Roku’s latest round of layoffs this week reflects continuing pressure on the media landscape, especially when it comes to the advertising market. Roku, like many of its peers, relies heavily on robust ad spend to drive revenue across its Platform division, and last year’s soft scatter market that spurred a 200-headcount reduction at Roku in …
It has been roughly a year since Q1 2022 closed out, followed by Netflix’s disastrous earnings call in late April disclosing a 200,000 subscriber loss in the quarter and a dark forecast of more to come. The company has since returned to sub growth, but that April stumble inspired the entire media business to cut …
From Dish dropping nearly all RSNs to Comcast’s ongoing disputes with RSNs like Altitude Sports, RSNs have been on the defensive lately. But this is a relatively recent phenomenon. Consider that when Sinclair bought Fox Sports RSNs in 2019 for $10.6 billion, it seemed like a great way to further leverage negotiations with television providers. …
In the first unsurprising development of 2023, Roku is finally launching its own smart TV. The question now is whether the company – whose stock is down 80% in the last year and faces myriad challenges – can leverage the news to reinvigorate its hardware business as it copes with an advertising slowdown challenging its …
It’s been a good few months for Comcast NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service, which continues to post impressive growth even though its overall subscriber numbers pale next to its big media peers. This week, NBCU CEO Jeff Shell told the UBS conference that the service has reached 18 million paid subscribers, up 20% in only the …
Cord cutting, the streaming wars, content cost inflation, and advertising pressure continue to swirl under the weight of Wall Street stock declines that have put everyone in a bad mood. It’s not the kind of environment that typically lures rich retirees back into the stress-inducing pressure cooker of the modern content business. But on Sunday …
“I believe we are well positioned for future long-term growth, and I am confident in the path forward.”– Disney CEO Bob Chapek Disney execs emanated positive vibes this week as they look to 2024 to bring profitability to their direct-to-consumer efforts, but Wall Street seems impatient with the idea that DTC subscribers can rise …
Netflix this week finally pulled back the curtain on its previously announced plans to launch an ad-supported tier, and the details suggest that the streamer has opted to move fast. No dancing around the edges to iron out kinks and build the business slowly. First of all, Netflix has opted to get aggressive on price, …
The prevalence of unfilled ad time at FAST providers is remarkable. Those unfilled spans amount to dead airtime, with some spans going on so long that they hearken back to television’s early days when broadcasts would cease at midnight and give way to static. One particularly lengthy example caught our eye in August. The UFC …
Disney CEO Bob Chapek indicates he’d like to buy out Comcast’s Hulu stake sooner rather than later.
