04/25/17: Netflix to raise over $1 billion in new debt financing

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CynopsisDigital

Good morning. It’s Tuesday April 25, 2017 and this is your your first early morning Digital briefing!

TODAY’S CODEBREAKER

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TOP NEWS

Original content doesn’t grow on trees – and neither do the billions of dollars that pay for it. Netflix announced plans to raise one billion euros – or about $1.08 billion – in new debt financing from “non-U.S. persons.” This isn’t the first time that Netflix has raised $1 billion in debt, either; it did the same thing last fall. All told, the new financing will place Netflix’s total long-term debt at over $4.37 billion.

Netflix may be in a lot of debt, but its top execs sure aren’t. CEO Reed Hastings saw his total compensation rise to $23.2 million last year – an increase of 39% – according to a new regulatory filing. The uptick stems from in increase in stock option awards. Content chief Ted Sarandos, meanwhile, received $18.9 million in total compensation last year, a 35% increase from 2015.

ADVERTISING

For the first time, Google is making traditional TV ad inventory available programmatically. U.S. buyers will be able to purchase the ads through Google’s DoubleClick Bid Manager. To enable the new capabilities, Google has integrated with other TV ad companies and products, including clypd, Wideorbit, and its own Google Fiber. Through those partnerships, Google says advertisers will have access to both local and national ad inventory. Advertisers will also be able to tie TV ads to DoubleClick’s online measurement; for instance, they’ll be able to check whether their TV ads directly drive Google and YouTube searches for a particular brand.

Snap Inc.’s ad business is still in its infancy; now the company sees a new way to give it a boost. The Snapchat parent has begun making it easier for its ad partners to sell and manage sponsored geofilters, the Snapchat feature allowing users to place location-specific filters over photos and videos. Agency and ad tech partners in the U.S., U.K. Canada and Australia will be able to sell geofilters alongside full-screen video ads. Previously, buyers could only purchase sponsored geofilters directly though Snapchat’s self-service tool.

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PLATFORMS, APPS + DEVICES

When it comes to TV Everywhere viewing, mobile may actually be losing a little bit of ground. A new study from Adobe finds that 46% of TV Everywhere viewers are consuming content via mobile devices – a drop of eight percent from 2015, when Adobe last asked the question. The likely reason for the shift: Connected TV devices are picking up steam. Products like Apple TV, Google’s Chromecast, and Roku devices now account for 32% of TV Everywhere viewing, the study finds.

Sling TV, the OTT-based TV service from Dish Network, has made its cloud DVR feature available to Apple TV users. The DVR, which costs $5 per month on top of the price of the main service, was already available for Amazon Fire TV and Roku devices, as well as Android Devices.

Just because you’re a 165-your-old media company doesn’t mean you don’t need to reach younger audiences. The New York Times has launched a channel on Snapchat’s Discover platform. A new Snapchat-tailored Times edition will go live every weekday at 6 AM.

VIRTUAL + AUGMENTED REALITY

One thing’s for sure: High-end virtual reality cameras aren’t priced for lay-consumers. The new Yi Halo VR camera, just announced at NAB in Las Vegas, will sell for $17,000 starting this summer. The camera comes as part of a year-old partnership between Google and Chinese action-camera maker Yi Technology. Built by Yi, the camera – which is actually composed of 17 separate cameras – will heavily integrate Google’s Jump system, a cloud-based “stitching” solution (i.e., a cloud-based infrastructure that stitches each individual video file into a 360-degree whole). In addition, Google announced a new program, dubbed Jump Start, that will offer free access to Jump software and hardware to a select group of VR filmmakers.

OTT + SVOD

According to a new study from Parks Associates, free OTT trials are pretty darn effective. The market research firm’s latest OTT Video Market Tracker finds that 32% of such trials result in a paid subscription. Also notable: The report finds that only about 1% of consumers will act as “serial trialers” who avoid paying for services by abusing free trial offers. The firm says that over 25% of U.S. broadband households have trialed an OTT service in the past six months. Of those, 47% subscribed to at least one trial service after the free period ended.

LIVE VIDEO

Dish Network subsidiary Sling Media announced a new product geared toward the live-streaming crowd. SlingStudio, a portable video production system optimized to live-stream to services like YouTube and Facebook Live, will go on sale in May. The product generates a secure Wi-Fi network enabling users to connect wirelessly with as many as 10 cameras. The system’s base price will be $999.

RESEARCH

SHAREABLEE SOCIAL TV RATINGS: Top U.S. Streaming Shows Overall by Engagement for the week of April 17-April 23, 2017
Program, Total Actions (000), Total Content, Actions per Post (000), Fans/Followers (000)
1. The Ranch (Netflix) 183, 2, 91, 327
2. House of Cards (Netflix) 145, 5, 29, 4609
3. Orange Is the New Black (Netflix) 123, 6, 20, 10355
4. Trailer Park Boys (Netflix) 100, 18, 6, 2036
5. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix) 92 4, 23, 557
6. Chelsea (Netflix) 63, 48, 1, 445
7. The Grand Tour (Amazon Video) 59, 6, 10, 2513
8. Sense8 (Netflix) 54, 6, 9, 1823
9. BoJack Horseman (Netflix) 53, 3, 18, 948
10. Degrassi: Next Class (Netflix) 49, 23, 2, 288
Source: Shareablee Inc. The total actions metric includes the total volume of post-level likes, shares, favorites, retweets and comments. Total content includes all posts, tweets and media posted by each TV property across all platforms. Actions per post metric notes the average e number of actions garnered by each property. Total fans/followers includes Facebook and Twitter and Instagram followers.

The ListenFirst Television Interest (TVI) Rating (TM) is a standardized measurement of the most buzzed-about TV programs on linear TV and streaming services. A complement to ListenFirst’s other syndicated data products (such as the ListenFirstDigital Audience Rating – TV), the metrics included in the rating capture organic actions that are largely unaffected by paid media. Programs that surface on the TVI leaderboards are the most hashtagged on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Tumblr, as well as most searched for on Wikipedia (used as a proxy for organic search volume).

All Series (4/17/17 – 4/23/17)

Source: ListenFirst. The TVI Rating aggregates metrics that measure organically generated activity by fans of the TV show. The metric includes total volume of official hashtag mentions on Facebook, Twitter,Google+, and Tumblr, along with Wikipedia page views (as a proxy for organic search volume) for a show as a percentage of the total volume of the same activities for all shows.

OpenSlate Engagement Data for the Science & Technology vertical, based on the engagement metric for the week ending April 23.
Channel (Engagement) / Monthly Views / Total Subs / SlateScore
Wylsacom (9.6) / 36,307,644 / 3,193,891 / 717
Unbox Therapy (9.1) / 58,684,197 / 7,820,128 / 732
Linus Tech Tips (8.9) / 42,013,778 / 3,940,304 / 724
CrazyRussianHacker (8.7) / 52,017,853 / 9,760,018 / 684
SwiftKeyApp (8.5) / 109,490 / 24,849 / 416
LordDraconical (8.5) / 3,846,820 / 467,346 / 562
Rozetked (8.5) / 3,838,895 / 491,743 / 572
Soft Fun (8.5) / 6,304,544 / 269,065 / 537
Alexander Polulyakh (8.5) / 5,022,678 / 446,372 / 552
Rocketz (8.5) / 1,901,092 / 432,318 / 560
Source: The Engagement metric is one of OpenSlate’s component scores, and is a measure of a producer’s ability to evoke meaningful interaction with their audience. It is calculated on a scale of 1-10 with higher being better. The OpenSlateEngagement score uses a subset of the data incorporated in the SlateScore to perform a set of unique calculations. It factors in views, comments, likes, and more.

TRIVIA

After serving as CEO of Hulu, Jason Kilar co-founded a new video service. Verizon acquired that service last year, integrating its product and personnel while shuttering the service itself. What was it called? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, and state.)

In 2014, Beasts of No Nation director Cary Fukunaga directed all eight season-one episodes of what HBO drama? Answer: True Detective. Kudos to Andy Pittman-TAMU/TX, Dan Quitério-Understood/NY, Robert Levy-National Geographic Channel/Washington, DC, Luke Watson-Roker Labs/NY, Louis Lewow-Lewow Media Group/GA, Kayla Baines-PR Newswire/MD, John Carlo-UPtv/NY, Andrew Carlson-Turner/NY, Scott Jenkins-Gracenote/NY, Sheena Das-Disney Media/NY, Matt Fumagalli-NBC Sports/Chicago, Alejandro Sacasa-Albavision/FL, Matthew Willence-ITN Networks/NY, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/CA, David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/CA, Jaime Brand-Fullscreen/NY, Helen Bellocq-CA, and Zoë Wilschinsky-Madison Wells Media/CA

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Calling all entries!

The 3^rd Annual Cynopsis Rising Star Awards is now accepting entries.

Cynopsis is excited to honor those in media with the smarts, maturity and composure that give them the potential to be one of the next generations leaders.

ENTER NOW

Entry Deadline: June 21, 2017

Awards Event: September, 2017

DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

Modern web design is mind-bendingly advanced. That’s why it can be easy to forget that a ton of web designers were doing great work as far back as the ‘90s. A recent exhibit in London sought to shine a light on some of that work. From The Drum, learn more here.

David Teich
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