Hamilton was supposed to be a box office smash for Disney; instead, the popular play-turned-movie from Lin-Manuel Miranda ended up being a huge boost to Disney+, with the streaming service gaining about 1 million mobile downloads over Fourth of July weekend, according to data shared by Sensor Tower on Monday.
Imperial Capital analyst David Miller has cut his rating on the stock of streaming giant Netflix from “outperform” to “neutral,” while maintaining his price target of $489. In a Monday report, he cited the stock’s run-up this year. “Thus far, for 2020, Netflix’s shares have risen 50.2 percent, versus the S&P 500, which is down 3.3%,” the analyst highlighted. “In the last 18 months, shares of Netflix are up 81.6%, versus the S&P 500, which is up 26.1%.”
The internet is changing, and the freewheeling, anything-goes culture of social media is being replaced by something more accountable.
The company didn’t set out to build a big library of Black programming, but now it’s the envy of its rivals.
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New research from Comscore shows a continued year-over-year increase in video on demand (VOD) transactions as millions of Americans seek entertainment during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, overall consumption for May 2020 declined compared […]
With more than 400 brands committing to a Facebook boycott, the social giant is struggling to explain its position on hateful and hostile content.
After spending the past nine months shopping global and streaming rights to its Emmy-winning drama, producers Lionsgate Television has sold the Jon Hamm starrer to Amazon and the show’s original home, AMC, in a sprawling deal.
NBCUniversal’s Peacock, nearing its nationwide launch on July 15, has reached a licensing deal with ViacomCBS covering movies from Paramount and TV shows from across the company. TV series headed to Peacock on July 15 include Ray Donovan, The Affair, Undercover Boss, The Game, Everybody Hates Chris and Real Husbands of Hollywood. Charmed will be added in October.
Advertisements for more than 400 brands including Coca-Cola and Starbucks are due to vanish from Facebook on Wednesday, after the failure of last-ditch talks to stop a boycott over hate speech on the site.
Google’s YouTube has banned several white supremacist channels. Those banned include some of the net’s most high-profile far-right commentators, including former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke; Canadian white nationalist activists/conspiracy theorist Stefan Molyneux; and U.S. white supremacist Richard Spencer, said to have coined the term “alt right.”
Both Twitch and Reddit have made moves against the president’s political content, citing violations of terms of service. Twitch confirmed today that it has temporarily suspended the president’s account. “Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch,” a spokesperson for the streaming giant said.
The #StopHateForProfit movement — originally started by civil rights groups on June 17 as an ad boycott of Facebook only, limited to the month of July — has quickly turned into a broader phenomenon. Over the weekend, Starbucks and Diageo joined the growing list of major advertisers suspending all or part of their social media advertising in reaction to the increasing influence of the movement’s call for a crack-down on hate speech.
Jeffrey Katzenberg’s short-form content platform has struggled to make an impact with bad reviews, lack of interest and legal issues swirling.
Escalating a battle between Madison Avenue and the social media industry, Unilever is suspending all U.S. advertising on Twitter, as well as Facebook Inc.’s Facebook and Instagram, for the rest of the year. “Given our responsibility framework and the polarized atmosphere in the U.S., we have decided that starting now through at least the end of the year, we will not run brand advertising in social-media newsfeed platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the U.S.,” the consumer goods giant stated.
Content consumption shot up during quarantines, but a new study shows that when restrictions began to be lifted, streaming numbers came down from what they were during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Strategy Analytics surveyed U.S. adults over March, April and May to find COVID-19’s impact on SVOD. For Netflix, 47% of respondents used the service in March, then 50% did so in April. However, in May, when many states began to ease lock-down restrictions, that number dropped to 42%.
It’s a conundrum for news leaders: Finding time to keep up with the critical industry trends, while juggling the always-on demands of covering the news of the day. That was true even before 2020 brought us a global pandemic and a long overdue reckoning on race. But there really are a few reports each year that point to where the news industry is going, not where it’s been. The annual Reuters Digital News Report, which surveyed 80,000 news consumers globally across 40 countries, is one. Here are some top takeaways.
The Trump administration has discussed a range of strategies to counter Huawei’s growth and put more American muscle into the competition against the Chinese telecom giant, including by prodding large U.S. technology companies to acquire Ericsson or Nokia.
Marketers are aware of a changing dynamic, with over half of buyers starting to move dollars out of linear and into CTV, according to the IAB. But consumers don’t necessarily see the difference in the two modes of TV delivery. According to a poll of over 1,100 Americans by Toluna and Tremor Video, 52% of people aged 18-34 and 54% of people 35-54 make no distinction between connected TV and cable or satellite TV. In other words, over half of young and middle-aged viewers simply call whatever they’re watching on their big screens “TV.”
Verizon said on Thursday it is pulling advertising on Facebook until the company “can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable.” A company spokesperson said the pause applies to both Facebook and Instagram. It comes as marketers including Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia and REI have also said they plan to pause advertising on the platforms.
The #StopHateForProfit boycott organized by civil rights groups against Facebook advertising may not serve to make a dent in the tech giant’s massive revenue, at least in the short term — as various analysts continue to point out. But it’s clearly worrying CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his senior executives, who are now reaching out to major ad industry players to try to calm their growing concerns about supporting a platform that has become associated with spreading racist, violence-inciting hate messaging from President Donald Trump and right-wing extremists.
YouTube delivered its ninth annual NewFronts presentation to digital ad buyers, in a shorter, online format it dubbed “Brandcast Delivered.” Video presentations were customized to viewers’ interests, with on-camera participants in the heavily edited pitch including Lilly Singh, Josh Gad, Alex Rodriguez, Lyor Cohen and Mark Ronson, along with senior executives.
