Ready, set, oh no: The trend of record-low ratings continues with the Olympics' dismal opening ceremony viewership, but NBCU still pulled in record-high ad revenues.
Taboola buys Connexity: The merger will help Taboola's publisher clients tap into ecommerce dollars while also helping Connexity's retail clients diversify away from Amazon.
HBO Max streaming galore: Warner Bros. announced it will make 10 movies specifically for streaming next year as it moves ahead with a hybrid box office approach.
NBCU adopts Ad-ID: That could spur other advertisers and agencies to adopt the identifier, which would make it even more useful for things like capping ad frequency.
Fire sale: AT&T is selling its Latin American satellite business Vrio and its ad tech company Xandr, just months after offloading WarnerMedia. Though a bad look for AT&T, the sales give the child companies a chance to thrive under new parentage.
Should Netflix stay ad-free?
Facebook’s CEO believes its hefty investment in AR and VR could make it a powerful player in the next stage of the internet. The proclamation comes amid rampant regulatory scrutiny and slowing user growth among Facebook’s core products.
Substack gets deeper into podcasts: The newsletter platform unveiled Booksmart Studios, where it will fund podcasters and test a new subscription model for their audio shows.
eMarketer forecasts that retail media and connected TV (CTV) will be among the fastest-growing digital ad channels this year. Jed Dederick, senior vice president of global client and agency development at demand-side platform The Trade Desk, joins eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin to discuss what the firm has learned over the course of the pandemic, what buyers want from CTV and retail media, and why resolving the identity crisis is so important.
Watch AR ecommerce at Snapchat's quarterly earnings: The company is sure to give more details on its push to make AR shopping a bigger part of its platform, especially after announcing two major partnerships earlier this week.
On today's episode, we discuss which pandemic personas will stick around, why brands are struggling to know who their customers are, and the most important ways consumer behavior has likely changed permanently. We then talk about how people will shop once businesses are fully reopen, two new in-store virtual reality (VR) experiences, and what Apple's new “buy now, pay later” service could do to the space. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Suzy Davidkhanian.
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Disney sees straight-to-streaming success: "Black Widow" made $60 million from Disney+ rentals despite theaters being mostly reopened, a success story that could have lasting effects on future movie release plans.
Netgames: Netflix has made its long-teased push into video games official with its latest executive hire. Gaming could help revitalize the platform, which is starting to see stagnating growth.
NBCU's upfronts: The company said this year's upfront market was its biggest ever, driven by inventory for the Olympics and Super Bowl, plus unprecedented digital upfront commitments.
Stadia looks to attract game developers: Google will cut the fee it takes from games sold on Stadia from 30% to 15% in an effort to promote development on the flailing cloud gaming platform.