The One Where YouTube Crashed Out
Global out(r)age, controversial redesign and fine line between innovation and irritation at the world’s biggest video platform
YouTube pressed “update,” and the internet pressed “panic.”
This week was all about glitches in the system. Literal and cultural. A global outage hit YouTube just as it rolled out its glossy new player redesign, turning a UI tweak into a worldwide meltdown.
OpenAI’s Sora found itself in its own storm, accused of “digital necromancy” after spawning eerily lifelike videos of dead public figures.
Over in Hollywood, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is walking a fine line between masterpiece and money pit, proving that even DiCaprio can’t save a film’s box office these days.
Meanwhile, AI’s influence keeps creeping across every corner of creation from Natasha Lyonne launching an AI film studio to Disney, Warner Bros., and friends drawing the line against training models on their content.
On the lighter end, Co-op reminded us that analog still hits harder with a claymation campaign full of fingerprints, and Fujifilm dropped a camera that literally prints your memories.
Innovation and irritation. Ghosts and glitches. Clay and code.
Headlines at a Glance
Emma Stone’s‘Bugonia’ Hosts Early Screening for the Bold (and the Bald): “Are You Bald or Willing to Be?” Fans are converging at Dō Los Angeles for a rare screening of Bugonia, a reimagined cult classic that merges ecological myth and digital performance.
Disney plans to announce a successor to CEO Bob Iger in early 2026.
As Disney mulls future succession plans, CNBC explores why “co-CEO” structures often create instability and blurred accountabilityLionsgate Partners with TikTok Creators for Fan Edit Campaigns
Lionsgate is embracing the “fan edit” phenomenon by working directly with TikTok creators to remix film clips into short-form promos.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle has become the highest-grossing international film ever at the U.S. box office, surpassing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with over $128.6 million in domestic earnings
CEO Neal Mohan on $100 billion vision for YouTube’s future
The Hollywood Reporter’s latest cover story dives into how YouTube has swallowed nearly every TV category except one: scripted drama. It explores what it’ll take for the platform to finally crack the last bastion of traditional television.Instagram exploring dedicated TV App
Bloomberg reports that Meta is developing a dedicated Instagram TV app to challenge YouTube’s growing grip on the big screen. If this finally makes IG a viable short-film platform… hooray indeed.Google Slams Australia’s Ban on Under-16 YouTube Accounts Google has criticized Australia’s proposed legislation that would ban users under 16 from creating YouTube accounts, calling it “overreaching”.
YouTube’s “Cleaner” Player Crashes: 800K Users Caught in the Update Storm
On October 15, YouTube suffered its largest ever outage.
Freezing video playback and search functionality for roughly 800,000 users worldwide. Reports flooded Downdetector from North America, the UK, and parts of Asia, with outages lasting from 20 minutes to nearly two hours.
Google blamed the disruption to a server routing issue affecting content delivery networks. The same infrastructure responsible for streaming to TVs and mobile devices.
While the company resolved it within hours, creators saw ad revenue dips and viewers were pushed to rival platforms like TikTok and Twitch.
The timing was especially awkward: YouTube had just rolled out its new video player redesign, which some speculated may have contributed to backend instability.
While some websites might try to test UI changes quietly, there isn’t much chance of YouTube pulling that off. As one of the most familiar interfaces on the internet, even the subtlest tweak can spark uproar.
So it’s no surprise that the platform’s latest video player redesign.. pitched as “cleaner and more immersive” has users up in arms.
Rolled out this week, the update includes refined controls and transitions meant to “make the viewing experience more visually satisfying while obscuring less content.” The redesign leans into Apple-style transparency. A “Liquid Glass” aesthetic. With rounded buttons and minimal chrome.
According to Creative Bloq, the backlash was immediate. The YouTube subreddit is “utterly awash with complaints,” with users begging for ways to revert the look (spoiler: you can’t).
One commenter lamented, “If you copy Apple’s ugly bullsh*t, you end up with a cheap-looking UI,” while another complained that every big company is “losing their identity to something nobody ever asked for.”
Still, some of the outrage may just be the internet’s default reaction to change. As Creative Bloq points out, UI updates to apps people stare at daily always feel jarring. Like the digital equivalent of someone rearranging your living room.
But, as with Airbnb’s once-“controversial” icon, the noise tends to fade.
Who Owns the Dead in the Age of Sora?
The Guardian’s latest report highlights how OpenAI’s Sora can produce eerily realistic videos of historical figures like Karl Marx or Martin Luther King Jr., making them shop, dance, or even troll on camera.
Experts are calling it “a new frontier of appropriation,” where likeness, legacy, and consent collapse into data.
The estates of public figures, which once fought over posthumous image rights for holograms and biopics, now face a machine that can summon anyone, in any setting, without permission or intent. Within seconds.
OpenAI’s defense, that these are “historical simulations” or “creative demonstrations” has done little to calm outrage.
The company insists the feature is part of “exploring educational use cases,” but the results look closer to the commodification of it. As one critic told The Guardian, “It’s digital necromancy sold as progress.”
For an industry that already trades in likeness, Sora’s “AI slop” problem feels less like sci-fi and more like a mirror.
The future of image rights won’t just concern the living, but the long dead and the question may no longer be who owns the footage, but who owns the ghost.
Money moves
Warner Bros. Discovery rejects takeover bid from Paramount Skydance: WBD says Paramount’s initial offer (~$20/share) was too low to proceed
Canal+ takes 34 % stake in French cinema-operator UGC: As part of its expansion strategy, Canal+ acquires significant minority stake and gains option to buy full company later.
OpenAI just gave Sora 2 two big upgrades including longer videos for free users Sora 2 now lets users generate multi-scene sequences and longer runtime videos, marking its most creator-friendly update yet.
One Flop After Another?
Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another has already grossed $140 million worldwide.
Impressive for an original, R-rated drama-comedy hybrid in 2025. But the film’s economics are upside down. Warner Bros. spent $130 million on production and another $70 million on marketing, meaning it needs roughly $300 million to break even.
Add the fact half of ticket sales going to theaters to DiCaprio’s first-dollar gross deal and the film is now projected to lose around $100 million theatrically.
The film doesn’t get made without DiCaprio, but simultaneously it’s his involvement that guarantees a ballooning budget.
You can’t make a small DiCaprio movie.
Even when he’s working with auteurs like Scorsese, or Tarantino, the gravitational pull of his star power brings along the machinery of a tentpole.
You can’t make a small DiCaprio movie. Even under auteurs like Scorsese or Tarantino, his gravitational pull drags along the machinery of a tentpole.
But with One Battle After Another, the trailer promised something entirely different — a quirky, half-stoner caper with DiCaprio’s character, Bob, played as a bumbling idiot in a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde riff alongside Teyana Taylor.
If you’ve seen the film, it’s not exactly a world away but it’s just a sliver of a much larger, darker, and more complex whole.
Cinephiles will come for PTA regardless, but the broader audience? They didn’t know what they were being invited to see.
Compare that with Christopher Nolan, who has somehow mastered the paradox: making original, R-rated, non-franchise films that earn blockbuster returns. Oppenheimer and Inception (both grossing nearly $1B) with Nolan’s name is a brand that promises clarity. You know what kind of experience you’re getting, even if you don’t understand the plot.
PTA’s brand, by contrast, is a lot more ambiguous.
Still, Warner Bros. marketing didn’t do the film any favors. Instead of positioning it as a cinematic event, they buried the politics, skipped behind-the-scenes spotlights, and rolled out a TikTok campaign where even the cast seemed baffled by how to describe it.
Meanwhile, directors like Ryan Coogler and Nolan have turned production itself into marketing. Viral videos showing real explosions, analog cameras, and the tangible spectacle of craft.
One Battle could’ve leaned into that too.
Cut of the Week: “Owned by You, Right by You” Co-op’s Claymation Heartbeat
In an age of contactless payments and mobile banking, paper receipts have all but disappeared. Once handed over with your change, they now dangle forgotten from self-checkouts or end up crumpled in the bin. Or you’re trying to slap costs on the corporate card.
But this overlooked relic of everyday life takes center stage in Co-op’s campaign from last year, which brings its new brand messaging to life through an actual receipt printer.
By using old-school tech to deliver a modern story, the ad cleverly ties the Co-op’s reliability and community roots to something tangible, lasting, and real.
Directed by Sam Gainsborough and brought to life by animation studio Blinkink, the spot swaps digital gloss for handcrafted charm, using stop-motion claymation to visualize collective ownership and community care.
The ad follows a series of clay characters. Workers, families, and shop owners. Literally sculpting their world together.
AI:
Hollywood vs OpenAI: Disney, Warner Bros., and other studios say no to Sora
Major studios move to block AI training on their footage and likenesses, setting the stage for a legal showdown over creative IP.WPP boosts AI marketing with $400 million Google deal
The world’s largest ad group invests heavily in Google’s generative-video tools, turning AI production into a global marketing engine.Google’s powerful Veo steps up its creativity in 3.1 version update for ‘realism’
Improved motion coherence and prompt accuracy bring Veo’s videos closer than ever to cinematic realism.Natasha Lyonne Launches AI Film Company Asteria The actor, writer, and director is co-founding Asteria, a new AI-driven film company aiming to blend machine learning with creative storytelling.
Retail Therapy
Fujifilm Instax Mini LiPlay Plus: $235
Fujifilm’s latest hybrid instant camera adds Bluetooth connectivity, voice note printing, and remote shooting via smartphone.
A handheld pyro device for performers and creators, the Incendio Wand lets users safely shoot controlled fire effects for photography or stage work. Part gadget, part spectacle. Great for Halloween.
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