FTI Consulting News Bytes – 20 June 2025

FTI Consulting News Bytes

It’s been another whirlwind week in the world of TMT, with no shortage of headlines to catch up on in this week’s News Bytes—perfect reading while soaking up the sun! We start with a major shift in viewing habits: streaming has now overtaken broadcast and cable as the preferred way to watch TV. Next, a new study reveals that nearly a third of children showing signs of mobile phone addiction are more likely to experience mental health issues. We then head to Cannes, where the city has been buzzing with some of the brightest creative minds, including an FT Live panel discussion with Steven Plimsoll, Chief Strategy Officer at HUMAIN, and Sir Martin Sorrell. Meanwhile, TikTok has been granted a third 90-day extension to sell its U.S. business, as Donald Trump continues to push for a deal. Finally, circling back to TV, French network TF1 has struck an agreement with Netflix to offer all its broadcast channels on demand.

This week’s news

Streaming now leading the way in TV viewership

CNBC reports that for the first time ever, streaming represents the largest share of TV viewership in a month. According to Nielsen’s The Gauge monthly report, the landmark feat saw streaming surpass the combined share of broadcast and cable TV and amass 44.8% of total TV viewership. The growth of YouTube alongside free channels has been a key driver for the streaming growth and played a part in recent restructuring announcements of major media companies. Nielsen added that while the milestone may not be repeated consistently every month, especially as football season returns later in the year, it predicts streaming will eventually become No. 1.

Children reporting addictive online behaviour suffer worse mental health 

A landmark study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that almost a third of children are showing growing signs of addiction to mobile phones, social media and video games, starting from 11 years old. The Financial Times reported that the study, which looks at the impact of modern technologies on the adolescent mind, found that young users who exhibit compulsive behaviour patterns are at greater risk of suffering from mental health issues than their peers with less compulsive behaviour. As debates around the long-term effects of technology on children intensify, the study’s researchers found that government efforts should focus on “addressing addictive patterns of screen use” instead of just limiting screen time. 

Creative juices continue to flow at Cannes

Cannes Lions 2025 is currently in full swing, with the world’s leading creatives in advertising and marketing descending on the French Riviera for the five-day Festival of Creativity – which includes a host of industry talks, panel discussions, awards ceremonies, fireside chats and more. Steven Plimsoll, Chief Strategy Officer of HUMAIN, participated in an FT Live panel hosted by Dan Thomas, Global Media Editor, called ‘Disrupting the Narrative – AI and the New Storytelling Frontier.’ The discussion featured a host of other industry-leading voices including Sir Martin Sorrell – Executive Chairman, S4 Capital, Amit Jain – CEO of Luma AI and Hannah C. Elsakr – Global Head of New Business Ventures at Adobe. Together, they discussed how generative AI is reshaping the future of gaming, creativity, and advertising—transforming these into a seamless, immersive experience layer.

Donald Trump delays TikTok ban for a third time

President Donald Trump will extend the deadline for TikTok to divest its U.S. assets by another 90 days, the White House announced, marking the third time enforcement of the 2024 law has been deferred. As covered in the BBC, the popular short-form video app has been illegal for companies to support or host online since Jan. 19, but Trump has been granting it unilateral extensions since he took office, saying he has a deal in the works. “As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Tuesday. Elsewhere, The Wall Street Journal has also reported that Chinese e-commerce site Temu is now trying to avoid a similar fate following accusations by lawmakers that it inadequately protects US consumers’ data.

Netflix goes traditional

In a first of its kind deal, French TV network TF1 has announced a deal with Netflix to show all of its broadcast channels on the platform. In a move designed to combat the rapid rise of streaming platforms, France’s largest commercial broadcaster will show all five of its linear channels on Netflix, as well as more than 30,000 hours of TV shows available on demand. As reported by the Financial Times, the deal, which will begin in 2026 as revealed by Netflix co-chief executive Greg Peters, will bring a variety of TV shows, including soap operas and live sports. The article also noted Peters remained coy about how advertising and subscription revenue might be shared across both companies and whether users might see an increase in their monthly fee.

Top Tweets of the Week

• Eric Geller, Senior Reporter at Cybersecurity Dive tweets: “Hackers have been creating new variants of the malicious AI tool WormGPT, including a variant powered by @xAI‘s @grok, according to new research from @CatoNetworks.”
• Wired tweets: “We don’t know much about the new Trump Mobile phone or the company’s data plan, but we sure do have a lot of questions.”
• Andrew Curran, Freelance Writer tweets: “Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in a memo to employees earlier today ‘in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company”
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Number of the week

45bn The current value of the UK’s ad market, of which Google and Meta contribute two-thirds. (The Guardian)