Business

Apple‘s fiscal Q2 numbers beat Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom line in a market that was waiting for them with some trepidation — mainly news of iPhone sales in China. The dip there was less than anticipated. The stock is up more than 7% in after-hours trading. Apple shares had a huge 2023 but the stock has been nearly alone among the so-called Magnificent Seven tech stocks to lose ground so far in 2024.

Wall Street climbed Thursday to trim its loss for the week. Earnings reports from several big companies helped drive the market higher.

From a studio space in Chelsea, Spotify hosted its first-ever NewFronts event on Wednesday. Discussing a steep rise in consumers’ video consumption, Spotify’s Head of Sales Ann Piper and Global Creative Director Kay Hsu highlighted new advertising opportunities in digital video on the platform. Spotify is focused on becoming a more “immersive” platform. It has already tackled “utility” and “curation” in previous years, according to the presentation with slides by Hsu.

The offer comes as the exclusive negotiating window between Skydance and the entertainment giant is about to expire.

DirecTV, Dish Network and Newsmax also joined the call for hearings in Washington, D.C. into the future of pay TV competition and its impact on consumers.

SAG-AFTRA has enlisted Nielsen to cross-check the streaming data the union will be receiving from the Hollywood studios as part of the historic new deal struck in 2023, which provides bonuses based on streaming performance of movies and shows. The union said in a statement that in Nielsen, it will have “an objective source of domestic viewership data for original streaming programming” to compliment the performance numbers provided by the studios.

Broitman, Katz chief operating officer since 2012, takes over on July 1.

The good news — or bad news, depending on how you look at it — is that consumer time spent with media continues to expand. The really bad news for the ad industry is that ad-supported media’s share continues to decline, in both the U.S. and worldwide. Those are among the findings in the 2024 edition of an annual Global Consumer Media Usage Forecast by PQ Media. While total weekly time spent with media actually declined 0.4% to 76.69 hours in the U.S., and inched up only 0.3% to 56.15 hours worldwide, PQ forecasts it will rebound again this year and continue expanding for the foreseeable future.

Estrella MediaCo. said it is expanding its connected TV portfolio by launching three new channels with Curiosity that will first appear on Samsung TV Plus. The three free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels, Curiosity Español. Curiosity Animales and Curiosity Motores, were announced at Estrella’s NewFront presentation Wednesday. Estrella also said it would be putting Hallmark Channel content in Spanish on its app and linear channels, as well as 300 hours of content from Hemisphere on the EstrellaTV app, which is being refreshed this month.

Wall Street ended Wednesday mixed after the Fed kept interest rates high and downplayed the odds of a hike.

Diamond’s against-all-odds escape from bankruptcy liquidation hits a major snag after its Bally Sports carriage deal with Comcast expires and the two sides fail to agree on another temporary extension.

Starting Sept. 1, WGN Chicago; WVBT Norfolk, Va.; and KLFY Lafayette La., will carry CW’s primetime entertainment, live sports, and special event programming.

David Zaslav famously said in 2022 that Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t “have to have the NBA.” It appears Wall Street disagrees. WBD’s already rock-bottom stock price plummeted nearly 10% on Tuesday after a report in The Wall Street Journal signaled the media conglomerate could be in for an expensive battle to maintain its NBA broadcast rights, with shares ending Tuesday at $7.36. That figure represents an all-time low for WBD, the parent company of CNN.

In its first NewFronts presentation, mobile carrier T-Mobile unveiled an expansion of its advertising solutions unit, boosting both digital and brick-and-mortar retail media, mobile app, and CTV inventory. The expansion includes T-Mobile owned-and-operated inventory across its in-store retail media network, as well as more than 20,000 screens via T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile retail locations nationwide. T-Mobile said the aggregate reach across its screens currently is 240 million-plus consumers across screens, which can be targeted and served ads vis its “Magenta” ad platform.

Fox Corp’s 2025 broadcast of Super Bowl LIX is nearly a year away, slated to air Feb. 9 from New Orleans. During early talks with potential advertisers, however, the company is already making a bid to sell 30-second ads for at least $7 million each, according to three people familiar with the matter. The price could mark a slightly higher starting point in negotiations than that established by Paramount Global, which aired this year’s Super Bowl in February to a record audience and initially sought between $6.5 million and $7 million for a half-minute ad berth.

The current carriage agreement between Paramount and Charter, the nation’s second largest cable operator behind Comcast, was set to expire at midnight ET Tuesday (April 30). The two companies have been in renewal discussions for months. The two sides reached a short extension on the deadline in order to prevent a blackout as active talks continue, a source confirmed.

On Tuesday, Internet TV provider Fubo dropped all Warner Bros. Discovery networks from its lineup, alleging that the media company was seeking “above-market rates” and refused to license Turner Sports networks separately.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant said it brought in $143.31 billion in revenue in the first three months of this year, a 13% jump compared to the same period last year. Net income came out to $10.43 billion, or 98 cents per share. That soundly beat Wall Street analysts’ expectations for 84 cents a share, according to FactSet.

The purchase would give SES a combined fleet of more than 100 satellites.

The FTC’s recent move to ban noncompete agreements and the media management uproar that ensued are a sideline from more pressing industry concerns, namely attracting and encouraging the next generation of problem solvers.

Wall Street’s ugly April got even worse as it tumbled across the finish line on Tuesday.

RedBird IMI said it had withdrawn its attempt to acquire the storied newspaper after a revolt from Conservative Party leaders.