Warner Bros. Discovery is now following suit with streaming rivals like Disney+ and Netflix, announcing plans to crack down on account sharing. During a conference call on Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery’s President of Global Streaming and Games, JB Perrette, said the company will take a more aggressive approach to the issue of sharing streaming accounts.

Perrette explained that over the past several months, the company has been refining its datasets to accurately identify legitimate users of its streaming services, including HBO Max and Discovery+.

“We’re making sure that we test it sufficiently so that when we turn on the more aggressive language around what needs to happen, we’re actually putting the net in the right place,” Perrette said.

“Starting in September, you’ll start to see the messaging – which right now has been fairly soft and cancellable – become more fixed, so that people will have to take action, instead of it being a voluntary process.”

Warner Bros. Discovery expects the crackdown to positively impact revenue in the fourth quarter, with further gains anticipated in 2026.

Five Nordics, the alliance of the Nordic film institutes, are joining forces with the German film funds MOIN and Berlin-based German Federal Film Fund (FFA). The initiative, named Nordic NEST, aims to promote co-development of feature films and high-end TV drama series.

The Five Nordics alliance consists of the Danish Film Institute, Finnish Film Foundation, Icelandic Film Centre, Norwegian Film Institute, and Swedish Film Institute.

The joint venture will launch with a kick-off event during the Industry Days at this year’s Filmfest Hamburg in late September, in collaboration with Germany’s Producers Alliance. The event will gather up to 60 producers – 30 from Germany and 30 from the Nordic countries. Eligible producers must have at least two feature films or TV drama series to their name, including at least one international co-production that has been commercially released in cinemas, on broadcast television, or via streaming platforms.

Following the kick-off, a Nordic NEST workshop will be held in January 2026. Five experienced German and five Nordic screenwriters will work on new story ideas, which they will present at the Göteborg Film Festival to 20 selected producers from Germany and the Nordic region. MOIN has committed to awarding development funding of up to EUR 20,000 to any project that secures both a German and a Nordic production company at the Göteborg matchmaking event.

In addition, three of these projects will have the opportunity to receive further script development funding from MOIN, up to EUR 60,000 each, once the treatment phase is complete.

The ten developed projects will also be presented to industry professionals at a works-in-progress showcase during the 2026 edition of Filmfest Hamburg.

On Monday, just days after finalizing its merger with production studio Skydance, Paramount announced the acquisition of exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for the next seven years — marking the first major strategic move by the newly combined company.

Paramount will pay USD 7.7 billion over the seven-year period for the rights.

“The addition of UFC’s year-round must-watch events to our platforms is a major win,” said Paramount CEO David Ellison, former CEO of Skydance, calling the mixed martial arts franchise a “global sports powerhouse.”

Under the agreement with UFC owner TKO Group Holdings, streaming service Paramount+ will carry the full US slate of 13 numbered UFC events and 30 “Fight Nights” starting next year. Paramount+ and Paramount’s CBS broadcast network will also simulcast selected “numbered cards”. Historically, numbered cards have been pay-per-view events featuring top-ranked fighters and championship bouts, but they will now be available to viewers at no extra cost.

As streaming continues to overtake traditional broadcast and cable television viewing, several streaming platforms have been major sports rights in the US. For example, Netflix has landed a USD 5 billion, 10-year global deal for WWE Raw wrestling, as well as two Christmas Day NFL games. As well as Disney’s ESPN, which has extended rights with US professional football, hockey and baseball leagues and the College Football Playoff invitational tournament.

Social video slår rekord – nu ökar pressen på de lokala aktörerna – Dagens Media

Missnöjet kokar mot bokapparnas dominans – Svenska Dagbladet

Report: Social video consumption soars in Nordics – Advanced Television

Spotifys popularitet kan tränga ut ljudbokstjänsterna – Svensk Bokhandel

Abonnementer med reklamer buldrer frem på dansk streamingmarked – Mediawatch

Danish streaming market tops 5 million – Broadband TV News

Nordmenn kjøper flest strømme-abonnement i Norden – Kampanje

Mediavision reports a huge increase in piracy in the Nordics – Cineuropa

Stor ökning hos yngre – allt fler väljer digital tidning – Sveriges Radio