OMG! LOL! NBCUniversal invests $200m in Buzzfeed August 18, 2015 US media company NBCUniversal has made a $200m (£127m) investment in digital media upstart Buzzfeed, valuing it at more than $1bn. In addition to the widely rumoured injection of cash, the pair will work together on content for television, movies and the Olympics. They'll also work on advertising content with brands – although neither side expanded [...]
Why BuzzFeed’s Yahoo joint venture should make it big in Japan August 18, 2015 BuzzFeed is on a march. Having already expanded into nine countries, including the UK, from its US base, it now has its eye on Japan. The digital media firm has announced a joint venture with Yahoo Japan to bring its popular brand of gif-fuelled stories, native advertising content and, increasingly, more serious news coverage [...]
ITV share price falls as Ofcom rules Britain’s Got Talent “misled” viewers over Jules O’Dwyer & Matisse and Chase dog act August 18, 2015 ITV has been forced to offer viewers a refund after its flagship show Britain's Got Talent was slammed for breaching the code over winning act Jules O'Dwyer and her performing dog Matisse. The broadcaster failed to ensure viewers were not “materially misled” around the act, in which a doggy double called Chase walked across [...]
Ahead of the curve: m/SIX’s Jess Burley on what your apps say about you August 16, 2015 It is thought to have taken 38 years before the radio reached an audience of 50m. Television took just 13 years, the internet four years, and Facebook two. New platforms like Periscope are emerging all the time and audiences are scaling increasingly rapidly. Advertisers must be able to adapt their strategy to engage with the [...]
Leading the fight-back against bot fraud August 16, 2015 In the age of digital advertising, there is a concern that the online adverts which companies have paid for aren’t reaching the eyeballs they’ve been promised. The problem is partly down to botnets, or “bots”, which get into users’ systems, interact with adverts and create fake impressions, making it seem as if the advert [...]
Amazon Prime’s new Top Gear: “They’re worth a lot” Jeff Bezos says of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond August 16, 2015 Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has revealed what he thinks about Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond after signing the trio to star in a new car show on Amazon's Netflix-style Prime Video streaming service. The show, due to air next year, will be “very, very, very expensive,” Bezos said, speaking to [...]
A Level results 2015: A lesson in why they aren’t crucial for career success from Dave Trott August 13, 2015 In advertising, lots of the really great people didn’t do A levels. They quit school and started work. They were hustlers, doers, they didn’t want to waste their time memorising things and writing essays.They were in a hurry. They wanted to be working, earning money. That was their A levels. They started in the post-room [...]
David Coulthard-backed company Whisper Films receives Channel 4 investment August 13, 2015 Channel 4 has taken an equity stake in Whisper Films, a London-based production company specialising in sports content. The investment was made through the £20m Channel 4 Growth Fund, which was launched at the beginning of 2014. Whisper Films was established in 2010 by former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard, TV presenter Jake Humphrey and [...]
Pearson sells stake in The Economist Group for £469m August 12, 2015 Pearson has agreed to sell its 50 per cent stake in The Economist Group for £469m just weeks after offloading the Financial Times. Italian investment group Exor take on 27.8 per cent of The Economist's ordinary shares for £227.5m and all of the B special shares for £59.5m. Pearson's remaining ordinary shares will be [...]
Johnston Press presses on with digital push as print revenues decline August 12, 2015 Johnston Press yesterday reported a £6.2m fall in revenue in the six months to 3 July, citing a “slowdown in general trading”. Driving the decline in revenues was a fall in income from print advertising, which fell to £64.1m, down 9.5 per cent on the same period of last year. The newspaper and magazine publisher [...]