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☆ Streaming is getting more expensive for consumers. Here's why
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-16 | by ( Justine Fisher | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Now, looking for a return on their content investments, Disney , Warner Bros. Disney said last week that its combined streaming services — Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ — were profitable for the first time during its fiscal third quarter. Ahead of earnings, Disney announced it's raising streaming prices by $1 to $2 a month for Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+. Similar to Disney, Paramount Global said last week in its quarterly earnings conference call that its streaming business, centered on flagship service Paramount+, reached profitability. Discovery said during its second-quarter earnings conference call that streaming ad revenue doubled year over year.

Persons: Jaque Silva, Mike Proulx, Disney, Bob Iger, Iger, Discovery's Max, Comcast's Peacock, Gunnar Wiedenfels, Forrester's Proulx, Proulx, Discovery's Wiedenfels, Discovery, Tim Nollen, Ted Sarandos, Sarandos Organizations: Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros . Discovery, Forrester, Hulu, ESPN, Warner Bros, Paramount, Paramount Global, Discovery, Max, Hub Entertainment Research, Getty, Media, Macquarie, Westend61 Locations: Paramount's, Peacock

☆ Mark Zuckerberg has brilliantly cornered us
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-01 | by ( Lloyd Lee | Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewMark Zuckerberg looks poised to dominate the AI adoption race thanks to a technicality: Meta has three billion-plus captive users who have no choice but to use it. As the company reported second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, Zuckerberg gloated about Meta AI — its AI assistant rolled out earlier this year — being "on track to achieve our goal of becoming the most used AI assistant by the end of the year." Related storiesIn effect, then, that gives Zuckerberg a lot of engaged users to introduce AI-powered technology to. Meta's family of apps now has 3.27 billion daily active users. Zuckerberg also seems intent on showing users that AI can inherently make their experience of his apps vastly better.

Persons: —, Zuckerberg, It's, Mike Proulx, Forrester, WhatsApp, Susan Li Organizations: Service, Harvard, Business, Meta, Facebook, Apple, Apple Intelligence, OpenAI

☆ 3 reasons why Wall Street is playing Roblox again
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Many adults heard the phrase “Robux” for the first time last holiday season when the virtual currency of gaming platform Roblox landed on the top of most wish lists. And it will have to prove to Wall Street there’s more growth up ahead. In its fourth quarter of 2023, Roblox revenue was $750 million, up 30% year-over-year – but had a net loss of $323.7 million. Like Fortnite, Roblox is also moving ahead with a“payout to creators” business model. “It’s clear that [Roblox] intends to go after younger gamers in 2024 and 2025,” Ward said.

Persons: ”, Roblox, Matilda Beinat, Lindsey Nicholson, UCG, David Baszucki, Ralph Lauren, Mike Proulx, Forrester, “, ” Proulx, Michael Nagle, ” Beinat, Lewis Ward, ” Ward, Ward Organizations: CNN, Investors, ABI Research, “, Gaming Center, Costco, Brookhaven RP, Nike, Walmart, New York Stock Exchange, Bloomberg, Getty, Apple’s, IDC, Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars Locations: Asia, Roblox, New York, Fortnite

☆ 3 big challenges facing Netflix as the streaming wars enter a brutal new phase
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Hollywood stakeholders and analysts alike have declared Netflix the winner of the streaming wars — but the celebration may be short-lived as streaming enters a new phase. Analysts can't say for sure how much more subscriber growth Netflix can add through its cheaper ad tier and password-sharing crackdown, though. Plus, Netflix is about to face big competition for ad dollars from Amazon, which will launch ads on Prime Video starting January 29. Also, Big Tech's ability to fund their streaming services indefinitely could keep subscription prices depressed for Netflix, along with everyone else, Bernstein noted. But now that the strikes are over, some analysts predict Netflix will face a bigger content bill going forward.

Persons: Scott Stuber, Forrester, Mike Proulx, Brian Wieser, Evercore, Peacock, Oscar, Ted Sarandos, Netflix isn't, Gen, Bernstein, Jason Bazinet Organizations: Netflix, Business, Disney, Macquarie Research, Paramount, Citigroup Locations: Canada, North America

☆ Twitter staff are helping to remove bird logos at its HQ for the X rebrand, but one reportedly broke apart and is still there
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk has started having Twitter's iconic blue bird logo removed at the headquarters. One sign couldn't be taken down as it broke apart, leaving remnants still attached, per an NYT reporter. As Twitter rebrands to X, staff are taking down the iconic blue bird logos at its San Francisco headquarters. The Times earlier reported that work had started on detaching a ten-foot-tall bird icon in the office's cafeteria. "This is an extremely risky move because with X, Musk is essentially starting over while its competition is afoot," he added.

Persons: Elon Musk, Ryan Mac, Yu Liu, Mike Proulx, Forrester, Proulx, Mark Zuckerberg's Organizations: Twitter, San, New York Times, Times Locations: San Francisco

☆ Twitter’s rebrand is the next stage in Elon Musk’s vision for the company. But does anyone want it?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

When Musk bought Twitter late last year, he laid out a vision for an “everything” app called X, where users could communicate, shop, consume entertainment and more. Musk — who bought Twitter with a company called X Corp. — tweeted on Sunday that X.com now redirects to Twitter. Musk even told followers that tweets should instead be called “x’s.”On Sunday, CEO Linda Yaccarino seemed to confirm Musk’s vision for the company. Elon Musk has officially rebranded Twitter as "X," as he seeks to turn the platform into an "everything" app. And until Musk rolls out significant changes to the platform, observers of the company say ditching Twitter’s well-known brand is a risky move.

Persons: New York CNN — Elon Musk’s, Musk, — Musk, “, —, It’s, ” Mike Proulx, Forrester, Proulx, ”, Linda Yaccarino, ” Yaccarino, Elon Musk, Jonathan Brady, Walter Isaacson, texted Isaacson, ” “, ” Musk, he’s, WeChat, Deloitte, Instagram, Joshua White Organizations: New, New York CNN, Twitter, PayPal, Musk —, X Corp, SpaceX, Facebook, Vanderbilt University Locations: New York, China, Arizona, Michigan

☆ Musk risks even more damage to Twitter's business as the messaging app changes name to X
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Elon Musk announced that there will be a rebranding of Twitter soon, and speculation points to the implementation of X.Elon Musk has long been enamored with the letter X. Musk had already converted Twitter's corporate name to X Corp, which itself is a subsidiary of X Holding Corp, as revealed in an April court filing. Musk's desire to turn X into a super app requires "time, money and people," which Twitter "no longer has," said Proulx. "Twitter's rebrand is a reminder that Elon Musk, not Threads or any other app, is and has always been the most likely 'Twitter killer,'" Enberg wrote. WATCH: Elon Musk wouldn't be who he is without 'demon mode' and his drive.

Persons: Elon Musk, that's, China's, Mike Proulx, Musk, " Proulx, didn't, It's, X.com, adieu, Linda Yaccarino, Proulx, Ralph Schackart, William Blair, Jasmine Enberg, Enberg, Elon, wouldn't Organizations: Twitter, Forrester, X Corp, X Holding, SpaceX, PayPal, Facebook, Google, CNBC, Insider Intelligence

And Twitter's cash flow has been negative as a result of that and its heavy debt load. Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester, said on Sunday that the move would further alienate Twitter's original, and once fiercely loyal, user base. The billionaire Musk said in a Sunday post he wanted to change Twitter's logo and polled his millions of followers whether they would favor changing the site's color scheme from blue to black. Twitter logo and a photo of Elon Musk are displayed through magnifier in this illustration taken October 27, 2022. In April, Twitter's legacy blue bird logo was temporarily replaced by Dogecoin's Shiba Inu dog, helping drive a surge in the cryptocurrency's market value.

Persons: Elon Musk, Mike Proulx, Forrester, Musk, Dado Ruvic, adieu, Linda Yaccarino, Twitter, Dogecoin's Shiba, Mrinmay Dey, Rishabh, William Mallard, Jan Harvey, Cynthia Osterman, Diane Craft Organizations: Twitter Inc, REUTERS, Twitter, X Corp, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ Threads has launched at an opportune time, but it'll be tough to outshine Twitter, analysts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meta launched Threads social media platform — its answer to Twitter — on Wednesday. 10 million users signed up for Threads in the first seven hours of its launch, per CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Analysts say it could be tough for Threads to outshine Twitter's existing power user base. And even though Threads launching at an advantageous time, at least four Wall Street analysts say it could be challenging to outshine the incumbent. After all, it could be difficult to get Twitter users to move, Billy Duberstein, a portfolio manager at Stone Oak Capital, wrote on the Motley Fool website on Wednesday.

Persons: Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Daniel Newman, Newman, hough, witter, ost.News,, ike P roulx,, rove, ames, rian W ieser, Organizations: Twitter, Morning, Elon, Meta, Futurum, Wall Street, otley, NBC

July 3 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's move to temporarily cap how many posts Twitter users can read on the social media site could undermine efforts by the company's new Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino to attract advertisers, marketing industry professionals said. Under the new cap, unverified accounts were initially limited to 600 posts a day with new unverified accounts limited to 300. Verified accounts could read 6,000 posts a day, Musk said in a post on the site. Hours later, he said the cap was raised to 10,000 posts per day for verified users, 1,000 per day for unverified and 500 posts per day for new unverified users. Kai-Cheng Yang, researcher at Indiana University in Bloomington, said that the limits appeared to be effective in blocking third parties, including search engines, from scraping Twitter data like before.

Persons: Elon Musk's, Linda Yaccarino, Musk, Yaccarino, Mike Proulx, Forrester, Lou Paskalis, Jasmine Enberg, Kai, Cheng Yang, Jody Godoy, Sheila Dang, Akash Sriram, Burton Frierson, Nick Zieminski Organizations: Financial Times, AJL Advisory, Bank of America, Twitter, Insider Intelligence, Indiana University, Thomson Locations: Bloomington, New York, Dallas, Bengaluru

☆ Elon Musk's Twitter rate limits could damage the company's 'last best hope,' CEO Linda Yaccarino, ad experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-03 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

On Saturday, Elon Musk introduced a controversial limit on how many tweets users can view daily. Ad experts told Reuters that could this undermine Linda Yaccarino's attempts to salvage the company. Elon Musk's controversial Twitter rate limits could damage CEO Linda Yaccarino's work to improve the company, ad experts told Reuters. And Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester, told Reuters the limits are "remarkably bad" for users and advertisers already agitated by Musk's "chaos." The Twitter CEO took over the role from Musk last month, a couple weeks before she was initially scheduled to start leading the company.

Persons: Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino's, Lou Paskalis, Elon Musk's, Yaccarino, Mike Proulx, Forrester, Musk, she's, Kali Hays, Jack Dorsey, Twitter Organizations: Reuters, Morning, Bank of, AJL, Twitter, BBC, The New York Times, Financial Times Locations: NBCUniversal

☆ Edgy Campaigns Are Out, TikTok Won’t Stop and Other 2023 Predictions for Marketers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Patrick Coffee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +11 min

Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CMO Today CMO Today delivers the most important news of the day for media and marketing professionals. Most campaigns will focus on discounts to customers or showcase the usefulness of a company’s products, he said. Under this form of marketing, ad firms generally get paid upon completion of a desired end, such as a sale or download. In short, consumers should expect less “vacuous virtue-signaling” from marketers in the coming months, according to Mr. Proulx. But these platforms’ very struggles could result in ad bargains for marketers, said Mr. Solomon of Therabody.

☆ Disney shares fall as rising streaming costs spook investors
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 9 (Reuters) - Shares in Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) tumbled 8% premarket on Wednesday as ballooning costs at the entertainment giant's fast-growing streaming division cast a shadow on strong subscriber additions. The company missed analysts' expectations for fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, after a $1.5 billion loss in its streaming division. read more"Disney's streaming results are indicative of the tightrope it is walking," said Fred Boxa, associate director at technology and management consulting firm Arthur D. Little. Subscriber growth in Disney+ was expected to accelerate in the second quarter, she added, a sign analysts said indicated a soft first quarter. A weaker-than-expected full-year revenue growth forecast also dragged shares.

☆ YouTube and Meta are going after TikTok's vulnerabilities in a high-stakes attempt to bring creators, users, and ad dollars to their short-form video platforms
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Lindsay Rittenhouse | Lauren Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

YouTube and Meta look to short-form video as a way to revive declining ad revenue. Creators will be the key to enticing brands to advertise on short-form video apps. Meta, which reported a 3.6% year-over-year decline in ad sales, is also betting big on its short-form video format Reels. But even as Meta and YouTube lean into short-form video, advertisers still say TikTok comes out on top. But TikTok is still their priority for making short-form video content, said Kolin Kleveno, SVP of addressable media for Tinuiti.

☆ Movie theaters want more from Netflix, but the streaming giant isn't ready to budge on its release model
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Should theatrical releases be next? That could help bring in more box office revenue and attract filmmakers with the prestige that can come with theatrical releases. Netflix executives have stood firm by their decision to show "Glass Onion" in just 600 theaters for one week. "We're in the business of entertaining our members with Netflix movies on Netflix," Sarandos said during the call. He said that Netflix has brought films to festivals and gave them limited runs in theaters because filmmakers have demanded it.

☆ Netflix is doubling down on gaming, with dozens of new hires and a dedicated studio, as it chases younger audiences and battles to turn back subscriber losses
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Netflix is making dozens of hires and opening a studio in Finland to bolster its mobile games push. Netflix is hirings dozens of experts to bolster its year-old push into gaming. A recent Forrester survey of Netflix subscribers, reviewed exclusively by Insider, showed only 5% had played one of Netflix's mobile games in the previous month, while 4% said its mobile games keep them subscribing, and 54% said "I could care less" about games on Netflix. However, the streamer in September announced it was opening a games studio in Helsinki, Finland. But there's a lot of competition in mobile gaming and for consumers' attention, Proulx added, and it's an open question "how hard they should press with their strategy."

☆ Netflix is hiring a slew of engineers and developers to bolster its gaming push as subscriptions fall off
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Netflix is making a slew of hires and opening a studio in Finland to bolster its mobile games push. Netflix is hirings dozens of experts to bolster its year-old push into gaming. However, on Monday, the streamer announced it was opening a games studio in Helsinki, Finland. Another listing, for a senior games engineer, shares that "Netflix is building a new internal game studio to incubate and build a new class of hilarious, social party video games." But there's a lot of competition in mobile gaming and for consumers' attention, Proulx added, and it's an open question "how hard they should press with their strategy."

☆ YouTube Shorts' new ad revenue-sharing program is a big problem for TikTok and an even bigger problem for Meta's Reels
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Lindsay Rittenhouse | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

YouTube's new ad revenue-sharing program for Shorts creators is its latest effort to rival TikTok. Ad buyers say Shorts' rev-share program is bad news for TikTok, and worse news for Meta's Reels. But TikTok is still their priority for making short-form video content, said Kolin Kleveno, SVP of addressable media for Tinuiti. And advertisers predicted that even more creators will jump ship to YouTube Shorts thanks to its revenue-sharing program. Tinuiti's Kleveno said YouTube Shorts' revenue-sharing plan will put a ding in Reels' efforts to attract creators.

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