100% Media Roundup: 15 August- 19 August

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, 19 August

ITV nets Google and KFC as World Cup coverage sponsors

Google Pixel and KFC Delivery will sponsor ITV’s FIFA World Cup 2022 coverage.

The 50/50 sponsorship deal, which was arranged in partnership with ITV, Mindshare, Essence, and MediaCom, kicks off as the tournament begins in November and runs to the final on 18 December.

As part of the package, both sponsors will showcase custom made idents during ITV’s live coverage of 33 matches and highlights shows during the tournament in Qatar.

ITV, which shares the tournament rights with the BBC, will show England’s group game against the US, Wales group game against the US, and will have picks one and two of the round of 16 and first pick of the quarter-final stages.

CNN Originals hub launches on Discovery+

Discovery+ has added a CNN Originals hub to its US streaming service.

The move comes after CNN’s own streaming service, CNN+—where much of the content was placed previously—was shut down less than a month after its launch following the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery.

The offering on Discovery+ includes over 800 episodes of programming across CNN Original Series, CNN Films, and HLN Original Series.

Noteworthy titles include Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown and Diana.

Read more about Warner Bros. Discovery here:

Arnell: Holy budget cuts, Batman!

Just how big is Warner Bros. Discovery’s debt problem?

Downloaded YouTube Shorts will be watermarked

YouTube announced in a feature update that creators that download their Shorts—it’s short-form video feature—to share across other platforms will now find a watermark added to the content.

The watermark is just the latest signal of how competitive the short-form video content market has become, as Meta’s Facebook and Instagram and Google’s YouTube have moved to copy the success of TikTok.

Snap ‘giving up on’ development of Pixy drone

Snap is halting development on its Pixy flying selfie drone, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The small drone was announced just four months ago, but its sunsetting comes as Snap is struggling financially following consecutive quarters of poor performance.

According to the report, Snap will continue to sell the current iteration of the Pixy, which costs $230.

P. Diddy’s media company Revolt launches podcast network

Black-owned media company Revolt, which was co-founded by Sean Combs (also known as P. Diddy), is launching its own podcast network.

The music-oriented television network is dipping its toes into podcasting, highlighting 20 new podcasts it is producing as part of its launch.

Revolt CEO Detavio Samuels said the new initiative will provide a platform for rising thought leaders who will share compelling stories and insights about news, comedy, sports, business, entrepreneurship, and more as a leading example of Revolt’s “commitment to creating entertaining and educational content while uplifting Black voices”.

CNN cancels Reliable Sources, Brian Stelter exits

CNN has announced it is ending Reliable Sources.

Hosted by Brian Stelter, who provides coverage of the American news media, it was CNN’s longest-running show.

The Sunday morning program, which celebrated its 30^th anniversary this year, will air its final show this Sunday, August 21.

Stelter, who worked as a media reporter for The New York Times and as editor of TVNewser before joining CNN in 2013, hosted Reliable Sources for the past nine years.

I loved anchoring @ReliableSources. It was a rare privilege to lead a weekly show focused on the press at a time when it has never been more consequential. And here’s the thing…

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 18, 2022

Previous hosts were Bernard Kalb and Howard Kurtz.

The Reliable Sources newsletter, which Stelter started in 2015 alongside CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy, will continue to be produced, headed by Darcy, after a brief hiatus to “reimagine” the product.

Big Ten signs record $7.5bn TV deal

The Big Ten Conference has signed the largest ever TV deal for collegiate sports, selling its TV rights to the likes of Fox, CBS, and NBC for a combined $7.5bn over the next seven years.

The conference’s previous deal was worth $2.6bn over six years, signifying a major increase in the price of sports media rights.

While the deal will see the majority of games televised via linear TV, some games will be available via streaming.

Fox will cover games from noon on Saturdays, while CBS will nab a slate of 3:30pm games for broadcast on linear and Paramount+, and NBC will broadcast night games on linear and Peacock.

The new arrangement will take effect next July, ahead of the 2023-2024 college football season.

HELLO! launches outdoor partnership for video series

BAFTA targets career campaign at 16- 34 cinemagoers

BAFTA has launched a cinema ad campaign to show “the huge diversity of career pathways” into screen industries.

The sixty-second cinema spot was created by DCM Studios and is narrated by double-BAFTA winner Big Zuu.

The ad will premiere on 19 August nationwide and run for seven weeks aimed at a “broad, diverse audience” aged 16-34, who make up 50% of cinemagoers.

To better target this young audience, the ad will appear alongside films including Jordan Peele’s latest release, Nope, Olivia Wilde’s thriller with Harry Styles, Don’t Worry Darling, and David Leitch’s action comedy starring Brad Pitt, Bullet Train.

There will be a complementary campaign running across BAFTA’s social platforms to highlight paths into the industry to “inspire the next generation” to take their first steps in a career in the creative industries.

Thursday, 18 August

The Guardian appoints Isaac as city editor

The Guardian has appointed Anna Isaac as city editor on its business desk, the latest in a series of key hires.

Isaac will join in the autumn from The Independent, where she is economics editor. She will focus on reporting the changing face of Britain’s financial centre, corporate investigations and the flow of money and power between business and politics.

The newly-created role is part of an ongoing revamp of the newsbrand’s  business coverage, led by head of business John Collingridge, to focus more on investigations, long reads, exclusives and analysis. Angela Monaghan has also been promoted to live business news editor from assistant business editor.

Planned Parenthood to ‘spend record $50m’ on midterm ads

Reproductive health care provider Planned Parenthood plans to spend a record $50m on political ads in the run-up to the November 8 midterm elections, according to reports.

That is more than double Planned Parenthood’s previous midterm election cycle investment of $20m in 2018.

The political ad investment, which will be used to help pro-abortion rights campaigners in key races across the country, comes after the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June.

Planned Parenthood’s previous adspend record was $45m in 2020.

Walmart reports 30% growth in advertising business

Walmart reported in its Q2 earnings that its global advertising business grew nearly 30% year-over-year, led by Walmart Connect and Flipkart.

In the retail company’s earnings call, CEO Doug McMillon stated that Walmart more than doubled (+121%) the number of active advertisers investing with it.

He added: “Improvements to search and our large first-party shopper data have led to performance improvements for our advertisers, both year-over-year and sequentially”.

Read more on Walmart here:

Walmart+ partners with Paramount+ on bundle offering

Reddit encourages third-party bot and app development with new dev platform

Reddit will soon be launching the Reddit Developer Platform, “a unified space for developers to create and launch programs and apps to run specifically on Reddit”.

The new platform will support third-party developers who “may just want to create their own tools”, such as bots that detect Twitter links or remind users about events when prompted.

The Reddit Developer Platform will contain a suite of developer tools and resources that “will enable and empower developers” who otherwise currently “operate primarily as siloed resources for the communities they care about, utilizing limited resources and ad-hoc support”.

For interested developers, Reddit has launched a waitlist for the platform.

Vice World News to launch original channel and show on Twitch

Vice World News is claiming to be the first global news publisher to launch an original show and channel on Twitch.

The two-hour show, co-hosted by Dexter Thomas and Samir Ferdowsi, will debut on August 23 and air Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00am-1:00pm ET.

The show will “offer a distinctive Vice News take on major news stories and highlight Vice News’ biggest scoops and investigations”.

Other news publications have already dipped their toes into Twitch—Rolling Stone and The Washington Post have (irregularly) hosted streams on the platform, and startup news outlet The Recount launched a first-of-its-kind live news program on Twitch in May.

Read more on Twitch here:

Acquisition target Vice Media was the future once. What now?

Bally Sports+ live sports streaming service to launch in September

Diamond Sports Group, a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, has announced a direct-to-consumer streaming service, Bally Sports+, which will launch in the US on September 26.

Bally Sports+ had an “introductory launch” in June in five markets but will expand across 19 total regions to give fans across the country “a new option for watching their favorite local teams”.

Subscribers will be able to stream live, local NBA and NHL broadcasts, pre- and post-game shows, and regionally produced programming including collegiate and high school sports.

The streaming service will cost $19.99/month or $189.99/year.

Netflix will ‘disallow downloads on ad tier’

Netflix will prevent its ad tier subscribers from downloading shows and films, according to app developer Steve Moser who shared information about Netflix’s iOS app code with Bloomberg.

The streaming platform announced during its Q2 earnings that it planned to launch its ad tier sometime in early 2023, and that plans for its development are still being worked out.

Read more on Netflix here:

Stranger Things ‘delivers $27m’ in brand placement value

TikTok launches three shoppable ad formats

TikTok has launched three shopping ad formats to “help brands maximise the ecommerce potential of the platform”.

Video shopping ads will be available globally which will allow advertisers to highlight one or multiple products in in-feed video ads.

Live shopping ads are currently only available for testing where TikTok Shop is available, like the UK. These encourage users to move from their “For You” feed to a brand’s TikTok Shop livestream.

Catalog listing ads are being tested in the United States which offer advertisers the option to scale product catalogs across TikTok, extending reach beyond the “For You” feed.

These three new advertising formats can be accessed through product sales in TikTok Ads Manager.

Carat retains Vodafone media account

Dentsu agency, Carat, has become Vodafone’s “exclusive media provider” in 15 markets.

The renewed contract sees Carat become international media agency of record and will run until January 2023.

This marks an “expansion” of Carat and Vodafone’s previous relationship which dates back to 2019 when the agency first won the business.

Carat will continue to build “strong media connections” for Vodafone on track and will also explore new and innovative media opportunities across branded content and next generation technology touchpoints.

Read more on Dentsu here: 

Dentsu reports more than 8% group organic growth

Wednesday, 17 August

ITV and NFL announce three-year partnership

The National Football League has announced ITV as its new free-to-air TV partner.

The NFL was previously partnered with the BBC for the past seven years.

Laura Woods will present weekly hour-long coverage of the NFL alongside former two-time Super Bowl winning defensive end Osi Umenyiora and former cornerback Jason Bell.

ITV will air the Super Bowl, as well as two of the season’s three London Games—the New York Giants vs. the Green Bay Packers at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday October 9 and the Jacksonville Jaguars vs. the Denver Broncos at Wembley Stadium on Sunday October 30.

Publicis, Wavemaker and VaynerMedia to share $1.6bn Mondelez account

Publicis Groupe, Wavemaker, and Vayner Media have each won shares of the Mondelez media account worth $1.6bn following a global review.

Mondelez, the producer of Cadbury and Oreo, has appointed Publicis to lead its business in Latin America, Europe, Middle East, the North African Peninsula, South Africa and China. It will also be responsible for traditional video investment, content and multicultural marketing in the US and Canada.

This adds $450m in media billings across Europe to Publicis Groupe, including the UK, Italy, France, and Germany, with the former two previously with Carat and the latter two with Wavemaker.

A Wavemaker spokesperson said it had lost its European (France, Germany, Nordics) assignments in France, Germany and the Nordics in “a consolidation move that’s unrelated to the quality of work we’ve done”.

The account is with Wavemaker globally, and the WPP agency retained Australia, New Zealand, India and Japan and additionally won Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, meaning it has in excess of $225m of Mondelez business across these markets.

VaynerMedia has been retained to handle communications planning and digital planning in the US and Canada.

Sky Zero Footprint Fund awards £2m in media value

Sky has chosen five more brands to receive £250,000 each in media value from Sky’s Zero Footprint Fund.

The winning brands; Ecosia, Homethings, Royal Mail, Serious Tissues and WUKA (pictured, below), will now move into ad production to “fast-track” their sustainability initiatives, and then there will be another phase of judging which will see the most compelling creative secure a further £1m in media value.

The Sky Zero Footprint Fund was established as part of the Sky Zero campaign to be net zero carbon by 2030. It aims to support sustainability-focussed brands amplify their positive environmental messages via TV advertising.

All five of the ads will be produced using insights and tools from AdGreen, part of the Advertising Association supporting the ad industry’s commitment to net zero and reducing negative environmental impacts of production.

Fiona Ball, group director of the Bigger Picture at Sky, said: “Each of the winning brands from this year’s Sky Zero Footprint Fund delivers a critical message that aligns with ours; that sustainable can be attainable. And, with the opportunity to use the power of TV advertising, this message is amplified, ultimately driving positive change.”

A panel of experts with experience in advertising, creativity, and sustainability, assessed 15 live pitches from a shortlist before choosing the winning five brands on the merit of their creativity, impact and sustainable credibility.

Meta launches Horizon Worlds in France and Spain

Meta has launched Horizon Worlds, its “immersive social experience” metaverse property, in France and Spain.

The VR experience will be available to anyone 18+ and will require Meta’s Oculus Quest VR headset to access.

Horizon Worlds previously launched in the US and Canada in December 2021 and in the UK in June 2022.

Amazon partners with Nielsen for NFL Thursday Night Football measurement

Amazon has entered into a three-year agreement with Nielsen to measure Prime Video’s exclusive NFL Thursday Night Football (TNF) telecasts.

Measurement will include full coverage of the TNF broadcast (pregame, in-game, and postgame programming) on Prime Video as well as Amazon-owned Twitch.

The deal marks the first time a streaming service will have one of its live programs measured as part of Nielsen’s National TV measurement service.

Amazon is paying the NFL $1bn per year to broadcast 15 TNF games per season for the next 11 years.

Nielsen will begin measuring for Amazon with its first preseason broadcast on August 25.

Tuesday, 16 August

CNBC chairman Mark Hoffman to step down

Mark Hoffman, the chairman of CNBC for the past 17 years, is stepping down effective September 12, according to reports.

He will be replaced by KC Sullivan, president and MD, global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal.

Hoffman is leaving “of his own accord”, according to reporting from CNBC.

He first joined the outlet in 1997, became its president in 2005, and assumed the role of chairman in 2015.

BBC iPlayer attracts record viewers in first six months of 2022

BBC iPlayer has registered its best first six months of the year in terms of number of streams.

Programmes were streamed 140 million more times than the same period last year, and streamed more than 1.6 billion times between April and June, marking its “best ever” second quarter.

A combination of drama and live events drove the record viewing numbers, including the final series of Peaky Blinders, The Split and Killing Eve, Glastonbury Festival, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and the Eurovision Song Contest.

The final episode of Peaky Blinders series 6 starring Cillian Murphy (pictured, main image) had more than four million streams, making it the highest-performing episode between April and June 2022, while Glastonbury Festival (pictured, main image) was the second quarter’s best-performing boxset, netting 36 million streams by the end of June and 39.4 million to date.

Platinum Party at the Palace was streamed 3.1 million times on iPlayer, the FA Cup Final recorded 2.7 million streams and the Eurovision Song Contest had 2.4 million streams.

ANA introduces first guide for programmatic media buying

The Association of National Advertisers has released its first ever guide to help CMOs streamline the programmatic media buying process by removing waste and inefficiencies and maximizing ROI.

Recommendations for marketers include:

• Gather all existing bills associated with the media supply chain.
• Break down the expenses to the most granular level possible, aligning the bill items to the programmatic cost items.
• Reach out to suppliers to understand the line items that are not broken down to a granular level.
• Create a process to get access to this data on an ongoing basis.
• Make formal requests for the data that is not broken down.
• Prioritize the things that can be addressed first, such as agency and platform fees.
• Establish a process for tracking all progress.

 

The ANA says its recommendations could generate $8-16bn globally in savings each year.

eBay aims to reduce sneaker campaign emissions with Scope3

eBay has moved to cut carbon emissions from its “Sneakers Authenticity Guaranteed 2022” campaign through a partnership with green media company, Scope3.

Scope3 is building “the most comprehensive” dataset for supply chain emissions, starting with the advertising ecosystem so businesses can measure and compensate carbon emissions and thereby optimise campaigns.

With the support of Scope3 and MediaCom UK, eBay will reduce carbon emissions during the planning and launch phases of the digital campaign which will run until December.

Stuart Chick, data and tech Strategist at MediaCom said: “eBay’s approach should be commended, we’re excited by the prospect of standardising this approach with other clients as part of our long-term dedication to reduce carbon across all digital campaigns.”

eBay has reported it sells a pair of sneakers on its platform every four seconds, making it one of the most purchased product types on the second-hand resell platform.

Most of the emissions contributing to the advertising industry’s carbon footprint come from electricity used by millions of servers that bid to fill ad space in real time.

Earlier this year, Scope3 partnered with The GoodNet to measure and compensate carbon emissions from its campaigns and GroupM, MediaCom’s parent division and part of WPP, unveiled carbon measurement standard to organise decarbonisation practices.

Global’s DAX expands audio ad contract with SoundCloud

Global’s digital ad exchange (DAX) has retained and expanded its exclusive audio advertising contract with music entertainment company, SoundCloud.

The partnership will now include DAX selling integrated campaigns, artist and track sponsorship, events and custom partnerships in the UK.

This is in addition to spot ads which have been available to advertisers since 2016 when the partnership was originally signed.

DAX’s technology gives advertisers access to more than 130 million people listening to music streaming services, digital radio, and podcasts around the world.

Read more on Global here: 

Gatwick eyes ad expansion after retaining Global

Big Issue Group to deliver magazines across UK using branded e-vans

The Big Issue Group has agreed a three-year “green partnership” with Citroën UK who will provide a fleet of electric vans to distribute the magazines nationwide.

A total of 16 electric light commercial vehicles will make up the fleet, four of which will be on the road from this week, making The Big Issue more sustainable as its current vehicles cover 350,000 miles annually transporting two million magazines to 3300 vendors up and down the country.

The branded electric vans will appear first in Bristol and Bath (pictured, above), Bournemouth, Norwich and Newcastle, with plans to expand more over the next three years.

The partnership will also include content with “impact-led” commercial editorial features in both the print and digital editions of the social enterprise until next year.

Citroën will take exclusive sponsorship rights for The Big Issue’s Future of Transport edition and Top 100 Changemakers List special edition in January 2023.

Media planning and buying was negotiated by Publicis agency Starcom with Big Issue Group’s branded content department.

The Big Issue rebranded earlier this year and announced a new five-year strategy.

Omnicom Advertising Collective launches gaming solution LevelUp OAC

The Omnicom Advertising Collective has launched a new gaming solution for brands, LevelUp OAC.

The new solution brings together a suite of gaming capabilities led by experts from OAC agencies TMA and GSD&M.

LevelUp OAC will provide services related to gaming strategy, partnerships, media planning and buying, content creative and production, branded game concepting, AR and social AR development and strategy, and more.

Activist investor Third Point discloses $1bn stake in Disney, will push for changes

Activist hedge fund Third Point disclosed a $1bn (0.4%) stake in Disney on Monday, according to reports.

Daniel Loeb, the billionaire investor who runs Third Point, is reportedly seeking to push Disney to reshape its board, buy out Comcast’s remaining minority stake in Hulu to integrate the platform directly into Disney+, and spin off sports channel ESPN, among other proposals.

HBO Max lays off ‘around 70 employees’

HBO Max has laid off roughly 70 employees, according to reports.

The staff cuts amount to around 14% of workers who report to HBO chief content officer Casey Bloys, with unscripted and live-action family programming taking the biggest hit, according to The New York Times.

The move comes as Warner Bros. Discovery contends with concerns over its $53bn in debt, which may necessitate budget cuts.

Walmart+ partners with Paramount+ on bundle offering

Walmart is adding Paramount+ as a new streaming benefit for Walmart+ users, the company announced Monday.

Beginning in September, Walmart+ members will be able to access Paramount+’s content offering, which includes dramas such as 1883 and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, films like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and live sports.

Walmart+ will retain its $12.95/month price point.

The Daily Beast launches pop culture sub-brand Obsessed

The Daily Beast has launched a new sub-brand focused on pop culture.

Created off the back of the “Obsessed” weekly newsletter written for the past four years by Daily Beast senior entertainment editors Kevin Fallon and Marlow Stern, the new brand will contain reviews and hot takes about the entertainment industry.

Monday, 15 August

Nexstar Media Group acquires The CW

Nexstar Media Group has announced it is in definitive agreement to acquire a 75% ownership stake in the CW Network.

Current co-owners Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount will retain equal 12.5% minority stakes in the network and continue to produce original scripted content for it.

Mark Pedowitz will continue to serve as The CW’s chairman and CEO.

The channel is best known for shows such as Riverdale, Supernatural, and Smallville.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.

Snapchat+ eclipses 1 million subscribers, adds new features

Snapchat+, Snapchat’s subscription service, has eclipsed 1 million subscribers, the company announced today.

It is a significant milestone for the the social media platform, whose stock has slid nearly 75% year-to-date amid poor financial performance.

Snap also announced four new exclusive features for Snapchat+: priority story replies (users’ replies will be more visible to Snap Stars, Snapchat’s creators), the ability to send post-view emojis, new Bitmoji backgrounds, and new custom app icons.

The Specialist Works appoints managing partner, implementational planning

Independent media agency, The Specialist Works, has appointed Lee Baring as managing partner of implementational planning.

Baring (pictured, below) will be in charge of leading specialist teams across AV, publishing, online, radio and out-of-home (OOH) and ensuring the delivery of best work and solutions for clients.

He previously worked at VCCP Media for nine years, most recently as head of investment, but also as head of broadcast and head of TV, and prior to this held roles at 4th Floor Media, Sony, Media Campaign, Virgin Media, MPG, The Allmond Partnership, MediaCom and ITV.

The Specialist Works is part of What’s Possible Group.

Share of US teens using Facebook drops to 32% – Pew

Just 32% of American teens report using Facebook, according to a recent survey on teenage social media habits conducted by Pew Research.

That signifies a major drop from Pew’s 2014-2015 survey, where 71% of teens said they used Facebook.

The change underscores Facebook’s aging users problem and highlights Meta’s reasoning behind making significant changes to Facebook and Instagram to better compete with more popular social media platforms among teens, namely TikTok.

ByteDance’s short-form video app is used by two-thirds (67%) of teens according to the report, more than Facebook, Instagram (62%), and Snapchat (59%).

Reach workers vote to strike for four days in August

Employees at national and regional publisher Reach have voted to go on strike this month over a pay dispute.

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) balloted 1093 members at Reach on 12 August about industrial action, with a turnout of 70% achieved. 79% voted in favour of strike action and 88% in favour of action short of a strike.

Journalists at The Daily Mirror, The Daily Express, Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo, and many other regional titles will stop work for four days over the next month after turning down Reach’s offer of a 3% pay rise, arguing it is not enough to deal with the cost-of-living crisis.

Chris Morley, NUJ Reach national coordinator, said: “Our members have delivered a powerful message to Reach chiefs with the results today of this landmark ballot.

“It is unprecedented in the company’s history that more than 1,000 of its journalists have been mandated to take strike action and other industrial action. The fact that such a strong outcome has been achieved in the face of significant postal issues and in the peak holiday season should tell the company how determined our members are to achieve a better deal on their pay.”

Read more about Reach here: 

Reach CEO warns of ‘sector-wide slowdown’ in adspend

Daily Mail ‘approaches Boris Johnson for column’

Boris Johnson has reportedly been approached by The Daily Mail to write a column for the paper when he leaves Downing Street, according to reports in The Guardian.

Johnson started his journalist career at The Times in 1987, and was fired for fabricating a quote, before moving to The Telegraph as Brussels correspondent, and then political columnist between 1989 and 1999. He then moved to The Spectator as an editor between 1999 and 2005, before being elected as an MP

Read more on Boris Johnson and the press here: 

Are Boris Johnson’s press loyalists capable of moving on?

Snoddy: is Boris on the brink?