Category: Media & Entertainment

  • Report: Ad opportunities to drive streaming industry growth

    The latest Video Developer Report from streaming infrastructure provider Bitmovin reflects a turbulent economic year for the industry but one that is primed to seize many opportunities for growth in 2024. Opportunities and challenges This year’s Video Developer Report saw advertising (36 per cent) identified as the greatest opportunity for growth by video developers. Additionally,…

  • EchoStar under threat from Dish investors

    EchoStar, having recently merged with Dish Network, has upset some investors and creditors in Dish. An Ad-hoc grouping of Dish Network investors and holders of the company’s debt have reportedly met and drafted an agreement to band together in potential negotiations with the company. The groups are exploring legal options, including default notices under certain…

  • Data: $930bn spent on social media ads since 2017

    As the second-largest market in the digital advertising space, the social media ad industry has significantly grown over the years. With an estimated 4.9 billion social media users across the world and over 90 per cent of marketers using social media to promote brands and reach customers, it’s little wonder this type of advertising has…

  • France: Les VODays returns for 2024

    Trade bodies the Digital Entertainment Group International (DEGI) and the Syndicat de l’Edition Vidéo Numérique (SEVN) have confirmed the return of ‘Les VODays’, a category-wide week-long campaign to drive growth and engagement across the ever-growing French digital transactional market featuring a wide-range of compelling offers. From January 22nd to January 28th, the campaign will offer…

  • Sky’s van Rooyen stepping down

    Stephen van Rooyen, Sky UK and Ireland CEO and Group CCO, has announced that he will leave his role at the end of February. Effective immediately, Sky’s UK and Ireland business will report to group CEO Dana Strong. Van Rooyen commented: “I have taken the decision that now is the right time for me to…

  • Zee, Sony merger called off

    The long-awaited ZEEL-Sony merger is off. Despite reports over the weekend that the $10 billion merger between Zee Entertainment Ltd (ZEEL) and Sony’s Culver Max Entertainment was close, news has emerged that Sony has run out of patience and had sent a “termination letter” to ZEEL. Bloomberg is reporting that a key meeting was held…

  • Government seeks BBC impartiality reforms

    The UK Government has recommended major reforms to help boost audience confidence in the BBC’s impartiality and complaints system, following the first Mid-Term Review. Launched at the halfway point of the BBC’s 11-year Royal Charter, the Mid-Term Review evaluates the effectiveness of the governance and regulatory arrangements introduced by the Charter in 2017, with recommendations…

  • Some publishers are starting to see revenue lift from alternative IDs

    If you asked publishers last summer which alternative identifiers presented the most promise for replacing third-party cookies, most would have responded with a fatigued shrug. But now some are able to quantify the cookie replacements’ revenue impact. In a test of Unified ID 2.0 — which was developed by The Trade Desk and is now…

  • AI Briefing: How a media agency built a robotic alien to show off its generative AI tools

    Aliens and robots are both synonymous with sci-fi, but one marketing agency decided to design something more extraterrestrial to manifest its AI.  To show off its new AI platform, S4 Capital’s Media.Monks created an “Alien AI advisor” called Wormhole. With an aesthetic and personality inspired by the worm-like Annelids from “Men In Black,” Wormhole is…

  • Forecast: MENA pay-TV to lose $1.6bn

    MENA’s pay-TV revenues will fall by $1.6 billion (€1.46bn) between peak year 2016 and 2029, mainly as a result of the OTT push and widespread piracy, according to the Middle East and North Africa Pay-TV Forecasts report from analyst firm Digital TV Research. Pay-TV revenues for 20 MENA countries will drop by 43 per cent…