Media

Publicis Groupe has secured PepsiCo's global media account, estimated between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion, ending Omnicom's OMD network relationship with PepsiCo in key markets including the US and UK after more than 25 years. The appointment, confirmed by PepsiCo to trade press rather than through an official release, consolidates media strategy, planning, and data across more than 200 markets under PepsiCo's new integrated operating model. Publicis is also reported to have withdrawn from Coca-Cola's separate global media pitch as a result, though neither Publicis nor Coca-Cola has confirmed that withdrawal on the record.

Amazon's Prime Video will carry local games for six NHL clubs in the 2026-27 season under a multi-year deal, but access terms split along team lines: Anaheim Ducks and Dallas Stars games are included with a standard Prime membership, while the Hurricanes, Blue Jackets, Wild, and Blues each require a separate add-on subscription at $19.99 per month or $99.99 annually. Several implementation details remain unresolved, including exact territory boundaries for three clubs, channel-level linear distribution for five clubs, and post-Year-1 pricing for all six. Fans in affected markets should note that the Ducks' Year-1 free access is not confirmed as a permanent arrangement, and linear or over-the-air options are still being finalized by most teams.

JioHotstar launched on September 2, 2026 in the UK, Canada, and Singapore, fully replacing Hotstar with a catalog exceeding 160,000 hours of programming across more than 12 Asian languages and new quarterly subscription options. The rollout marks JioHotstar's first expansion outside India but arrives without the live sports rights that defined Hotstar, including IPL cricket, which JioStar attributed to existing content deals. Existing Hotstar subscribers can migrate using their current credentials, with plans automatically converting to the corresponding JioHotstar tier.

BARB data show Disney+ was accessible in 8.9 million UK homes in Q2 2026, up from 7.8 million the prior quarter, with the increase attributed by BARB to its inclusion in eligible Sky TV subscriptions from March 2026. The 1.1 million gain, the largest quarter-on-quarter rise among tracked services, includes just over 700,000 ad-tier homes. The figures measure household access, not paid subscriptions or active viewing, and BARB's attribution to the Sky deal is an interpretation rather than a published causal analysis.

Xperi announced a generative-AI search tool, expanded FAST channels, improved sports discovery, DVB-I support, and an IRCODE partnership for TiVo OS ahead of IFA Berlin 2026, but provided no model-level deployment dates or country-by-country availability. The AI feature, Agent TiVo, was explicitly described as 'soon-to-be-released' rather than live. For context, TiVo One reached 5.5 million monthly active users in Q1 2026, a fraction of the hundreds of millions of active devices reported by Google TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku.