100% Media Roundup: Meta, Pinterest, Audi, Netflix, Twitter, Washington Post
This is a daily digest of news stories from around the media world, updated by The Media Leader team, to ensure you’re 100% up-to-date.
Friday, 8 July
Meta VR headsets will no longer require Facebook accounts
Users of Meta’s Quest VR headset will no longer be required to log in via their Facebook account; instead they will need to create new “Meta accounts”.
The change reflects the distaste for the Facebook account requirement and Meta’s interest in expanding its focus beyond Facebook through the metaverse.
Meta account creation will still require users to submit personal information, but is “not a social media profile”, according to the company’s announcement.
The change will begin this August.
Pinterest launches suite of shopping tools
Pinterest has launched five shopping tools to help promote and monetise products to shoppers browsing the platform.
The Pinterest API for Shopping introduces new catalogue and data features to improve data quality for products.
Inspired merchant badges allow merchants to add badges to profiles to represent values and communities, such as Black-owned and sustainable.
Video in catalogues offers Pinners views of products from multiple angles as merchants can upload video assets to their product catalogue.
Product tagging on pins will make Pins shoppable and Shop Tab on business profiles lets merchants create a customisable display of shoppable products including images and descriptions with an enhance mobile interface.
This is the latest in Pinterest’s investments in commerce, and the platform has reported the number of Pinners engaging with shopping surfaces on the platform has grown more than 215% in the past year.
Audi inks sponsorship deal with Sky Media
German car brand Audi has become the new sponsor of Sky Documentaries from 9 July 2022.
The deal was planned and brokered between Omnicom Media Group’s PHD and Sky Media and comprises a series of idents (pictured- below) focussing on its electric vehicles across its documentary programming, including titles The Princess, One Shot: The Football Factory and Kingdom of Dreams.
The sponsorship will run for a minimum of one year and also includes catch up, video on-demand (VOD), Social and Sky AdVance inventory
Netflix introduces spatial audio
Netflix has collaborated with Sennheiser to introduce spatial audio to the platform.
The new feature is now available on all devices, though only a few shows—like Netflix productions Stranger Things and The Witcher—currently support it.
Read more on Netflix: Ads are coming to Netflix and Disney+. How will it affect the industry?
Twitter claims it blocks over 1 million spam accounts daily
Twitter claimed to reporters that it removes in excess of 1 million spam accounts every day, according to reports.
Reuters reported the social media company reiterated that spam accounts were “under 5% of users who are served advertising”.
In May, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal stated that Twitter suspends “over half a million spam accounts every day, usually before any of you even see them on Twitter”.
Twitter’s handling of spam accounts has come under scrutiny from Elon Musk, who threatened to walk away from his $44bn deal to buy the company over the issue.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the deal is now “in peril” as Musk’s camp questions the verifiability of Twitter’s spam account figures.
The Washington Post names Shipley as editorial page editor
The Washington Post has named David Shipley as its new editorial page editor, where he will oversee The Post’s opinion section and staff.
He replaces Fred Hiatt, who served as opinion editor from 2000 until his death last December.
Shipley joins from Bloomberg, where he was co-founder and senior editor of the publication’s opinion section.
He also previously held editorial positions at The New York Times and The New Republic, and served as senior speechwriter in the Clinton administration.
Former New York Times and Huffington Post editor and current Bloomberg columnist Tim O’Brien will become the new editor of Bloomberg Opinion, according to a report from The New York Times.
Thursday, 7 July
Channel 4 partners with TV talent company to help indies build more diverse senior teams
Channel 4 has partnered with Gritty Talent to support independent TV production companies in creating more diverse senior teams.
This forms part of the legacy of The Black to Front Project, helping to provide more opportunities on and off-screen for diverse and disabled talent on TV, and also the broadcaster’s new Commissioning Diversity Guidelines published last month which require all indies it works with to have ethnically diverse and disabled off-screen talent on its production teams.
These guidelines come into force on 1 August and Gritty Talent have been commissioned to define skills and talent shortages across the UK in specific genres, and then find appropriate talent to fill those gaps.
News and current affairs, factual entertainment and documentaries will be the first genres under such examination.
Reddit enters NFT market with collectible avatars
Reddit is launching a “Collectible Avatars storefront” to sell limited-edition avatars made by independent artists.
The avatars will use the Polygon blockchain technology to provide purchasers proof of ownership, similar to other NFT artworks and collectibles.
Creating an avatar has been a part of the Reddit experience since 2015, with a “new and improved” avatar builder launched two years ago.
Now, Reddit is tapping into the NFT-market by giving users the ability to purchase unique avatars, through which artists “will be paid for each Collectible Avatar sold”.
Avatars will be priced at a fixed amount and available for purchase with fiat currency rather than cryptocurrency.
Netflix announces expanded slate of Duffer Brothers projects
Stranger Things showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer have formed a new production company, Upside Down Pictures, for film and television projects as part of a deal with Netflix.
The expanded slate of projects in active development includes a new live-action television adaption of Death Note, a series adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s The Talisman, a new stage play set within the world of Stranger Things, and a separate Stranger Things spin-off series.
Producer Hilary Leavitt (Ozark, Orphan Black) has been hired to run the production company.
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports reports record European audience
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports announced a record first half of the year, with double-digit audience and engagement growth on all its channels and platforms in Europe.
Linear television audiences have increased 10% year-on-year across Eurosport and Warner Bros. Discovery’s live sport free-to-air networks, with particularly high increases in Spain (+46%), France (+23%), Italy (+19%), Poland (+18%), and the UK (+12%).
Regarding streaming, sport video views on Discovery+ more than doubled (+149%) and streaming minutes more than tripled (+213%) year-on-year, leading to an increase in unique streaming viewers of 24%.
The high viewing numbers were aided by the Beijing Winter Olympics, the year’s first two tennis Grand Slams, and the Giro d’Italia.
Vevo partners with WebAds for ad sales in Europe
Music video network Vevo has announced a partnership with independent sales house WebAds, which will now have permission to conduct direct ad sales on behalf of Vevo in European markets.
Under the partnership, advertisers will now be able to buy Vevo ad inventory on CTV in France, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands through WebAds.
Bauer Media Audio UK appoints Black as director of music
Bauer Media Audio UK has appointed Pete Black to the newly created role of director of music.
Black (pictured-below) will be responsible for music across Bauer’s famous radio brands and audio output, as well as for building strategic relationships with labels, managers, and artists in the UK and internationally.
Before coming to Bauer, Black oversaw the strategy and ran the promotions teams for all joint-venture labels across Sony UK.
He will report to chief content and music officer Ben Cooper.
Disney appoints Kristen Finney for new international content strategy role
Disney has hired Kristen Finney for the newly-created role of executive vice president, content curation of Disney’s International Content and Operations (IC&O) group, according to reports.
Finney previously worked as the executive VP for content distribution strategy and development at Disney’s direct-to-consumer division.
In her new role, she will lead content curation across four international regions—EMEA, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and India.
Wednesday, 6 July
Comcast Advertising announces James Rooke as president
Comcast Advertising announced that James Rooke has been named to the role of president.
Rooke, who previously served as general manager of Comcast Audience’s Effectv, will oversee the operation of the company, whose brands also include FreeWheel and AudienceXpress.
He replaces Marcien Jenckes, who is exiting the role to serve as managing director for Comcast Advertising in a dual role on the joint venture between Charter and Comcast to develop a next generation streaming platform.
Ofcom says it ‘will not censor’ online content under new powers from Online Safety Bill
Ofcom has set out a roadmap to implement online safety regulation, based on the Online Safety Bill introduced in the UK Parliament earlier this year.
The regulator clarified it will be required to “adequately protect citizens from harm by ensuring online services make appropriate use of systems and processes to keep users safe”, as the Online Safety Bill draft currently stands.
Ofcom went on to clarify that it “will not censor online content” as the Bill did not confer power on the organisation to pass judgement on individual items of content or accounts.
Therefore the presence of “harmful or illegal content” will not establish if the online service has complied its duties under the Bill, but the concern will lie with the use of systems and processes to protect users.
Comscore appoints Jon Carpenter as CEO
Media measurement and analytics company Comscore has announced Jon Carpenter as the company’s new CEO.
Carpenter (pictured-above) served as the Nielsen competitor’s chief financial officer since November 2021, and previously worked in financial leadership roles at NBCUniversal, Nielsen, and Publisher’s Clearing House (PCH).
He will replace the retiring Bill Livek as head of the company.
Netflix’s Stranger Things 4 surpasses 1 billion hours viewed
Stranger Things 4 pulled an additional 301.28 million hours viewed on Netflix this week, pushing it above 1 billion total viewing hours over its first four weeks.
It is just the second Netflix series to cross 1 billion hours viewed, following Squid Game, which received 1.65 billion viewing hours in its first four weeks.
Horizon Media launches B2B growth practice
Horizon Media has announced the launch of Green Thread, an independent business-to-business practice under the Horizon Media umbrella.
The practice will focus on the goal of improving financial performance at client companies by connecting their sales and marketing approaches and activities.
To support Green Thread’s operational development, Horizon also acquired advisory and research firm the Revenue Enablement Institute (REI).
REI’s managing director Stephen Diorio will continue to lead the institute and report to Green Thread President Chris Hummel.
ITV News promotes Andrew Dagnell to editor
ITV News has promoted Andrew Dagnell from head of newsgathering to editor of Network News.
In the editor role, he will be responsible for ITV’s national news programmes, ITV News London, ITN-produced Tonight programmes, live specials, documentaries for ITV and ITV news’ website and livestream.
This announcement follows the recent appointment of Rachel Corp, the current editor, to CEO of ITN.
Dagnell first joined ITV News London as news editor in October 2014, and prior to that had roles such as senior producer at Good Morning Britain at ITV, reporter on Reach-owned Sunday Mirror, reporter at the now disbanded News UK-owned News of The World, reporter at Ferrari Press Agency and reporter at Wales On Sunday, Western Mail and South Wales Echo.
DoubleVerify appoints vice president of global client partnerships
DoubleVerify, the platform for digital media measurement, has appointed Carolyn Watt as its vice president of global client partnerships.
Watt (pictured-below) starts immediately in the role, based in London.
She will be responsible for building relationships with DoubleVerify’s largest global customers and leading its global, regional and local teams identifying needs and delivering solutions for advertiser partners.
Most recently, she was global head of strategy and innovation at Quantcast.
Tuesday, 5 July
Ex-Sky sales boss joins Astus Trading
Duncan Wynn, former Sky media sales director, has joined Astus Trading as investment director.
In the newly created role, Wynn (pictured- below), will build on the company’s core business, helping advertisers “offset” media buying costs through using their products and services.
Astus works with more than 150 international clients and their agencies clients to “deliver value” in their media buying.
ISBA appoints new president
ISBA has chosen Margaret Jobling, chief marketing officer of NatWest Group as its new president.
Jobling (pictured- below) has been an ISBA member for 10 years and served as a council member for seven years.
She starts immediately and takes over from Peter Duffy, CEO of Moneysupermarket, who has been ISBA president for two years and a vocal supporter of its cross-media measurement initiative Project Origin.
Phil Smith, director general at ISBA, said that Jobling was their first choice of successor
The Guardian announces special edition women’s football podcast
The Guardian has announced a new special edition women’s football podcast: The Guardian’s Women’s Football Weekly.
The podcast, hosted by sports presenter Faye Carruthers, adds to The Guardian‘s widespread coverage of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 tournament.
New episodes will be released twice a week for the duration of the tournament, with a focus on match round-ups and analysis from special guests and contributors.
The Guardian‘s digital newsletter, “Moving the Goalposts”, is also launching a special edition for the Women’s EURO, which kicks off Wednesday.
HBO Max ‘halts original productions in Europe’
Warner Bros. Discovery is abandoning original HBO Max productions across Europe as part of a global strategic review following its merger in May, according to reports.
Development in the Central Europe, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Turkey has ceased.
Productions in France and Spain are unaffected.
TikTok to halt expansion of TikTok Shop
TikTok is abandoning its ecommerce expansion of “TikTok Shop” in Europe and the US, according to a report by The Financial Times.
ByteDance launched TikTok Shop in the UK in September 2021, where influencers livestream themselves with products that are available for sale.
But according to the report, the ecommerce project failed to meet targets and its expansion outside the UK to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the US has been dropped.
The Media Leader understands that such expansion plans were never concrete.
In an interview with The Media Leader last week, ByteDance executives Stuart Flint and Trevor Johnson stated that “livestreaming is going to be a really, really important part of our proposition” and that ecommerce would see heavy investment in the future.
In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson said: “We are always looking at ways to enhance our community’s experience and regularly test new features that inspire creativity, bring joy and innovate the TikTok experience in markets around the world. Brands in TikTok have found a creative outlet to authentically connect with audiences, and we’re excited to experiment with new commerce opportunities that enable our community to discovery and engage with what they love”.
Read more on TikTok: FCC commissioner asks Apple, Google to remove TikTok from app stores
DMG Media relaunches paid digital subscription Mail+
The Mail+ subscription app has been relaunched with a “more unified approach” including access to select print content, podcasts, Mail Online stories, videos, puzzles and more.
The newly launched Mail+ gives readers two ways to read content from The Daily Mail papers not always seen on the Mail Online, a page-turning digital edition and a website-style interactive edition, as well as a preview of stories running in the newspaper at 5pm the previous day.
Podcasts from columnists like Sarah Vine and Liz Jones as well as video show Palace Confidential will also be available on Mail+.
With the relaunch, there is an introductory three month trial for £1 offer, and afterwards Mail+ monthly subscription will cost £10.99 or annual subscription will be £65.
Reach creates and fills chief digital publisher role on executive committee
Reach, the regional and national UK publisher, has promoted David Higgerson from deputy editor-in-chief for audience and customer to the new role of chief digital publisher.
Higgerson (pictured- below) will report directly to chief executive officer Jim Mullen and continue to lead on audience delivery, with a new focus on reader diversification, particularly youth audience, video strategy and a new launch in this area hinted at later this year.
There will be a “dotted line” to group editor-in-chief Lloyd Embley, who will main overall editorial insight and accountability for Reach brands.
Starcom and Channel 4 release final instalments of Brave Stories
Publicis media agency Starcom and Channel 4 have released the final two episodes of Brave Stories examining experiences of ageism and ethnicity in the media industry.
The six-part short film series aims to address workplace taboos and encourage more inclusivity in media by matching interviewers from Channel 4 with Starcom employees to discuss topics including introversion, neurodiversity, maternity and pregnancy, addiction and mental health for 20 minutes per episode.
Episode five features Francis Cheang, agency investment lead at Channel 4, interviewing Curtis Weir, OOH group director at Publicis Media, about his experience of being a black British man with dyslexia progressing in the media industry.
Episode six focusses on ageism with a conversation between Katrin Schlenzka from Starcom’s PGOne team and Claire Peters, deputy head of clients at Channel 4.
Each episode is available to watch on Starcom UK’s YouTube channel and 4Sales website.
Minions: The Rise of Gru breaks July 4th weekend box office records
Universal Pictures’ Minions: The Rise of Gru has broken July 4th weekend box office records in the US as families flocked to theaters to see the Despicable Me prequel.
The animated film made an estimated $125m domestically in its debut over the long weekend, breaking previous record-holder Transformers: Dark of the Moon which made $115m in 2011.
The success is the latest example of cinemagoers flocking back to theatres in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
Read more: Nostalgia wins at the box office with Jurassic World and Top Gun: Maverick.
Monday, 4 July
NBCUniversal to end its Olympic Channel
NBCUniversal is ending its Olympic Channel, according to reports.
The channel was originally launched in 2017 and showed Olympic sports, world championships, and qualifiers around the year, though main coverage of the Olympics was typically shown on other NBC channels such as NBC Sports.
Some of the material shown on the channel may end up on NBCU’s streaming service Peacock.
Meta to shut down cryptocurrency wallet pilot
Meta is shutting down its digital wallet pilot, Novi, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The digital cryptocurrency money-transfer service was launched in October 2021 as part of a scaled back strategy for Meta to tap into the crypto market.
The company had previously proposed a stablecoin payment system known as Libra (later changed to Diem) before regulatory concerns ultimately killed the project.
Novi will end on September 1.
First Direct to sponsor new C4 programme
In its first partnership with Channel 4, First Direct will sponsor the new programme The Essentials on 4.
The sponsorship will run for a year from 1 July 2022 and include sponsorship idents, created by Wunderman Thompson, alongside homepage takeovers of Channel 4’s video-on-demand platform All 4.
The Essentials on 4 will broadcast shows from the All 4 Collection Lounge including The Vampire Diaries and Smallville.
The sponsorship deal was brokered by 4Sales and Omnicom’s media group PHD UK.
Spotify and Netflix partner for Stranger Things 4 playlist
Spotify, in partnership with Netflix, released an updated Upside Down Playlist last week in advance of Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2’s release.
The fourth season of the Netflix flagship has had a big effect on the music industry, with Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” topping the charts earlier this summer.
The “Stranger Things effect” has also boosted streams of Musical Youth’s “Pass The Dutchie” and Metallica’s “Master of Puppets”.
Bloomberg Green expands its team and content offering
Bloomberg’s climate and sustainability-focussed section plans to grow its team and add a video show, podcast and new sub-verticals this year.
Bloomberg Green first launched with five sections in January 2020, and will add New Energy, ESG Investing, Weather & Science, Electric Vehicles, Climate Politics, Cleaner Tech and Greener Living next month.
Through these verticals, Bloomberg Green plans to offer more “service-oriented content”, like climate solutions content giving consumers ways to live a more climate-conscious life.
According to a report in Digiday, Bloomberg Green has tripled its headcount since its launch and its revenue this year is on track to be a 100% increase compared to 2020.
Vice Media Group relaunches programme to give $50k in ad inventory to black-owned businesses
Vice Media Group has brought back its programme to support small Black-owned businesses, Black+, for a second year.
Five businesses will be selected, compared to 12 last year, to receive $50,000 pro-bono ad inventory in the form of banner ads and pre-roll, alongside editorial coverage on Vice, Refinery29 and i-D.
The qualifying businesses, those that can create new jobs and build community according to VMG global CMO, Nadja Bellan-White, will also be offered custom research from Vice Insights and consulting from Vice Media Group’s creative agency, Virtue.