The Brief – Tuesday 24 March – Goalhanger launches ‘The Accelerator,’ SNL UK audience share & social media’s impact on children

📺 The Association of Commercial Television and Video Demand Services in Europe (ACT), whose members include Canal+, RTL, Mediaset, ITV, Paramount+, NBCUniversal, Walt Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Sky and TF1 Groupe, has asked the EU to enforce its toughest regulations against smart TVs and on-platform AI assistants built by Google, Amazon, Apple and Samsung. In a letter, ACT argues Big Tech has become “gatekeepers” to content, funnelling users toward their owned and operated content rather than competitors. (The Guardian)

🎤 Goalhanger is launching The Accelerator, a three-month “business incubator” to provide investment, training, mentorship and access to Goalhanger’s leadership and talent. Select digital creators will be granted £10,000 to scale their careers and brand via the project. (The Hollywood Reporter)

😅 Sky’s Saturday Night Live UK debut was watched by 226,000 viewers during its 10pm slot on Sky One, equivalent to a 3.2% share of audience, according to Barb overnight figures. (Deadline)

🤖 The IPA has launched the second edition of its IPAi Forum, which curates a selection of tools and opinions from agency leaders. Topics covered in the April edition include AI search and agentic tools, with additional thought leadership from Marcos Angelides (Publicis), Vicky Brown (WPP), Owen Lee (AMV BBDO) and others. (IPA)

📺 In ITV’s annual Impact Report, the broadcaster revealed it had made progress on several diversity targets: deaf, disabled and neurodivergent representation rose to 13.6%; people of colour now account for 15.3% of staff; LGBTQ+ representation reached 9.8%; women now account for more than half (53.3%) of the workforce, and 29% of staff is from working class backgrounds. (ITV)

📰 PinkNews has made several of reporting roles redundant, with one affected senior reporter, Sophie Perry, writing she was told the brand is “moving away from having a reporter-led newsroom.” (Sophie Perry/Bluesky)

📱 Children who are on social media for more than three hours a day are more likely to develop depression and anxiety as teenagers, according to researchers at Imperial College London. Lack of sleep through using social media at night was cited the main cause. (The Guardian)