ADVERTISING
Fox Networks Group is launching a new six-second ad format for its digital platforms and will eventually introduce it to traditional television. “People are seeking environments where there’s a lot less clutter,” said David Levy, Fox Network Group’s EVP of Nonlinear Revenue. The new product will be ready for digital and on-demand platforms by October – and according to Levy, Fox could start selling six-second ads to TV advertisers after a few additional months of testing.
PROGRAMMING
Cannes-Do: CNN-owned Beme will launch an app built around a news show. Starring YouTube star Casey Neistat (he has 7.3 million YT subscribers), the series will run four days a week to start, eventually expanding to a ten-minute daily. From Cannes, Neistat said he wants the show to dive into “culture” and “societal issues.”
VC FUNDING + INVESTORS
Vice Media is $450 million richer, thanks to a new investment from private equity firm TPG. Vice will spend the money on beefing up its international presence and to launch Vice Studios, a production unit for scripted programming. According to Vice CEO Shane Smith, the investment now brings the company’s total worth to about $5.7 billion.
Sports-centric OTT TV startup FuboTV just landed $55 million in Series C funding from high-profile investors, including Scripps Networks Interactive, 21st Century Fox, and the U.K.’s Sky. FuboTV has now raised $75.6 million to date. The company will use the bucks to expand programming, infrastructure and marketing.
OTT + SVOD
The NFL has enlisted Bruin Sports Capital and ad giant WPP to help build up its digital presence in Europe. Bruin and WPP will help manage the NFL Game Pass OTT service on the continent. Under the partnership, Game Pass will debut offerings that are tailored to individual European markets. Deltatre, an Italian media company owned by Bruin, will oversee technical operations in 61 European territories and countries. Two Circles, a sports marketing agency owned by WPP, will take on market duties.
VIRTUAL + AUGMENTED REALITY
Almost a year after AR Pokémon Go’s initial launch, Niantic, the game’s developer, is adding a new feature for cooperative “battles,” along with redesigned “gyms” (in-game spots that players try to claim for their own teams). As of this past April, Pokémon Go still had about 65 million monthly players.
INFLUENCERS
Twitter is using Chance the Rapper to drive a new social influencer campaign. The company kicked things off yesterday with a TV ad, in which the hip-hop artist asked fans (via Twitter, naturally) for song requests for an upcoming concert. The campaign, expected to last for a number of months, will also feature online ads that will appear across the web – including on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram – along with the hashtag #SeeEverySide. The marketing push comes at a promising moment for Twitter; long mired in stagnant growth trends, the company reported a 6% increase in monthly active users in Q1.
MEASURING UP
SHAREABLEE SOCIAL TV RATINGS: Top U.S. Streaming Shows Overall by Engagement for the week of June 12-June 18, 2017
Program, Total Actions (000), Total Content, Actions per Post (000), Fans/Followers (000)
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 (6/12/17 – 6/18/17)
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 Entertainment vertical, based on the engagement metric for the week ending June 18.
Channel (Engagement) / Monthly Views / Total Subs / SlateScore
Wassabi Productions (9.8) / 78,261,909 / 8,502,171 / 738
Felipe Neto (9.8) / 146,569,026 / 11,669,057 / 805
Collins Key (9.7) / 109,688,625 / 5,605,408 / 715
Lucas and Marcus (9.6) / 79,192,185 / 3,408,606 / 701
Infinite Lists (9.4) / 58,719,710 / 2,168,007 / 674
Philip DeFranco (9.4) / 33,055,419 / 5,469,842 / 757
elrincondegiorgio (9.4) / 32,628,268 / 6,603,356 / 732
EverythingApplePro (9.4) / 43,196,336 / 3,992,418 / 732
SuperMarioLogan (9.3) / 150,933,837 / 2,400,578 / 670
XpressTV (9.3) 64,428,778 / 5,716,525 / 687
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.
EXECUTIVE MOVES
AccuWeather has named Bill McGarry as its new Vice President of Sales. He’ll oversee the company’s ad sales across all platforms, including mobile apps, the mobile web, connected TVs, and television. McGarry most recently served as Chief Revenue Officer for The Daily Beast.
TRIVIA
Who plays notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series Narcos?
(Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and state.)
Our Last Trivia Question: Hulu’s anime catalogue includes shows such as Attack on Titan and Cowboy Bebop, which are licensed from an anime-focused entertainment distributor. What’s the company called? Answer: Funimation. Kudos to Wei Yun Lim-Shareablee/NY, David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/CA, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/CA, Christine Allen-McGee Media/NY, Lorrie Shilling/CA, and Josh Pool-Fandom (powered by Wikia)/CA
