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A New Era for Experiential at AGM - Reina Basu joins as VP of Business Development, ushering in a new era of global growth for our Brand Experience division. Her culturally fluent, innovation-led perspective strengthens our ability to connect paid, earned, owned, and AI-powered marketing through experience—advancing a bold, global vision for experiential marketing as the strategic core of modern brand building. Read the full announcement or contact our team to learn more.
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TL;DR
In a hurry? Here's our pick of the top news items of the week.
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Airbnb introduced a new "reserve now, pay later" option that lets users in the US book a reservation without paying right away. (The Verge)
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Paramount announced a new seven-year, $7.7B deal with UFC and WWE parent TKO, making Paramount+ the new streaming home to UFC events in the US. (THR)
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YouTube launched its AI age-verification program in the US, which automatically restricts users estimated to be under 18. (Variety)
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Sling TV debuted low-cost access passes that let viewers stream live TV for a day, a weekend, or a week at a fraction of the cost of a monthly subscription. (Variety)
Audiences
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The average US streaming service user spends $83 per month on TV services, and says they are only willing to spend a few dollars more ($86). (Media Play News)
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Global Gen X consumers are set to spend $15.2T worldwide this year, the highest of any generation. (Emarketer)
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42% of US streaming service users say they are much more likely to keep bundled services compared to services they subscribe to individually. (Media Play News)
Platforms
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Instagram chief Adam Mosseri revealed that videos created in Meta’s new "Edits" app get a reach boost when shared to Instagram. (Social Media Today)
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Threads recently reached 400M monthly active users, inching closer to X’s 600M users. (Social Media Today)
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New data from Buffer suggests that posting on Instagram between 3 and 5 times per week can more than double a user's follower growth rate. (Buffer)
Content
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HBO Max and Viu are set to launch a joint streaming bundle across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. (THR)
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S2 of Netflix's "Wednesday" generated 50M views this week, becoming the English TV title ranked No. 1 in the most countries (91 total) during its first week. (Media Play News)
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China’s Hisense announced the launch of Hisense Channels, a new free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service featuring more than 200 premium channels for Hisense Smart TVs. (Media Play News)
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New Line Cinema’s "Weapons" looks to remain No. 1 at the North American box office with $27.5M in projected second-weekend ticket sales, pushing the film’s tally past $90M after just 10 days. (Media Play News)
Tech &
AI-
Google and Perplexity are offering free access to their AI-powered search tools in India to capture a share of its vast, fast-growing AI market. (Rest of World)
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Google is rolling out an update for Gemini that will allow the AI chatbot to remember your past conversations without prompting. (The Verge)
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X announced that Grok 4, the latest version of xAI’s model, is now free to access for all users worldwide. (Social Media Today)
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Anthropic increased the amount of information users can send to Claude in a single prompt to 1M tokens, meaning the AI can handle requests as long as 750K words. (Tech Crunch)
Location-based
entertainment-
"Mamma Mia!" brought in $1.6M in its first week on Broadway, making it the fourth-highest grossing show last week behind "Wicked," "The Lion King," and "Hamilton". (THR)
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Hersheypark is debuting a new candy-inspired Shaquille O’Neal roller coaster overlay for its Hersheypark Halloween and Dark Nights events. (Attractions Magazine)
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Merlin Entertainments shelved plans to sell six of its UK Sea Life aquariums after prospective buyers failed to submit sufficiently attractive bids. (Blooloop)
Travel &
hospitality-
Google announced plans to start rolling out an AI-powered search tool called "Flight Deals," meant for flexible travelers looking for the best deals. (The Verge)
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Airbnb is getting more aggressive in a new strategy to add hotels in markets where most of the short-term rentals are already booked. (Skift)
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Overseas visits to the US dropped 3.1% in July, extending a slide that began earlier this year. (Skift)
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Disney Cruise Line has started building its next cruise ship, the fourth in its Wish class and due to start sailing 2027. (Blooloop)
Gaming
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Hidden Door, a new AI-driven role-playing platform, launched this week with plans to gamify fan fiction across books, movies, and TV IP. (Variety)
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A new report claims that 80% of players across both the UK and the US have experienced cheating in online games. (gamesindustry.biz)
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Gamescom 2025 is set to break records with more than 1.5K exhibitors from 72 countries, making it the largest event in its history. (Game Developer)
