It’s Tuesday and a TikTok alternative just hit 380,000 users. Should TikTok’s new U.S. overlords be keeping an eye on Skylight?

AD WORLD

The ads: In October 2024, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described the intermingling of ads and AI as “uniquely unsettling” and a “last resort” business model—one OpenAI would only turn to in order to ensure that people who couldn’t afford to pay could still access its tools for free.

Now, just over a year later, OpenAI is putting ads in the zero-cost and low-priced tiers of ChatGPT.

The company hasn’t directly addressed the discrepancy between Altman’s speech and its new plans, although incoming CEO of Applications Fidji Simo presented the introduction of ads in an altruistic light.

In a blog post, the exec explained that only logged-in free users and users paying $8/month for its “Go” tier will see ads. She added that OpenAI plans to “test ads at the bottom of answers in ChatGPT when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation” and that those ads “will be clearly labeled and separated from the organic answer.” Ads also won’t be served to anyone OpenAI suspects is under 18 (even if they’re logged in), or against “sensitive or regulated topics like health, mental health or politics.”

The cost: For brands, those ads won’t come cheap. According to The Information, OpenAI is asking marketers to pay $60 per 1,000 views, a CPM that’s triple what Meta charges on average.

Brands will have to temper their expectations on returns, too, since OpenAI reportedly won’t be tracking user purchases or collecting more invasive data like YouTube and Facebook. Instead, it’ll give marketers generic performance metrics like ad views and clicks.

That’s likely because OpenAI promised in its announcement that despite selling ads, it’ll “never sell your data to advertisers.” 

GOSPEL STATS 📈

Since the start of 2026, the power of YouTube Shorts has become increasingly apparent within Gospel Stats’ Weekly Brand Reports. As with the rest of January’s reports, this week’s ranking of most-viewed branded videos is largely dominated by Shorts—and, as usual, MrBeast is at the top.

🥇 #1. MrBeast x Jack Link’s: 30 Celebrities Fight For $1,000,000! (95M views)
Kevin Hart, Paris Hilton, and Steve-O were among thirty celebs ensnared in MrBeast’s latest take on his his tried-and-true “do it longer than everyone else and I’ll give you some money” formula. The video—which was sponsored by ongoing partner Jack Link’s—challenged celebrities to compete for a $1 million donation to the charity of their choice.

🥈 #2. Mangaka Brandon Chen x Crunchyroll: What anime do you recommend to your friends? Watch the biggest anime catalog on @crunchyroll (12.8M views)
You might know Brandon Chen as the manga writer behind Inspired Productions or as the creator of Just a Goblin on Webtoon. But even if you haven’t heard of him, those titles alone make it clear that Chen knows his stuff when it comes to manga and anime—and that’s exactly why Crunchyroll tapped him to make a Short geared towards anime newbies.

🎰 #2,721. Reads with Rachel x FlexiSpot: FALLING into this books PLOT HOLES (32K views)
A BookTuber might seem like an odd choice of partner for a furniture ecommerce company, but FlexiSpot seems to have hit a sweet spot by sponsoring Reads with Rachel.

If there’s one thing readers love, it’s cozy nooks and relatable stories. Alongside her review of the paranormal romance Falling, Rachel’s video linked FlexiSpot to an emotional story about going to visit her best friend, only to be stuck with bad sleep because of a creaky bedframe. The solution: a soundless bedframe from FlexiSpot.

Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights.

INDUSTRY BUZZ

The channel: Universal Music Group is capitalizing on the upcoming 2026 Grammy Awards to reach music superfans on social media. UMG (which, alongside Sony Music and Warner Music, makes up the recording industry’s “Big Three”) has premiered a new streaming channel on Twitch dubbed Universal Music Live.

A few clips from a podcast called The Re:Fresh are already available on the new hub (which UMG developed alongside in-house creative division °1824), but the label is waiting until February 1 to kick off its live programming. That’s the date of the Grammys, which UMG plans to celebrate by broadcasting an after-party red carpet stream on Twitch.

The opportunities: While UMG has had some frosty relations with major social media platforms in the past, the launch of a channel on Twitch opens up opportunities for both parties. The label can build on its partnership with Twitch—which it announced back in 2022—to reach fans of UMG artists like Taylor Swift, whose fanbase is so powerful that platforms like TikTok line up to cater to that cohort every time the singer-songwriter drops a new album.

Even if Swift never shows up on UMG’s fresh account, the ubiquity of her fanbase explains why the channel exists. Music fans are extremely passionate, and the label wants to reach them wherever they hang out.

Twitch, meanwhile, has an opportunity to level up its music programming. The platform struck agreements with major label licenses amid the launch of a DJ category in 2024, and the Amazon-owned platform is now looking to make the most out of those deals.

WATCH THIS 👀

The prankster: Back in the 2010s, practical jokes were one of the most reliable view magnets on YouTube. Those days have long gone—but somehow, the allure of the inescapable prank video remains strong.

In 2026, internet ruffians have discovered that vertical video formats are the perfect distribution platforms for prank content. Comedy videos have always done well on YouTube Shorts, and pranks are both a subset of that broader category and an ideal format for creators looking to leverage shock factor.

In an environment where viewers are liable to swipe past videos that don’t instantly catch the eye, Shorts prankster FIZIstyle seems to have mastered the art of shock-fueled pranks (lose an arm, anyone?). The creator attracted 340,000 new subscribers over the last seven days alone, more than doubling his previous weekly subscriber haul.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.