It’s Tuesday and with 20% of U.S. adults getting their news from TikTok in 2025, is it any surprise Amazon Prime Video is debuting its own short-form news clips?

ALLIES OF CONVENIENCE

The alliance: Alongside Amazon and tech executive network TechNet, YouTube and Netflix have temporarily set aside their differences to unite as founding members of Streaming Access and Choice Alliance (SACA).

SACA is a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that says it aims to “promote high-quality and high-value entertainment experiences for consumers.” In other words, it hopes to convince U.S. lawmakers that streaming services have the right to sign exclusive air deals with major sports leagues.

As you may know, major streamers have signed increasingly larger deals to distribute live sports content, including YouTube’s seven-year lockdown of NFL Sunday Ticket, Netflix’s $5 billion deal for 10 years of WWE Raw, and Amazon’s 11-year NBA agreement.

The pushback: As these streaming sports deals have gotten larger, they’ve come under intense scrutiny from U.S. regulators. In April, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) introduced a bill that would require leagues to provide local fans with free access to all of their teams’ games in one single location, whether on streaming or on a traditional TV network.

Two months later, the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee declared that the current state of sports streaming rights is “a special-interest antitrust exemption gone awry.”

SACA, of course, believes no such thing.

The consumer context: But this quandary goes beyond sports rights. Streaming services are now collectively more expensive than cable, with many consumers paying for three or more.

That’s already an annoying cost to pay for TV shows or movies, which are licensed in their entirety to one service—but with games now jumping from service to service across a single season, diehard sports fans are paying an even higher price.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

CREATOR COMMOTION

The catwalk: Kai Cenat is flexing his fashion muscles. During New York Fashion Week, the Bronx-born creator returned to his hometown to unveil the first pieces from his apparel brand Vivet.

Vivet, named after the Latin verb meaning “to live,” has been in the works for over a year. Cenat used an extended hiatus from his blockbuster Twitch account to travel to Italy and Atlanta, where he consulted with expert tailors and designers. The result is a brand that pairs the creator’s cocksure sensibilities with the trappings of haute couture.

Collection I—the Vivet drop that debuted at an NYFW event—features an overarching cyberpunk aesthetic. While items like a “streaming backpack” allude to Cenat’s roots, the prices (most of which are in three-digit territory) remind customers that Vivet has luxury in its DNA.

The brand’s launch event was as much of a spectacle as the pieces on display. Streamers Ray Asianboy, BruceDropEmOff, and Duke Dennis walked the runway alongside fashion industry royalty like Alton Mason, who was the first Black male model to walk for Chanel. Attendees, meanwhile, included neo-soul icon Ms. Lauryn Hill and creator PlaqueBoyMax.

The big picture: Vivet represents not only the next step on Cenat’s pop culture path but also the evolution of creator-led activations at NYFW. Nearly a decade ago, vloggers like Lilly Singh made noise by walking in shows hosted by legacy brands.

A few years later, platforms like YouTube and startups like College Fashionista began carving out dedicated spaces for creators at the most important events on the fashion calendar.

Fast forward to the present day, and creators are now launching their own apparel lines, which are being put on display at industry events like Theorist’s Creators in Fashion.

HOLLYWOOD HICCUP

The film: After the box office successes of Iron Lung, Backrooms, and Obsession, Hollywood is eager to cash in on internet-first horror IPs.

According to an exclusive report from Deadline, the latest deal in that vein is a partnership between A24, Spooky Pictures, and Image Nation Studios. The three comapnies are teaming up to release a film adaptation of long-running community storytelling project SCP Foundation. 

The licensing hiccup: The catch? No one from the SCP Foundation is involved in the film.

The writers and staff who run the official SCP Foundation wiki have released a statement saying they “were not consulted or contacted regarding this film” and “have been attempting to contact the filmmakers but haven’t yet been successful.”

They went on to explain that “A24 does not and cannot have any exclusive rights to anything related to the SCP Foundation”—because ever since 2008 (when SCP content was first logged on a Wikidot wiki), anytime someone distributes something to do with SCP, that distribution must be licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

That’s a big deal, since a project with that license allows anyone to add their own material to it or distribute material that other people added—even on a commercial basis.

The tldr: Basically, A24, Spooky Pictures, and Image Nation Studios are welcome to make an SCP Foundation movie, put it in theaters, and charge people to see it.

But they would not be allowed to claim any kind of exclusive ownership/copyright over it, and would not be able to gatekeep its distribution or usage.

As the SCP Foundation pointed out, that means “anyone could upload a copy to YouTube” and “any commercial streaming service would be free to stream the film without payment to anyone.” It seems unlikely that A24 would agree to those terms, but the studio has yet to respond to the foundation’s concerns.

WATCH THIS 👀

The travel vlogger: For years, Ruhi Cenet ran a popular YouTube channel filled with documentaries about places like Oymyakon, Russia, one of the coldest and most remote settlements in the world.

Then he boarded the ship MV Hondius—and suddenly, his name was everywhere. Earlier this year, the Hondius became the epicenter of a highly publicized hantavirus outbreak, and Cenet became one of the primary sources quoted about the experience.

Five months after that harrowing adventure, Cenet is thriving like never before on YouTube. Long-form docs are still pulling in millions of views, and some of the creator’s Shorts (including this one) have reached nine-digit view counts on their own.

Thanks to that solid mix of long-form content and short clips, Cenet’s primary channel reached #10 in our latest Global Sub Top 50 ranking, reflecting the addition of 400,000 weekly subscribers.

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