Today’s Finales
CW: Patti Stanger: The Matchmaker at 8p
FX: Welcome to Wrexham at 10p
INSP: Elkhorn at 9p

IN THE NEWS

Following the news that talks for a merger with Skydance Media fell apart, Paramount Global co-CEOS George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins addressed the troops. While the Board “will always remain open to exploring strategic alternatives,” the execs said in a memo to staff, work is underway on three pillars: Transforming the company’s streaming strategy; streamlining the organization and reducing non-content costs; and optimizing its asset mix by divesting some businesses to help pay down debt. The company is holding a Global Town Hall – rescheduled from June 5 amid the merger noise – on June 25.

Publicis Groupe is calling BS on AI. Starting June 17, the first day of Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, the holding company will make its “BSBot” available to clients. The BSBot lets clients record audio or upload images and text from speeches, meetings, presentations, articles and press releases about AI. Immediately afterward, they will receive analysis that translates AI jargon into “real talk,” debunking myths and highlighting questions that should be asked. “The only thing more widespread than AI at the moment is the noise surrounding it,” said Publicis Groupe Chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun. “We are at risk of trying to make AI everything, everywhere, all at once.”

“Late Night With Seth Meyers” will not have a house band when it returns for its 12th season. The NBC talker is losing its 8G band, due to what band member Eli Janney described as budget cuts. In an interview with Vulture, Janney said, “Budgets everywhere have been cut and cut and cut. I liken it to a Spotify moment in music, where suddenly it’s like, Nobody wants to pay for music.” The band will still make music for the show, said Janney, but they won’t perform live.

The Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists set the timetable for the 12th Annual MUAHS Awards. The event will take place on Saturday, February 15, 2025, at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in LA. Submissions open on September 23.

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ENTER NOW

FOX Soul has renewed “Portia” for season three. The half-hour lifestyle program will be available to stream back-to-back episodes on FOX Soul weekdays at 7p in the fall, and continue to air on FOX-owned stations in Atlanta, San Francisco, and Orlando, as well as on the Impact Network.

Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe announced three series greenlights during their Studio Focus presentation at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Heading to Cartoon Network are “Foster’s Funtime for Imaginary Friends,” from HBSE, and “Adventure Time: Side Quests” and an untitled “Regular Show” project from CNS.

“Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild” has been renewed for a second season. The series, produced by Hearst Media Production Group, premiered in October 2023 as part of NBC’s “The More You Know” programming block and drew an average 1.1 million weekly viewers.

Season two of Prime Video’s “Maxton Hall” has gone into production for season two. The upcoming season will be based on the second part of the bestselling novel series Save You by author Mona Kasten and published by LYX. Since its launch in May, the first season of the series achieved the largest first week global viewership for an International Original in Prime Video ever, reaching the number 1 spot on the Prime Video Charts in over 120 countries and territories.

Good News Network Studios, Outlyer, Whalar Group and ReachTV are collaborating to create, develop, produce and distribute branded entertainment. Already in the works are “Good News First,” a social-first news show, and “Dream Fever,” a documentary that chronicles the journey of musician Emmanuel Kelly, born limb-different and abandoned in a box on a battlefield.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

The third and final season of “Vikings: Valhalla” premieres Thursday, July 11 on Netflix.

“Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist,” based on the true-crime podcast about an armed robbery on the night of Muhammad Ali’s historic 1970 comeback fight, premieres on Peacock Thursday, September 5.

NBC Sports Next’s GolfPass series, “Pain-Free Golf,” tees off Thursday, June 20. The video series will chronicle several of “Big Break” reality show contestant Randall Hunt’s students as they strive to play and feel better.

TECH

The Yahoo DSP is the first platform to integrate measurement and audience data from VideoAmp, in a partnership will bring VideoAmp’s targeting and measurement solutions to every stage of CTV campaigns when activated against households that the Yahoo DSP reaches. This partnership sees the integration of Yahoo ConnectID, the Yahoo DSP cookieless identifier, and VideoAmp’s big data and tech engine VALID (VideoAmp Linked Identity & Data). “The recent JIC certification granted to VideoAmp is an important milestone for the industry and recognition of the importance of having accurate data measuring and informing media for today’s marketers,” said Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, Chief Revenue Officer, Yahoo. “As the first DSP to work with VideoAmp in this way, we’re helping advertisers navigate this new normal by building on our industry-leading tools and ensuring campaigns are independently validated by a trusted, currency-grade measurement leader.”

Goodway Group and Vizio have joined Innovid’s Harmony initiative to optimize CTV advertising. Launched in April, Innovid Harmony Initiative brings together industry leaders to work collaboratively to optimize CTV at the infrastructure level to improve efficiency and ROI, enhance transparency and control, reduce carbon emissions and provide better viewing experiences for consumers. As part of the initiative, Innovid launched Harmony Direct to streamline the workflow for guaranteed, non-biddable CTV media to its purest form by removing all friction points, including additional technology hops, fees, and energy waste. Goodway Group and Vizio join Assembly, CMI Media Group, PMG, and Roku, as the first partners to use Harmony Direct.

PubMatic has partnered with Cognitiv to deliver a contextual targeting solution using GPT 4, which understands sentiment and is able to capture nuance. Cognitiv’s advanced ContextGPT product helps advertisers to achieve positive sentiment plus DE&I media buying goals at scale. “At PubMatic, we are committed to building a better future for advertising across the open web, and offering robust cookieless solutions is critical,” said Don Lee, VP of Addressability at PubMatic. “Through this expanded partnership with Cognitiv, we can help our clients improve ad relevance at scale – benefiting buyers’ campaign objectives, publishers’ yield, and most importantly, the end user’s browsing experience, all while respecting online privacy.”

The Digital Advertising Alliance has updated the advertising industry’s opt-out mechanism, shifting the technology platform for its participating companies from a cookie-based opt-out tool to a browser-based extension in WebChoices 2.0 that supports opt-outs across both cookies and emerging technologies. The WebChoices 2.0 tool is compatible with most major browsers and will enable users to express category preferences around topics of interest, in addition to company-specific and industry-wide opt-outs. “Over the past 14 years, the AdChoices icon has become a trusted gateway for privacy information and control for millions of Americans,” said Lou Mastria, President & CEO of DAA. “As the advertising industry undergoes dramatic change, the DAA’s opt-out tools are keeping pace with those changes, so people can express their choices for both existing and new technologies used for advertising IDs. This choice tool will ensure Americans continue to have one-click access to information and choices about targeted ads directly from the ads themselves and on the apps or websites they visit.”

IPG’s design and innovation company, Huge, announced that for the first time, 25% of its projects contain AI components. “For 25 years, Huge has excelled at knowing what’s next in technology and helping clients navigate new frontiers to design beautiful, human-centric experiences that unlock growth,” said Huge CEO Lisa De Bonis. “Today, we’re doing the same with AI.” The “next wave of intelligence experiences” in development, dubbed IX (for intelligent experiences), includes projects for clients including:
· Darling Ingredients: Huge launched a new flagship digital experience using a imagery created entirely by AI to deliver both production efficiencies and brand elevation.
· Google: Huge is enhancing Google’s Keyword blog and news site with AI to make Google product news and tips more accessible.
· Hublot: Huge is developing the first “Luxury AI” prototype to deliver highly personalized, white-glove experiences aimed at increasing customer lifetime value.

Fox Corp. announced that through an expanded partnership with FreeWheel, Fox will expand its dynamic ad insertion capabilities and roll out new co-developed targeting technology. FreeWheel’s technology will power FOX’s ability to offer dynamic ad insertion in College Football, allowing advertisers to purchase more premium live sports inventory from FOX while also incorporating a variety of features to provide an optimal viewing experience for audiences. FreeWheel will become Fox’s “primary” ad-serving partner across the entire Fox OneFox video inventory portfolio.

Content data platform IRIS.TV and PMG, a marketing solutions and technology company, announced a joint campaign for IRIS-enabled private marketplaces for quick service restaurant brand Carl’s Jr. that achieved a 152% incremental sales lift and 2.2X return on ad spend in the QSR market. “IRIS.TV enables us to scale beyond human-centric curation and audience-based targeting alone,” said Michael Treon, Head of CTV Strategy, PMG. “The scale and segmentation across FAST inventory not only offers incremental delivery against our audience and strategy but affords us the ability to message within key environments and alongside relevant content. It’s delivering results that drive direct business outcomes for our clients.”

iSpot has joined the LinkedIn Marketing Partner program to support the platform’s new CTV offering. “As the advertising industry faces increased pressure to drive results, building solutions that measure the effectiveness in reaching B2B audiences is critical,” said Logan Kingman, Director of Business Development, LinkedIn. “Through our collaboration with iSpot, we’re helping our customers better measure the accuracy and reach of their CTV campaigns against target audiences.”

STREAMING

Streaming Ink Media has launched a new animated comedy streaming service and studio, Animation+, available on Samsung TV Plus. At launch, the FAST Channel and AVOD offering includes over 600+ hours of series popular with Millennial and Gen-Z audiences in the US and Canada, with plans to expand internationally as well as to other major streaming services later this year. Animation+ Studios is developing new originals and plans to launch a premium service with over ten new original half-hour series, 11- min series, feature length projects, and video games targeted for 2025 premieres. “By launching the Animation+ brand with Samsung, we are establishing a foothold with a dominating global media, tech and device manufacturer,” said co-founder John Fitzpatrick. “As we grow our premium content subscription service, our relationship with Samsung will position our service as a top-tier streamer.”

Streaming bundles could be a key to reducing churn, according to data from Magid, which found predictive rate of churn was 16% lower due to the increased availability of bundle plans, and bundles boosted customer intent to keep a subscription longer than six months by 15%. “In the low-to-no-growth market that is now streaming, growth only comes from stealing share,” said Kate Morgan, EVP, Global Media, Entertainment and Games. “With an increasing proportion of subscribers now accustomed to dropping and resubscribing services, SVODs urgently need to stabilize at least a proportion of their subscriber base. Bundling, whether with friends, or, even frenemies, is a smart and strategic answer to that.”

Real Juice Media has launched women’s lifestyle FAST channel Telephone TV. Proprietary audience insights are leveraged to deliver women lifestyle-inspired programmatic solutions. “We are thrilled to partner with forward-thinking innovators whose expertise in crafting sophisticated, audience-curated brand solutions aligns seamlessly with our vision,” said Yesenia Bello, Senior Advisor at Real Juice Media.

DIRECTV has added five new channels to its streaming lineup through new licensing agreements. FAST Studios’ Women’s Sports Network and Racing America, Fuse Media’s El Rey Rebel and Spanish-language Somos Novelas, and gaming channel Poker Go are all now available to all DIRECTV and DIRECTV STREAM customers who receive their content via streaming and any satellite customers who want to access them using the DIRECTV App.

During its inaugural event, Samsung Ads Canada Innovation Day 2024, Samsung Ads unveiled new insights into FAST viewership in Canada. Findings include:
· FAST is growing – 58% of viewers have first used the service in the last seven months.
· One in five FAST viewers are watching 5+ days a week, and more than one-quarter of total weekly TV viewing time is spent with FAST.
· Nearly 40% of viewers utilize FAST because of its preferred content offering, with movies (53%), comedy (41%,) and news (30%) among the top genres.
· More than a third of viewers are discovering FAST because it is already on their TV.

SPORTS UPDATE

“Fox Saratoga Saturday,” a national showcase of the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course, returns to Fox this summer for six weeks, starting Saturday, June 20 at 5p.

COMING UP

“Young. Wild. Free.” makes its BET+ debut on Thursday, June 17. The coming-of-age film follows a hot-tempered high school senior thrust in a dangerous direction after he’s robbed at gunpoint by the girl of his dreams.

GOING GLOBAL

Abacus Media Rights has signed a deal taking worldwide distribution rights to “The Trouble with Mr Doodle,” a documentary feature co-produced by Acme TV and Lightbox. The film tells the story of how an extraordinary boy’s childhood obsession threatened to take over his life.

Cineflix Rights has closed multiple deals with Central and East European broadcasters for more than 250 hours of scripted and factual content covering the lifestyle, true crime, history, and science genres. Among the deals: AMC Networks International Central and Northern Europe (AMCNI CNE) has acquired a slate of lifestyle titles including “Don’t Hate Your House with the Property Brothers,” Scott Brothers Entertainment for HGTV, US and Canada; “Beyond the Farm: Men at Work,” Renegade Pictures and GroupM Motion Entertainment for Channel 5, UK; and “Sue Perkins into Alaska,” Chalkboard TV and GroupM Motion Entertainment for Channel 5, UK.

Banijay Kids & Family scored multiple international sales for preschool animation series “Charlie and Lola.” A Tiger Aspect Kids & Family property, seasons 1-3, plus two specials, have been sold to TG4 (Ireland), and relicensed by WDR (Germany). Asiana (Korea) has taken seasons 1-3; seasons 2-3 have been picked up by NRK (Norway); and seasons 1-2, plus two specials, have been relicensed by NPO (Netherlands).

BBC Factual has ordered an eighth season of “Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing” for BBC Two and iPlayer.

Paramount+ in Canada and Reelworld Screen Institute will partner for the Reelworld Summit, a two-day event taking place on October 22 and 23 at the Courtyard by Marriott Toronto Downtown.

Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final delivered an average audience of 6.8 million viewers across ABC, ESPN+, CBC, SN and TVAS, up 61% versus last year. In the US, the game drew 3.6 million viewers, up 46%.

Combate Global’s first “Combate Female” Mixed Martial Arts event on Saturday, June 8, drew 639,000 P2+ viewers on Univision, including 277,000 viewers in the A18-49 demo.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Cultural marketing agency 160/90 has elevated Justin Zambuto to Executive Vice President, leading global sports and entertainment partnerships.

Production company 32 Flavors has hired Jenn Levy as President. Most recently, Levy served as Vice President of Unscripted at Netflix.

Today’s Trivia Question
Which series centered on a social services worker whose roommate was a zombie? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four answers per time zone.)