Top News:
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Comcast and Charter launch a joint venture to develop a nationwide streaming platform that will use Comcast's Flex streaming tech and feature Xumo content — Comcast will license Flex, its aggregated streaming platform and hardware, and contribute streamer Xumo to the joint venture …
Discussion:
Variety, Comcast, New York Times, Ad Age, TechCrunch, MediaPost, Deadline, @davidlaz, The Streamable, @comcast, @alexweprin, Light Reading, CNET, @ajitpai, The Verge, Media Play News, @benmullin, Engadget, Cord Cutters News and Next TV
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Spotify Q1: revenue rose 24% YoY to €2.66B, including €282M from ads, up 31% YoY; paid subs rose 15% YoY to 182M, despite losing 1.5M in Russia; stock down 12%+ — Spotify Technology SA has spent more than a billion dollars in an effort to become the No. 1 name in podcasting …
Discussion:
Music Business Worldwide, Billboard, Variety, Financial Times, @eldsjal, TechCrunch, Mediaite, Investor's Business Daily, Business Wire, Spotify, @pkafka, Reuters, @ashleyrcarman, @kerrymflynn, @lucas_shaw, @sarthakgh, @sarahintampa, @spotifynews, @jonporty, Billboard, @lucas_shaw, @anthonyc3004, @ashleyrcarman, @anthonyc3004, Engadget, Axios, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, The Verge and Ad Age, more at Techmeme »
Kim Masters / Hollywood Reporter:
An in-depth look at what went wrong at Netflix; sources say VP of content Cindy Holland's departure in 2020 led to Netflix prioritizing quantity over quality — As rivals toggle between schadenfreude and fear, top creators and insiders are increasingly becoming vocal about what's gone wrong with the streaming giant's culture.
Dell Cameron / Gizmodo:
Twitter confirms banning the promotion of HBO documentary Q: Into the Storm in 2021 via its ad platform, alongside QAnon account removal and content limiting — Twitter told the director of “Q: Into the Storm” it had “made the decision not to allow promotion of this documentary” when he tried to advertise the film.
Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal:
Real-time TV ad measurement service iSpot.tv raises $325M from Goldman Sachs and says it had $75M in 2021 revenue, up from $51M in 2020 — The firm helps marketers track whether their ads spurred a visit to their website or a purchase. The new funding is the latest in a flurry of deals around TV ad metrics
Discussion:
iSpot.tv, Insider, Beet.TV, @megancgraham, @loupas, @zachservideo, @ispottv, Bloomberg, Deadline, @airgups23, @nickcicero, @stahura, Barrett Media, Ad Age, Next TV, GeekWire, The Hollywood Reporter and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »
Washington Post:
The WHCA turned down an offer to install UV devices to fight transmission of the coronavirus at its dinner on Saturday, for which it has sold 2,600 tickets — White House correspondents rebuff proposal to install special lights to stop viral spread — More than 2,000 journalists …
Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
BBC DG says it will cut the number of programs it makes and consider turning more stations into archive services, as it looks for £285M in annual savings — Tim Davie suggests more stations could become archive services, as he prepares to announce deep cuts
Discussion:
@jimwaterson
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Viacom 18, which runs several TV channels and streaming services in India, raises $1.78B led by Bodhi Tree, a partnership between James Murdoch and Uday Shankar — The Indian conglomerate Reliance and Viacom18 have inked a strategic partnership with Bodhi Tree, an “investment platform” …
Discussion:
Variety, @refsrc and Business Today
Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
YouTube starts testing ads on Shorts, including app-install ads and other promotions; Google says that Shorts now has 30B daily views — YouTube is testing advertisements on Shorts, its short-form video feature that competes with TikTok and Instagram, Google's chief business officer told investors on Tuesday.
Discussion:
9to5Google, Tubefilter, The Verge, PhoneArena, MediaPost, @stevekovach, Engadget and Variety, more at Techmeme »
Jennifer Rankin / The Guardian:
The European Commission proposes measures to protect journalists and campaigners working to expose corruption and wrongdoing from “manifestly unfounded” SLAPPs — Anti-Slapp directive would also enable EU states to refuse to recognise judgments passed in UK
Discussion:
@mafevema, @jennifermerode, @uk_domain_names and Reporters Without Borders
Nicholas Diakopoulos / Columbia Journalism Review:
A deep dive into predictive journalism, the value of computational methods in news media, developing a responsible journalistic practice of prediction, and more — EXECUTIVE SUMMARY — Whether it's who is going to win an upcoming election, how a pandemic will unfold next month …
Discussion:
@janebsinger, @ndiakopoulos and @micahcohen
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
GeekWire co-founder Jonathan Sposato launches JoySauce Network, an ad-supported, “American Asian”-focused multimedia platform — GeekWire co-founder Jonathan Sposato has launched JoySauce Network, a new ad-supported multimedia platform aimed at the “American Asian” audience and its allies, Variety has learned exclusively.
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