Media & Entertainment

The New York Times soars while publishing struggles: The news giant saw ad revenues grow as it passed 1 million subscribers.

Warner Bros. Discovery earnings demonstrate the conglomerate’s tricky position: It can’t invest enough to right its ship considering its crushing debt.

PlayStation Plus’ diminishing user base: The convoluted game streaming service is losing subscribers and active users. A troubled economy and recent price hikes are likely causes.

Microsoft’s Xbox subsidies: Losses on Xbox sales aren’t sustainable long term. As tech hardware continues to get hit by inflation, companies could turn to 3D printing to cut production costs.

Tubi is doing quite well for Fox: Revenue grew 30% in the past quarter, but with increased competition ahead, can the service keep it up?

China’s prolonged COVID-19 shutdowns lead to factory escapes: With cases spiking, manufacturers like Foxconn are turning to bonuses to keep production moving, but some workers are running away.

Netflix isn’t backing down from video games: Another acquisition brings its studio count to six, but it’s not doing enough to promote this business.

YouTube will soon sell subscriptions to other streamers: Major rivals like Netflix and Disney are notably absent as YouTube gears up to take them on.

Around 60% of US TV viewers think the number of ads on Hulu, Discovery+, and HBO Max is reasonable. Fewer of them feel the same about Paramount+ and Peacock, while live TV is considered the biggest offender in this respect.

Political advertisers spend big on sports: Political ad outlays will nearly triple compared with the last midterm, but what happens when that spending stops?

Bloomberg ditches third-party ads: Seeing other publishers struggle, Bloomberg has launched an advertising platform with its first-party, self-reported user data.

On today's episode, we discuss the addressable opportunity in the US, how big the connected TV market is, and how measurement, privacy, and fragmentation are disrupting progress in advanced TV. "In Other News," we talk about how TikTok is trying to usher in an age of machine learning advertising and how Google is trying to put Chrome users in control of their ad experience. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Evelyn Mitchell.

Insights from the Future of Meta report: We look at key VR hardware and software opportunities for Meta’s future as the company leverages its dominance in VR headsets to build its vision for the metaverse.

Peacock’s focus on cord-cutters is paying some dividends: Comcast is committed to its streamer, despite mounting losses.

OpenWeb raises $170 million as it prepares for IPO: As news providers and social platforms butt heads, the company’s tools help publishers manage audience discussions on their sites.

TikTok gaming is a go: The social video app will soon add mobile games and is leaning on partnerships with Electronic Arts, 2K, NetEase Games, and Zynga to accelerate its super app ambitions.

Meta reported $3.67 billion in operating losses from Reality Labs this past Q3, following a deficit of $5.77 billion in H1 2022. That’s a total of $9.44 billion in losses from Meta’s division for augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) hardware and software.

A quest for pros: Meta’s premium Quest Pro headset is now available, and while early reviews laud the improved design, comfort, and controllers, reviewers also dinged the poor battery life and confusing mixed reality focus.

Meta faces rocky road to reverse underperformance: Q3 shows revenue outlook weakening as metaverse projects swell expenses.

For many, Facebook’s new name introduced “the metaverse” as a concept. But a year out, most people have not entered the metaverse. Right now, Meta’s facelift doesn’t appear to have legs. (Quite literally—the little Horizon Worlds avatars still don’t have legs.)