Facebook said it is removing posts that contain false claims about COVID-19 vaccines, rather than just making them less visible on news feeds. “This is another way that we are applying our policy to remove misinformation about the virus that could lead to imminent physical harm,” said the company in a blog post. “This could include false claims about the safety, efficacy, ingredients or side effects of the vaccines.” Facebook will also send people to its COVID-19 Information Center, for verified updates.

In more Facebook news, the Trump administration is suing the social media giant, claiming it illegally reserved thousands of jobs for immigrants instead of looking for qualified Americans for 2600 jobs. The lawsuit follows a nearly two-year investigation into Facebook’s practices. “Facebook has been cooperating with the DOJ in its review of this issue and while we dispute the allegations in the complaint, we cannot comment further on pending litigation,” said a spokesperson.

fuboTV is betting on the online sports wagering market with the acquisition of Balto Sports, a Y Combinator company that develops tools for users to organize and play fantasy sports games. fuboTV intends to leverage its own proprietary technology along with Balto’s contest automation software to launch a free to play gaming offering.

Brand builder Cre8or Global and fintech digital crowdfunding platform FanVestor have formed a strategic relationship to promote celebrities and their product lines. “FanVestor brings another dimension of our complete suite of offerings to talents, celebrities, and athletes by engaging directly with fans through amazing products and experiences,” said Cre8or founder David Feuerstein. “Our current talent partners continue to look for innovative ways to create a deeper connection with fans, and FanVestor is the perfect platform for this.”

Tangent Labs launched LoUPE, a CG pipeline tool that helps artists and studios improve productivity, increase efficiency, and collaborate with teams around the world. The software is now available in the Amazon Web Services Marketplace. “LoUPE was built for artists, by artists” said Jeff Bell, CEO of Tangent Labs. “Now artists and studios can use the latest technology to scale and compete at a global level – and tell better stories with more on the screen.”

Cable broadband usage of Zoom on Thanksgiving Day saw a year-over-year 45% jump, according to OpenVault, boosted by the platform removing usage limits for the holiday. An analysis of data collected by OpenVault shows that average broadband consumption per subscriber was 15.59 GB on Thanksgiving Day, 2020, compared to 10.77 GB on the holiday in 2019. The figure represented increases of 9.7% above usage on the previous Thursday, Nov. 19; and 15% above usage for the previous eight Thursdays.

Altice USA closed the sale of 49.99% of its Lightpath fiber enterprise business to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners for an implied enterprise value of $3.2 billion. Altice USA will retain a 50.01% interest in Lightpath and maintain control of the company. Lightpath is a fiber-based bandwidth technology platform enabling businesses in the greater New York Metropolitan region to innovate on emerging systems-based applications.

CTV marketing platform and agency Allroll has teamed with OTT app development company Vlogbox to create a marketplace for channel owners with basic tips on organic promotion, PR activities, and YouTube shares. The strategic partnership enables VlogBox to build a marketing ecosystem for CTV channel owners. “We are excited to partner with Allroll as our internal research has shown that there is a necessity for channel owners to grow viewership in the CTV marketplace,” said Nick Platonenko, CEO of VlogBox. “At VlogBox, we are putting together OTT app development and content distribution with monetization solutions for channel owners, and Allroll’s advertising capabilities are exactly what our clients need for further advancement.”

SpotX released its “2021 Global Video Advertising Trends” report. Key findings include:
? Ad spend is following new consumer habits and will flow into OTT and CTV faster than expected.
? With programmatic, addressable linear TV is ready for scale. With more inventory available and the programmatic pipes built out, expect to see more linear TV budgets transacted digitally.
? While advertisers used to treat TV and OTT ad buys separately, they are increasingly considering them together, and the trend is clearly moving towards all TV being transacted digitally.
“As we move further into the connected decade, incumbents and new entrants alike will invest in the future of video, while new technologies will quickly emerge to support the evolution,” said Kelly McMahon, SVP, global operations at SpotX. “Our goal with the ‘2021 Global Video Advertising Trends’ report is to provide media owners, advertisers and TV manufacturers with the actionable insights they need to position their marketing strategies, align investments, and capture growth in 2021 and beyond.”

Video discovery platform Primis, part of Universal McCann and Interpublic Group, announced new technology to promote video content discovery and consumption. “Contextual Targeting for Advertisers” provides a solution for advertisers to reach audiences in a cookie-less world, with brands able to target ads according to content provider, keywords, category of video and more. “Privacy has become the defining issue of our time in this industry,” said Primis co-CEO Eyal Betzalel. “Between the fall of the third party cookie and the rising skepticism regarding user tracking, we had to adapt and provide a big solution for our demand partners. Contextual targeting is the only realistic solution to this problem that provides both highly focused targeting and respectful treatment of user privacy.”

Spotsdigita announced the launch of Digideck LIVE, a communication solution that will allow companies to better sell virtually through video conferencing, co-browsing, chats and real-time alerts. Digideck LIVE will enhance Sportsdigita’s existing Digideck offering by allowing its customers interact with customer prospects, sponsors, and partners with “Zoom-like” features. The NFL’s Green Bay Packers and NHL’s New York Islanders are already scheduled for implementation of the tool.

Centro released features on its Basis platform to automate workflow on ad serving, analytics, campaign creation for omnichannel campaigns. Key highlights: a dashboard to manage ad tags for a Plan, Channel, Vendor, Property and/or Line Item in as little as one click, and an analytics dashboard for easy evaluation and summarization of campaign data with customizable arrangement of the data based on a user’s personal preference. Basis by Centro consolidates digital operations across programmatic, direct-buying, connected TV, search, and social campaigns.

Mediaocean announced enhanced capabilities in its Scope product for TV Reach Extension that connects linear TV audience intelligence with CTV and closed ecosystems like Facebook. The new audience intelligence tools provide advertisers the ability to deduplicate audiences, manage reach and frequency, eliminate waste, and focus on incrementality across multiple channels. “CTV is exploding in terms of consumer viewers and providers. This is driving subsequent growth in advertising but CTV is one channel in a broader converged television mix,” said Anupam Gupta, Chief Product Officer at Mediaocean. “Most DSPs don’t touch linear TV or social media at all, given this inventory is typically only available via direct sales or API integrations, not through exchanges and SSPs. Our Scope product was purpose-built to operate within and across the walls of closed ecosystems, including converged television.”

FreeWheel, A Comcast Company announced it will be leading ad decisioning across all NBCUniversal properties using their new AutoScheduler technology, which streamlines NBCU’s scheduling process by analyzing ad breaks within linear campaigns, along with various configurable business parameters, and automatically filling the complete schedule. The tool can dynamically place spots across NBCU networks and enable more efficient delivery against a marketer’s target demographic. “Our goal is to help marketers reach any audience at scale, on any screen,” said Ryan McConville, EVP, Ad Platforms and Operations, NBCUniversal. “With the same discipline and response time as a digital ad server, the AutoScheduler technology will help clients reach their target demos across linear with accuracy and precision.”

DoubleVerify, the software platform for digital media measurement, data and analytics, announced the launch of the DV Publisher Suite, designed to reduce the administrative overhead required to manage third-party revenue and measurement data, empower publishers through actionable inventory insights, and automate proactive optimization with tools that identify and resolve delivery issues. “Publishers deserve to be compensated for the quality content and programming they create, and audiences they garner,” said Matt McLaughlin, COO of DoubleVerify. “The DV Publisher Suite provides the measurement, insights and tools to improve ad delivery, enhance inventory quality and drive performance – all with the goal of boosting yield.” At launch, publishers using the DV Publisher Suite include Hearst, Meredith, Healthline, TechTarget, Univision, Comcast, Mashable, Remedy Health Media, among others.

Vistar Media, provider of software for digital out-of-home, has announced the integration of Accretive Media’s proprietary Accretive Audiences targeting segments into its platform. Advertisers using Vistar’s platform have exclusive access to Accretive Media audiences to activate against ranging from locational data points, psychographics, shopping behaviors, and a host of others. “Too much OOH data today is merely repurposed mobile data that doesn’t consider the nuance of the out-of-home market,” said Craig Benner, CEO and Founder of Accretive Media. “Accretive Audiences merges data science and out-of-home data, providing data sets specifically created to reach these audiences in this format.”

Clinch, provider of cross-channel dynamic creative optimization technology to advertisers, announced the launch of their real-time shoppable video ad units. Clinch’s shoppable video solution enable advertisers to incorporate unlimited data feeds, such as location, inventory, products, and offers, in real-time. Clinch shoppable videos can also accommodate functions that promote user interactivity, such as QR codes, surveys/polls, message sequencing, gamification, dynamic maps and more. “We’ve positioned ourselves at the intersection of data and video commerce – a space where we see immense value,” said Oz Etzioni, CEO of Clinch. “By enabling brands to push commerce through video, we’ve opened up an entirely new revenue channel that was historically reserved for awareness.”

People-based advertising software company Viant has added digital media network Firefly as its first media owner for its cloud-based Data Lake, which provides brands, agencies, and media owners a holistic view into their structured and unstructured data, within one platform. With Viant’s Data Lake, media owners can access tools to understand their users at a deeper level; develop their own tools or reporting solutions; and reach their audiences off property through audience extension solutions.

Verizon Media, the company announced the launch of its unified identity solution, Verizon Media ConnectID, designed to help advertisers buy, measure and optimize ads while enabling publishers to manage, monetize and navigate audiences, without third-party cookies. “We are uniquely positioned to drive scaled, consumer-first identity solutions to help advertisers and publishers navigate the evolving digital landscape,” said Iván Markman, Chief Business Officer, Verizon Media. “Our trusted, premium global properties used by hundreds of millions of people, our identity graph built around billions of daily, consent-based data signals, and the only independent ad platform with a full-stack DSP and SSP to protect data integrity across demand and supply, all come together to solve this new landscape for our customers.”

Dailymotion is partnering with Verizon Media to provide a new programmatic guaranteed offer. The automated purchasing mode allows brands to acquire advertising inventories through private deals. “In the context of strong competition to get the most effective in-stream inventories, the guarantee of campaign delivery is becoming a fundamental challenge for brands,” said Bichoi Bastha, CBO at Dailymotion. “The launch of this new Guaranteed Programmatic offer with Verizon Media enables our joint customers to combine the advantages of a fixed and negotiated price offer and a reserved volume while retaining the benefits of the programmatic purchasing mode: transparency, targeting and operational efficiency.”

Since the onset of the pandemic, 71% of US consumers say they have increased their use of paid streaming services, according to a November study from TransUnion. On average, consumers are spending 3-4 hours a day consuming streamed media, with 55% opting for it in place of a cable TV subscription. Across generations, content was the top reason consumers gravitated toward streaming services, greater than both affordability and convenience. “COVID-19 has upended the entertainment landscape and with it, has accelerated the shift to streamed media,” said Matt Spiegel, EVP and head of the marketing solutions and media verticals at TransUnion. “To gain market share, platforms are vying for captive audiences, focusing on how their content can stand out in a growing sea of choices. We can expect factors like content quality, price, and user experience to all carry weight in decisions from consumers about streaming new content through various service providers.”

“The global SVOD market will never be the same,” said David Zaslav, President and CEO of Discovery Inc., during last week’s announcement of the launch of discovery+. The non-fiction subscription streaming service will debut in the US on January 4, 2021, in a partnership with Verizon that gives customers with select plans 12 months of the new service. In the US, discovery+ will offer more than 55,000 episodes, with over 2,500 current and classic shows from Discovery’s portfolio of networks. As part of a new content partnership, discovery+ will also include non-fiction content from A+E Networks’ A&E, History Channel and Lifetime, as well as a collection of nature and environmental programming headlined by BBC’s natural history offering, and content from The Dodo.