Here are the complete videos from TVNewsCheck’s second annual OTT News Summit, from keynote interviews with Bloomberg QuickTake’s Jean Ellen Cowgill and CBS News Digital’s Christy Tanner to sessions on programming, discoverability, ad tech and monetization.
Netflix is likely to raise subscription prices in North America or Europe soon, but it won’t likely suffer major backlash, in the view of one Wall Street analyst. Alex Giaimo of Jefferies pointed to a shift in tone between remarks from management on the first-quarter earnings call in April to the second-quarter call in July.
Digital Sales And TV Transmitter Technician Openings
New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a digital sales manager for a TV and newspaper combo and a broadcast television transmitter technician.
Advertisers are flocking to streaming TV, pursuing viewers who are spending more time watching programming on ad-supported services. But fraudsters seeking to steal some of those new ad dollars are moving in, too. Ad measurement and verification firm DoubleVerify says it detected 780 fake streaming-TV apps this year that it believes were set up by bad actors to lure spending by unsuspecting advertisers — just one of the scams in play.
The ruling followed an emergency hearing Sunday morning in which lawyers for TikTok argued that the administration’s app-store ban would infringe on First Amendment rights and do irreparable harm to the business.
Exclusives
TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp and Harry Jessell unpack what matters about E.W. Scripps’ acquisition of Ion Media and recap last week’s OTT News Summit, which spotlighted the “operational agility” of streaming news in a year of surging pandemic audiences.
OTT Ad Impressions Spike During COVID Crisis
Streaming executives from E.W. Scripps, NBCUniversal Owned Stations, CBC and Sinclair say the pandemic drove record numbers to their streaming sites, boosting ad impressions and creating more inroads to advertisers.
For CBS, There’s Room For Plenty Of News Competition In Streaming
Christy Tanner, EVP and GM of CBS News Digital, says the OTT landscape has space for plenty of news organizations to connect with viewers. The lack of a common third-party currency is keeping competition’s ferocity away — for now.
TVNewsCheck presented a virtualized four-day edition of its second annual OTT News Summit in 2020, examining the pandemic’s impact on the streaming value chain and how news organizations can take advantage of new opportunities in content, technology and monetization. There were keynote interviews, panel discussions and roundtables examining streaming news content, workflow and ad technology challenges and monetization.
Alphabet Inc. on Friday settled a shareholder lawsuit that accused the Google parent of covering up lavish exit packages to executives found responsible for sexual misconduct, saying it would overhaul workplace policies and increase oversight of its diversity efforts.
The streamer is set to launch all 45 seasons of the veteran sketch comedy series beginning Oct. 1. This marks one of the first times that every season of the NBC show will be available in one place to watch.
Protecting Public Land Documentary Airs Tonight
Pandemic Proves OTT Workflow Resiliency For News
Executives from CNN, Sinclair, Fox Television Stations and Gray Television say COVID-19 has tested the capacities of their streaming workflows and found them even more adaptable and robust than they imagined.
OTT Ad Tech Gets A ‘C’ For Pandemic Performance
Without a consistent measurement currency, viewers’ streaming ad experience is being impaired by the fragmented data reported back to advertisers. “We need Nielsen ratings or something of the equivalent manner to get people comfortable with a single measurement style,” says Newsy CEO Blake Sabatinelli.
Email remains one of the main ways through which attackers gain entry into broadcasters’ networks, and they change their methods of attack quickly. Good training not to click on suspect links is an essential defense. Above: Akamai multi-factor authentication access control on a smartwatch. Multi-factor authentication requires multiple pieces of identification before granting access.
TikTok on Wednesday announced plans to tighten its advertising policies on weight loss and dieting products such as fasting apps and weight-loss supplements, and increase restrictions on ads that promote a harmful or negative body image.
Pandemic Boosts Streaming, But Discovery Challenges Linger
Executives from Newsy, CBC and Fox Soul have seen record-high pandemic viewership, but they have to maintain a strong ground game in making sure their OTT channels are visible and top-of-mind for new potential viewers. “Operational minutiae” is key to maintaining that visibility in a crowded ecosystem of different platforms and apps, they say.
For News Streaming, Election Is Proving Ground
Executives from CNN, ABC News, E.W. Scripps, Gray and Yahoo say the 2020 election provides them an opportunity to build on the audiences surges they’ve seen on their streaming platforms since the pandemic.
China has no reason to approve the “dirty” and “unfair” deal that allows Oracle and Walmart to effectively take over TikTok based on “bullying and extortion,” slammed an editorial published Wednesday in China Daily, an official English-language newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party.
Bloomberg QuickTake Courts ‘Modern Leaders’ With New OTT Channel
Jean Ellen Cowgill, GM of Bloomberg’s forthcoming QuickTake streaming channel, and its global head of digital strategy and business development, says COVID-19 is driving even larger audiences to OTT and bringing the platform closer to an inflection point. QuickTake hopes to capture younger business professionals with a more dressed-down visual and narrative style than its more buttoned-down signature brand.
