Business of Media
TikTok undercuts social media rivals with cheap ads in battle for growth
TikTok is offering cheaper advertising rates than rival social media platforms as the fast-growing video app moves to grab a larger share of the digital ads market amid a slowdown in online spending, report Financial Times’ Cristina Criddle and Arjun Neil Alim.
Advertisers, industry bodies and brands have told the Financial Times an increasing amount of ad spend has moved from platforms such as Twitter and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, over to TikTok owing to lower costs and better levels of engagement.
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, has shaken up the social media industry as it has rapidly grown to more than a billion users worldwide. The short-form video app, which first launched ads in 2019, has also been undercutting rivals at a time when marketing budgets are narrowing.
Figures shared by New York-based media agency VaynerMedia from 2022 show that the cost to obtain 1000 impressions from video advertising on TikTok is almost half the price of Instagram Reels, a third cheaper than Twitter and 62 per cent cheaper than advertising on Snapchat.
Advertising soared on TikTok in the fourth quarter of last year. The top 1000 advertisers in the US increased their spending on the viral video platform by 66 per cent to $US467 million ($676 million) from September to October 2022, according to data from Pathmatics, a market intelligence company.
Netflix revokes some staff’s access to other people’s salary information
Netflix Inc. is restricting some staff’s ability to see other employees’ salary information, people familiar with the matter said, a major shift for a company that has long offered a rare degree of transparency to its workforce, report the Wall Street Journal’s Jessica Toonkel and Sarah Krouse.
For years, director-level executives at Netflix could look up colleagues’ compensation. But late last year, Netflix stopped letting them do so, some of the people said. Directors are senior managers with titles that rank below the C-suite and vice president roles.
Netflix co-chief executive Reed Hastings has long championed transparency as key to the company’s culture. “For our employees, transparency has become the biggest symbol of how much we trust them to act responsibly,” Hastings wrote in “No Rules Rules,” his 2020 book on the company’s corporate culture and practices. The company aimed to increase candor and let employees make good decisions without heavy managerial interference, he wrote, something that required “increasing organizational transparency and eliminating company secrets.”
The pay-transparency change was made in part because the number of directors had ballooned in recent years as the company kept growing, some of the people said.
Disney CEO Bob Iger tells staff to return to office four days a week
Disney’s boss has told employees who are working from home to return to the office four days a week from the start of March, according to reports, reports The Guardian’s Julia Kollewe.
Bob Iger, the chief executive, said hybrid workers will be asked to treat “Monday through Thursday as in-person workdays”, according to an email seen by CNBC, which first reported the news.
“As I’ve been meeting with teams throughout the company over the past few months, I’ve been reminded of the tremendous value in being together with the people you work with,” Iger wrote.
“As you’ve heard me say many times, creativity is the heart and soul of who we are and what we do at Disney. And in a creative business like ours, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe and create with peers that comes from being physically together, nor the opportunity to grow professionally by learning from leaders and mentors.”
Entertainment
Signal Podcast Awards: HBO Max, Netflix among inaugural winners
The Signal Awards, a podcast award from the organizers of the internet-focused Webby Awards, unveiled a wide-ranging group of winners for its inaugural year, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s J. Clara Chan.
The Signal Awards received nearly 1,700 entries for its dozens of awards, which were divided across four categories: individual episodes, limited series and specials, shows and branded shows and advertising.
The inaugural batch of winners included HBO Max’s Winning Time, Hacks and Insecure companion podcasts; Netflix’s Skip Intro; Pineapple Street Studios’ Back Issue and 70 Over 70; and Pushkin Industries’ Well Read Black Girl.
In the public voting categories, where more than 135,000 fans cast votes for their favorite shows, podcasts like The Bald and the Beautiful with Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova, The Fantasy Footballers, Mother Country Radicals and Stay Tuned With Preet received the most votes, according to the Signal Awards.
Cate Blanchett leads Aussie charge at Golden Globes
Cate Blanchett has firmed as Australia’s safest bet at the Golden Globes as the ceremony returns to centre stage after a year in the wilderness, reports News Corp’s Lisa Woolford.
The three-time Globe winner is the odds-on favourite to take home her fourth statuette as the awards show celebrates its 80th anniversary at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Her tour de force performance as the titular character – Berlin Philharmonic’s fictional director, an artistic genius and intimidating force with an eye for pretty female underlings – in Tar, sees her streets ahead of her fellow nominees Michelle Williams, Viola Davis, Ana de Armas and Olivia Colman in the Best Film Drama Actress category.
Adopted Aussie Austin Butler is sneaking up on the current frontrunner Brendan Fraser in the male Best Film Drama Actor for his complete inhabitation of Elvis in Baz Luhrmann’s epic biopic.
Radio
Anthony Hudson reveals motivations behind shock radio defection
Anthony Hudson has opened up about his shock radio defection, saying it felt like the right time to return to where his career started, reports News Corp’s Jackie Epstein.
Hudson left SEN in October after almost two decades at the sports station and has now joined 3AW to call all Friday night matches for the upcoming footy season.
“I’ve had a fantastic opportunity at SEN and thoroughly enjoyed my time there,’’ Hudson said.
“I was flattered that they (3AW) wanted me to come back and I felt like it was a good time to go back.
“I’m excited to be there and to be working with all the people, most of whom I’ve worked with at some stage before so I know their talents.
“I know it sounds cliche, but it’s a new challenge and I’m looking forward to being part of the team.”
After dumping Neighbours, Channel 5 looks to more UK drama
UK Channel 5 is enjoying a lift in ratings following the success of its locally-made dramas such as All Creatures Great & Small, reports TV Tonight.
The third series was watched by 3.8m viewers and helped boost its audience share for a fourth consecutive year. Ratings were up 1% to an overall share of 4.5% last year, compared with 4.47% in 2021. This was against a backdrop of other broadcasters, including Channel 4, losing audience share.
Last year Channel 5 announced it would end its commissioning of Neighbours to focus on UK made dramas -although it has several mini-series co-productions with the Neighbours production team lead by producer Jason Herbison.
Sports Media
McEnroe out in Australian Open commentary shake-up
Tennis legend John McEnroe won’t be part of Channel Nine’s tennis commentary team this year, reports News Corp’s Jackie Epstein.
McEnroe isn’t making the trip to Australia with his employer ESPN so his expertise won’t be shared for this year’s coverage of the Australian Open.
The Nine team has also lost former Aussie tennis player Sam Groth who was voted in as the Member for Nepean at November’s state election.
A regular face in former champion Jim Courier, a stalwart of commentary and on-court interviewing, is returning.
He will feature along with Todd Woodbridge, Lleyton Hewitt, Jelena Dokic, Dylan Alcott, Casey Dellacqua, Sam Smith, Alicia Molik, Mark Philippoussis, Darren Cahill and Peter Psaltis.