100% Media Roundup: 14 March – 18 March 2022

This was a daily digest of news stories from around the media world, updated by The Media Leader team to ensure you’re 100% up-to-date. This week’s news digest was dominated by events in Ukraine and Russia, while TikTok and Spotify announced big sponsorship moves and Nielsen’s acquisition was finalised.

Get the latest updates via The Media Leader‘s homepage. 

Friday, 18 March

Channel 4 and Motion Content Group start fund for ethnically diverse-led indies

Channel 4 and GroupM company Motion Content Group have started a multi-million pound fund to support small and medium-sized ethnically diverse-led independent production companies.

The “diverse indies fund” will be editorially overseen by Vivienne Molokwu, senior commissioning editor at Channel 4, and managed by Deep Sehgal, head of diversity, equity and inclusion at Motion Content Group.

The aim is for this investment to produce “creatively exciting, entertaining and returnable” ideas.

Newsquest acquires Archant for reported £10m

Regional and local publisher Newsquest has acquired Archant Community Media from private equity firm Rcapital today, making it the UK’s second largest regional publishing group behind Reach.

Archant’s portfolio of local news brands is principally in East Anglia, and it also publishes regional County Life magazines.

Newsquest is owned by Gannett and has brands like The Argus, Surrey Comet and Oxford Mail.

The merger deal is believed to be worth around £10m and rumours of the exclusive talks between the two publishers started in February.

GroupMclients donate $1.5m pro bono media support to UNHCR appeal

WPP has announced its media partners have donated $1.5m in pro bono media support via its media investment arm GroupM to the United Nations Ukraine refugees appeal.

In a LinkedIn post, WPP said its employees had donated a total of nearly $670,00 which the holding group matched to make the total of more than $1.3m.

The agency group’s clients also gave $1.4m to the appeal and its digital agency Blue State ran a digital campaign for the UNHCR appeal which raised an additional $70m.

Annesley appointed editor of You Mag

Jackie Annesley has been appointed editor of The Mail on Sunday’s You Magazine.

She joins the women’s mag supplement on 11 April, succeeding Jo Elvin who announced in January she was leaving after four years to “seek out some new adventures”.

Annesley (pictured- main image) spent nine years at the Daily Mail, including seven as Femail editor. She was appointed editor of The Sunday Times’ Style Magazine in 2014.

Ofcom revokes RT’s broadcast licence

Read more on this story here.

In case you missed it earlier this week…

Ocean Outdoor set to retain ad contract for BFI IMAX

Sharon Osbourne joins TalkTV

Sharon Osbourne has signed up to host weeknight panel show on TalkTV, the new TV channel launched by The Sun and The Times publisher NewsUK.

News UK announced Osbourne (pictured- above) will host a 60-minute current affairs debate programme called The Talk on the new channel which promises to bring together five famous figures from different backgrounds with differing opinions.

Osbourne’s show will be broadcast in the UK on TalkTV, streamed on FOX Nation in the US and aired in Australia on Sky News Australia.

She joins Piers Morgan and Tom Newton Dunn on the prime-time schedule ahead of TalkTV’s spring launch.

Thursday 17 March

Omnicom completes set of ad networks  exiting Russia

Omnicom Media Group has become the latest agency group to pull out of Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

OMG has said it will work with local partners to dispose of all its investment positions in the country while ensuring continuing support for clients and colleagues.

It means all of the world’s major global ad and media agency networks have suspended their operations, with WPP, Accenture, IPG, Dentsu and Publicis Groupe announcing similar moves in recent days.

The Weather Channel sues Nielsen

The Weather Channel has begun legal action against Nielsen over claims that the US TV ratings provider concealed a flaw in its system that would unreliably rate smaller networks.

The complaint was filed in Illinois federal court and argues that Nielsen’s rating system no longer works in a television industry fragmented by streaming.

Rumours that Nielsen will be sold to a private consortium of investors including Elliot Management Corp and Brookfield Asset Management have been circulating in recent days.

Netflix announces return of Zelenskyy’s ‘Servant of the People’ in US

Netflix announced that the popular Ukrainian political satire series “Servant of the People”, starring the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has returned to its US catalogue.

You asked and it’s back!

Servant of the People is once again available on Netflix in The US. The 2015 satirical comedy series stars Volodymyr Zelenskyy playing a teacher who unexpectedly becomes President after a video of him complaining about corruption suddenly goes viral. pic.twitter.com/Pp9f48jutF

— Netflix (@netflix) March 16, 2022

The 2015 series, after which Zelenskyy’s political party is named, stars the then-comedian Zelenskyy as a history teacher who is unexpectedly elected president after a classroom rant on government corruption goes viral.

The announcement by Netflix occurred on the same day that President Zelenskyy addressed US Congress pleading for additional military support against Russia.

Netflix tests way to end password sharing

The streaming giant has also announced it would begin testing a new way to crackdown on password sharing by charging customers extra to add more members to their profile.

Under the change, members will only be able to add sub accounts for up to two people outside their household for the additional price of $2.99.

The policy is currently only being tested in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru.

This is not the first time Netflix has attempted to reduce the number of people sharing accounts – last March the company tested adding two-step verification in order to login.

Finecast achieve TAG accreditation

Addressable TV company Finecast announced it has been certified for the first time by the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) following an audit validating its practices meet the highest industry brand safety standards.

The certification coincides with Finecast’s parent company, GroupM UK, and WPP stablemate Xaxis UK, also being re-certified under the TAG Brand Safety Certification 2.0.

Certification helps provide transparency and confidence for ad buyers that advertisements will not run in misplaced contexts.

Wednesday, 16 March

Meta announces parental controls for Instagram and Oculus

Meta has rolled out previously-promised parental supervision tools on Instagram today.

The tools allow parents and guardians the ability to monitor and set limits on the amount of content viewed by their children, receive follower information and get notifications when their child reports a user.

Similar parental restrictions will be coming to Meta’s virtual reality headset, Oculus Quest.

Parents will be able to view and block apps they deem inappropriate for their children or teens, and apps that are officially rated by the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) as age-inappropriate will require permission to download.

Meta has also created “the Family Center” which features additional tips and information for parents on how to manage their family’s social media use.

The announcement follows recent backlash after then-Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified that the company sat on internal research showing Instagram was harmful to pre-teens and teens.

Facebook and Instagram launch TikTok accounts

Meta’s social media brands Facebook and Instagram have created verified accounts on their competitor TikTok’s own app.

While Facebook’s account, which already has more than 20,000 followers, has yet to post, the official Instagram account (Instagram Creators) has posted several tips-and-tricks videos promoting content creation on Reels.

Instagram launched Reels in August of 2020 to directly compete with TikTok’s increasingly popular short-form video content.

ITV and STV organise live Ukraine fundraiser concert

ITV, STV and Livewire Pictures will stage a two-hour fundraiser concert for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

The Concert for Ukraine will be broadcast across ITV, STV, ITV Hub and STV Player on 29 March.

All sponsorship and advertising revenue generated from the primetime linear and simulcast broadcast, expected to be more than £3m, will also be donated to the appeal.

Global and Marks & Spencer will be media partner and headline sponsor respectively.

The line-up of presenters and artists will be announced soon.

Dentsu International transfers operations in Russia to local partner

Dentsu International has become the latest agency group to pull its operations in Russia after Publicis, WPP and Accenture made similar announcements.

In a statement the company said: “In Russia we have a long-term local partner who we have operated with for over 25 years. We are in the process of transferring ownership of our joint venture in Russia to this local partner who will operate independently moving forward.”

“More than 90% of the business in Russia services local clients. We have not made this decision lightly as we have 1,500 people in Russia who have supported dentsu and our clients over many years,” it added.

The Japanese-owned company also said it would donate 140 million yen (the equivalent of around just over £900,000) to humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and the surrounding areas.

Brookfield Asset Management to partner with Elliot to purchase Nielsen

Brookfield Asset Management will partner Elliot Management Corp in a potential leveraged buyout of Nielsen Holdings, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

Elliot Management Corp has owned a stake in Nielsen since 2018.

Nielsen’s stock has jumped 31.49% this week on the rumour of a sale.

Total Media London appoints new CEO

Tom Laranjo has been promoted from managing director to CEO at Total Media London.

Laranjo (pictured- above) has been managing director at the company since 2011, first joining the company in 2006.

He will now be responsible for further developing Total Media London’s behavioural planning.

With this promotion, Guy Sellers, group CEO of Total Media, will focus more on developing the group in the UK and internationally as well as growing companies within the group such as Total Media Connect, Running Total and Total Mediaplus.

Total Media achieved B-Corp status in 2021, the first independent media agency in the UK to receive this environmental accreditation.

Spotify announces sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona

Spotify has signed a multi-year deal to be the main sponsor of Barca beginning in the 2022-2023 season.

The company’s logo will appear on the front of men’s and women’s team shirts for at least the next four years.

The agreement will also rename the club’s 100,000 capacity stadium to Spotify Camp Nou, and Spotify is also seeking to use the sponsorship to highlight musical artists.

Spotify has faced recent controversy over their hosting of The Joe Rogan Experience due to concerns with platforming misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic.

NOW READ

Why Joe Rogan is indeed worth $200m to Spotify

Online Safety Bill set to launch

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries confirmed the long-awaited Online Safety Bill, which aims to tackle harmful content on online media, will be published tomorrow.

Writing on Conservative Home, Dorries said the Bill will introduce a duty of care on online companies – making them responsible for protecting children and tackling illegal content on their platforms – while threatening punishments of multi-billion pound fines of up to 10% of annual global turnover.

The government published the draft bill in May last year and Dorries insisted the bill has since “been strengthened and improved as a result of extensive Parliamentary scrutiny”.

Publicis Groupe pulls of out Russia

Publicis Groupe has followed WPP and IPG by becoming the latest big advertising and media agency network to exit Russia over the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The French company is stopping its business and investments and handing over control of its Russian operations, which has about 1,200 employees, to Sergey Koptev, founding chairman of Publicis in Russia.

Remarking on why Publicis is exiting now when the invasion began nearly three weeks ago, Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun said the businesses needed to “take the necessary time” to find a “truly-people-first solution”.

“[O]ur 1,200 employees in Russia are our people too. We couldn’t just abandon them,” Sadoun said. “By ceding control of our Russian operations to Sergey, we are securing a future path for our colleagues while immediately stopping all of our operations, engagement and investment in Russia.”

Pacaso picks Mediahub for global media buying

Pacaso has appointed IPG media agency Mediahub as its first global media agency and have launched a debut ad campaign.

The Silicon Valley start-up is an online real estate broker targeting the second home ownership market through curated listings, integrated financing, and support for home management and resale.

The global “Own It” media campaign, which was filmed at Pacaso properties, has launched in the US, UK, Germany, and Sweden. Ad agency BBH US is behind the creative.

Tuesday 15 March

US FCC’s imposes foreign sponsorship ID rules

The US Federal Communications Commission has announced a new requirement, effective today, that public and on-air disclosures be made whenever foreign governments or their representatives lease time on American airwaves.

The FCC unanimously adopted the resolution in April of 2021 with the goal of increasing transparency to ensure audiences are aware when a foreign government broadcasts content to “persuade the American public.”

The rules are effective immediately for new leasing agreements and must be implemented within six months from the Federal Register publication date for existing agreements.

US law currently restricts foreign governments from directly holding broadcast licenses; however foreign entities can purchase time on US broadcast stations, and before today could do so with the public unawares.

In a statement, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said, “In light of recent events, this effort—which is all about transparency—has taken on new importance.”

The announcement comes as the war in Ukraine has reinvigorated discussions over foreign influence in the press.

TikTok becomes official partner of Cannes film festival

Bytedance-owned TikTok has become the official partner of the 75th edition of the Festival de Cannes.

TikTok has launched a short film competition for creators to commemorate the partnership with cash prizes, tickets to Cannes and airing of the winning films at the festival.

Sky News and Independent Radio News renew multiyear distribution deal

Sky News will continue to distribute news, business, sports and entertainment audio content to commercial radio stations across the UK through Independent Radio News (IRN) thanks to a new deal.

The multi-year deal means Sky News will provide live and pre-recorded news bulletins, scripts, audio clips, video clips and digital content to IRN’s clients including Heart, Magic, talkSPORT, LBC and Radio Clyde, who can then use the content in their bulletins to suit their audiences.

This new deal builds on the pre-existing relationship between Sky and IRN going back to 2009.

HBO Max and Discovery Plus to merge into one streaming service

As part of Discovery’s upcoming Q2 merger with AT&T’s WarnerMedia, the two media giants’ streaming services will also combine rather than continue on as separate entities, according to Variety.

Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels stated during Deutsche Bank’s 30^th Annual Media, Internet, and Telecom conference that the streaming merger will begin with an “interim solution” during a transition period.

A bundling approach to the two services, among other options, may be considered until the combined platform is fully “harmonized”, he added.

Wiedenfels did not give a price estimate for the service but did state that in keeping with HBO Max and Discovery+’s current strategies, both ad-free and ad-lite models will be introduced.

According to Digital TV Research, with growing demand for streaming and the addition of the Discovery+ content library, which includes programs from HGTV, Food Network, and TLC among others, HBO Max is projected to reach 90 million subscribers by 2027.

Nielsen in ‘advanced talks’ for sale

A group of private equity firms are in advanced discussions to buy Nielsen Holdings, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

The group includes Elliot Management Corp, who has owned a stake in Nielsen since 2018 and previously pushed for the data and market analytics firm to explore a sale.

Nielsen has faced criticism from US TV broadcasters for its alleged shortcomings in measuring linear TV and streaming. Its accreditation was pulled by the Media Rating Council after reports of mistakes in methodology.

Shares of Nielsen jumped more than 30% on the rumour.

Matalan appoints Havas Media Group to media planning and buying

Retailer Matalan has appointed Havas Media Group as its media planning and buying agency of record, following a competitive pitch.

Havas Media Group has been tasked with building media experiences across all channels to build on the brand’s positioning as the ‘Real Life Ready’ retailer for UK families, as well as drive new customer acquisition and support the growth of its ecommerce business.

The Matalan business, previously held by Dentsu, will from April run out of Havas Media’s Manchester office, which also oversees the BBC media account.

IPG suspends Russian operations

Interpublic Group has followed WPP and Accenture’s lead and suspended its Russian operations because of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Meta clarifies hate speech rules in Eastern Europe

Facebook and Instagram users are not allowed to call for the death of Vladimir Putin or Alexander Lukashenko, according to an internal memo from head of global affairs Nick Clegg.

Parent company Meta had said last week that users in Ukraine could call for violence against Russian soldiers, with posts such as “death to the invaders”, but has since clarified that this does not include heads of state.

Meta’s head of global affairs Sir Nick Clegg told company employees: “We are now narrowing the focus to make it explicitly clear in the guidance that it is never to be interpreted as condoning violence against Russians in general.

“We also do not permit calls to assassinate a head of state. So, in order to remove any ambiguity about our stance, we are further narrowing our guidance to make explicit that we are not allowing calls for the death of a head of state on our platforms.”

Monday 14 March

NYT launches encrypted ‘war news’ channel

The New York Times has launched a Telegram channel dedicated to reporting on the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Founded in 2013, Telegram has recently become one of the most prominent encrypted messaging services in the world alongside Signal. Both services have seen a recent uptick in users following concerns over data privacy on Meta-owned WhatsApp.

The Financial Times also launched a similar channel on 26 February.

The launch may be viewed as part of a broader trend of offering news media through messaging apps, especially as they grow in popularity among Ukrainian and Russian users seeking additional data privacy in the midst of the war.

Yieldmo adds MailOnline, Reach and The Telegraph to inventory

Ad tech company Yieldmo  has announced it has added newsbrands MailOnline, Reach and The Telegraph to its global “Smart Exchange”.

The Smart Exchange is Yieldmo’s platform of addressable and non-addressable “premium direct publisher inventory” which uses machine learning and privacy compliant contextual data.

Yieldmo has also made two UK-based senior hires with John Tigg as general manager, international, and Guy Jackson as UK commercial director.

The Kite Factory appoints new strategic director to “further strengthen” expertise in charity sector

Independent media agency, The Kite Factory, has hired Charley Day as strategy director.

Day has worked with The Kite Factory for nearly 10 years in her previous roles as supporter engagement lead at charity WaterAid.

Prior to this, she spent eight years at the NSPCC in roles focused on fundraising strategy and long-term support engagement.

She will report into head of planning, Christian Taylor, and work alongside head of charity, Caroline Dolan.

m/SIX rebrands to m/SIX & Partners

Global media network m/SIX has changed its name to m/SIX & Partners.

This is to reflect its joint ownership structure between WPP and The&Partnership.

Earlier this year, m/SIX restructured its senior leadership team with Jess Burley, global CEO of m/SIX taking on the role of executive chair for m/SIX on a global level.

YouTube starts to block Russian state-funded channels globally

YouTube has started blocking access to channels associated with Russian state-funded media, it announced in a Tweet on Friday.

The Google-owned video platform has cited its policy on violent content that bans posts that deny, minimise or trivialise violent events.

YouTube had previously blocked Russia Today and Sputnik across Europe since the invasion of Ukraine.

Oatly launches branded podcast

Oatly has released a branded true crime podcast on Spotify, Apple and other podcast networks.

The Swedish alternative milk brand launched the  first 18-minute episode Oatly Lake last week about a mystery surrounding a lake in Mesick in Michigan.

CNN+ to launch in US end of March

News organisation CNN has announced its streaming subscription service will launch on 29 March in the US.

CNN+ will be available from $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year and early subscribers can get a lifetime deal of 50 cents off the monthly plan.