RCTV — AI Video & Media Intelligence

Sora Is Gone. Here's What the Numbers Actually Mean.

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Sora launched in December 2024 to more hype than any AI product since GPT-4. OpenAI announced its shutdown on March 24, 2026 — 15 months later. The standalone social app, launched September 2025 and shuttered alongside the rest of the product line, generated $2.1 million in lifetime in-app purchases over its six-month life against peak inference costs estimated at $15 million per day. The consumer app goes dark April 26, 2026; the API lingers until September 24. Before the narrative shifts to “strategic pivot to robotics,” the raw numbers deserve a cold stare. This wasn’t bad execution. It was a predictable collision of physics and human behavior.

AI Video Weekly Roundup — April 17, 2026

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:00:00 -0500

Alibaba dominated the week — not with one announcement, but three distinct AI video and world-modeling products from three different business units. Meanwhile, the open-source tier gained a serious new contender in SkyReels V4, and xAI signaled that Grok Imagine’s 720p ceiling is about to go away.

AI Video Weekly Roundup — April 11, 2026

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

A week defined by surprises and enforcement. An anonymous AI video model quietly topped the global benchmark leaderboard on April 7, then Alibaba admitted it was theirs three days later. Seedance 2.0 quietly arrived in US CapCut — a significant development given the IP standoff that surrounded its global rollout. And the TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed into law ten months ago, produced its first criminal conviction.

AI Video Weekly Roundup — April 4, 2026

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Last week OpenAI closed the door on Sora. This week Google walked through it. In a coordinated push, Google made Veo 3.1 available free to every Google account holder via Google Vids, launched a cut-price developer model for the API tier, and committed to further price cuts coming April 7. Separately, Meta’s NewFronts presentations revealed what AI video at commercial scale actually looks like — and the number attached to it is worth paying attention to.

AI Video Weekly Roundup — March 27, 2026

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0500

The week started with the industry still processing NVIDIA GTC. It ended with the first major casualty. On Tuesday, March 24, OpenAI announced it was shutting down Sora — the model that introduced most of the world to AI video generation in early 2024. The stated reason was compute reallocation toward robotics. The real reason was legible in the numbers. Elsewhere, ByteDance found a side door for Seedance 2.0, Luma dropped a meaningfully upgraded Ray model, and Washington’s copyright battle over AI training developed a new fault line.

AI Video Weekly Roundup — March 20, 2026

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 09:00:00 -0500

No new consumer models dropped this week. That’s not because the industry was quiet — it’s because the entire AI video world was watching San Jose. NVIDIA GTC 2026 ran March 16–19, and the announcements there didn’t change what you can generate today. They changed what will be possible, at what cost, and at what speed, by the end of this year. Runway brought the most video-specific proof: a real-time generation demo with time-to-first-frame under 100 milliseconds. And in Washington, a Senate bill proposed declaring AI training on copyrighted works categorically not fair use.

AI Video Weekly Roundup — March 13, 2026

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 09:00:00 -0500

The standalone AI video app had a rough week. Sora 1 officially sunsets in the US today — and the numbers behind that decision tell a story the industry should take seriously. At the same time, Runway and Luma both shipped products that point toward what replaces the standalone generator: real-time avatars embedded in enterprise workflows, and agentic pipelines that handle creative production end to end. The theme this week isn’t a new model. It’s a new architecture for how AI video gets used.

AI Video Weekly Roundup — March 6, 2026

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 09:00:00 -0500

This was the week AI video stopped being a China-vs-US model race and became a platform war. Three major ecosystem moves — Grok Imagine’s video extension, Google Flow’s consolidation, and Seedance 2.0 Pro’s third-party breakout — all signal the same shift: the generator is becoming a commodity. The workflow around it is the product.

AI Video Generation Tools 2026: Live Comparison & Rankings

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0500

This is RCTV’s living reference to the AI video generation landscape. Updated every week as models launch, pricing changes, and capabilities evolve. Last updated: April 17, 2026.

About RCTV

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:00:00 -0500

What is RCTV?

RCTV is an independent publication covering the intersection of artificial intelligence and video production. We track the tools, models, trends, and business shifts reshaping how video content is created, distributed, and consumed.

AI Video Weekly Roundup — February 28, 2026

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0500

Welcome to RCTV’s first AI Video Weekly Roundup — your concise briefing on the most important developments at the intersection of artificial intelligence, video production, and digital media. Every week we cut through the noise to bring you the stories that matter.