Business of media
Spotify adds 2m paying subscribers in Q1 despite hit from Russia exit
Music streaming giant Spotify ended the first quarter of 2022 with 182 million paid subscribers, up from 180 million as of the end of 2021 but below its original 183 million subscriber forecast that was made before the company’s exit from Russia that led to the loss of around 1.5 million subscribers, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
The company also said on Wednesday that it hit 422 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of the end of March, up from 406 million as of the end of December and ahead of its guidance.
“Our premium subscribers grew 15 percent year-over-year to 182 million,” the company said. “While this is slightly below our guidance, after excluding the involuntary churn of approximately 1.5 million subscribers as a result of our exit from Russia, growth was above expectations and aided by outperformance in Latin America and Europe.”
Meta shares surge as Facebook returns to user growth
Facebook’s main social network added more users than projected in the first quarter, potentially staving off concerns that the company is losing momentum as a new generation flocks to younger sites like TikTok, reports Bloomberg’s Kurt Wagner.
Shares surged more than 16 per cent in late trading after Facebook parent company Meta Platforms reported 1.96 billion daily users for its flagship platform, a return to growth after the first-ever decline in the December quarter. Analysts had estimated 1.94 billion.
Revenue for the period jumped 6.6 per cent to $US27.9 billion ($39.1 billion), and would have been higher if not for the war in Ukraine, the company said. The stock had dropped almost 50 per cent this year as investors became increasingly worried that Meta’s main business and profit engine – advertising in its social media feeds – was losing steam.
Goldman Sachs invests US$325m in Nielsen ratings rival iSpot.tv
US investment bank Goldman Sachs has agreed to invest US$325 million in ad measurement and analytics company iSpot.tv, the bank said on Wednesday, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
iSpot, which measures the effectiveness of TV ads on linear and streaming platforms, was recently named by NBCUniversal as its preferred trading currency for the 2022 Upfront season.
iSpot recently completed 60 currency pilots with NBCUniversal involving the Olympics, Super Bowl and NBCUniversal’s first quarter inventory. WarnerMedia and Paramount used iSpot in a currency pilot for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
“This team has modernized TV measurement and has achieved a lot of ground-breaking innovations for the industry in our first 10 years in business,” said Sean Muller, CEO of iSpot. “As we enter our second decade, the investment and support from Goldman Sachs will help fuel the next generation of innovations and accelerate our ability to be the trusted cross-screen currency of choice.”
James Murdoch, Uday Shankar lead US$1.8b investment in India’s Viacom18
An investment company set up by Rupert Murdoch’s son James and former Disney India executive Uday Shankar said on Wednesday it will invest $1.8 billion in Reliance Industries’ broadcasting business Viacom18, reports Reuters.
Bodhi Tree Systems, a venture between James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems and Shankar, is leading a fundraising in Viacom18 with a consortium of investors aimed at building India’s “leading entertainment platform”, the entities said in a joint statement.
As well as streaming platform “VOOT”, Viacom18 runs several TV channels in India, including Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.
Reuters reported in January that Reliance was in talks with James Murdoch and Shankar on them taking a significant stake in Viacom18.
Archegos owner charged with manipulating ViacomCBS and Discovery stock prices
Archegos founder Bill Hwang pleaded not guilty Wednesday to racketeering and fraud charges related to the collapse of his private equity firm that was allegedly behind a massive market manipulation scheme that jeopardized the entire financial system. He was released on $100 million bail, reports the Hollywood Reporter’s Winston Cho.
In an indictment filed in the Southern District of New York, federal prosecutors accused Hwang and former chief financial officer Patrick Halligan of orchestrating a conspiracy to inflate the stocks of publicly traded companies to boost their returns by defrauding major financial institutions left holding billions in losses. The prosecutors claimed the plot pumped the firm’s portfolio, essentially Hwang’s personal fortune, from $1.5 billion to more than $35 billion in a single year.
One of those companies was ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global), which acted as the trigger for Archegos’ undoing. The firm had a $10 billion stake in ViacomCBS, whose stock was up more than eight times for the year. In March 2021, the media company announced a $3 billion secondary share sale to capitalize on its share price. This led to a selloff, putting massive pressure on Archegos’ portfolio and exposing to lenders its huge positions in certain stocks using billions in borrowed money.
Archegos effectively controlled more than half of all freely traded ViacomCBS shares at one point, according to U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams. Its shares declined roughly 30 percent on March 26 last year. Discovery’s stock similarly dipped.
Warner Bros. Discovery ‘Will not overspend to drive subscriber growth’
In the wake of big content spender Netflix’s shocking Q1 subscriber loss, David Zaslav made a point to say Warner Bros. Discovery “will not overspend to drive subscriber growth” during Discovery’s first-quarter earnings call this week, reports Variety.
“As you’ve heard me say, we are not trying to win the direct-to-consumer spending war,” the WBD CEO said, instead promising that the newly combined WarnerMedia-Discovery company would “invest in scale smartly.”
Warner Bros. Discovery is now the home of both HBO Max and Discovery+, with the former having scored 76.8 million total subs combined with HBO at the end of Q1, and Discovery reaching 24 million streaming subs by that same point, per its newly released Q1 results. HBO Max and Discovery+ will be combined as one streaming platform under Warner Bros. Discovery, though timing on that integration has yet to be determined.
Zaslav also raised the provocative suggestion that Warner Bros. Discovery might go back to selling content around the world, especially in markets where HBO Max won’t be available for some time. [A move that has implications for broadcasters in Australia buying content from the group.]
David Zaslav Buys $1M in Warner Bros. Discovery Shares
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is doubling down on his faith in the newly merged media conglomerate, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Caitlin Huston.
According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Zaslav purchased about $1 million in the company’s stock Wednesday for $19.49 to $19.53 a share. The purchase comes a day after Zaslav touted Warner Bros. Discovery’s position as a leader in the streaming space, calling it “far more balanced” than rival Netflix.
“Here comes this new company with this lane, a middle lane wide open for us to accelerate with the broadest and most compelling content in the world,” Zaslav said on the April 26 earnings call.
Ben Roberts-Smith case: Tunnel vision rebuts Nine allegations on war crimes
The SAS soldier who searched a tunnel in the Afghan compound known as Whiskey 108 has given evidence it was empty but for a weapons cache, contradicting key allegations by Nine newspapers that two unarmed men were hauled out of the tunnel and then executed, reports News Corp’s Stephen Rice.
The soldier, codenamed Person 35, told the Federal Court that when the tunnel was discovered under a pile of hay in the Taliban stronghold on Easter Sunday in 2009, Ben Roberts-Smith had put up his hand to search it.
The soldier said there was no one in the tunnel, but he found large amounts of weaponry, including AK 47 variants, ammunition and communication devices. The tunnel also contained what appeared to be a suicide vest, rocket parts and documents.
Person 35 said he was the only SAS soldier who searched the tunnel.
Jellysmack acquires YouTube analytics and growth startup AMA Digital
Jellysmack has announced its acquisition of U.S.-based YouTube analytics and growth startup AMA Digital.
AMA, founded by Mateo Price, leverages proprietary data and technology to help creators grow faster while remaining true to their authentic voices and audiences.
The acquisition not only complements each company’s mission to help creators grow, but also highlights the significance Jellysmack places on utilising data and technology to fuel creator growth and drive multi-platform success.
Michael Philippe, co-founder and co-CEO of Jellysmack, said: “We believe Jellysmack offers the best tech stack available in the creator economy, and the acquisition of AMA will further strengthen our core product to better serve our creator partners.”
“Once we dove into AMA’s data and processes it was obvious that Mateo and his company bring a valuable and complementary skillset to the team,” he added.
Jellysmack utilises a suite of A.I.-powered technology, proprietary data, and expertise to edit, optimise, and distribute creator videos across multiple platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube, thereby establishing new revenue streams for creators and rapidly identifying and growing new engaged audiences.
The performance of Jellysmack’s technology suite recently attracted a nine-figure Series C investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund II, which catapulted the company to unicorn status.
Agencies
Dentsu promotes John Riccio to president of Merkle APAC
Dentsu has announced the promotion of John Riccio, Merkle ANZ CEO, to Asia Pacific as president, Merkle APAC.
Merkle is dentsu’s technology-enabled, data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company with over 2,000 experts in 10 markets in the region.
Riccio’s new position comes just over two months into his role as Merkle ANZ CEO which was made effective in February this year following the announcement in December.
The newly appointed Merkle APAC president has more than 25 years of experience in leading major digital businesses and strategic programs. He is recognised as a specialist in helping clients transform the way they respond to market change and engage consumers.
Riccio is an expert at leveraging emerging technologies that support sustainable growth and scale, and he will play a critical role in leading the growth and evolution of Merkle APAC while continuing his current role as CEO of Merkle’s ANZ region.
Riccio also has an extensive background in leading customer experience consulting, recently as an experience consulting partner, APAC, for EY. In the past, he has held partner positions at PwC in Australia and Asia, and at IBM in the United Kingdom.
Riccio said of his appointment: “Since joining Merkle, I have been impressed by the forward-thinking, agile approach the company takes in the experiences delivered to its clients and employees.
Half Dome appointed as full-service agency for Ego Pharmaceuticals
Half Dome has announced it has been appointed as the full-service media agency for Ego Pharmaceuticals.
The independent media agency will drive the Australian skincare developer’s entire media and digital performance, including the company’s ongoing digital transformation following a competitive pitch.
Half Dome will be responsible for delivering media strategy, planning and implementation across all of Ego’s offline and digital channels, while also supporting the business through its digital transformation across eight major brands, including sensitive skincare range QV, Sunsense sunscreens, and Aqium hand sanitiser. The appointment is effective July 1, 2022.
Ego Pharmaceuticals is an Australian-owned family business, which has led the development, manufacture, and marketing of innovative skincare products for more than 65 years.
The business is a national leader in creating skincare backed by science, for people who want healthy skin. It is home to some of Australia’s best-known dermatological skincare brands, including Pinetarsol, Dermaid, and Moov.
Television
Producers in talks over FBoy Island
Is FBoy Island the next dating reality show to hit screens in Australia? Asks TV Tonight.
Not just yet, but if ITV Studios Australia have their way it will be, with producers in discussion with local networks.
Caroline Swift, Warner Bros. Australia Head of Entertainment tells TV Tonight, “We’re shopping around FBoy Island, which is brilliant. It’s HBO Max’s highest rated non-scripted launch in the last five years. Its central premise is ‘Can three female protagonists pick the FBoys out of a group of guys?’ Basically weed them out.
“It’s as much a guessing game as it is a search for a genuine non-FBoy to fall in love with. It’s great.”
Sports Media
Jake Niall: Fans must come first, before players, in next AFL broadcast deal
Whoever becomes the AFL’s next broadcast partners – 10 and Paramount+ in a joint deal, the incumbents Seven and Foxtel, a combination of those parties or even Amazon in partnership with a free to air network – the AFL is assured of a windfall, comments The Age’s Jake Niall.
It is clear that the bid being put together for the rights by 10 and Paramount+ is serious and that the AFL is taking that bid seriously, as the game shifts towards a future of internet streaming.
Gillon McLachlan would not be in New York with his two most senior executives and 10 would not be sending their two co-chief executives to pitch for the rights if this was merely a ploy to drive up the price.
But the price will be driven up and the amount the successful bidder pays from 2025 will be higher than the $946 million that Seven and Foxtel are forking out for 2023 and 2024, a deal that was struck during the pandemic when the AFL was in a weaker bargaining position than today.
See also: The lot: 10 and Paramount AFL broadcast bid will be for everything