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Total Entertainment segment income, which includes DTC and linear networks, grew 61% YoY to $1.26 billion. Hulu ended the quarter with 54.7 million subscribers, up from 53.6 million in Q1.

Levi鈥檚 path to growth: Levi鈥檚 decision to potentially offload Dockers is in keeping with the retailer鈥檚 broader strategy of exiting from less profitable segments in favor of focusing on its more lucrative D2C and core denim businesses.

By the numbers: The significant brand heat On is generating is translating into higher D2C and full-price sales, which explains its sizable profit margins. D2C sales rose 43.4% YoY to account for 48.8% of Q4 net sales, another company record, bolstered by On鈥檚 growing store footprint.

Digitally native brands look for a new D2C playbook: Brands are embracing wholesale, physical retail, acquisitions, and even selling on Amazon to regain momentum and achieve profitability.

Zooming out: The pharma industry spends billions of dollars annually on D2C advertising. Linear TV is the most prevalent media channel for D2C drug ads as pharma brands look to reach older generations who regularly take medicine. But pharma marketers are also devoting more of their advertising budgets to digital channels such as CTV and search engines.

颁丑颈苍补鈥檚 ecommerce disruptors will get disrupted. Shein, Temu, and TikTok Shop face a reckoning following breakneck worldwide expansion. The crop of mobile-first ecommerce players with roots in China have taken off with consumers around the world.

The retailer plans to expand its physical footprint by opening 500 to 600 shops across Asia, Latin America, and Europe in the next few years. On Monday it teased a potential collaboration with Beyonc茅 in an Instagram post featuring the caption 鈥淚NTRODUCING: A New Chapter.鈥�

Our take: Kay has to find ways to win over the next generation of consumers, or else risk losing share to newer, direct-to-consumer jewelry companies like Ring Concierge, Mejuri, and Aurate. Its rebrand, coupled with store upgrades, ecommerce investments, and growing selection of trendy jewelry, should help with that goal.

The trend: We鈥檝e seen more telehealth and D2C health companies tap into markets for hormone replacement therapy for women in perimenopause and menopause and testosterone replacement therapy for men. Vitamin Shoppe and Marius Pharmaceuticals recently rolled out a program that offers the drugmaker鈥檚 prescription testosterone replacement therapy capsules over telehealth.

Cosmetics and beauty make up a nearly $100 billion industry in the US, and next year more than one-fifth of those sales will come from ecommerce, according to our forecasts. In order to win over beauty shoppers, and Gen Z ones in particular, brands need to pay close attention to where their digital ad dollars go. Here are five charts to help you out.

Companies like Teladoc team up with Amazon to help consumers discover their benefits through the e-commerce giant鈥檚 platform鈥攖he goal is to get consumers to sign up for their digital health programs. Some 93 million people in the US are eligible for Teladoc鈥檚 services, but they all might not be aware.

Direct-to-consumer advertising revenues: Down 2% YoY. If Indian service Disney+ Hotstar is excluded, D2C ad revenues were up 16% YoY. The subscriber dip: Disney had warned it expected a 鈥渕odest decline鈥� in Disney+ subscribers during the holiday season due to a recent price hike and the end of certain promotions.

The three telehealth companies will integrate with Novo鈥檚 new D2C online pharmacy, NovoCare, to complete medication orders. Zooming in: Novo鈥檚 tie-up with Hims is the most surprising piece of this news considering their public feud over Hims selling compounded semaglutide (Wegovy).

List prices of the drugs hover around $1,000 per month, although both offer cash-pay discounts: NovoCare Pharmacy charges $499 for Wegovy while LillyDirect鈥檚 D2C ranges from $349 to $599 for Zepbound. Why it matters: Commercial insurance coverage for GLP-1s is dropping, and the current administration does not support expanding gov鈥檛 plans to cover the meds for obesity.

He thinks that D2C drug advertising doesn鈥檛 improve patients鈥� health while theorizing that media networks aren鈥檛 critical of Big Pharma in their news coverage since they depend on the industry鈥檚 ad spending. Why it matters: We鈥檝e previously stated that an outright ban on D2C pharma advertising is very unlikely.

But we also see this as a move to ward off D2C telehealth players who are progressively entering the market. Hackensack Meridian feels strongly enough about the strategy that it鈥檚 partnering with a digital health company that can implement a tech-enabled experience for patients.

(This back-and-forth marketing battle between Big Pharma and D2C weight loss drug players was a prediction we got right in our Health Trends to Watch 2025 report.).

Pfizer鈥檚 health answers service follows last year鈥檚 launch of a D2C platform where patients can connect to telehealth providers and order over-the-counter health products. These offerings put Pfizer ahead of traditional pharma company websites that contain resources to help patients, such as educational information on medications and treatments, drug discount cards, and insurance-related assistance.

A ban on D2C pharmaceutical ads could become a reality during President Trump鈥檚 second term. It would be well received by the public: Adults are more than twice as likely to support (59%) a ban on prescription drug TV ads as they are to oppose one (25%), per a December 2024 Axios-Ipsos poll.