Apple‘s fiscal Q2 numbers beat Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom line in a market that was waiting for them with some trepidation — mainly news of iPhone sales in China. The dip there was less than anticipated. The stock is up more than 7% in after-hours trading. Apple shares had a huge 2023 but the stock has been nearly alone among the so-called Magnificent Seven tech stocks to lose ground so far in 2024.
Wall Street climbed Thursday to trim its loss for the week. Earnings reports from several big companies helped drive the market higher.
The Pulitzer Center has officially kicked off The AI Spotlight Series, a new training initiative that aims to teach 1,000 journalists how to do AI accountability reporting over the next two years. On April 21, roughly 40 journalists gathered at the University of California, Berkeley for the inaugural “Introduction to AI reporting” session, which was built to demystify basic AI concepts for reporters outside the tech beat.
The offer comes as the exclusive negotiating window between Skydance and the entertainment giant is about to expire.
With a few weeks left in the September-to-May season, CBS will end up as No. 1 in primetime for the 16th straight season. The network is averaging 5.59 million viewers each night, according to Nielsen’s seven-day figures (through April 21). That’s about 580,000 more than second-place NBC (5.01 million); ABC sits in third with 4.29 million; and Fox averages 3.35 million. The CW is back of the pack among English-language broadcasters with 462,000 primetime viewers.
SAG-AFTRA has enlisted Nielsen to cross-check the streaming data the union will be receiving from the Hollywood studios as part of the historic new deal struck in 2023, which provides bonuses based on streaming performance of movies and shows. The union said in a statement that in Nielsen, it will have “an objective source of domestic viewership data for original streaming programming” to compliment the performance numbers provided by the studios.
Jessica Casano-Antonellis, a former exec at Disney+, Hulu and Vimeo, is returning to the streaming sector as the head of communications for the new sports-centric service coming from ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery. As SVP of communications, Casano-Antonellis will head up all communications efforts for the joint venture, which does not yet have a name. As a member of the JV’s executive leadership team, Casano-Antonellis will report directly to CEO Pete Distad. (Maro Hagopian)
Brooks and Brunson to accept their awards at a star-studded ceremony on June 9 in Los Angeles. The 84th Annual Peabody Award winners will be announced on May 9.
Broitman, Katz chief operating officer since 2012, takes over on July 1.
Renard Jenkins, SMPTE president, along with AMD's Fred Walls and EBU's Alex Roulex explore the ongoing development work for AI standards currently in progress at SMPTE. They emphasize the importance of standards development, interoperability and authentication as key components to adoption which need to be integrated into the development and deployment process of the technology.
Sony Pictures Television has brought on Kate Gill as SVP, comedy development. In her new role, she will focus on developing new comedy series for all platforms for the U.S. scripted division. Reporting to Colin Davis, EVP, comedy development, Gill will be based in SPT’s Culver City, Calif., headquarters and starts her new role on May 13.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Thursday plugged her bill in Congress aimed at helping local media get more compensation from the likes of Facebook and Google by collaborating under an exemption from antitrust regulation — fittingly at the Business of TV News event in Washington. The Minnesota Democrat, who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, co-sponsored (with Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana) the Journalism, Competition and Preservation Act. That bill, which she said cleared the Judiciary Committee by a 14-7 bipartisan vote, helps address the challenges faced by news organizations that have seen revenue decline while Big Tech thrives.
From a studio space in Chelsea, Spotify hosted its first-ever NewFronts event on Wednesday. Discussing a steep rise in consumers' video consumption, Spotify's Head of Sales Ann Piper and Global Creative Director Kay Hsu highlighted new advertising opportunities in digital video on the platform. Spotify is focused on becoming a more “immersive” platform. It has already tackled “utility” and “curation” in previous years, according to the presentation with slides by Hsu.
DirecTV, Dish Network and Newsmax also joined the call for hearings in Washington, D.C. into the future of pay TV competition and its impact on consumers.
MeTV Toons, the latest digital broadcast network from Weigel Broadcasting, will debut June 25. The new network is a collaboration between Warner Bros. Discovery and Weigel that will deliver classic animation to viewers across free over-the-air broadcast channels and on traditional and virtual MVPD platforms as a free advertising-supported streaming television (FAST) channel.
Sports, politics, sex, SpongeBob: There’s nothing ESPN’s biggest star won’t argue about — as long as you keep listening.
Katherine Maher, the radio network’s new chief executive, has been in the spotlight since an editor published an essay accusing the organization of leftward-leaning bias.
The good news — or bad news, depending on how you look at it — is that consumer time spent with media continues to expand. The really bad news for the ad industry is that ad-supported media's share continues to decline, in both the U.S. and worldwide. Those are among the findings in the 2024 edition of an annual Global Consumer Media Usage Forecast by PQ Media. While total weekly time spent with media actually declined 0.4% to 76.69 hours in the U.S., and inched up only 0.3% to 56.15 hours worldwide, PQ forecasts it will rebound again this year and continue expanding for the foreseeable future.
With CBS’s #TheFBis in rerun mode, ABC’s Will Trent was Tuesday’s most-watched show and tied for the nightly demo win with 4.7 million total viewers and a 0.3 demo rating per Nielsen finals. On NBC, Lopez vs. Lopez's first episode drew a best-since-premiere audience (2.2 million) and matched its season high in the demo (with a 0.3); the actual season finale drew 1.8 million and another 0.3.
Sarah Jessica Parker also revealed that table reads for the upcoming season of the hit Max show have officially begun. (Rosie O’Donnell Instagram)
Estrella MediaCo. said it is expanding its connected TV portfolio by launching three new channels with Curiosity that will first appear on Samsung TV Plus. The three free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels, Curiosity Español. Curiosity Animales and Curiosity Motores, were announced at Estrella’s NewFront presentation Wednesday. Estrella also said it would be putting Hallmark Channel content in Spanish on its app and linear channels, as well as 300 hours of content from Hemisphere on the EstrellaTV app, which is being refreshed this month.
The FCC announced on Tuesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Trade Commission taking back some oversight duties over broadband providers. The MOU dissolves the agencies’ 2017 agreement in which the FTC took on enforcement duties after the Trump-era FCC repealed net neutrality rules and reduced its authority over ISPs. The FCC voted to restore those rules last week and reclassify broadband providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act.
As desperate AI companies face training data shortages, news organizations are finding new ways to fight back against the AI scraping of their content without permission (Jon Accarrino/MidJourney). This is the debut of TVNewsCheck’s new AI & TV column from veteran executive Jon Accarrino, founder of the media technology and AI strategy firm Ordo Digital.
The founder, president and CEO of Allen Media Group explains why Paramount Global is still a healthy company worth keeping together and shares a long-term prognosis for the network-affiliate relationship in this video from TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere conference. Click here to register as a TVN subscriber and get access to all videos from this exclusive event.
Happy May Day. Advertise your TV job openings in May to save $100. What distinguishes our classified service is not just the look of the ad — the layout, market information, use of pictures and videos — but what TVNewsCheck does AFTER the ad is placed.
Social content creators from TikTok, Instagram and YouTube share how they bypassed TV’s gatekeepers and found enormous, loyal audiences thanks to compelling content, a strong narrative voice and exceptional production values (achieved with a skeleton crew) in this video from TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere conference. Click here to register as a TVN subscriber and get access to all videos from this exclusive event.
New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include an opening for a digital platform specialist. Other existing job openings include ones for an account executive, executive producer, meteorologist, weekend anchor, sales manager, senior newscast producer, digital video producer and reporter.
Streaming sales leaders from Gray Television, E.W. Scripps, Hearst Television, Ticker and Megaphone TV will share the latest developments in technology and strategy for OTT and FAST channels. Learn more about this critically important revenue source for broadcasters in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch Webinar on May 16. Register here.
16 May 2024
23 May 2024
