Business

A long-time top Jeff Bezos lieutenant, Jeff Blackburn, is returning to Amazon in a new position, SVP of global media and entertainment. He will oversee all entertainment business that are being consolidated in one unit, including Prime Video and Amazon Studios, Music, Podcasts/Wondery, Audible, Games, and Twitch. He starts June 7.

Stocks climbed Thursday after three days of losses, led by Big Tech. The S&P 500 notched a 1.2% gain, clawing back almost half of its loss from a day earlier, when it had its biggest one-day drop since February. Even so, the benchmark index is on track for a 2.8% weekly decline, which would be its largest since January.

Disney revenue slid 13% in the fiscal second quarter, but earnings per share nearly doubled, beating Wall Street expectations. Streaming once again was the highlight of the financial report, but growth of Disney+ moderated significantly during the period. It reached 103.6 million global subscribers, up from 94 million as of the previous quarter. Analysts had expected a tally of around 109 million, with the miss causing the company’s shares to tumble in after-hours trading. Revenue of $15.6 billion fell below the consensus forecast from analysts, who had been looking for $15.87 billion.

Samsung — one of the largest purveyors of ACR (automatic content recognition) data derived from smart TVs used by that ad industry, if not the largest — is hedging its audience measurement bets by going with the industry’s tried-and-true measurement brand: Nielsen.

In the space of just a few weeks, a group of Madison Avenue heavyweights — with names like General Motors, Interpublic Group and WPP — has made public guarantees of ad money for some of the industry’s smaller media outlets, all owned by Black entrepreneurs. Getting these companies to talk about ad spending in public is an amazing feat. For Byron Allen, it’s just a first step.

From augmented reality shopping experiences to “Choose Your Own Adventure” journeys, the new ad formats and products “offer marketers compelling ways to reach consumers around the world while driving interactivity for viewers,” the company says.

TiVo has emerged as the winning bidder for bankrupt IPTV solutions provider MobiTV, paying $18.5 million to beat out a competitive joint bid from Amino Technologies and Roku over the course of a two-day auction process. MobiTV represented a competitor for TiVo in the market for delivering IPTV solutions to cable companies.

Stocks sank again on Wall Street Wednesday as inflation worries increased. The selling came as investors reacted to a surprisingly big jump in inflation last month that stoked concerns that the economy may bounce back too fast from its pandemic-induced doldrums. Tech giants, which had soared during the past year of lockdowns, took some of the biggest losses.

The Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved the nomination of Lina Khan to be a member of the Federal Trade Commission, clearing the way for a vote by the full Senate that would make her, a prominent critic of the tech giants, one of its most powerful regulators. The nomination of Khan, 32, has buoyed progressive hopes that President Biden will try to rein in Silicon Valley.

U.S podcast advertising is poised to grow as much in the next two years as in the entire past decade, according to a podcast revenue study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers for IAB, released during the association’s Podcast Upfront on Wednesday. Podcast advertising revenue rose to $842 million in 2020, from $708 million in 2019, helped by a particularly robust, 37% year-over-year gain in the fourth quarter.

Like many media executives, Discovery CEO David Zaslav is not happy with Nielsen, which admitted Tuesday that it may have undercounted viewers during the pandemic. During a conversation Wednesday at MoffetNathanson’s annual media and communications summit, Zaslav blasted Nielsen’s “antiquated system of measurement,” arguing that its ratings were inaccurate even before this latest snafu.

She moves from content director at the company’s WLTX Columbia, S.C., to lead its ABC affil in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pa., following Chuck Morgan’s retirement.

The purchase of KNXT-LP Bakersfield, Calif., by My Central Valley LLC tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Advisory Services.

Stocks pulled back on Wall Street Tuesday as concerns over inflation increased. The S&P 500 lost 0.9%. That, plus its losses Monday, outweigh the benchmark index’s gains last week.

The group that was once assailed by the FCC steadily gained influence in Hollywood over the years until scrutiny of its practices and lack of diversity led NBC to say it would not air its show in 2022.

With Walt Disney Co. theme park operations limited due to the coronavirus pandemic, investors watching the company report earnings on Thursday are expected to zero in on its fast growth into streaming TV. During the January to March quarter, the Disney+ streaming service was aided by box office heavyweight Marvel Studios. The producer of blockbuster superhero films released its first TV series, WandaVision, in January followed by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in late March.

What a difference a year makes. Automakers spent an estimated $238.6 million on TV in April 2021 — an increase of 148% year over year, according to iSpot.tv. Many large advertisers pulled back on TV last April, especially with live sports completely absent due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Media Rating Council says that Nielsen’s numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic undercounted viewers, as was alleged by networks and distributors represented by the VAB.
In a statement, MRC said it believes that total usage of television by persons 18-49 — the key demo used to sell advertising — was understated by approximately 2% to 6% for the February 2021 measurement period.

Vice Media Group’s plans to go public through a nearly $3 billion merger with a blank-check firm would leave existing investors with control of the company and remove Vice’s onerous financial obligations to private-equity firm TPG, according to people familiar with the matter. The blank-check firm, 7GC & Co. Holdings, is preparing to pitch institutional investors on the deal beginning this week, the people said. Company investors — including Disney, A&E Networks and TPG — would remain shareholders under the proposed structure.

A tech selloff dragged stocks lower Monday, pulling the market below highs. The S&P 500 fell 1% after wobbling between small gains and losses the first half of the day. The decline broke a three-day winning streak for the benchmark index, which set a record high on Friday.

GroupM is the latest agency to unveil efforts tied to helping to grow and support diverse and Black-owned media companies. The WPP-owned media giant is making a 2% pledge, calling on its clients to invest at least that amount of their annual media spend in diverse and Black-owned media. While GroupM is planning these investments now, the goal is to start these activations in the next 12 to 18 months.

The veteran broadcasting, marketing and sales executive with more than 30 years of large-market leadership experience will oversee KRON, KRON4.com and KRONOn.TV

EVP-CFO Victoria Harker said: “We continue to see recovery in non-political advertising in many categories,” including auto services, health care, home improvement, entertainment, gambling, insurance, banking and finance, packaged goods and education.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a general manager, a creative services director, meteorologist, multimedia journalists, morning news anchor and master control operator/newscast director.

The increase to $727 million is driven by continued growth in subscription revenue and record first quarter advertising and marketing services (“AMS”) revenues.