Facing backlash for inaction, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted at statement on Friday explaining why did his company did not contextualize or take down posts from accounts associated with President Trump that appeared to incite violence. “We looked very closely at the post that discussed the protests in Minnesota to evaluate whether it violated our policies,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Our policy around incitement of violence allows discussion around state use of force, although I think today’s situation raises important questions about what potential limits of that discussion should be.”

Sony is hosting a livestreamed event on June 4 at 4p focused on the launch its new console, PlayStation 5. The company has already shared technical specifications of its new DualSense wireless controller; the event will offer a first look at games coming to the PS5. The new games represent “the best in the industry from innovative studios that span the globe,” said Jim Ryan, President and CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment, in a blog post, adding, “Studios, both larger and smaller, those newer and those more established, all have been hard at work developing games that will showcase the potential of the hardware.” The PlayStation 5 is slated to arrive this holiday season.

Snap scheduled its virtual Snap Partner Summit for June 11, showcasing new product features and announcing new partnerships around Snap’s AR offerings. “We deeply value our partners and the role they play in empowering our community to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together,” said CEO Evan Spiegel. “We’re looking forward to celebrating our partners and sharing more about the future of the products and platforms that we’ve been building together.” The original summit had been slated for early April got bumped due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Comcast, Charter and ViacomCBS are dividing up ownership of Blockgraph, a platform Comcast’s FreeWheel has been developing to provide a secure platform for sharing information without disclosing identifiable data to third parties. The joint venture will explore new ways of using audience data for advanced TV and premium video advertising. “When we began to develop Blockgraph several years ago, we knew that the ability to apply data-driven insights to all media, including TV, in a way that protected privacy, was going to be hugely important to the future of our industry. Now, some three years later, that couldn’t be truer, and the alternative that Blockgraph offers could not be more valuable,” said Marcien Jenckes, President of Comcast Advertising. “We are thrilled to partner with ViacomCBS and Charter as we continue to roll out Blockgraph and look forward to working with new partners and customers in the months ahead as platform adoption grows.”

The Switch, a platform for the production and global delivery of live video, has launched MIMiC, an on-demand cloud-based production-as-a-service. Content producers can use The Switch’s cloud production capability and global network to enable efficient and flexible broadcast quality production and for social media engagement for live events. “Cloud Production-as-a-Service has a strong synergy with our existing traditional and REMI production services,” said Eric Cooney, President-CEO of The Switch. “This service is all the more timely in a world clamoring for the return of live sports and entertainment, but equally aware of our new obligations for limited travel and social distancing.”

Stringr announced that it has raised $5.75 million in a new round of financing, driven by investments from Thomson Reuters Ventures, as well as returning venture investors G5 Capital and Advection Growth Capital. The influx of fresh capital will enable Stringr to develop additional tools and technologies that will help news outlets provide coverage. The company will also continue to grow its vast network of professional videographers. “This support from new and existing investors, is proof-positive that we’re making a real difference – at a time when the whole world is shaken and reliable news reporting is critical,” said Lindsay Stewart, CEO and co-founder of Stringr. “With their help, we’re working on giving journalists more advanced tools than ever before, because good journalism is more important than ever before.”

Instagram is launching ways for creators to monetize their content on the platform via Instagram Live and IGTV. Instagram will run ads in IGTV, with at least 55 percent of ad revenue shared with creators. Initial brands running ads include Sephora, Puma and Ikea. Beginning this month, the platform will enable users to purchase “badges” during Instagram Live videos to support for creators, and Instagram will share revenue with the creator partners.

Sinclair, Nexstar Media and E.W. Scripps’ NEXTGEN TV stations are live in Las Vegas. The announcement “is the realization of two decades of work, and we are proud to share this moment with Nexstar and Scripps as we usher in a new era of television with NEXTGEN TV,” said Chris Ripley, president and CEO at Sinclair. “With Las Vegas leading the way, select audiences will soon enjoy a more personalized and immersive experience, with better access to news and media than ever before. Looking ahead, we are eager for continued collaboration within our industry to fully realize the promise of NEXTGEN TV, and are excited to bring this innovation to audiences across the country, forever changing the way we use, and think of, broadcast television.” The standards support 4K video and immersive audio, and will allow for service on mobile.

Register for this conference and take a close look at an unprecedented year in collegiate sports with Pac-12, see visions for the future of esports with Riot Games, check out professional leagues’ new approach to competitive play with Athletes Unlimited and NBC Sports Group, learn from New Balance’s take on positive brand messaging, glimpse the future of the Olympics with the USOC and more.

While time spent streaming has spiked since the pandemic struck, a client report from a Barclays analyst suggests AVOD services might want to review their assumptions. “As consumers become more comfortable with a la carte streaming subscriptions, expectations associated with such subscriptions are likely to be very different from legacy media services across different forms, audio, video and print,” wrote Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar. “While it is a bit premature to extrapolate present trends into perpetuity given that ad supported models are still relatively new, we do believe newer services will need to think more carefully about their brand identities and consumer experience when choosing a monetization model. Just creating a hybrid model to provide a lower price point is unlikely to drive greater subscriber scale in itself. In addition, not every ad supported digital service is likely to be equally well positioned to monetize digitally distributed media.”

How do viewing experiences compare on AVOD services? CordCutting.com report “What Is Your Time Worth? A Breakdown of Ad-Supported Streaming Options” found that assuming 20 hours of streaming per month, Hulu’s ad-supported product saves subscribers $6 in exchange for 31 minutes of ads, or $11.53 per hour. CBS All-Access saves $4 in exchange for 107 minutes of ads, or $2.23 per hour. Other findings included Hulu’s cheaper version ($5.99 per month) had the fewest ads, about 90 seconds of ads per hour watched, and many new original shows ran without ads or with brief ads at the beginning of shows, even on ad-supported accounts.

AVOD news service Haystack TV launched interactive news ticker Newsline on Roku. The feature allows Haystack TV app users a custom selection of breaking and relevant news coverage from its 300+ local broadcasters and national and international news providers. The company expects to bring Newsline to its other supported smart TV and streaming platforms in the near future.

ADVERTISING

Podcast company Acast is expanding its Acast Open offering. Now any show on its Acast Open platform can apply to be part of the Acast Marketplace, with the potential to generate revenue from ad impressions. If approved based on suitability, subscribers will have ads dynamically inserted across their back catalogue and future episodes. They’ll also be able to choose where in each episode they want the ads to run dynamically. “We launched Acast Open to put the same tools we built for the world’s biggest and best podcasts and publishers into the hands of every podcaster on the planet,” said Johan Billgren, Acast’s co-founder and CPTO. “Now we’re further democratizing podcasting, opening up the possibility for anyone on Acast Open to monetize across any and every podcast player there is — so they can start seeing financial payback for all the efforts they’ve made to build dedicated, engaged audiences around the world.”

Sixty-six percent of local businesses have been connecting with consumers on social media and 37% have been through online advertising as consumers shelter at home during the health crisis, according to data from ZypMedia. In addition to digital advertising, local businesses have been using traditional media such as radio (27%), TV advertising (26%) and Out-Of-Home/newspaper (25%) as an avenue to engage with consumers.

Premium video streaming services’ ad spending this spring is up 87 percent over the same time period a year ago, according to MediaRadar. The average spend of all premium services has been $20 million a week for TV, digital and print media since March 1. HBO Max, not surprisingly, tripled its marketing spend the week of May 10 leading up to its launch vs. the previous week, according to the advertising researcher. On television, HBO Max has been running promos on sister WarnerMedia networks TBS, CNN and Adult Swim, as well as ABC and Fox. On digital, the streamer’s been messaging on Snapchat, Yahoo, IMDB and Forbes.
Among other findings:
* The top three advertisers in the streaming service category include Disney+, Hulu and Quibi, which collectively spent more than $135 million on advertising, year to date.
* Netflix hasn’t shifted advertising during the pandemic, or in response to the launches of new competitors, such as Quibi or HBO Max. Its ad spend in April was down 11 percent, YoY.
* Amazon Prime Video upped its ad spending, nearly doubling the week of May 10 from where it was a few weeks earlier.

In a new study of advertising sellers, an IAB report reveals that the impact of COVID-19 has led to significant pricing pressure. Highlights of the report, compiled by PwC, include:
*Two-thirds of publishers are experiencing a decrease in CPMs.
*Publishers are hardest hit, with 6 in 10 experiencing a decrease in CPMs, a 14% greater impact on CPMs vs programmatic specialists.
*Display advertising is most impacted, with both mobile and desktop experiencing over 30% decrease in ad rates.
*When it comes to advertising by device, connected devices (such as streaming sticks, gaming consoles and smart TVs) are showing the most resilience, with an expected decrease in CPMs of just 6%, while desktop, smartphones and tablets are down 27%, 28%, and 29% respectively.