot of Fast and Furious.

During NBC Universal’s upfronts presentation, Vin Diesel made a surprise announcement: not only is Fast and Furious coming to TV, it’s somehow getting four different spinoff series. There are no other details right now, but the show will be streaming on Peacock whenever they do come out.

Joanna Stern is not a robot, but she lived with them
Play

The journalist and author of I Am Not a Robot on her year living with AI and starting a new media company.

Nilay Patel
Netflix may have finally figured out games

The new TV-based games feel right.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
“What is your worst fear?”

There’s a lot of sci-fi streaming this summer, but if you’re looking for something a little more intense, there’s always the latest iteration of Cape Fear. If nothing else, Javier Bardem looks appropriately terrifying in the new trailer, which should make it worth checking out when it starts streaming on June 5th.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Warner Bros. Discovery posted a $2.9 billion loss this quarter.

The $2.8 billion breakup fee paid to Netflix makes up most of this loss, but it also includes $1.3 billion in other expenses related to its merger with Paramount. As noted by CNBC, Paramount agreed to cover the hefty termination fee, “but the cost lives on WBD’s books until the close of the deal.”

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Fubo’s subscriber numbers dropped once football season ended.

Fubo TV’s earnings seem to show the impact of the NFL, as the Q2 subscriber count dropped from 6.2 million at the end of 2025 to 5.7 million three months later, which is fewer than the 5.9 million subscribers it had at the same time last year. Still, revenue was up one percent.

And in AI news, an assistant is in the works for Roku, Apple TV, and mobile this fall:

The Company is developing an AI Assistant that will enable customers to search their DVR’d content for sports on the Fubo platform through casual conversation (rather than voice commands).

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Disney says it makes more money from streaming than linear TV.

Josh D’Amaro, Disney’s new CEO, says in the company’s Q2 2026 earnings report that he expects the “shift from linear toward streaming to continue.” Operating income from Disney’s streaming business, which includes Disney Plus and Hulu, jumped to $582 million over the past few months, marking an 88 percent increase year over year.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Sci-fi streaming season kicks off soon.

We’re about to enter a busy few months for new science fiction shows, and one that I’m particularly excited about is The Boroughs, an extraterrestrial mystery that’s set in a retirement home and that also boasts one hell of a cast. It hits Netflix on May 21st.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Netflix’s animated One Piece remake sets sail next February.

Netflix has announced that The One Piece Studio Wit’s upcoming reimagining of Eiichiro Oda’s iconic series — will debut some time next February with seven episodes that “will cover approximately the first 50 chapters of the original manga.”

AI music is flooding streaming services — but who wants it?

They won’t ban it. They won’t embrace it either.

Terrence O'Brien
Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Netflix heads to Narnia next year.

The streamer confirmed that one of its biggest upcoming films — Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, helmed by Barbie director Greta Gerwig — will release in 2027. It’ll be in theaters on February 12th and stream on April 2nd, though it’s not clear just how long the theatrical window will last.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Gizmoplex, the dedicated MST3K streaming service, is shutting down.

If you’ve backed any of the recent Mystery Science Theater 3000 Kickstarters, you probably have access to a bunch of episodes via the Gizmoplex. Unfortunately, an email went out today informing users that the site is shutting down and they have until September 30th to download any episodes they’ve purchased.

Dear Gizmoplex members: Unfortunately, on June 30, 2026 the Gizmoplex apps on platforms such as Roku, AppleTV, Android, and FireTV will cease operations, with the Gizmoplex website shutting down on September 30, 2026. We know this platform has meant a lot to many of you - it was built for and by this community - so we don’t share this news lightly. What this means is that if you’d like to continue to have access to content you may have purchased on the Gizmoplex, you should download it to a personal drive well in ad- vance of the September 30th website closure. We have significantly reduced the prices on Season 13 and past livestream events, so if you haven’t had a chance to purchase them, now is the time to add them to your collection. The good news is that while the Gizmoplex may be no more, MST3K isn’t going anywhere. The show remains widely accessible, with its own 24/7 channel, on-demand epi- sodes across many streaming platforms, as well as on the FilmRise app (free with ads), and via Shout! TV on Prime Video and Roku for ad-free viewing. If you need further assistance, you may send us a message via the contact form at shout-tv.com/contact. MSTies have always been the heart of this show. You’ve kept it alive across decades, formats, and platforms, and that means everything to us. We’re grateful for each one of you. Thank you as always for your support. To stay up to date on all things MST3K, you can follow us on YouTube, Twitch, Bluesky, Facebook, and Instagram.
Screenshot: Gizmoplex.com
Christian content creators are outsourcing AI slop to gig workers on Fiverr

Demand for AI-generated Bible content is high.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
YouTube’s picture-in-picture mode is rolling out to all users globally.

Users in the US have been able to shrink YouTube videos while they access other apps for some time now, but now Google is expanding the feature to more regions in the coming months. It’s only available for long-form, non-music content on Android and iOS.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
A TV show renewal? I’ve seen stranger things.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Tales From ‘85, the animated Stranger Things spinoff, but it evidently did well enough that there’s more in store. Netflix has confirmed it’s coming back for season 2, and it’s happening soon — it’ll start streaming this fall.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Netflix has a new party game where you match GIFs with captions.

It looks very Jackbox-like — though if you want to play some actual Jackbox games on Netflix, that’s an option, too.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Brendan Carr is reportedly preparing to call in Disney/ABC’s broadcast licenses over Kimmel.

While the Trump administration’s attempt to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air was ultimately unsuccessful last year, the president is once again demanding his removal.

Now Semafor and CNN report the FCC is planning to “call in all of the TV station licenses for Disney/ABC for early renewal,” which would start a lengthy and potentially expensive process of hearings for the broadcaster that Carr has hinted at using before.

Update: And now that process has begun.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
“Welcome back, coach.”

We knew Ted Lasso was set to return this summer, and now Apple has released a more specific timeframe: season 4 will start streaming on August 5th. There’s also a new trailer showing that, even though Ted is in charge of a new team, things don’t seem to have changed all that much.