Apple, Google Top List of World’s Most Valuable Brands
Times of London: Apple and Google have been named the world’s most valuable brands for the fifth consecutive year. Interbrand raised the value of Apple’s brand to $184 billion last year. Amazon, Facebook and Netflix also crept higher in its...
WPP Chief: Google, Facebook Now ‘Friendlier Frenemies’
Business Insider: Martin Sorrell has referred to Facebook and Google as his "frenemies" time and again, saying that they needed to embrace their roles as media companies. But, of late, tremendous pressure on the companies had made them more of "flexible friends," said...
Twitter Defends Not Suspending Trump Over Threat Tweet
USA Today: Twitter is defending its decision not to suspend President Trump over a tweet about North Korea that seems to violate its prohibition on threats of violence. North Korea interpreted the tweet as a "clear declaration of war." Twitter cites "newsworthiness"...
AT&T, Time Warner Report Says Brazil to OK Mega Merger
FierceCable: AT&T’s and Time Warner’s stocks rose about 1% on Monday amid a report from Globo that Brazilian antitrust officials will sign off on AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. Globo says that Brazil officials plan to OK the deal during an Oct....
Fox Pulls More Shows Off Netflix for Its Own Video Effort
Recode: If you’re on the fence about paying an extra $6 a month to watch some TV shows without ads, 21st Century Fox would like to make a more persuasive case: It is adding a bunch of additional inventory to its FX+ service. Fox has been making noise about reclaiming...
Netflix Shares Fall as Competition in Streaming Heats Up
Business Insider: Netflix is plunging as more as more players enter the streaming video game. The company is down 4.86% to $178.22 on Monday. On Monday, FX Networks announced it would start selling FX+, an ad-free on-demand service, for $5.99 a...
Viacom Readies January Premiere of Paramount Network
Multichannel News: Viacom will relaunch the Paramount Network — the rebranded Spike network — on Jan 18, 2018. Viacom sees Paramount as its entry into the general entertainment category. Spike and its predecessor, The National Network, never broke...
CBS Says ‘Star Trek’ Broke Records for Digital Signups
Fast Company: CBS is touting the success of Sunday's debut of "Star Trek: Discovery," and it’s boldly going where many networks have gone before — claiming to have broken new records but offering no specific numbers to back it...
CBS’s Showtime: No Comment on Possible Hack Attack
TheWrap: Was Showtime the latest Hollywood juggernaut to get hacked? It looks like that’s the case, after Showtime.com and its streaming site ShowtimeAnytime.com leveraged browsers to “mine” for Monero coins — a Bitcoin knockoff — over the...
Amazon Signs ‘Gilmore Girls’ Creator for Original Shows
Reuters: Amazon said “Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and her producer-husband Daniel Palladino have signed a multi-year deal with its studio division to make original shows. The producer duo’s first original series for Amazon will debut this fall on...
Google’s YouTube New Tool Creates Thousands of Ads
Ad Age: YouTube plans to introduce a slew of products that attempt to help with ad targeting, measuring success and making hundreds or thousands of different creative executions from one source of video. The company says it's expanding its Custom Affinity Audience...
Twitter Lands Advertiser Support for Live Video Shows
Recode: Advertisers are getting behind Twitter’s push into live video shows. At its pitch to advertisers in May, Twitter showed off 16 different live video shows and features. Twitter has secured ad commitments for all 16 shows, which means they’ve all been given the...
Facebook COO: We Don’t Know What Will Work in Video
Ad Age: Facebook Watch delivers a TV-like ad model that's new to the social networking giant. "We will be experimenting," said COO Sheryl Sandberg. "We don't know exactly what will work. It seems like it will be pretty TV-like in its experience, but I never judge in...
CAA-Backed Startup Offers Live Newscast with Joe Biden
Variety: Joe Biden is coming to your kitchen, courtesy of a new daily podcast that went live on the Amazon Echo and Google Home smart speakers Monday. “Biden’s Briefing” features news and opinion ostensibly curated by the former vice president. The show is produced by...
Comcast NBC’s Megyn Kelly Says ‘I’m Done with Politics’
Associated Press: Megyn Kelly made her debut as an NBC morning TV host on Monday with the declaration that she’s “kind of done with politics for now.” The former Fox News Channel anchor was in the thick of it during the 2016 presidential...
CBS, Fox, NBC Ratings Mixed Amid Trump Fight with NFL
Bloomberg: Ratings were down on Fox, where Atlanta was taking on Detroit, and on NBC, where Washington battled Oakland. But over at CBS, people were tuning in for Houston and New England -- regardless of President Trump’s call to boycott NFL...
Fox News: Bill O’Reilly is Returning as Guest on ‘Hannity’
Daily News: Bill O’Reilly is making his return to Fox News. The disgraced former host will appear on the network as a guest on Sean Hannity’s show on Tuesday to promote his new book, “Killing England." O’Reilly was fired from Fox News in April amid allegations of...
Meredith Announces Live Video Series with Rachael Ray
Broadcasting & Cable: Meredith has announced a live video series with Rachael Ray that will launch in 2018. At a Brandfront presentation in New York Monday, Meredith unveiled a number of video and advertising initiatives including a new travel and fitness TV show...
Time Inc to Spend Big on Streaming Shows for PeopleTV
Digiday: Time Inc.’s budgets for externally produced PeopleTV original series are in the five-figure-per-episode range, according to a studio production source. That range is on the higher end among digital publishers buying shows from production...
Conde Nast’s British Vogue Appoints Publishing Director
WWD: Vanessa Kingori has been named publishing director of British Vogue. She will succeed Stephen Quinn, who announced his retirement last week after serving for 26 years in the role, starting her new position on Dec. 23. Kingori was publisher at GQ and GQ...
Hearst Says Print Remains Alive & Well with Consumers
Hearst: Print is alive and well with consumers, writes Hearst Magazines exec Michael Clinton. "I know it’s different than the headlines you’ve been seeing lately, but it happens to be a fact. True, the magazine media industry is in a transitional moment, but a few...
Conde Nast to Shutter Chinese Edition of Self Magazine
Jing Daily: Self China, Conde Nast’s Chinese version of the American health and wellness magazine, announced that it will shutter its print magazine, website and app at the beginning of 2018 and move its content exclusively to WeChat, the country’s dominant social...
Atlantic’s Web Leader is Named Editor of New Republic
MediaPost: New Republic has appointed J.J. Gould, former editor of The Atlantic’s site, as its new editor. Gould succeeds Eric Bates, who joined the magazine in April 2016, but stepped down recently. Bates will remain at New Republic as...
Conde Rumor: What if Anderson Cooper Ran Vanity Fair?
The Cut: A new rumor to surface out of Milan Fashion Week might be the best gossip of the week: What if Anderson Cooper were the next editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair? Crazy, right? A pseudo-celebrity journalist with no print experience has never been at the helm of a...
CBS, Fox See NFL Ratings Entangled in Flap with Trump
Bloomberg: President Trump has turned watching football on Sunday into an act of political protest at a time when NFL ratings are already under pressure. Trump’s call for fans to boycott the National Football League leaves viewers in a quandary. “There will be a lot...
AT&T-Time Warner: What’s Holding Up the Mega Merger?
Dallas Business Journal: When President Trump appointed Makan Delrahim to head the Department of Justice's antitrust division, the move was seen as a positive for AT&T's pending acquisition of Time Warner. Delrahim had said that he didn't foresee any antitrust...
Disney Under Fire for Strong-Arm Tactics to Secure Deals
Los Angeles Times: Over the last two decades or so, as Disney’s annual profit has soared, the company has secured subsidies, incentives, rebates and protections from future taxes in Anaheim that, in aggregate, would be worth more than $1 billion. Disney has negotiated...
Fox’s ‘Kingsman’ Dethrones ‘It’ from Top of US Box Office
Associated Press: The R-rated spy comedy “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” displaced the horror sensation “It” as the No. 1 film in North America, while the second “Lego Movie” spinoff of the year didn’t assemble the expected audience. The 20th Century Fox release opened...
Disney, Altice in Spat Over Cost of Carrying ABC, ESPN
Financial Times: Disney is in a stand-off with one of America’s largest cable companies over the cost of carrying its ESPN and ABC channels in a dispute that will sharpen the focus on the performance of its networks in an age of cord-cutting. Altice USA said Disney...
CBS CEO Seals Deal for Showtime Series of Clinton Book
Associated Press: Showtime has won a bidding war to develop former President Bill Clinton and powerhouse author James Patterson’s upcoming thriller, “The President is Missing,” into a television series. Showtime’s affiliation with CBS, and the corporation’s boss Les...