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Peacock subscribers held steady at 36 million from Q3 to Q4, though up from 31 million a year ago. Importantly Peacock’s quarterly loss declined from $825 million in the year ago quarter to $372 million this quarter. Elsewhere at Comcast, the company lost 139K broadband subscribers in Q4, worse than the 34K loss a year ago.
We also discuss Fox’s increase in Super Bowl ad rates to $8 million...
Netflix reported strong Q4 results, adding 19 million subscribers globally to end 2024 at nearly 302 million. We discuss what was behind the growth, which was up across all regions except EMEA where it was flat. Netflix’s huge scale gives it the ability to invest heavily in content, while others are pulling back.
Netflix’s ad-supported tier accounted for 55% of sign-ups where it’s available...
First up this week we discuss Tubi’s plan to stream the Super Bowl in UHD, a bold move by Fox’s free ad-supported TV service. As we discuss, it’s further evidence of how premium streaming sports experiences are continuing to improve. Next Amazon Prime video set a new viewership record for itself with last weekend’s NFL wild card game. We dive into its ratings gains.
Hub Entertainment...
Talk about events moving fast. Not long after Colin and I recorded and posted this week’s podcast about the Disney-Fubo deal from earlier this week, the three Venu Sports JV partners said they were cancelling the service.
At the end of the podcast we cautioned that with DirecTV and EchoStar raising the possibility of a renewed Venu litigation, the JV partners might have second thoughts....
Happy New Year and welcome to the first podcast of 2025. We’re pleased to have PBS’s Chief Digital and Marketing Officer Ira Rubenstein join us to discuss PBS’s recent partnership with Amazon. Under the deal more than 150 local PBS stations and the PBS Kids channel will be included in the Prime Video FAST section. Two new PBS FAST channels will also be included.
Ira explains how the Amazon...
This week Antenna’s Co-Founder and CEO Jonathan Carson joins us for an exclusive interview to discuss the firm’s top streaming insights from 2024. Antenna’s research has become a go-to source of data for executives from around the industry.
In the interview we dive into a number of findings, including the shift in subscriber growth from paid to ad-supported streaming services, how sports...
The media and entertainment industry was abuzz with excitement over generative AI in 2023. Companies, driven by curiosity and a sense of urgency, began experimenting with this new technology, exploring its potential to disrupt the industry and transform themselves. This period of exploration and innovation quickly yielded tangible results, and by 2024, many companies successfully implemented AI...
Starz will split off from Lionsgate in 2025 and on today’s podcast we discuss Starz’s streaming strategy, as outlined by CEO Jeffrey Hirsch in a presentation at the UBS Global Media...
Walmart has closed its $2.3 billion acquisition of VIZIO. As Colin and I discuss on this week’s podcast, there are many opportunities that the deal creates. We focus on a few, including Walmart extending WatchFree+, driving new CTV ad revenue and also broadening the availability of one-click buying and attribution.
Listen to the podcast to learn more (26 minutes, 14 seconds)
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This week Comcast announced its decision to spin out all of its cable networks except Bravo into an independent company. For years cable networks were the financial jewel in the TV industry, driven by both carriage fees pay-TV operators paid to carry them, plus advertising revenues. The shift from analog to digital opened up vast new shelf space which enabled even more cable networks to be...