Business

The three media companies planning to launch a much-scrutinized sports streamer later this year are set to give advertisers a sneak peek at the new outlet. Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery plan to use their new streaming joint-venture — the official name of the video hub has yet to be announced — to boost the impressions they have to sell to Madison Avenue during the industry’s annual upfront market, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Beginning in mid-July, the price for Peacock Premium (with ads) will increase by $2 to $7.99 per month and Peacock Premium Plus (mostly ad-free) is also going up by $2 to $13.99 per month. Peacock Premium’s annual price will increase from $59.99 to $79.99, while Premium Plus is going from $119.99 to $139.99 per year.

Diamond Sports Group has reached an agreement in principal on a multiyear carriage renewal with DirecTV, reducing the number of big hurdles still in front of the bankrupt operator of the Bally Sports regional sports network to just one — a renewal of its carriage deal with Comcast, which expires Tuesday.

The veteran streaming and advertising exec will lead the company’s digital go-to-market strategy at Scripps Sports, Ion, Scripps News and local news.

223 Local Now FAST channels offering local news, weather and entertainment will be available to owners of LG Smart TVs.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include an opening for a digital platform specialist. Other existing job openings include ones for an account executive, executive producer, meteorologist, weekend anchor, sales manager, senior newscast producer, digital video producer and reporter.

The spending that the industry’s giants expect artificial intelligence to require is starting to come into focus — and it is jarringly large.

The storied Hollywood company behind The Godfather faces its biggest battle yet as Shari Redstone’s merger plans collide with shareholder fury and a CEO on the outs.

Following months of vetting and public comment, an out-of-home working group of the Media Rating Council released the final version of “phase 1” of the U.S. marketplace’s standard for measuring ad exposure to the medium. Significantly, phase 1 deals only with “impressions,” while a standard for measuring persons-based audience exposure will come when a “phase 2” is created at an as-yet-undisclosed future date.

Confusion and anxiety reigned at a CBS-Politico joint party Saturday ahead of the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, with staffers shocked at news that Bob Bakish, CEO of parent Paramount Global, is set to exit abruptly as early as Monday morning. There have been rumblings about Bakish for days as the company enters the final stretch of exclusive merger negotiations with David Ellison’s Skydance. But his imminent departure triggered a wave of anxious speculation Saturday night in D.C.

Alphabet and Microsoft help Wall Street clinch its best week in nearly six months on Friday.

The entertainment giant would install a committee of top executives to run an “Office of the CEO” on an interim basis; no decision has been made on Bakish’s future.

In a rare development, two local news organizations in Colorado Springs — the Gazette daily newspaper and ABC affiliate KRDO — have ripped each other over the way they are covering something that has been central to the city’s identity for nearly half a century.

Comcast said chairman and chief executive Brian Roberts’ pay package for 2023 totaled $35.47 million, up from $32 million the year before. It included a $2.5 million base salary, stock awards valued at about $15 million, $9.2 million in option awards and $8.55 million in what’s called non-equity incentive plan compensation (like a cash bonus).

Scott R. Flick: “On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission announced a new rule banning employee noncompete agreements, treating them as harmful and an ‘unfair method of competition.’  This includes noncompetes in the broadcast industry, where they serve a vital purpose that was given short shrift by the FTC.

The Los Angeles Times newsroom continues to feel the invisible hand of owner Patrick Soon-Shiong in coverage of his pharma research, home page choices and in pushing for livestream video.

Whistleblowing isn’t unique to any industry. Yet the contrary outlook baked into many journalists — which can be a central part of their jobs — and generational changes in how many view activism have combined to make it probable these sort of incidents will continue.

Paramount and Skydance are inching closer towards a potential merger that would see David Ellison’s media company buy out Paramount’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone. According to individuals with knowledge of the talks, Skydance has agreed as part of a potential merger deal to infuse between $4.5 and $5 billion of fresh capital into Paramount, $2 billion of which would be used to buy Redstone’s shares and to settle the company’s debts. Ellison would become CEO of Paramount, replacing current CEO Bob Bakish, with former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell serving as president.

Google and YouTube parent Alphabet blew away Wall Street estimates with revenue up 15% to $80.5 billion driven by strong ad growth. The company also announced a major milestone, its first ever dividend of 20 cents a share in June. The stock is up more than 12% after market close. During a call, CEO Sundar Pichai said YouTube TV has more than 8 million subscribers, a stat YouTube CEO Neal Mohan noted in February.

Roku posted solid first-quarter financials, with positive results in several key metrics illustrating the benefits of ongoing price inflation in the streaming sector. Net losses totaled 35 cents a share, far better that Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimate of 62 cents and much narrower than the $1.38 recorded in the year-ago quarter. Revenue of $754.9 million fell significantly short of the Street’s expectation for $848.6 million, but the company notched its third straight quarter of positive Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.

Shares of Snapchat parent Snap popped 26% in late trading after the social media network said revenue jumped more than expected last quarter to $1.95 billion, up 21% from 2023. The number, and the outlook for the current quarter were nicely above Wall Street forecasts, as were daily active users, which hit 422 million.

Wall Street fell Thursday on a double dose of disappointing economic data. Meta Platforms, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, dropped 10.6% even though it reported better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Investors focused instead on the big investments in artificial intelligence Meta pledged to make.

League is advancing toward lucrative deals with incumbent partners and is in talks with tech giants as well as NBCUniversal.

“Operationally, 2024 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for us,” said Wade Davis, TelevisaUnivision’s CEO. He pointed to three key areas of focus moving forward: “First, continued penetration of the U.S. advertising market; second, record U.S. ad sales in the 2024 political cycle; and third, the continued scaling of our DTC business and associated profitability.”