Google didn’t provide a new subscriber total for YouTube TV in the first quarter but one analyst estimate suggests that it was the slowest period for the virtual MVPD in years. According to MoffettNathanson’s latest Cord Cutting Monitor, YouTube TV added 75,000 subscribers during the first quarter. It’s higher than the 43,000 net adds reported by fuboTV and much better than Hulu + Live TV’s 200,000 and Sling TV’s 100,000 net losses. But, according to the analyst firm’s chart tracking YouTube TV’s growth back to the first quarter of 2017, it’s the slowest growth quarter for the vMVPD since the third quarter of 2018.
The streamier is focused on engagement — and winning back former subscribers.
Innovid and Digiday’s State of CTV Advertising report surveyed brand marketers and agency execs to determine where industry stands in the CTV advertising picture.
Julie McNamara, EVP and head of programming for Paramount+, is leaving after 15 years at CBS and ViacomCBS. One of the top programming executives at the combined company, McNamara has been overseeing the original content strategy for ViacomCBS’ streaming service. Tom Ryan, ViacomCBS’s president-CEO, streaming, just announced McNamara’s exit internally, and she also shared the news with her staff.
In her new role, Oh will be responsible for driving innovation and continued engagement while overseeing Gamut’s day-to-day over-the-top advertising businesses and their functions.
Exclusives
Amazon said Wednesday that it has struck a deal to acquire movie studio MGM for $8.5 billion, bolstering its efforts to become a top player in Hollywood. The deal will give the e-commerce and cloud computing giant a famed studio and catalogue of film and TV titles to beef up its Amazon Prime streaming service, from the James Bond and Rocky franchises to television series like The Handmaid’s Tale and Fargo.
Bob Bakish tells annual shareholder meeting “we have made tremendous progress,” adding that the firm was on track to exceed its targets for merger synergies.
The Denver-based start-up Frndly TV is already profitable from consumers seeking a cheaper, “family-friendly” alternative to cable.
The New York Times is looking into a potential acquisition of The Athletic, three sources familiar with the matter tell Axios. Sources say the Times approached The Athletic following a report about a potential deal between The Athletic and Axios in March.
The nation’s big media companies are on a new mission: finding ways to unite thousands of individual binge-watchers into a cohesive mass audience. To get more advertisers to move their dollars to streaming, the TV executives are working furiously to gather all the streaming fans for the same advertising experience. It’s not going to be easy.
Tucker Carlson Tonight, Hannity and The Ingraham Angle will be available the following day.
Facebook can make ad campaigns sit in limbo for days while it goes through a stringent review process, leaving marketers to wonder if they will ever publish.
That announcement came hours after more than 100 AP journalists signed a letter expressing concern about how former news associate Emily Wilder was treated. The journalists want more clarity in what can be said on forums like Twitter and Facebook and faith the company would protect them from pressure campaigns.
The nearly $9 billion deal would turn a film operation founded in the silent era into a streaming asset for the e-commerce giant.
The back and forth over a very new type of media shows just how quickly streaming video is hooking consumers who have a yen for high-quality dramas and comedies — and the advertisers who need to reach them to keep revenue flowing. “It’s the first time that we are in a marketplace where it’s being led by our streaming conversation, and not being led by our linear conversation,” says Rita Ferro, president of Disney’s advertising sales.
After decades of game-to-film flops, a new effort, led by Sony, aims to adapt big PlayStation and Xbox franchises for movies and TV.
“Netflix won this several years ago, they’re the only ones who have the scale and momentum to keep making these somewhat lunatic investments in programming,” Diller, the chairman of IAC, said in an interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin. “You cannot compete with the momentum, the scale, no one will ever be able to do that.”
German media conglomerate Axel Springer is in talks to acquire Axios, according to people familiar with the matter, continuing a consolidation of the digital media sector. Axel Springer already owns Business Insider and is an investor in Group Nine Media, owner of digital sites such as The Dodo and news site NowThis.
Video streaming is in an increasingly serious post-pandemic slump as far as original series hits … except for maybe Mare of Easttown on HBO Max, which Nielsen still refuses to measure.
The new arrangement adds 10 Scripps stations to Allen Media Group’s free streaming platform.
Telemundo Global Studios today promoted Juan Ponce to senior vice president and general manager of its recently launched Telemundo Streaming Studios, which it calls “the first-ever studio in Hispanic media […]
A new report from Applicaster finds that 84% of media execs plan for continued streaming growth in 2021; advertising is king: two-thirds of respondents use advertising, often as part of a monetization mix; and 19 different combinations of revenue models are now used across platforms.
In its complaint, filed Wednesday in federal court in California, the FTC said thousands of Frontier Communications customers have complained that the company was not delivering promised speeds. Customers said they couldn’t use the internet service for the online activities they should have been able to.
