ADVERTISING
Snap Inc. has been offering incentives and discounts to ad buyers in an effort to boost to its sales, according to a recent report from Digiday. Agency sources say that the offers started flowing last week; multiple buyers reportedly said that the offers extend to mid-June. The nature and value of the incentives reportedly vary from agency to agency. For example, according to one source, Snap was offering some new partners a ten percent bonus media coupon. Another source said that Snap was offering discounts on ads purchased on Snapchat’s self-serve platform. The moves come at an urgent moment. Snap’s Q1 progress report, which revealed worse-than-expected revenue, sent the company’s stock reeling.
Ad tech company VideoAmp has partnered with the media agency system Mediaocean. VideoAmp and Mediaocean say the new pact will allow for “programmatic” targeting and optimization for brands using the two companies’ software. Brands and media agencies will now be select to choose first- and third-party digital audiences along with traditional TV audiences.
PROGRAMMING + CONTENT ACQUISITIONS
Time Inc. ’s Coastal Living brand and digital radio company RFC Media announced today’s season 3 debut of Coastal Living Radio. A combination of music, brand imaging, and tips and tricks for decor and summer entertaining, Coastal Living Radio is available anytime at www.coastalliving.com , or on mobile devices through the TuneIn app.
Netflix has canceled The Get Down, Baz Luhrmann’s series about the origins of hip-hop. The show only ran for a single season, with two halves airing almost a year apart. The serious was plagued by production delays, and reportedly cost $120 million to make.
LIVE VIDEO
Microsoft is ready to compete in earnest with Amazon’s Twitch. The company has relaunched Beam, the video-game live-streaming platform it bought last August, under the name Mixer. Along with the new name come some new features, including the ability to combine as many as four streams into one experience, as well as a mobile streaming app. Aside from Twitch, Mixer also has to compete with YouTube, which has been seeing increased engagement when it comes to game-streaming. Mixer is hoping to set itself apart through interactivity; as compared to the other two platforms, it grants audiences a greater degree of direct impact on streamers’ game play. To that end, Mixer has given developers tools to add interactive live-streaming elements directly to games.
VIRTUAL MVPDS
Sports-centric OTT TV service fuboTV has added a new feature, dubbed ‘Lookback,’ that allows viewers to watch previously-aired sports and entertainment programming. Viewers can use the Lookback feature on content that’s aired in the previous three days.
CYNOPSIS MEASUREMENT & DATA CONFERENCE
Hear from Hulu, 22squared, Quigley-Simpson, NBC and more at the Cynopsis Measurement & Data Conference on August 3 in NYC. Don’t miss this candid examination of cross-platform video measurement, and of how the smartest minds in advertising and marketing are reading and reacting to market forces. Seating is limited, so register your team today .
SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook is trying to salvage its Instant Articles platform, which has recently seen high-profile departures from publishers like the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and National Geographic. Facebook is now making the Instant Articles platform compatible with competing publishing standards, including Apple News and Google AMP. In part, the move marks an effort to help lower publishers’ distribution costs. But it’s also a way of undercutting the competition: If Facebook can encourage publishers to create a single version of any given piece of content, and then push it out equally across all platforms, it may help prevent any individual competitor from gaining an edge in the space.
POLICY
FCC Chair Ajit Pai has chosen Michelle Carey to head up the agency’s Media Bureau. Pai had previously named her to the post on an acting basis; now the word “acting” has been expunged from her job title. The FCC Media Bureau oversees cable, satellite, TV and radio services. Carey served as Deputy Chief of the Bureau before its previous head, William Lake, vacated the post along with the Obama administration.
ESPORTS
Amazon ’s Twitch has inked a new eSports partnership. The live-streaming platform announced that it will team with Bandai Namco, managing the Tekken World Tour competitive gaming league for Tekken 7. Twitch will host competitions at partnered events starting next month, and will also serve as the Tour’s exclusive broadcast platform. This is the second such eSports pact that Twitch has undertaken; the first was the Rocket League Championship Series, which was established in partnership with the video game development studio Psyonix last year.
RESEARCH
SHAREABLEE SOCIAL TV RATINGS: Top 10 U.S. Streaming Shows for May 15 – May 21. Based on Shareablee’s Video Power Index (VPI), which combines viewing, consumer interactions and audience scale across all active platforms, and includes the video performance of streaming shows.
Source: Shareablee Inc. The total actions metric includes the total volume of post-level likes, shares, favorites, retweets and comments across social platforms.
TRIVIA
As mentioned above, Netflix has canceled The Get Down after only one season. There’s one other show that was canceled after airing for only one season on Netflix (though it was the fourth season of the series overall). Which show was it? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and state.)
Our Last Trivia Question: The World of Warcraft multiplayer game was initially released in what year? Answer: 2004. Kudos to Louis Lewow-Lewow Media Group/GA, Andy Pittman-TAMU/TX, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/CA, and Lorrie Shilling/CA
