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For decades, Disney, NBC, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery sat at the top of the advertising world. In 2025, a 21-year-old video platform built on cat videos and bedroom creators officially knocked them off.YouTube’s total revenue across ads and subscriptions exceeded $60 billion in 2025, according to Alphabet’s official earnings release, making it larger than Netflix, which reported $45.18 billion for the full year. A separate analysis by financial research firm MoffettNathanson found that YouTube’s advertising revenue alone surpassed the combined $37.8 billion ad haul from Disney, NBCU, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery. It is the first time YouTube has crossed that threshold.A year earlier, the tables looked different. In 2024, YouTube’s $36.1 billion in ad revenue fell short of the $41.8 billion those four studios earned collectively. The reversal in just 12 months is as striking as it is telling about where the advertising industry is heading.The numbers behind the YouTube advertising milestoneAd revenue is only part of the story. When subscriptions are included, YouTube’s total 2025 revenue climbed to more than $60 billion, making it larger than Netflix, which reported $45.18 billion for the full year. Only Disney, with $95.7 billion in total revenue, topped YouTube among entertainment companies.YouTube’s parent company broke out the video platform’s total revenue for the first time in Alphabet’s latest earnings report, a signal of just how central YouTube has become to the broader business. More Streaming:Paramount Warner Bros. hostile bid has a catch for cable networksApple TV adds key feature Netflix droppedFacebook makes daring move to challenge Disney, NetflixAlphabet CEO Sundar Pichai noted the company now has over 325 million paid subscriptions across consumer services, a figure that includes YouTube Premium, YouTube TV, YouTube Music, and Google One.YouTube TV alone surpassed 10 million U.S. subscribers as of November 2025, according to Cord Cutters News, making it the third-largest multichannel TV provider in the country, behind only Charter and Comcast.How Hollywood lost the ad crown to YouTubeYouTube’s advertising dominance didn’t emerge overnight. It has been building for years as audiences, particularly younger ones, quietly migrated away from traditional TV toward on-demand and creator-driven content. Each of the four major studios reported declining advertising revenue in 2025. WBD’s ad revenue fell 17% in its most recent quarter. NBCU’s domestic advertising declined 6.8% year over year. Disney and Paramount reported similar trends across their linear networks. These declines reflect a structural problem, not a temporary one.YouTube, meanwhile, is winning the living room. In Q1 2025, YouTube ad spend on connected TV screens surpassed mobile for the first time, accounting for 43% of YouTube ad placements versus 42% on mobile. That is nearly double the CTV share from a year earlier, when it stood at just 24%.Where YouTube’s growth comes fromYouTube’s blockbuster advertising business derives from several compounding factors that traditional studios simply cannot replicate at the same scale or speed.Key drivers behind YouTube’s ad surgeShorts momentum: YouTube Shorts now averages 200 billion daily views, up significantly from the 70 billion figure cited earlier in 2025, giving advertisers enormous short-form inventory.Living room dominance: YouTube holds a 12.4% share of total U.S. TV viewing time, ranking first among all media companies, per Nielsen data.Podcast growth: Viewers watched more than 700 million hours of podcasts on YouTube via TV screens in October 2025 alone, up 70% year over year.Creator scale: YouTube has paid out more than $100 billion to creators, music companies, and media partners cumulatively, sustaining a content flywheel no studio can match.Live sports: YouTube’s first exclusive NFL game in September 2025 drew 19 million global viewers across more than 230 countries.Why advertisers flock to YouTubeThe advertiser migration to YouTube is not purely about audience size. It is about measurability. Brands allocating budgets to YouTube can track outcomes in ways that linear TV has never been able to offer, from view-through attribution to cross-device tracking and real-time performance data.

YouTube allows advertisers to track outcomes in ways that linear television can’t.Thomas/Getty Images

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai pointed to AI as a key accelerant of that advertiser shift. AI can deliver “the most relevant ad across surfaces and [match] advertisers against additional queries they weren’t reaching before,” Pichai said on the Q3 2025 earnings call. “AI Max helps advertisers discover new customers at the exact moment they need their product or service.” That kind of precision targeting is something linear TV simply cannot offer.It’s a striking endorsement for a platform that still trails Meta, which pulled in $196.2 billion in ad revenue in 2025, by a considerable margin. But in the media and entertainment category specifically, YouTube’s position is now uncontested.Movie, TV studios are not standing stillDisney, NBCU, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery are all pouring resources into their own streaming platforms, and some are even beginning to distribute content on YouTube itself to chase the audiences that have already moved there.But the gap is widening, not narrowing. YouTube’s ad revenue grew by nearly $4 billion year over year in 2025, while the combined studio total fell by roughly $3 billion. That is a $7 billion swing in a single year.For investors watching Alphabet (GOOG), the YouTube story is no longer a footnote in the earnings report. It is increasingly the headline.Related: YouTube TV drops 12 new offers to retain subscribers

Costco helps families in a lot of ways. The warehouse club saves members money on groceries, and provides discount access to everything from travel to tires, and alcohol.In addition, the chain also helps people with a variety of lifestyle and medical needs. That includes offering affordable hearing aids, discounted eyecare and glasses, and pharmacies that offer lower-cost prescriptions on many drugs. The warehouse club even offers access to virtual care appointments for $29 for people who do not have health insurance or whose insurance does not cover those visits. “Accessing healthcare should be as easy and affordable as shopping at Costco – and for Costco members, it now is. On September 25, Sesame and Costco announced a partnership to offer special discount pricing to all Costco Members on a broad range of outpatient medical care offered at Sesame,” Sesame shared in a press release.Now, Costco has expanded that partnersip into a highly-needed area that will benefit families.Costco adds fertility care help”One in ten women ages 18 to 49 say they or their partner have received fertility assistance, but 3% of women say they were unable to get the fertility care they needed,” KFF.org shared in its report Access to Fertility Care: Findings from the 2024 KFF Women’s Health Survey.Key findings include:One in eight (13%) reproductive age women say they or their partner have ever needed fertility services to help them become pregnant or prevent a miscarriage. Cost is the leading reason why women say they could not obtain the fertility care they need. Higher shares of women with low incomes report cost as the main barrier compared to those with higher incomes.The fertility services that reproductive-age women most commonly use are fertility advice, fertility testing, and medications to improve ovulation.Costco isn’t solving those problems, but it has partnered with healthcare providers to gives its members more access to fertility care.”The big-box warehouse chain is partnering with cash-pay health care platform Sesame and fertility experts IVI RMA North America to offer its 81 million global members access to comprehensive fertility care coordination and treatment as well as up to 80% savings on fertility medications with Costco exclusive pricing,” Glamour reported.Related: History of Costco: Company timeline and factsWhat fertility care services will Costco offer?“Collaborating with leaders who bring both clinical expertise and innovative care coordination allows us to offer our Costco members meaningful support throughout their family-building journey with clarity, confidence, and peace of mind,” Costco Senior Vice President of Pharmacy Richard Stephens told Glamour.Infertility is a broad problem.Roughly 1 in 6 people globally (17.5%) experience infertility at some point in their lives. That rate holds consistent across income levels and geographic regions, according to the World Health Organization.This partnership expands access to fertility services broadly.More Costco:Costco credit card change gives it a $1,000 edge on Sam’s ClubCostco members saddened over discontinued itemsBank of America revamps Costco stock price before earnings”Not only does Costco have locations all across the country as well as 145 million cardholders, but IVI RMA is a leading expert in fertility care with its own large network of IVF laboratories,” Glamour reported.Sesame does not take health insurance, which the company says allows it to have lower prices.

Costco;s pharmacies offer deals on prescription drugs.Shuttterstock

Here’s how Costco’s new fertility care works.Costco members seeking fertility treatment have immediate access to Sesame clinicians —bypassing the typical three-to-six-month wait to see a reproductive endocrinologist — for a comprehensive intake and diagnostic workup. “If additional care is required, such as IVF or egg freezing, patients will be referred to IVI RMA ready to start on a treatment plan right away. Sesame’s clinicians will also stay with the patient throughout any IVI RMA procedures to help translate medical terminology, provide emotional support, and offer any other care coordination needed,” according to a joint Costco, Sesame, and IVI RMA press release.Fertility medications are fulfilled by Costco, with exclusive member pricing that includes savings of up to 80% on medications like Follistim through pharmacy programs. This dramatically reduces one of the biggest out-of-pocket expenses in fertility care, saving patients thousands of dollars on each cycle, according to the press release.If specialty care is advised, patients are directly connected to IVI RMA, where additional discounts have been negotiated for Costco members.Related: Costco issues urgent warning to shoppers

Major pizza dining chains and their smaller competitors have suffered during the current economic downturn, as consumers have been ordering fewer pies from restaurants and have instead turned to frozen pizza to satisfy their needs.The most eye-opening data from Baking Business shows that 25% of consumers report that they are eating more store-bought frozen pies than steaming hot pizza parlor options, as TheStreet’s Daniel Kline reported.This consumer behavior can be devastating for smaller pizza chains, as some have been forced to close locations.

Pie Tap Pizza is closing its Houston location nine months after opening the restaurant.Shutterstock

Pie Tap Pizza closes only Houston locationBeloved pizza dining chain Pie Tap Pizza surprised its culinary fans by closing its only location in Houston on March 6 after operating for less than a year.”Thank you Houston,” the message on Facebook stated. “We are closing our doors. Thank you for all of your support. We’ll be back soon,” the message curiously said.Pie Tap’s owners did not reveal a specific reason for closing the restaurant, and did not say when they plan to open another location in Houston.The restaurant also did not say whether employees would be laid off.The Dallas-based pizza chain opened its River Oaks location in Houston on June 1, 2025, and, nine months later, revealed on social media that it had shut down.Customers comment on restaurant closingPerplexed customers responded to the closing on Facebook.”When is your last day? Google said you’re permanently closed. Closed, not closing…,” said one post.Others were shocked.”Wow! That was short lived.””Wow! What happened?”Another post speculated on the reasons for the closing.”The non consistent hours and apartment parking was a factor. Maybe another location would be best.”Owners will open Mexican restaurantPie Tap is operated by Reach Hospitality of Plano, Texas, which plans to open another Dallas-based restaurant, The Mexican, in an Uptown Houston office park, according to the Houston Chronicle.The pizza restaurant chain opened its first location in the Dallas Design District in 2016, after originally planning to open in 2015 on North Henderson Avenue.First Pie Tap Pizza opening delayedConcerns from the city of Dallas and neighborhood groups over parking and other potential problems delayed the Henderson opening until after the Design District location opened, Culture Map Dallas reported.Pie Tap has five other locations at 5100 Beltline Road in Dallas, 1301 W. Magnolia Ave. in Fort Worth, 1900 Preston Road in Plano, Texas, 4880 Eldorado Parkway, Frisco, Texas, and 6701 Alma Road in McKinney, Texas.The restaurant chain said in a Facebook post that it does not use commercial yeast for its pizza dough.Pie Tap said its pizza dough’s sourdough starter dates back 300 years to Italy.The pizza dining chain’s menu features 10 different pizzas, 5 different salads, 4 pastas, a variety of snacks and starters, sandwiches, desserts, and a kids’ menu.Major chains close 100s of locationsHuge pizza chains, however, are closing hundreds of underperforming locations this year. Giant pizza chain Pizza Hut, which claims to operate 6,700 locations in the U.S., has faced economic issues and reported it will close 250 underperforming restaurant locations as part of its Hut Forward plan in the first half of 2026, after reporting a 1% same-store sales decline globally in the fourth quarter and for the year in 2025.Rival chain Papa John’s shared plans in its fourth-quarter earnings call that it plans to close approximately 300 underperforming locations, with 200 shut down in 2026 and the remainder in 2027, Papa John’s CFO Ravi Thanawala said in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.Related: Beloved pizza chain files 4th Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a year

Oil futures rose on Wednesday as traders awaited what could be a historic release of emergency government reserves to counter the disruption to supplies from the attack on Iran.

A new batch of emojis are coming to Apple products this spring with the new iOS 26.4 update.

Some of these ages will shock you.

Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter told The Wall Street Journal that he chose to cut some LGBTQ storytelling from a recent film because “We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy.”The Journal published an interview on Friday with Docter, noting that the studio once famous for smash hits like “Toy Story” is acknowledging it stumbled in recent years.”I got into animation because it’s easier to draw people than talk to them,” Docter said. He helped create some of Pixar’s earlier, more popular work, like “Monsters, Inc.,” “Up” and “Inside Out.” Recently, however, he said, “I probably overindexed on, ‘Do whatever you want.’”According to the Journal, some current and former employees say Docter was too “conflict-averse” and let directors make autobiographical movies that did poorly at the box office.ROB SCHNEIDER: GO WOKE, GO BROKE ISN’T A SLOGAN — IT’S BECOMING HOLLYWOOD’S REALITY”As time’s gone on, I realized my job is to make sure the films appeal to everybody,” he said.The Journal noted that several recent Pixar originals during its rough patch had been inspired by their creators’ own experiences growing up.”The first original movies Pixar made under Docter included ‘Luca,’ about a shy Italian boy who’s secretly a sea creature, and ‘Turning Red,’ about a Chinese-Canadian girl who transforms into a giant panda during puberty. Both were inspired by their directors’ experiences growing up,” the Journal reported. In late 2023, however, Docter reportedly gathered Pixar’s staff to bluntly give them what would later be remembered as the “come to Jesus” speech, telling them they took the wrong path by making so many autobiographically inspired movies and needed more universally appealing projects.Around that same time, Pixar’s leadership was shown a film in progress called “Be Fri,” short for “Best Friends,” whose story was based on its director’s experience with a platonic breakup. Docter cancelled the production.DISNEY STAR DAVID HENRIE SAYS HOLLYWOOD GOING THROUGH ‘NEW RENAISSANCE’ WITH FAITH-FRIENDLY CONTENTAnother recent film, Elio, faced a reckoning of its own during production. “Test audiences liked the story of a lonely boy who finds friends in outer space, but said they wouldn’t pay to see it in a theater. So in 2023, Pixar ordered an overhaul, though more than half its animation was complete,” the Journal reported. “When director Adrian Molina told the crew he was leaving the movie, whose title character was inspired by his childhood, people cried.”Two new directors were brought onto the project to replace Molina, and according to people who worked on it, they removed elements which suggested Elio, the main character, was gay, including a pink bicycle and a scene in which he envisioned raising a child with his male crush.Docter noted that Pixar as a company had found that some parents did not want entertainment to spark conversations with their children they were not ready to have. “We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy,” Docter said.While the new version of “Elio” tested slightly better after such overhauls, it still went on to be a flop.CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTUREBy contrast, Pixar’s latest film, “Hoppers,” appears to be a step in a more positive direction, and has had glowing reviews.Docter said he believes Pixar will remain a strong asset to Disney if it sticks to its main mission of creating great films. “If we’re going to just crank crap out, let’s shut the doors,” he quipped. “I’d rather die trying to make something that we genuinely believe in.”

By Mehr News Agency, CC BY 4.0,
The legal minimum age for girls to marry in Iran is nine, as long as she has the court’s permission and her father’s approval. Otherwise, she has to wait until she is thirteen.
Furthermore, sex within marriage is considered consensual and legal under Iranian law. At least 27,000 girls under the age of 15 were married in a single year, according to Iran’s own statistical center. This is just one of the horrifying realities of life in Iran since the Islamic Revolution.
Numerous mainstream media outlets have written apologetic obituaries of Ayatollah Khamenei, referencing his long white beard and the fact that he was a grandfather.
The same media and their liberal allies have failed to underscore how repressive life was under the ayatollah.
The irony, of course, is that the liberals taking to the streets in “Hands Off Iran” protests would have been jailed and possibly killed in Iran.
Under the regime’s legal system, LGBTQ identity was essentially treated as a crime punishable by death, and women could be arrested or tortured for speaking out in public or for not wearing a hijab.
Finally, the anti-regime protests over the last few weeks, in which more than 30,000 people were killed, prove that claims of repression under the ayatollah’s regime are not Republican misinformation.
They are a fact, easily demonstrated by a brief review of some of Iran’s most repressive laws.
Iran’s legal system is structured around Sharia-based Hudud offenses, which the state defines as violations of the “rights of God.” Under the Iranian penal code, Hudud crimes carry severe punishments including death by hanging, stoning, or decapitation, as well as amputation or flogging.
Alcohol consumption, adultery, same-sex relations, and certain non-violent drug offenses all fall within this category, while insulting the prophet or apostasy can also bring the death penalty.
In addition to these codified crimes, the regime frequently relies on broad catch-all charges such as moharebeh, meaning “waging war against God,” and mofsed-e-filarz, or “spreading corruption on earth.”
These charges carry no fixed penalty and allow sentences ranging from months in prison to execution, effectively granting the judiciary unlimited discretion to punish conduct the state deems undesirable. Prosecutors have routinely used “waging war against God” charges against journalists and political dissidents.
The death penalty can also be imposed for attempts against the security of the state or for outrages against high-ranking officials.
In practice, the combination of Hudud laws and expansive charges like corruption on earth allows the regime to criminalize a vast range of behavior that would be considered normal or protected in democratic societies, including peacefully removing a headscarf, converting to another religion, or being gay.
The framework is codified in statute and regularly applied by the courts.
Prevailing fatwas prescribe the death penalty for apostasy, and Iranian law prohibits Muslim citizens from changing or renouncing their faith.
People born to parents classified as Muslim risk arbitrary detention, torture, or execution if they convert to another religion or adopt atheism. Authorities regularly raid house churches and detain Christian converts.
The penal code also criminalizes insulting Islamic schools of thought and any proselytizing activity that contradicts Islamic law, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
These provisions are used to suppress religious expression and prevent the spread of beliefs that challenge the state’s interpretation of Islam.
Iranian law broadly discriminates against religious and ethnic minorities. The government denies freedom of religion to Baha’is, who face arrest on national security charges, closure of their businesses, and a systematic ban from registering at public universities.
The government also discriminates against Sunni Muslims and restricts the political and cultural activities of Azeri, Kurdish, Arab, and Baluch minorities.
Activists from these communities are frequently prosecuted under vaguely defined national security statutes in trials that fall far short of international standards.
Iran’s Islamic Penal Code (Articles 233–241) criminalizes consensual same-sex relations. Penetrative intercourse between two men is generally punishable by death for the passive party.
For women, the punishment for same-sex conduct is up to 100 lashes, with repeat offenders subject to the death penalty. Same-sex marriage is banned, and Iran provides no legal recognition of same-sex couples or their families.
The law provides for prosecution of anyone accused of “insulting” Islam or threatening national security.
The government severely restricted freedom of speech and the press and used these laws to intimidate or prosecute those who criticized the government, raised human rights concerns, or questioned morality code enforcement.
Authorities routinely cut off internet access, slowed speeds, and blocked websites and social media platforms.
The 1986 Press Law prohibits content that undermines Islam, including material deemed to violate “public chastity,” effectively banning any media discussion or promotion of LGBTQ topics,  with the death penalty as a possible punishment for violations.
Women have fewer rights than men in Iran. A woman’s testimony in court carries half the weight of a man’s, and monetary compensation awarded to a female victim’s family upon her death is half that owed to the family of a male victim.
The regime also enforces strict controls over women’s behavior and appearance. Iran’s morality police, known as Gasht-e Ershad, or the “Guidance Patrol,” is a specialized unit within the Law Enforcement Command tasked with enforcing Islamic codes, particularly the mandatory hijab for women.
Established in 2005, these patrols monitor public spaces to enforce dress codes and behavioral norms, with penalties that can include fines, detention, flogging, or lashes.
In September 2023, parliament approved increased penalties for noncompliance with the mandatory dress code, raising sentences from two months to up to 10 years in prison and increasing fines to approximately $8,600.
In April 2024, the government announced a domestic surveillance program using street cameras to monitor hijab compliance, and authorities closed 45 businesses for serving noncompliant customers.
Beginning on April 13, 2024, the Law Enforcement Command launched the “Noor Plan,” a state-run enforcement campaign and the most aggressive crackdown on hijab noncompliance since the morality police were scaled back following the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests.
Under the Noor Plan, security forces escalated patterns of physical violence against women, including beating, kicking, and slapping those perceived as violating dress codes, while compliance was also monitored through drones.
In December 2024, the regime further expanded these controls when the “Law on Protecting the Family through the Promotion of the Culture of Chastity and Hijab” came into force.
The 74-article law imposes severe penalties, including flogging, heavy fines, harsh prison sentences, travel bans, and restrictions on education and employment for women who defy compulsory veiling.
It also penalizes private businesses that fail to enforce the dress code while granting impunity to officials and vigilantes who violently attack noncompliant women. That sort of sounds like the mask policies during COVID, probably that is why American liberals support the regime.
The post Marriage at Age Nine and Other Repressive Laws under the Ayatollah appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.