Business

Netflix’s plan to maintain subscriber growth after two quarters of blockbuster increases will be in focus when it reports earnings on Thursday, with some analysts warning that gains from a crackdown on password sharing are set to ease. The streaming pioneer saw its strongest growth since the pandemic in the second half of 2023, with about 22 million people signing up for the service after the company curbed the sharing of passwords globally.

Last fall, Charter Communications went to the mat with Disney over program licensing renewal, trying to, among other things, gain more flexibility in terms of how it bundles channels. And the fruits of the cable operator’s hard-won battle are apparent with its introduction Tuesday of Spectrum TV Stream, a virtual, ESPN-less skinny bundle, that includes more than 90 entertainment and news-themed channels for $39.99 a month.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the CEOs of the three companies, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) requested answers about the competitive implications of the proposed sports streaming JV. “As programmers, your companies exert tremendous influence over pricing across the live sports TV ecosystem,” Nadler and Castro wrote in the letter to Disney’s Bob Iger, Fox’s Lachlan Murdoch and Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav.

A group of actors filed a class action lawsuit Tuesday against Casting Networks, one of a handful of websites that connects actors to commercial auditions, alleging that the platform functions as an illegal pay-for-play system. Casting Networks offers actors a free tier and two premium tiers. The paid options allow actors to upload more video to their profile and to submit for unlimited roles.

Billionaire Jeff Skoll told his staff of 100 in a memo shared with The Associated Press Tuesday that they were winding down company operations. “This is not a step I am taking lightly,” Skoll wrote in the memo. “But after 20 years of groundbreaking content and world-changing impact campaigns, it is the right time for me to evaluate my next chapter and approach to tackling the pressing issues of our time.”

The purchase of WJMN-TV Escanaba, Mich., by Sullivans Landing tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Advisory Services.

Most of Wall Street slipped Tuesday as expectations rose for rates to stay high.

Writers at the Sesame Workshop have voted unanimously to authorize a strike against the non-profit organization, the Writers Guild of American announced Tuesday. The guild says that there was 100% participation in the strike authorization vote from the 35-member bargaining unit. The writers are prepared to walk the picket line if a tentative deal isn’t reached by Friday, which is when the current contract expires. The strike would include any and all work for Sesame Street.

David Porter, an ad industry veteran and former Turner exec, is joining Warner Bros. Discovery as head of ad sales research, data and insights. Porter reports to Jon Steinlauf, Warner Bros. Discovery’s chief of U.S. advertising sales, and will split his time between WBD’s New York City and Atlanta offices. The announcement of Porter’s hiring comes a month ahead of the sale org’s May 15 Upfront presentation in New York City. Porter replaces Andrea Zapata, who exited WBD at the end of 2023 and is now T-Mobile’s VP of advertising data, measurement and partnerships.

According to IAB’s annual Internet Advertising Revenue Report, retail media, connected TV and audio advertising experienced double-digit growth with the creator economy helping to spark a social media rebound.

Thanks to decades of deregulation and a gush of speculative cash that first hit the industry in the late Aughts, while prestige TV was climbing the rungs of the culture, massive entertainment and media corporations had been swallowing what few smaller companies remained, and financial firms had been infiltrating the business, moving to reduce risk and maximize efficiency at all costs, exhausting writers in evermore unstable conditions. Now, film and television writers face an existential threat. (Kirby Lee/AP)

YouTube made an update Monday in relation to third-party ad-blocking apps, which may make it more difficult for users to watch YouTube videos without paying for the company’s ad-free tier. Specifically, viewers using these third-party apps to access YouTube may begin experiencing “buffering issues” or be met with an error message stating that “the following content is not available on this app.”

Wall Street slumped Monday as rising yields cranked up the pressure.

Massive levels of linear TV programming on CTV platforms (connected TV) have resulted by making up around 85% of total CTV ad inventory for long-form content, according to Bernstein Research. The stock research firm expects CTV ad inventory to end up growing 3% in the first quarter of this year, with linear inventory sinking 6% year-over-year.

The study will explore innovations in measurement, currency, data and metrics across the local TV and video marketplace.

The flow of traffic to Donald Trump’s most loyal digital-media boosters isn’t just slowing; it’s utterly collapsing.

Wall Street titan Mario Gabelli is slamming a possible merger between Paramount and Skydance Media — and says he’d rather see Paramount exit deal talks altogether. The legendary investor — whose firm through super voting shares and common Paramount stock is the second leading voting shareholder next to media heiress Shari Redstone — added in an interview with the New York Post that he’s also against a sale of Paramount to Apollo Global Management, which has offered $26 billion. (Scott Mlyn/CNBC)

J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley started coverage on Reddit with equivalent to “hold” ratings, as they wait for clarity on the social media company’s user growth, while staying bullish on ad-revenue growth and artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives. Shares of Reddit were up 0.88% at $42.64 in premarket trading. While Reddit, which made its market debut last month, still relies on advertising for the vast majority of its revenue, it touted AI in its initial public offering marketing roadshow as an area of growth.

Dan Lin, the streaming service’s new film chief, wants to produce a more varied slate of movies to better appeal to the array of interests among subscribers.

Brands want to measure ads everywhere, but media companies keep making it harder.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include an opening for an account executive – trainee/new business development and existing jobs include 13 openings in news, sales, digital and engineering.

Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group, spoke about his bid to acquire Paramount Global at NAB Show April 14. Allen called Paramount Global “a phenomenal company” and a healthy one at that. Allen was interviewed on a panel titled “Thriving in a New Television Syndication Paradigm” by Kathy Haley, publisher of TVNewsCheck. Allen said he would pursue a streaming merger with the likes of NBCUniversal’s Peacock and Warner Bros. Discovery if he were to acquire Paramount. “I think there will be a shakeout; I think there will be some merging,” he said of the various streamers. (Michael Malone)