Sheryl Sandberg is leaving Meta at a crossroads: Departure of No. 2 exec comes as company faces major business challenges.
Twitter is back at square one after shelving new projects: Newsletters, podcasts, and more are taking a back seat to user growth and personalization.
Most YouTube viewers watch content on TV screens: The platform is leaning into that growing audience with quality-of-life features for TV apps.
Sony’s future gaming fortunes are in PC titles: The PlayStation maker is betting big on ports of its games on Windows PCs, a market where console rival Microsoft is already a dominant player.
Theaters increasingly depend on franchise films: The new “Top Gun” film is the latest in a long line of 2022 franchise releases enjoying box office success.
The metaverse market could shortly get a lot bigger: Apple’s RealityOS, rumored for an announcement next Monday, will encourage many on-the-fence consumers to adopt VR.
Upfront spending is flowing toward streaming services. Upfront CTV ad spending will grow by 34.6% to $6.41 billion this year. For context, that’s about how much we had predicted in our inaugural forecast would be spent on total CTV advertising in 2019.
Warner Bros. Discovery could use its size to boost ad costs: Media powerhouse seeking higher prices for its content in initial upfront talks.
Nielsen tries to modernize with new tools: The measurement giant is focusing on “bingeable” shows to inform licensing and production decisions.
ITV and Twitter try to capitalize on social media fandoms: Social media has long been a hub for fans, and networks are starting to tap in.
AI startup uses video games to help treat depression: Gamification is an immersive and friction-free way to engage patients, while AI can help clinicians arrive at a more accurate diagnosis.
Substack wasn’t the answer to digital publishing’s problems: The company has opted out of a Series C amid economic uncertainty.
Virtual-only goods will likely be a difficult sell: That’s because a majority of consumers don’t know much about the metaverse and are unlikely to shop in the mixed-reality realm.
Spotify is the No. 1 digital audio service among US teens and adults, with 35% digital audio listeners ages 12 and older using that platform the most. YouTube Music comes in at No. 2, with 18%, while Pandora rounds out the top three at 15%.
Broadcom boosts software with VMware buy: The $61B deal allows the chipmaker to rely less on chips for growth while assembling parts for massive cloud, edge computing, and IoT expansion.
Sony’s service game push could be good for advertisers: The lucrative model could be a platform for its rumored ad program
While traditional TV ad spending will struggle for growth in the coming years, digital video will not. A portion of digital video spend will go to the nascent CTV space, but traditional broadcasters are also developing their own streaming services (with BVOD ad spend rising at a far faster rate than traditional TV spend). Overall, the advertising opportunity for CTV remains small.
VR fitness will stick long after the pandemic: We detail how the tech will help make exercise more accessible and reduce preventable diseases.
The first American video game union is here: A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard voted to unionize following years of debate about labor in the industry.