Meta introduced Family Center, a place for parentsto access supervision tools for Instagram. Tools will begin rolling out for VR in May. Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, described the Family Center as “the first step in a longer term journey to develop intuitive supervision tools, informed by experts, teens and parents.”

Google unveiled Google Play Partner for Games, a program that gives developers access to additional growth tools and services tailored to high-scale, high performance needs. The program is aimed at developers that have more than $5 million annually in games consumer spend. Benefits include faster releases, enhanced business support, enhanced pre-launch tools, and growth and engagement features.

Google’s annual developer conference, GoogleIO, will take place May 11 and 12, live with a limited audience from the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA. The show will also be available virtually.

Snapchat is offering a new feature, “Custom Landmarks,” in its Lens Studio. The feature can be used to create landmarks in creators’ local communities. “In 2019, we started with templates of 30 beloved sites around the world which creators could build upon called Landmarkers,” said the company. “But there’s an infinite number of places for our AR creator community to build anchored, location-based Lenses.”

In response to tragic consequences from online bullying, Snap is banning anonymous messaging apps and will require anyone building friend-finding apps to limit those apps to users 18 and up, a move that affects new developers building on its Snap Kit platform. The changes are limited to third-party apps integrated with Snapchat, and will impact about 2% of developers. Developers who remove anonymous messaging from their apps will be able to have their apps re-reviewed and remain a Snap Kit partner.

Amazon closed its $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM last week, bringing over 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows to Prime Video. MGM housed the James Bond and Rocky films, among other franchises. The deal won the approval of EU regulators, and the US Federal Trade Commission did not file a legal challenge before a mid-March deadline.

Nielsen is in advanced talks to be acquired by a consortium of companies for $15 billion, reported The Wall Street Journal last week. Among the participants is investment fund manager Elliott Management.

In more Nielsen news, the measurement company is suing TVSquared for patent infringement. Nielsen alleges that TVSquared – acquired last month by Innovid – infringed its patented technique for protecting personal information while measuring audience exposure across platforms. Innovid said it plans to “vigorously contest” the allegation.

On the heels of Netflix true crime series “The Tinder Swindler,” dating site Tinder is adding a $2.50 background check option, enabling users to access public information about violent behavior. Users will also get two free background checks.

Protection of privacy is on the rise, with consumers more privacy conscious than ever online. According to a new report from Cheetah Digital, incognito browsing has increased by 50% year-over-year, along with increases in PC cleaners (up 48%), password generators (up 40% ), ad blocking tech (up 37%), paid for premium software (up 31%), and password managers (up 31%). While most consumers will trade personal data for personalized content, reports “2022 Digital Consumer Trends,” they prefer brands only use data that they’ve explicitly shared directly to the brand (zero-party data). Other tactics are considered “creepy.” Among the creepiest: ads based on location data (67%), retargeting ads derived from tracking cookies (62%), and ads related to something they discussed near a smart device (61%).

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Qonsent, the consent enablement and consumer trust platform, and Encantos, a web3 platform empowering creators who help kids learn, are collaborating to address data privacy issues affecting children. “Aside from COPPA there has been little focus put on the protection of children online. COPPA is just a legal action that many have found ways to circumvent,” said Steven Wolfe Pereira, CEO, Encantos. “By working with Qonsent, we’re ensuring our platform is fully compliant with data privacy laws and we’re also creating an environment of transparency between creators and parents regarding how and when a child’s data might be used.”

Comscore is partnering with Standard Media Index to offer the industry’s first advanced eCPM metric for linear TV advertising. The eCPM metric combines census-based pricing data from SMI with census-based viewing data from Comscore to create estimated CPM-based pricing metrics. The solution is available through the Comscore eCPM module hosted on the HiveMensio platform. “We’re excited to partner with SMI to accelerate the transparency of metrics related to ad spend associated with every quarter hour of TV viewing across the most comprehensive set of advanced audiences,” said David Algranati, Chief Product Officer, Comscore. “As consumer viewing behavior continues to rapidly evolve, eCPMs unified metric will provide both the buy side and sell side a greater understanding of the competitive marketplace.”

LiveRamp is teaming with Iris.TV and SpringServe to provide buyers with contextual data that enables them to use more of their cross-screen inventory in targeted and addressable campaigns, announced the company. Univision is among those jumping aboard. “Partnering with LiveRamp has enabled Univision to accelerate our transformation of its adtech capabilities and deliver sophisticated targeted solutions for marketers to reach the diverse Hispanic audience,” said Univision’s Brian Lin, SVP, Product Management & Advanced Advertising Solutions.

Vistar Media has partnered with Mira, the location intelligence and attribution provider for OOH, to enable marketers to measure the impact of digital OOH campaigns on consumer online activity. These online metrics include web conversions and behaviors, app downloads and in-app actions as a result of exposure to a DOOH campaign.

iSpot.tv and Crown Media Family Networks have entered into an ad-measurement agreement that gives Crown Media access to a suite of advertising measurement capabilities across Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama, including always-on ad verification and impressions across more than 150 national networks. “Leveraging iSpot provides powerful insight by allowing us to home in on the real-time performance of ads on our networks,” said Ed Georger, EVP, Ad Sales & Digital Media at Crown Media. “This tool increases our ability to plan and strategize in a way that optimizes the reach and value of our networks for marketers.”

Omnicom Media Group will be the first agency to integrate with the NBCU Audience Insights Hub, the company’s proprietary data clean room environment that unlocks data interoperability between NBCUniversal and its partners. The move enables Omnicom to run permissioned measurement queries across NBCUniversal’s first-party data and data sets from within Omni without exposing any underlying personally identifiable information. “This partnership will give OMG and its client the ability to leverage the power of our combined data assets to better measure their campaigns,” said Michael Alvarez, SVP, Agency Partnerships, NBCUniversal. “We’re ushering in a new era of data interoperability with the Audience Insights Hub, and we’re excited about the opportunity it presents for OMG.” Look for more capabilities to be showcased at NBCUniversal’s developer conference, One22, tomorrow, March 22.

Thanks to the Olympics, automakers spent an estimated $503.9 million in February, up 154% from the year-ago period, according to iSpot.tv. Toyota, one of the lead sponsors of the Games, was the top spender ($178.4 million, with 76% of national TV ad spend during the games). Chevrolet ($108.1 million) was next, followed by Ford ($36.0 million), Nissan ($22.4 million) and Lexus ($22.0 million).

Basis Technologies, a provider of cloud-based workflow automation and business intelligence software for marketing and advertising, is offering free access to the NOBL Media solution that helps prevent campaigns from serving programmatic ads on low credibility sites, including those with Russian government propaganda. “The Ukrainian invasion and the ensuing information war, as in previous crises, has once again put a spotlight on how advertisers are inadvertently funding disinformation online.” says Matt Rivitz, chief purpose officer, NOBL. “By using NOBL, brands can prevent their ad spend from being channeled to sites that spread misinformation about the war.”

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ScreenHits TV is partnering with Wurl to deliver and monetize FAST channels in ScreenHits TV’s current territories, as well as several new territories later this year. The channels will be distributed on the ScreenHits TV app available across several platforms including on Fire TV, iOS and Android TV now being rolled out across smart TV brands. “With Wurl’s reach to 300 million-plus connected TVs worldwide across 50 countries, ScreenHits TV will have access to a selection of premium channels for our live feed that we can partner with as we grow in new territories,” said Rose Hulse, Founder and CEO, ScreenHits TV.

Progressive news network TYT is launching on streaming news service Local Now. “TYT’s addition to Local Now could not have come at a better time, as we all are highly tuned in to what’s going on in the world around us,” said Byron Allen, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Local Now parent company Allen Media Group. “As the leading streaming service for local and national news, we’re excited to add another source of informative news and commentary to our stellar lineup.”

With podcast listening hitting an all-time high in 2021, year-over-year advertising revenue in the top 100 podcasts rose 20%, according to MediaRadar. The number of companies purchasing podcast ads increased 14%, while the retention rate of companies returning to advertise in 2021 stood at 42%. “With so many different types of podcasts available to suit your interests, there seems to be a podcast genre for every taste,” said Todd Krizelman, CEO & Co-founder of MediaRadar. “As such, advertisers are strategically considering where their ad dollars are best spent that translates to a higher engagement rate and loyal audience base. It’s evident from our findings that popular podcasts genres like True Crime, Comedy and News have seen substantial growth in ad spend to cater to their audience.”

VlogBox, a CTV/OTT app development, advertising, and monetization platform, announced a new cooperation agreement with Viral Talent, a UK-based talent agency that works influencers and brands. The deal includes the creation of dedicated CTV channels on Roku, Amazon Fire, and Android TV, each for two of Viral Talent vloggers “Emily Tube” and “Toys and Fun Sisters” as well as adding their content to Yeet! Kids TV, a channel-aggregator streaming kids content from VlogBox’s library. “We’re happy to start working with VlogBox as we realize CTV has become an innovative social media platform for vloggers, and it’s time to test the water and become pioneers while it’s still innovative, not the new norm,” said Chloe Lintott, a Digital Marketing Manager at Viral Talent.

Podcast studio Cadence13 announced a partnership with creator-focused new media company Puck and the launch of “The Powers That Be Daily,” covering Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley and Hollywood. The show is part of the launch of Puck’s recently announced audio division.

Forty-two percent of Americans share devices with others in the household, according to a study by The Advertising Research Foundation. Thirty-six percent of Americans share their Netflix account log in with relatives and 13% with friends; for Amazon Prime it’s 22% for relatives and 8% with friends; Disney+ 32% and 13%, respectively, and for ESPN+ the breakdown is 16% with relatives and 7% with friends. Among SVOD services, Disney+ is the most co-viewed (53% of respondents in HHs 4+), followed by Netflix and Amazon Prime (30% of respondents in HHs 4+). Disney+ was also the most shared by HHs of 2+ (37% of respondents).

The future for TV apps look rosy, according to Samsung Ads’ new Streaming Index -88% of respondents intend to use TV apps more or at the same level, and only 12% intend to cut back. But retaining viewers is tricky: Audiences are pickier than ever about bestowing loyalty; churn remains high at 50% on average, and is growing across all streaming apps. And audiences are also still in exploration and discovery mode – in any given month, nearly a third of TV app audiences (32%) are new.

What crossover audiences are there between streamers HBO Max and Discovery+, which will combine at some point after the WarnerMedia/Discovery merger? According to AI company Helixa, they both have a high affinity for the other despite some age differences, and 31.35% of discovery+’s audience are also fans of HBO Max. Some details:
HBO Max Audience
* 50.61% Female
* More likely to be under the age of 45 than discovery+’s audience
* 1.66x more likely to be Nerds
* 1.40x more likely to be Entertainment Junkies
* 5.07x more likely to be fans of discovery+
* Discovery+ Audience
* 68.25% Female
* More likely to be over the age of 45 than HBO Max’s audience
* 2.18x more likely to be Money Savers
* 1.57x more likely to be Health Conscious
* 5.30x more likely to be fans of HBO Max.

Consumers don’t have a strong understanding of many TV streaming brands, but they tend to be more confident describing brands that they feel focus strongly on a particular set of genres, according to Hub’s latest “Evolution of Video Branding” study. Among the key findings: The streaming service considered to have the strongest genre focus is Disney+, beating out even ESPN+ on this measure. Rounding out the top five services seen as having the strongest genre focus: HBO Max, Discovery+, and AMC+.

Cynopsis Team