Montana became the first US state to ban TikTok, effective January 1, 2024. “Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party,” stated Gov. Greg Gianforte, who signed a bill – likely face legal challenges – on Wednesday. Responded TikTok: “Governor Gianforte has signed a bill that infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by unlawfully banning TikTok, a platform that empowers hundreds of thousands of people across the state. We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana.” The governor also directed the state’s Chief Information Officer to ban any app that provided personal information to foreign adversaries.

Elon Musk acknowledged he went too far in cutting Twitter’s workforce from 7800 employees to 1500 after taking over the company. “Some people were let go who probably shouldn’t have been,” he said told CNBC’s David Faber last week, adding that the company will probably try to rehire some former employees. As for former NBCU ad chief Linda Yaccarino, poised to take over as CEO, she “will operate the company and I will build products,” said Musk. “Twitter is very much an advertising-dependent business, and Linda is obviously great at that. My skills and interests are in technology.”

A text-based social media app from Meta, partially integrated within Instagram and designed as an alternative to Twitter, is expected to launch this summer. “We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests,” Meta told Money Control.

In an effort to drive sports fans to its MLS Season Pass soccer package, Apple TV has added a customizable multiview experience for 4K TV owners that enables them to watch up to four games at once. Users can see available live games at the bottom of their screen and decide upon multiple layout options.

WhatsApp has added a new feature called Chat Lock, which lets users protect conversations behind an added layer of security. “We think this feature will be great for people who have reason to share their phones from time to time with a family member or those moments where someone else is holding your phone at the exact moment an extra special chat arrives,” said the company in a blog post. “You can lock a chat by tapping the name of a one-to-one or group and selecting the lock option. To reveal these chats, slowly pull down on your inbox and enter your phone password or biometric.”

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan addressed the potential of AI at his company’s Brandcast event last week. “Generative AI is at an inflection point. Our teams are already using AI to get ads in front of the right audiences, to improve measurement, or to flip a creative to reach viewers wherever they’re watching, from Shorts to the living room,” he said. “But this is really just the beginning – simply put, AI will transform the way we make videos. You can imagine that with just the click of a button, I could change my hair color or change my background to instantly transport myself from the desert to a forest. Google AI is accelerating creativity, and the possibilities will extend beyond anything we can imagine today.”

To support developers conducting real-world experiments that assess the readiness of a web without third-party cookies, Google plans to disable third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users in 1Q24. “It’s important for companies to evaluate solutions that incorporate the Privacy Sandbox APIs,” wrote Victor Wong, Senior Director of Product Management at Google, in a blog post. In 3Q23, Google will introduce the ability for developers to simulate Chrome third-party cookie deprecation for a configurable percentage of users. The plan is to completely deprecate third-party cookies in second half of 2024.

Who wants a free TV? Startup Telly plans to give away an initial batch of 500,000 smart TVs with a second screen that can display sports, weather and more, as well as a square box on the right that runs ads. Telly founder Ilya Pozin, co-founder of Pluto, is betting that consumers will trade their data and that commercial box for 55-inch sets with 4K HDR picture quality and a built-in premium sound bar. With over 100,000 people registered within the first 36 hours of launch, Pozin said the response to the offer surpassed “even our wildest expectations.”

Charter Communications has committed $1 million towards Spectrum Digital Education in 2023, bringing its total investment in the multi-year initiative to $9 million. Nonprofit organizations that offer broadband education, training and technology can apply to be considered for the grant from Thursday, June 1 through Friday, June 23. Grant recipients will be announced in late summer.

Subscribers on usage-based broadband plans achieved and slightly exceeded consumption parity with their flat-rate plan counterparts for the first time, according to the 1Q23 OpenVault Broadband Insights report. “Implications for the broadband industry are mixed,” the report said. “On the one hand, faster speed adoption often results in higher ARPU for operators and increased satisfaction for consumers as they ‘right-size’ to subscription plans that are aligned with their actual usage. On the other hand, operators who have viewed UBB as a tool to reduce strain on the broadband plant will need to explore new solutions for maintaining and improving network health and alleviating network congestion.”

The European Commission has approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, despite the earlier ruling by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority that the deal was anti-competitive. In its decision, the EC noted that Microsoft’s promise of a decade of free licensing for its cloud service eased concerns about a cloud gaming monopoly. “The commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission and represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming as compared to the current situation,” said the EC. Responded the CMA, “Microsoft’s proposals…would allow Microsoft to set the terms and conditions for this market for the next 10 years…The CMA stands by its decision.”

Smartling, Inc., the enterprise translation company, announced the introduction of Smartling Translate, a translation portal enabling instantaneous, secure machine translations into hundreds of languages using its LanguageAI platform. For global enterprises, with worldwide translation requirements and employees spread across time zones and departments, Smartling Translate offers a complement to their localization teams to translate documents.

Crunchyroll and language learning platform Duolingo are teaming up to celebrate anime and the sixth anniversary of Duolingo’s Japanese language course. Duolingo’s Japanese course will feature nearly 50 phrases inspired by popular anime series.

STN Video has launched a one-step registration process that delivers content, monetization and video player technology to publishers in under five minutes for free. “STN Video now allows publishers the ability to implement STN’s OVP, tools, and technology immediately upon signup,” said STN Video CEO Matthew Watson. “Publishers will also get instant access to STN’s curated content catalog that brings sports, news, lifestyle, business, and entertainment videos to their audiences at scale, while delivering a world-class user experience that drives the audience KPIs critical to improving site monetization.”

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ADVERTISING

Warner Bros. Discovery is offering WBD Stream, a new, unified digital video offering available in the 2023-24 Upfront. Partners can activate direct and programmatic marketplace campaigns to align with content on mobile, desktop, and CTV reaching 110 million adults each month. “WBD Stream represents a critical step forward in our journey to provide our advertising partners with simple, high-quality digital products that reach engaged and passionate audiences, wherever they choose to watch our content,” said Jim Keller, EVP, Digital Ad Sales and Advanced Advertising. “This offering pairs well for partners advertising across our premium streaming services Max and discovery+ and extends advertisers’ incremental reach to connect with fervent fans who watch their favorite shows, series and sports, again and again.”

WBD also announced the full suite of advertising solutions that will be available on the ad-supported tier of Max, launching tomorrow. “Max provides advertisers with innovative ad products and access to the most premium brands and content in the video industry, while also rewarding our customers with one of the lightest ad loads in streaming, an incredible win-win,” said JB Perrette, President & CEO, Global Streaming & Games at WBD. “We rely on data and tech, along with a long history of expertise in advertising to serve innovative and non-traditional ads to targeted adult audiences in ways that minimize disruption to storytelling.”

At NBCU’s Upfront event, Mark Marshall, Interim Chairman, Global Advertising & Partnerships, told advertisers that in a competitive marketplace, it’s important to make every impression “work harder than ever,” adding that the company’s One Platform addresses that need. The advertiser-first ecosystem, said Marshall, offers more consumer touchpoints; smarter technology; bigger partnerships; and the best impact and sales results.

YouTube is bringing 30-second unskippable ads to YouTube Select on CTV. The spots offer advertisers “longer-form storytelling on those screens to build awareness and ROI to their brands,” said Sean Downey, President of Ad Sales for Google, at YouTube’s Brandcast event.

Total advertising for live, linear TV is estimated to drop 8% to $61.31 billion this year, according to eMarketer, while total connected TV is projected rise 21% to $25.09 billion. YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix will see significant lifts, according to the report, with YouTube expected to have the biggest gain, pulling in “as much money as any TV network” in upfront deals.

There was a 70% jump in bot fraud on ad-tiered streaming in 2022 versus 2021, according to DoubleVerify’s annual Insights Report. “An increase in free, ad-supported streaming is helping to fuel Connected TV’s rapid growth,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify. “But with growth come growing pains. As CTV becomes a top channel for consumers and advertisers alike, it also becomes a target for fraud, making measurement and protection a critical part of validating the efficacy of campaigns.”

MEASUREMENT

Netflix announced a partnership with EDO to measure TV outcomes for the streamer’s newly launched advertising business. Netflix will leverage EDO’s predictive behavioral outcomes data to provide proof-of-performance insights for advertisers, indicating how brands’ in-flight campaigns perform on the platform compared to YouTube, OTT, and linear TV. “While it’s early days, we found that viewers were more than four times as likely to respond to an ad on Netflix compared to other streaming platforms,” said Peter Naylor, Netflix VP of Global Ad Sales, at the company’s first Upfront presentation. “And not surprisingly, four-and-a-half times as compared to linear TV.”

The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement announced a new research program focused on exploring the practical steps that the industry can take to unlock the full potential of data collaboration and clean room solutions in a sustainable way. “Major media owners and agencies are working with partners to establish customer data platforms, clean rooms, measurement offerings and activation capabilities – and are positive about the future growth opportunities presented by data collaboration,” said Jon Watts, Managing Director, CIMM. “However, many industry participants believe there are challenges in unlocking the full potential: coordination is limited; many processes are inefficient and time-consuming; the ecosystem is deeply fragmented; and data quality and identity resolution remain significant challenges.” The study will include exploring current use cases, emerging opportunities and future priorities, working with CIMM members and other industry participants, including major networks and programmers, MVPDs, streamers, TV OEMs, vendors, agencies and advertisers.

iSpot reports it has completed a phase of its integration with Google’s Ads Data Hub for Measurement Partners for determining the incremental reach of ad campaigns on YouTube and YouTube TV when compared to traditional linear and CTV. The integration, piloted with 11 advertisers, allows iSpot and YouTube’s customers to quantify the unique reach and value YouTube properties deliver as part of overall media investments. Starting July 5, iSpot customers will have the ability to enable the new cross-platform features directly within the iSpot Unified Measurement platform. The enhancements will give customers the ability to evaluate the total ad impressions and deduplicated audience for YouTube and YouTube TV across connected TV and linear TV, including co-viewing, as well as ad exposures on computer and mobile devices.

Measurement is a hot topic this upfront season. “Progress has been made, but there’s definitely still work that needs to be done – especially on the representation front,” said Donna Speciale, President of U.S. Ad Sales & Marketing, TelevisaUnivision. “Diverse audiences have historically been underrepresented in data, and it’s been promising to see the industry recognize accurate representation as critical in the measurement discussion.”

STREAMING

Six months in, Netflix counts nearly five million global monthly active users for its ad-supported platform, but “We have a long way to go to build scale in advertising,” acknowledged Co-CEO Ted Sarandos at the company’s virtual Upfront presentation. About 80% of viewing by subscribers on the new plan is on a TV, and the median viewer age is 34, according to the streamer. Wall Street liked the sound of those numbers, boosting the company’s stock almost 10% after the news broke.

Max users will be able to customize their profiles by choosing from a collection of more than 350 characters. New avatars include the likes of Harry, Hermione, Ron, Dobby, Voldemort, Professor McGonagall, and Hagrid from “Harry Potter”; Joel, Ellie and a Clicker from “The Last of Us”; Tanya, Portia and Valentina from “The White Lotus”; and more. Fans can also choose from Discovery favorites like Chip & Joanna Gaines from “Fixer Upper.” Once a user selects an avatar, it will appear across all supported platforms where they are signed in.

Cineflix Rights is launching three FAST channels – Real Disaster Channel, Crime & Justice, and Property & Reno – featuring more than 1,000 hours of content. The channels are being rolled out globally on various platforms, including Amazon Freevee and Xumo Play in the US, Roku in Canada, as well as with other partners in the coming months.

TelevisaUnivision streaming service ViX has passed 30 million monthly active users, and has “Circus Gomez,” a series following a dysfunctional family circus group, in development. Telenovela “El Extraño Retorno de Diana Salazar” arrives in 2024. ViX CEO Pierluigi Gazzolo informed marketers at the company’s Upfront event that 80% of viewing on Vix is of content not available elsewhere.

Wurl has introduced ContentDiscovery, a machine learning-powered advertising platform for streamers and content publishers to acquire viewers and scale profitably across channels. “The streaming industry’s number-one challenge today is cost-effective discovery – finding the right viewers, engaging them effectively, and retaining them with content they will truly like,” said Ron Gutman, CEO, Wurl. “With ContentDiscovery, we’ve built a solution for streamers and publishers to spend their advertising budgets on high-value users who will actually convert and continue to engage with their content.”

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment has signed a deal with AMC Networks to add 12 FAST channels that include The Walking Dead Universe, the sketch comedy series Portlandia, and sports fan-focused MSG SportsZone. “The Walking Dead and Portlandia are some of AMC Networks’ most iconic series, and the ability for our consumers to watch them 24 hours a day will be an immediate hit,” said Laura Florence, SVP and GM of digital for Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. “Our Redbox Free Live TV app continues to scale with brands and series our viewers know and love. We should quickly reach 200 channels by summer and have plans to scale even further later this year.” CSSE also struck an agreement with Rome-based social media platform TaTaTu, which rewards users with coins for social media activities and viewing content.
 

Cynopsis Team