In this week’s Week in Review: DAZN nears a deal to buy BT Sport, Vevo revamps its CTV offering, and Channel 5 expects to post its highest ever profits.<\/p>\n
DAZN\u2019s Purchase of BT Sport Could Complete This Month However, <\/span>Reuters<\/span><\/i> reports that the deal is yet to be finalized and could still collapse. BT have been looking for a buyer since mid-2021, to help fund their fibre rollout.<\/span><\/p>\n In September last year, the completion of the deal between DAZN AND BT was rumoured but did not occur at that time. Later, Discovery emerged as a potential backup. Reports say Discovery is still in talks with BT about the purchase, but that DAZN is the favourite at this point.<\/span><\/p>\n Vevo Bets on CTV With Revamped App and Original Programming CTV now makes up half of Vevo\u2019s revenue, up from four percent in Q1 2020, according to a company spokesperson.<\/span><\/p>\n Vevo began distributing its content through YouTube, and so previously users on the Vevo TV app had to search for the music videos they wanted to watch. Now, users will be able to watch channels such as Vevo 80s, which show curated content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Vevo says that the interface on the ad-supported CTV app \u201cnow reflects an experience more consistent with the user experience viewers are familiar with on live TV\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n Channel 5 Expects to Post Largest Ever Profits Channel 5’s success has been driven by a strong overall TV ad market in the UK in 2021, combined with its own content successes in shows\u00a0All Creatures Great and Small\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Our Yorkshire Farm\u00a0<\/em>which have seen Channel 5 reach its highest audience share since 2014 according to The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n Facebook Fails In Second Attempt to Dismiss FTC Suit Origin Completes Second Proof of Concept Test T-Mobile Acquires Cab Digital Advertising Company Discovery Becomes Minority Owner in OpenAP NBCUniversal Partners with iSpot.TV on Ratings Measurement Anzu and Ubisoft Extend Partnership ARICOMA Group Acquire Clearcode Hawk Integrates Survey Tool Into Platform BBC Three to Return to Linear Television in February NBCUniversal and RTL AdConnect Announce Partnership HBO Max Says It\u2019s Willing to Spend $18 Billion on Content Salto Has Around 700,000 Subscribers Says France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions\u2019 President Allen Media\u2019s SPORTS.TV Launched UKTV Play Adds One Million Users in 2021 FuboTV Subscribers Exceed 1.1 Million Ampere Analysis Predicts Wave of M&A In Streaming Market in 2022 Piracy Site Popcorn Time Closed Down Heinz Partners With Channel 4 to Launch Branded Content Programme HBO Nordic Gains 635,000 Subscribers Following HBO Max Launch India Launches Antitrust Review into Google The Guardian US Exceeds End of Year Donation Targets for 2021 Google Offers to Remove Showcase from General Search in Germany Twitter Buys Minority Stake in Aleph Take-Two Buys Zynga for $12.7 Billion LinkedIn Beta Test Reworked Events Platform Fact Checkers Say YouTube is Falling Short in Tackling Fake News Media.Monks Acquires 4 Mile Analytics You & Mr Jones Becomes The Brandtech Group Edelman Will Drop Clients which Don’t Meet ESG Standards Dentsu Creates New Chief Addressability Officer Role M&A Saatchi Rejects Investor Takeover Offer Starling Bank Pauses Meta Ads Over Fraud Concerns Switzerland Likely to Pass New Law Restricting Tobacco Ads Monty Sarhan Picked to Lead SkyShowtime Mary Keane-Dawson Becomes CEO of Time Out Media MediaMath Appoints Neil Nguyen as CEO Nichole Barnes Marshall Named as Pinterest Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion Carat Appoints Two Senior Strategy Partners Do European Broadcasters Still Have Home Advantage for Producing Local Content? read on VideoWeek<\/a><\/p>\n What Does Discovery\u2019s Involvement Mean for OpenAP? read on VideoWeek<\/a><\/p>\n NBCUniversal and RTL AdConnect Announce Partnership, read on VideoWeek<\/a><\/p>\n Origin says its Cross-Media Measurement Solution is Exceeding Expectations Following Crucial Tests, read on VideoWeek<\/a><\/p>\n Bigger Reach, More Inventory, and Programmatic Sales Are On The Way for TF1\u2019s Addressable TV Ads, read on VideoWeek<\/a><\/p>\n Corona, Sunshine Anytime, David Miami<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>The expected sale of BT Sport to DAZN for \u00a3600 million could wrap up as soon as this month. DAZN is seeking to increase its UK presence through the deal to buy the BT-owned channel, which was originally designed to increase the telecoms company\u2019s TV presence.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Vevo has announced the release of its revamped Vevo TV app, which will now allow the user to tune into channels as well as search for specific music video content. The app has already launched on Amazon Fire TV, and is scheduled to roll out across other CTV devices and smart TVs later this month.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>UK broadcaster Channel 5, owned by US-based ViacomCBS, is on course to post its largest ever annual profit following a strong 2021. This is particularly good news for Channel 5 since profits aren’t a given – with the broadcaster turning a profit in nine of the twenty four years since it was founded.<\/p>\nThe Week in Tech<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n<\/b>Facebook has failed to dismiss a US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit, which, if successful, would see the company\u2019s acquisition of Whatsapp and Instagram undone. The lawsuit alleges anti-competitive behaviour by Meta . The Washington judge dismissed claims by Meta that FTC chair Lina Khan was biased in the case.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Origin, an initiative launched by British advertising trade body ISBA, announced on Wednesday it has completed proof of concept evaluations for its proposed cross-media measurement solution, with results exceeding expectations. The results mean Origin will now move ahead with further testing and building a working product which will go to market. Read the full story on VideoWeek<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>T-Mobile\u2019s US advertising unit announced that it is acquiring Octopus Interactive. Octopus Interactive is a company that provides interactive digital advertising in cab services like Uber and Lyft. The service shows interactive games, weather and ride information interspersed with ads. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Discovery has taken minority ownership in advanced advertising company OpenAP. The move sees two Discovery executives join OpenAP\u2019s board of directors. Companies like Fox, NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS are already involved with OpenAP. Discovery said that the investment furthers their \u201cstrategy of building a technical framework that enables cross-platform audience-based buying and creating collaborative support for alternative currency standards.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>NBCUniversal has announced that it is partnering with iSpot.TV to measure its audiences in new ways. The partnership will see the TV network able to measure its linear, streaming and time-shifted TV audiences on a second-by-second basis. The agreement with iSpot.TV follows a shift away from Nielsen by the US TV networks, after dissatisfaction with the company\u2019s methods.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>In-game advertising platform Anzu and game-maker Ubisoft have expanded their partnership after their initial collaboration brought success. Last year, Anzu\u2019s in-game ads were integrated into Trackmania and campaigns for the likes of Samsung, American Eagle and Vodafone were run. Vodafone saw a 176 percent lift in campaign awareness and a 20 percent lift in brand consideration from their campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Custom development ad tech company Clearcode has been acquired by the ARICOMA Group. The group is backed by KKCG. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. With the acquisition of Polish company Clearcode, the ARICOMA Group will consist of ten companies, with a consolidated turnover exceeding \u20ac340 million and over 3,000 employees.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Hawk Platform has integrated a survey tool into its DSP, which the company says will provide insight for advertisers to inform their actions. The new tool is free for current users of Hawk\u2019s DSP, regardless of whether they use the self-serve service or Hawk\u2019s managed service.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Week in TV<\/b><\/h2>\n
\n<\/b>BBC Three will make its return to linear TV on the 1st of February. The channel was taken off-air in 2016 and made online-only, since then it has attracted large audiences with hits like <\/span>Normal People <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race UK. <\/span><\/i>On its debut night, BBC Three will broadcast the premier of <\/span>RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race: UK vs the World. <\/span><\/i>The channel will broadcast from 7pm every night.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>NBCUniversal and RTL AdConnect have announced a partnership that will give the two companies access to each other\u2019s TV and digital inventory for the first time. For NBCUniversal the deal will strengthen their presence in Europe, for RTL AdConnect it will help expand their business beyond the continent, particularly into territories like China and the US. Read the full story on VideoWeek<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>HBO Max has said that it is willing to spend $18 billion on content this year in order to catch up to Netflix and Disney+ in \u201cthe streaming wars”. WarnerMedia said last week that the number of HBO and HBO Max subscribers has risen to 74 million, up from 60 million in 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>SVOD service Salto has around 700,000 subscribers, says France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions president Delphine Ernotte. Salto is a joint venture between the public broadcaster and commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6. Ernotte disclosed the figure without specifying how many of those were paying subscribers.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Allen Media Digital has launched SPORTS.TV, a free streaming service, which as the name suggests, is focused on sports. The offering aggregates content like sports, news and movies, and some local US broadcast television stations. As well as the free-to-air content, SPORTS.TV will offer subscribers a chance to engage with additional content through pay-per-view.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>BBC-studios owned broadcaster UKTV added one million users to its AVOD service in 2021. UKTV, which owns channels such as <\/span>Dave <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Drama, <\/span><\/i>added live TV of UKTV Play in 2021. Monetizable views to content on UKTV Play were up 34 percent year-on-year.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>FuboTV has announced that its paying subscribers now exceed 1.1 million. The sports-first streaming network announced its preliminary Q4 2021 results earlier this week. The company also announced that its revenue grew year-over-year by between 105 to 109 percent. The figures exclude Molotov, which fuboTV acquired in December 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>The streaming market will see a wave of mergers and acquisitions in 2022, predicts Ampere Analysis. The analysts at Ampere predict that the streaming market is entering a new phase, which will see companies structurally positioning themselves along the key verticals.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>A popular platform for users to illegally watch TV and films, dubbed \u201cthe Netflix of piracy\u201d has shut down. Popcorn Time had come under legal pressure from the Motion Picture Association of America; however, the site had argued that they were not a piracy site, but rather a site that provided a portal to others. In their closing down message, Popcorn Time cited a lack of interest from users, rather than legal pressure as the reason for the shut down.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Channel 4 and Heinz are teaming up to launch Flex Kitchen, a short form comedy series, which will be shown across the broadcaster\u2019s social media channels. The branded content series is the first of its kind for Heinz, and will feature the brand\u2019s plant-based products.It will feature comedians like Phil Wang and Lou Sanders cooking for demanding diners.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>HBO in the Nordics has gained 635,000 subscribers since the service was relaunched as HBO Max. The service is now in the top three of SVOD providers in the region, and has an average household penetration of 20 percent.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Week For Publishers<\/b><\/h2>\n
\n<\/strong>The Competition Commission of India has ordered an investigation into Google, following complaints from publishers over anticompetitive practices. India’s Digital News Publishers Association, the organisation which filed the complaint, says that Google is using unfair practices which deny them ad revenues.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The Guardian US saw total traffic drop last year, due in part to a softer news cycle compared to 2020 including the absence of a US election. But the publisher’s end-of-year donations drive exceeded expectations, bringing in $1.6 million in either one-off or recurring donations, beating last year’s end-of-year drive by $100,000.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Google has offered to remove its Google News Showcase product, which provides curated news content from publishers who are paid by Google, from its general search results, following concerns from Germany’s antitrust authority. Germany’s Federal Cartel Office has been concerned that Google’s new product could squeeze some news businesses out of the market, and would also give Google an unfair advantage over rivals.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Twitter, fresh from offloading mobile ad platform MoPub, has bought a minority stake in digital advertising business Aleph. “With a diverse set of capabilities, Aleph has supported our business globally, both as a sales and technology partner. This investment is a natural evolution in our relationship with Aleph,” said Sarah Personette, Twitter’s chief customer officer.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Games publisher Take-Two, whose series include Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K, and Borderlands, has acquired mobile game publisher Zynga for $12.7 million. Take-Two says the acquisition will help it create more mobile games based on its console and PC-based gaming IP, and get value out of Zynga’s Chartboost advertising platform.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>LinkedIn has begun beta testing a reworked version of its on-platform interactive events toolset. LinkedIn has begun with audio events, which work similarly to live audio events on social app Clubhouse, and will begin trialling video events later in the year.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>A collection of 80 fact checking organisations, including Full Fact in the UK, have signed a letter telling YouTube that it’s not doing enough to stop the spread of fake news. The letter said that Google falls particularly short in the Global South, and in non-English speaking countries generally.<\/p>\nThe Week For Agencies<\/b><\/h2>\n
\n<\/strong>Media.Monks, the umbrella brand which S4 Capital operates as, made another acquisition this week, adding 4 Mile Analytics to its roster. S4’s executive chairman Martin Sorrell said 4 Mile’s capabilities with Looker and Google Cloud made it particularly appealing to Media.Monks.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>You & Mr Jones, which has long described itself as a brandtech business, has rebranded itself to The Brandtech Group – a move which founder David Jones says reflects its evolution from a two person operation to a business with over 5,000 employees.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>PR consultancy firm Edelman has said it will drop any clients which don’t adhere to its environmental, social and governance guidelines. The firm however will not yet stop working with fossil fuel companies like Shell and ExxonMobil.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Dentsu has hired its first ever ‘chief addressability officer’, a move which comes as part of Dentsu’s wider data and identity strategy. Dentsu says that Keith Camoosa, the person chosen for the role, will unify and further develop the agency’s addressable media practice and suite of products \u2014 powered by M1 and Merkury in lockstep with Merkle.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>British agency M&C Saatchi this week rejected a proposed takeover from Vin Murria, a software entrepreneur and the agency’s largest shareholder. M&C Saatchi said in a statement that ” the proposal does not reflect the value of the business and its future prospect”.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Starling Bank has said it has stopped running paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, due to its concerns that Meta isn’t doing enough to prevent financial fraudsters from using its platforms. “We can no longer pay to advertise on a platform alongside scammers who are going after the savings of our customers and those of other banks,” said Starling CEO Anne Bowden in a message to Facebook parent company Meta.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Swiss citizens expect to pass a law in an upcoming referendum which would ban tobacco ads from appearing wherever children or teenagers might see them, according to a poll from national broadcaster SRG.<\/p>\nHires of the Week<\/h2>\n
\n<\/strong>Monty Sarhan has been chosen as the CEO of upcoming European streaming service SkyShowtime, a joint venture between Sky and ViacomCBS.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Time Out Media has appointed Mary Keane-Dawson as their new CEO. Keane-Dawson was previously Neo@Ogilvy\u2019s European managing director.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Neil Nguyen has been made CEO of MediaMath. Nguyen is a former CEO of Sizmek, and most recently was global chief digital officer at Havas Edge and EPN.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Nichole Barnes Marshall has joined Pinterest as their global head of diversity and inclusion. Barnes Marshall was previously at Bath and Body Works, where she was VP and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Dentsu’s Carat has appointed two new senior strategy partners: Maro Mouameletzi and Bram Meuleman. Mouameletzi joins from WPP’s Mindshare, while Meuleman joins from the7stars.<\/p>\nThis Week on VideoWeek<\/h2>\n
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