Business of Media
News Corp should deal with Foxtel, REA prior to Fox merger: MS
If News Corporation is serious about unlocking value for shareholders, it could consider spinning off or selling its stakes in Australian investments prior to a potential merger with the Murdoch family’s Fox Corp, report Nine Publishing’s Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson, and Kanika Sood.
That’s the view of Morgan Stanley analysts who said the proposed News Corp/Fox tie-up created scale and made strategic sense, however News Corp could tidy up its portfolio prior to any deal.
“As we have written in the past, the main opportunity we see for NWSA shareholder value un-lock (i.e.a reduction in SoTP discount) would come as a result of further simplification of NWSA’s asset portfolio (e.g. REA and FOXTEL investments),” Morgan Stanley’s Australian-based media, internet and technology sector analysts told clients.
“And we think the most upside for existing NWSA shareholders likely comes if such asset sales/spins are executed by NWSA itself, before any potential merger with FOXA is undertaken.”
News Corp owns Dow Jones, newspapers in Australia, the UK and New York, book publishing and pay television businesses, along with investments in subsidiaries including REA Group.
TikTok’s head of content partnerships leaves for Spotify
TikTok’s former U.S. head of content partnerships, Bryan Thoensen, has joined Spotify to oversee the company’s content strategy and partnerships with individual audio creators, known as the talk creator content and partnerships team, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s J. Clara Chan.
Thoensen will report up to Max Cutler, who was promoted earlier this year to lead Spotify’s partnerships with creators and now holds the title of vp of talk creator content. In his new role at Spotify, Thoensen will also oversee the team’s business development and acquisitions as part of the audio giant’s larger exclusive podcast strategy.
“Bryan’s knowledge of the creator landscape will be critical as we build out our platform strategy with the goal of becoming a true platform beyond distribution, and reinforce our mission of building trust with creators,” Cutler wrote in a memo to staff.
Netflix adds 2.4M subscribers in first gain of the year
Netflix added 2.4 million subscribers during the third quarter, marking a major turnaround for the streaming giant that has been plagued by declining growth during the past year, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s J. Clara Chan.
The streamer now has just over 223 million subscribers and is projecting to add another 4.5 million subscribers during the fourth quarter. In the U.S. and Canada, Netflix saw a modest gain of 100,000 subscribers, while the Asia Pacific region contributed 1.4 million paying subscribers. Latin America brought in 310,000 subs while the EMEA region drove 570,000 of Netflix’s quarterly subscriber adds.
Total revenue during Q3 was $7.92 billion, down slightly from the second quarter but representing a 5.9 percent year-over-year increase.
Streaming platforms are embracing ads—but will the advertisers love them back?
Marketers are excited that more streaming platforms are embracing advertising, but they say running ads on streaming services remains rife with challenges, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Suzanne Vranica.
The streaming industry’s two largest players, Netflix Inc. and Walt Disney Co.’s Disney+, are preparing to launch ad-supported versions of their platforms in the coming months. They will be joining a crowded field that includes streaming services owned by media companies—such as Comcast Corp.’s Peacock, Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.’s HBO Max and Paramount Global’s Pluto TV—and device makers such as Roku Inc.’s Roku Channel and Amazon.com Inc.’s Freevee.
Youth-obsessed advertisers are turning to streaming to reach younger people who have gravitated to those services and to find the legions of Americans who have ditched their traditional pay-TV packages altogether in favor of streaming. Brands also find streaming attractive because it often enables them to target ads to specific audiences, similar to the way digital ads have worked.
As a result, the U.S. connected-TV ad market is expected to reach $18.9 billion this year—a fraction of the roughly $70 billion that is spent on traditional TV ads—and grow to $33.5 billion in 2025, according to estimates from Insider Intelligence.
News Brands
Google’s latest core algorithm change hits major news publishers harder than ‘helpful content’ update
Ten of the leading news websites in the UK saw their visibility in search rankings reduced as a result of Google’s latest core algorithm update in September, reports Press Gazette’s Aisha Majid.
Of the top 25 publishers by audience size in September, heaviest-hit in relative terms was youth-focused publisher Ladbible, whose visibility in Google’s search rankings fell 52% from 3.8 to 1.2 according to data from Sistrix.
DMGT-owned the i and Mail Online both saw their search visibility fall by 37% in the update, which started on 12 September and concluded on 27 September.
Mail Online dropped by 28 points from 76.2 at the start of the update to 48.2 – the biggest fall in terms of number of points lost in the visibility score. Meanwhile the i fell from 12.7 to 7.9.
Sistrix’s visibility index measures how successful a website is in Google search results, assigning higher scores to sites that rank better in search results.
Television
Netflix’s profile transfer is a password crackdown trojan horse
Netflix has rolled out a new feature that allows you to transfer your individual viewer profile from one account to another, reports News Corp’s Wenlei Ma.
While that’s convenient for some, it’s hardly game-changing for most.
But that, of course, is far from the whole story. What it really is though is it’s another quiver in the streaming company’s commitment to cracking down on password sharing. It just won’t tell you that outright.
It’s a classic softening-the-ground tactic, designed to have in place rebuttals to the inevitable backlash that will come.
Consider how Netflix announced this fancy, supposedly in-demand feature. It’s been packaged as a feature for viewers who find themselves, for example, in a relationship breakdown and want to take their profile with them, even if they have to leave behind those wine glasses and their emotional stability.
Meghan and Harry’s Netflix show ‘delayed’ after backlash over new series of The Crown
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix documentary has been delayed amid backlash over the new series of The Crown, reports News Corp’s Forrest McFarland.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s highly anticipated show – set to tell their “love story” – has been pushed back from November to 2023, The Sun understands.
Netflix executives are reportedly “rattled” by the ongoing storm around the latest series of their hit drama The Crown.
Bosses have been blasted for “inventing” scenes of a younger Charles trying to oust the Queen.
The show is also under fire for filming the last moments of Princess Diana — played by Elizabeth Debicki — before the 1997 car crash in Paris that killed her.
Neighbours wins at Inside Soap Awards (UK)
Retired Aussie soap Neighbours has picked up two awards at Britain’s Inside Soap Awards, reports TV Tonight.
Ramsay Street favourites won Best Daytime Soap and Stefan Dennis was voted Best Daytime Star.
EastEnders and Emmerdale were the big winners as voted by readers of Inside Soap.
Sports Media
Nine signs two year deal with Golf Australia
Nine has signed a two year broadcast deal with Golf Australia for two major upcoming events, reports TV Tonight.
The Australian PGA Championship will be held at Royal Queensland in November, and the Australian Open in December at Victoria Golf Club and Kingston Heath, screening across Nine / 9Now.
Nine’s Director of Sport, Brent Williams, said: “The Australian Open and Australian PGA Championship are premium tournaments with a rich history and Wide World of Sports is proud to be a broadcast partner for the next two years. The quality of Australian golf is at an all-time high, and the players confirmed to take part in these revered events ensure there will be plenty of interest from golf fanatics and sports lovers on both the 9Network and 9Now.”