Digital

In his newly expanded role, Pfaff will lead digital video strategy and partnership integrations for Katz. He will also represent Katz in initiatives to improve brand safety and digital standards.

Amazon’s news app on Fire TV on Wednesday began expanding live and on-demand local news from 88 to 158 major cities across the U.S. The expansion includes cities like Charleston, S.C.; Wichita, Kan.; Tucson, Ariz.; Reno, Nev.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Honolulu; and Lincoln, Neb., and will more than double the local stations available from 126 to 259. The expansion follows an initial 12-city launch last year and an expansion to 88 cities in March.

Hundreds of protesters gathered Wednesday near Netflix’s Hollywood headquarters to protest the streamer’s release of a Dave Chappelle comedy special featuring anti-transgender jokes. The rally, called “‘Stand Up’ in Solidarity” organized by trans activist Ashlee Marie Preston, began as an estimated 10% of Netflix employees in New York and Los Angeles staged a virtual walkout at noon local time in an extraordinarily public rebuke of the company.

PayPal is in talks to buy social media platform Pinterest, which has a market value of more than $35 billion. Such a move would take the payments giant’s business in a new direction.

The Black TV audience, once reliable cable and satellite subscribers, are increasingly cutting the cord in a world of proliferating streaming options. A new Horowitz Research study found that multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) penetration among Black households has declined 25% in just the past four years, from 88% in 2017 to only 61% in 2021.

Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect its focus on building the metaverse, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company’s annual Connect conference on Oct. 28, but could unveil sooner, is meant to signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than social media and all the ills that entail. The rebrand would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus and more.

On the eve of a planned employee walkout at the streaming giant — organized by trans and LGBTQ+ staffers, content creators and allies — Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos addressed numerous points related to recent jokes from comedian Dave Chappelle that have incensed the trans community and been labeled as harmful.

MoffettNathanson says bundling Disney+, Hulu could attract older viewers, while Barclays points to more and better content

Variety and Twitter have partnered on what Variety calls “a unique, first-of-its-kind chart” that ranks the most tweeted about TV shows across network television and streaming. The three Variety Trending TV charts, powered by Twitter, will detail the top 10 programs that are organically bubbling up on the social platform, analyze the day-to-day movement of the top three shows and provide a heat map of which shows are resonating across the country.

Netflix beat forecasts for subscriber growth — its own as well as Wall Street’s — in the third quarter, reaching 214 million worldwide. The company matched revenue estimates in the period ending Sept. 30, reporting $7.48 billion, but demolished earnings per share estimates. After forecasting $2.55, it posted $3.13.

The entertainment company has announced tie-ups with two of the biggest ad-tech companies on the public markets (Magnite and The Trade Desk) that enable programmatic and addressable advertising on linear TV.

The virtual walkout planned for Wednesday is the latest example of how the internal backlash over the comedian’s new special has roiled the streaming service.

Walt Disney’s stock received a rare Wall Street downgrade on Monday, as Barclays called for bold changes from the media giant to reverse slowing growth at its Disney+ streaming service.

Agreeing with Amazon, a federal judge has dismissed allegations that the company dupes consumers by claiming to sell online videos, but retaining the right to revoke access to the material. In a ruling issued Friday, U.S. Chief District Judge Kimberly Mueller in Sacramento said Fairfield, Calif., resident Amanda Caudel, the consumer who brought the case, couldn’t proceed in federal court because she hadn’t been injured by Amazon.

ViacomCBS and Altice USA said they reached a new carriage deal that includes the media company’s streaming services as well as its broadcast stations and cable networks.

A high-flying German media giant is ahead on digital media but seems stuck in the past when it comes to the workplace and deal-making.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a news producer, a traffic coordinator and a digital sales manager for stations owned by Hearst, Nexstar and the Get After It Media network.

Major League Baseball is in talks to launch a nationwide video-streaming service that would enable fans to watch their teams’ hometown games without a cable-TV subscription. The web-based service — which could address a decades-old annoyance for baseball fans that some have partly blamed for the league’s steadily declining viewership — could launch as early as the 2023 season, a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations said.

Netflix has fired a long time employee who leaked confidential financial information in response to the streamer’s launch of Dave Chappelle’s controversial The Closer special on Oct. 5. “We have let go of an employee for sharing confidential, commercially sensitive information outside the company,” a Netflix spokesperson said Friday.”We understand this employee may have been motivated by disappointment and hurt with Netflix, but maintaining a culture of trust and transparency is core to our company.”

A new outlook report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, based on a survey of nearly 20 buy- and sell-side industry leaders by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and insights from other IAB research, forecasts digital ad spend to reach $165.5 billion next year.

The WarnerMedia cable-news outlet typically runs a significant chunk of promotions for its programming on its own air and in other venues owned by its parent company. Today, it’s airing an initial ad to entice loyal viewers to consider CNN+, its new video-streaming service slated to launch in 2022.

The comedian Dave Chappelle’s comments on transgender people and gender in The Closer have led to outside criticism and internal unrest at the company that upended Hollywood.