26 May 2022 | The Media Leader Staff

100% Media Round-Up: 23 May- 27 May

This is 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.

Friday 27 May

Sky Sports partners with UK broadcasters for airing World Cup playoff final

The World Cup playoff final between Wales and the winner of Ukraine and Scotland will be available free to air on ITV in England, S4C in Wales, and STV in Scotland following agreements between Sky Sports and the British public service broadcasters.

The winners will qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar this November.

The semifinal between Scotland and Ukraine will air on Sky Sports at 7:45pm on Wednesday 1 June. The final will air Sunday 5 June.

Twitter investor sues Musk over ‘false statements and market manipulation’

A class action lawsuit brought by Twitter investor William Heresniak was filed against Elon Musk and Twitter, Inc. on Wednesday.

The lawsuit accuses Musk of multiple forms of misconduct surrounding his buyout of Twitter. These include:

Musk delaying his disclosure of his stake in Twitter; the purported market manipulation benefitted Musk by approximately $156m.
Musk issuing false or misleading tweets about the buyout being “temporarily on hold” despite that not being legally possible, the suit argues, causing Twitter’s stock to decrease, also amounting to market manipulation.

The complaint reads: “Musk’s wrongful conduct has not only substantially harmed Twitter’s shareholders by causing Twitter’s stock to crater by approximately 25%, but it has also substantially harmed Twitter’s employees.”

The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Bloomberg Media to ‘debut five new podcasts’ with iHeartMedia this year

Bloomberg Media is partnering with iHeartMedia to release five new podcasts shows this year, according to a report by Digiday.

The new shows include: Bloomberg Crypto, which will premiere first in June, followed by Bedrock, USA in July, In Trust and The Big Take in September, and Crash Course in October.

Bloomberg Crypto and The Big Take will be a daily shows to discuss crypto and general news, respectively, while Bedrock, USA and In Trust will be limited series.

Bloomberg and iHeartMedia originally announced the deal in May 2021, and the companies’ first offering of shows were originally planned to release last year before delays pushed their release into summer and fall, 2022.

4A’s Board of Directors names Sharon Napier board chair

On Tuesday the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) named Sharon Napier the new 4A’s board chair.

The move gives the 4As its first majority female board leadership in the organization’s 105-year history.

Napier, who is executive chair and founder of Partners + Napier, a Project Worldwide advertising agency, will replace Barry Wacksman, who will remain on the board as past chair.

The board chair role is a two-year term.

Substack ‘drops fundraising efforts’

Newsletter startup Substack is dropping efforts to court investors for additional rounds of funding, according to a report by The New York Times.

Before the discussions fell apart, Substack purportedly was attempting to raise between $75m-$100m from potential investors. The company has previously raised at least $86m over three rounds of funding.

The move comes amid a market downturn and rising interest rates that has made investors cautious about funding young growth companies.

Ellen DeGeneres hosts last chat show after 19 years on daytime TV

Ellen DeGeneres signed off her chat show for the last time yesterday ending 19 years on daytime television.

Billie Eilish, Pink and Jennifer Aniston were guests on the show along with DeGeneres’ brother, Vance, and wife, Portia de Rossi.

Accusations came to light last year about a toxic workplace at the show and DeGeneres announced in May 2021 that this season would be the final season.

Channel 4 to reprise The Big Breakfast this summer

Channel 4 has announced its morning entertainment show The Big Breakfast will return to screens this August.

The show will take place over four weeks on Saturday mornings and is produced by Lifted Entertainment, part of ITV Studios.

Comedian Mo Gilligan and broadcaster AJ Odudu will host the show.

The show was brought back last year as a one-off special in September for the Black to Front project.

Disney+ announces launch date for new Star Wars series Andor

Disney+ announced it will launch a new Star Wars original series Andor on 31 August.

The first two episodes from Lucasfilm will debut exclusively on the streaming platform and follow Cassian Andor’s journey prior to the events of Rogue One.

It also announced the third season of The Mandalorian will premier in February 2023.

Thursday 26 May

BBC plans to move CBBC and BBC Four online

Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general, has announced plans to stop airing CBBC and BBC Four as traditional broadcast channels and other reorganisation of services meaning cuts of £200m a year.

CBBC and BBC Four content will be made available on BBC iPlayer, Radio 4 Extra will move to the app BBC Sounds and the BBC’s two news channels, BBC World News and BBC News, will be merged to create one 24-hour TV news channel for UK and international audiences.

The BBC will cut the number of programmes it makes and local radio and regional news will also be affected. It has been reported these cost-cutting plans could result in 1,000 job losses.

These announcements come as the BBC aims to become a “modern, digital-led and streamlined organisation” in response to Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries freezing the licence fee earlier this year.

UK watchdog launches second investigation into Google ad tech

The Competition and Markets Authority has launched a second investigation into Google following its probe into Google and Meta’s Jedi Blue agreement.

This new investigation is focussed on whether Google has broken the law by restricting competition in the digital advertising technology market.

The CMA will look into three parts of the ad tech stack, each of which Google owns the largest service provider, demand-side platforms, ad exchanges and publisher ad servers.

O2 becomes Love Island official network sponsor

O2 has become official network sponsor of ITV2’s Love Island.

The sponsorship builds on O2’s recent campaign “Roam Freely” aiming to position O2 as the best network for roaming to fans of the show. O2 is now the only major network that does not charge its customers to roam in Europe up to 25GB.

O2’s mascot Bubl will also become the Love Island insider providing backstage access to dating show content.

See more on Love Island sponsorship here.

Nationwide to sponsor Channel 4’s coverage of England’s international games

Nationwide Building Society will sponsor Channel 4’s 2022 coverage of England’s UEFA Nations League games.

The sponsorship deal was negotiated by media agency Wavemaker and spans build-up programming, live coverage of matches, highlights, and entertainment shows across Channel 4 and All 4.

Nationwide previously sponsored England games when they were broadcast on ITV.

Wavemaker restructures UK leadership team

WPP agency Wavemaker has promoted Kelly Parker to UK CEO and Katie Lee to chief operating officer.

Parker (pictured, below left) will move from her current post as UK chief operating officer to the post of CEO in June and will report into EMEA CEO Ruth Stubbs.

Lee (also pictured) was promoted from chief growth officer.

Previous UK CEO Paul Hutchinson has resigned from Wavemaker to move to Australia to take on a new role outside the group.

Hutchinson was CEO for four years and spent 12 years at the agency.

Dentsu agency Merkle appoints new UK chief sales officer

Merkle has appointed Mark Atkinson as UK chief sales officer.

Atkinson (pictured, left) will be responsible for driving new business growth for the sales team and Merkle’s CXM proposition.

He joined Merkle in 2021 and previously spent seven years at Adobe, where he was latterly UK head of platform and specialist sales.

Telegraph revenues up 40%

Telegraph Media Group has grown its digital subscriptions by 49% according to its annual earnings report.

Digital subscription revenues were up 40% to £44.1m in 2021.

TMG registered 720,250 subscriptions at year-end, a net increase 28%. The Telegraph publisher is aiming to reach one million subscriptions by 2023.

Revenue for the year ending December 2021 was £240.5m which was an increase of 4% on 2020, which was mostly due to growth in digital subscriptions.

Spotify’s clickable ads now available in UK, Australia and Canada

Spotify has rolled out its call-to-action cards, a clickable ad feature, in the UK, Australia and Canada.

The cards are powered by Spotify’s streaming ad insertion technology and designed to be seen while the ad is playing and after it is heard on the app during podcasts.

The call-to-action cards were originally launched in the US in January and give advertisers a visual space that users can interact with to learn more about the advertisement.

Wednesday 25 May

GroupM’s Finecast appoints new managing partner for global innovation

GroupM’s addressable TV business, Finecast, has appointed Kristian Claxton as managing partner, global innovation.

In the newly-created role Claxton (pictured, below) will report to Nicola Lewis, global CEO at Finecast, and be responsible for designing and building new product solutions and emerging commercial opportunities globally.

Claxton has been at Finecast for more than five years and prior to that spent six years at Videology and also had roles at Channel 4 and WPP media agency MEC (now Wavemaker).

Wavemaker becomes Audible’s agency of record for paid media worldwide

Amazon company Audible has named Wavemaker its new agency of record for paid media worldwide after a global review.

Audible is a creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, including audiobooks and podcasts.

Effective from today, Wavemaker will handle its paid media activity across the 10 marketplace services it operates for customers in the US, Canada, UK, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, India, Japan and Australia.

Read more on this story here.

BBC Sounds signs ex-Sky Sports’ Kamara for football podcast

The BBC will launch a new football podcast this summer with hosts Chris Kamara and Ben Shephard.

Kamara retired from Sky Sports News this season after 24 years, and will host the new weekly podcast Unbelievable, which was commissioned by 5 Live with more details set to be announced this summer.

Another football podcast, Moment of Truth, will also debut this summer, narrated by James Nesbitt with “unparalleled access” to football managers Paul Warne and Karl Robinson for Rotherham United and Oxford United respectively.

Pinterest launches ‘flippable’ pin campaign with Samsung

Pinterest has launched the first “flippable” pin on its platform for Samsung’s “How we flex” flip phone campaign.

Samsung will use Pinterest’s video portal technique to bring a 3D illusion (pictured, below) to its Galaxy Z Flip3 phone ad to help it stand out as users scroll through their feed.

Pinterest said searches on its platform for “flip phone” and “flip phone aesthetic” have increased 45% and 35% respectively year-on-year.

Microsoft Advertising appoints EMEA and LATAM enterprise sales lead

Microsoft Advertising has appointed Mark Richardson to lead EMEA and LATAM enterprise sales under its new global enterprise sales team.

This is an expansion of Richardson’s current role as regional vice-president for Microsoft Advertising in EMEA.

He will now lead lead strategic, enterprise and corporate sales teams and sales house partners in both EMEA and LATAM regions.

Richardson has been at Microsoft Advertising for more than sixteen years, and previously had positions in search marketing at Yahoo! and display sales and broadcast accounts at ITV.

MediaCom UK hires chief growth officer

WPP agency MediaCom UK has appointed Susana Tsui Fitzpatrick as chief growth officer in the UK.

Fitzpatrick, nee Tsui (pictured- below), will be responsible for the agency’s new business growth.

Her previous roles include president of Tatler Asia Group, CEO of media and community for The Asian Parent, southeast Asia’s largest parenting community, group CEO at Dentsu China, CEO at PHD Asia Pacific and COO of Asia Pacific at Ogilvy.

Fitzpatrick will report into Kate Rowlinson, UK CEO at MediaCom, and work with the new business and marketing teams, executive leadership team and managing partner and head of business development, James Hyams.

The appointment follows the announcement GroupM would merge its media agencies MediaCom and Essence.

Social media stocks tumble after Snap cuts revenue forecasts

Shares of Snap were down over 43% yesterday in the company’s worst trading day in its history.

The company cut revenue and profit forecasts, stating in an SEC filing: “Since we issued guidance on 21 April 2022, the macroeconomic environment has deteriorated further and faster than anticipated”.

The warning dragged down other social media and tech stocks as investors grew fearful: Meta was down over 7% yesterday, Twitter was down over 5.5%, and Google was down nearly 5%.

In an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg, CEO Evan Spiegel reassured staff and mentioned that though recruitment will continue, the company will slow its pace of hiring for the remainder of the year.

Twitter rebrands Twitter Media to Twitter Create

Twitter is rebranding its media hub, Twitter Media, to Twitter Create.

The change is meant to highlight growing monetization opportunities for creators on the platform.

The media hub, which launched four years ago, provides product guides, case studies, and interviews with social media experts to act as a “think tank” for creators on the website.

Notice anything different around here? Twitter Media is now Twitter Create. Same great content, with a brand new look. pic.twitter.com/elwXkijn3s

— Twitter Create (@TwitterCreate) May 24, 2022

Google begins rolling out ads for YouTube Shorts

Google is rolling out global ads for YouTube Shorts, the company’s short-form video-sharing TikTok competitor.

The company had been testing ads on the platform since April.

The announcement came during Google’s Marketing Live event, where the company also announced new Google Shopping ads and that video ads would soon be available on Google Discover.

Jen Psaki officially hired by MSNBC

Former White House press sec Jen Psaki has been officially hired by MSNBC, where she will act as a political analyst throughout this year’s midterms and during the 2024 presidential campaign season.

Thrilled to join the incredible @MSNBC family this fall. Breaking down the facts and getting to the bottom of what’s driving the issues that matter most to people in this country has never been more important.

— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) May 24, 2022

She will also host a new show set to debut in 2023 on streaming.

Tuesday 24 May

EE returns as technology sponsor for Glastonbury 2022

EE has become the technology partner for Glastonbury Festival for the seventh year running.

As part of the partnership, EE will bring its superfast network to Worthy Farm for Glastonbury’s 200,000 attendees as the festival returns after nearly two years.

This year, the mobile network predicts data usage will double from 2019 levels to nearly 200 terabytes, the equivalent of viewing eight billion Instagram posts.

Volkswagen renews ITV movies sponsorship for two years

Volkswagen has launched an “Electrifying Movies” idents campaign on ITV movies interrupting famous Hollywood scenes with its pure electric and plug-in hybrid range.

Adam&eveDDB created 16 executions for the ident series which premiered on 21 May and will run until December 2023.

The media agency was PHD.

BBC News ticker says ‘Manchester United are rubbish’

Bizarre scenes on the BBC News Channel today as the news ticker displayed unusual headlines such as “Manchester United are rubbish” and “Weather rain everywhere”.

Viewers, including entertainment journalist Scott Bryan, tweeted a video of the broadcast at 9.35am today:

Errrr… what is going on with the BBC News ticker? pic.twitter.com/fofbiGyMfs

— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) May 24, 2022

Essence wins global MPB media account

MPB, the global platform for used photography and videography equipment, has appointed Essence as its global media agency of record.

Essence will handle all planning, strategy, and buying across search, social and programmatic, with a focus on growing MPB’s brand further in the US, UK, Germany, France and across European markets.

Founded in 2011, MPB has grown from a small start-up to a global platform backed and now recirculates more than 300,000 items of used kit every year.

DC Attorney General sues Zuckerberg over Cambridge Analytica scandal

Washington DC Attorney General Karl Racine sued Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, accusing him of personally failing to protect the privacy and data of users, leading to the Cambridge Analytica scandal that was first exposed in 2018.

Racine also accused Zuckerberg of enabling “a multi-year effort to mislead users about the extent of Facebook’s wrongful conduct”.

The attorney general is arguing that Zuckerberg should be held responsible under DC’s consumer protection law.

Merkle appoints ex-Accenture managing director as new EMEA chief sales officer

Merkle, Dentsu’s customer experience management company, has hired Robert Bushey as its EMEA chief sales officer.

Bushey (pictured- below) will lead the team responsible for growing EMEA revenues across all markets, building partnerships, generating business and promoting collaboration between Dentsu’s media and creative services.

Prior to Merkle, he spent 11 years as managing director at Accenture.

SiriusXM buys Conan O’Brien’s podcast business for reported $150m

US pay-radio operator SiriusXM has bought comedian and late-night TV host Conan O’Brien digital media company, Team Coco, including its portfolio of ten podcasts.

The deal means O’Brien’s popular podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend will join the SiriusXM podcast network for at least five years.

InfoSum and Adform announce global partnership to help advertisers fully leverage data

The data collaboration platform, InfoSum, and integrated advertising platform, AdForm, have announced a global collaboration to help advertisers “fully leverage data” without compromising on security and privacy.

The integration of Adform flow and InfoSum’s data collaboration platform will allow advertisers to match first-party data with media owners’ audiences to build “highly relevant” audience segments.

Monday, 23 May

Starcom lands abrdn UK & EMEA account

Starcom, part of Publicis Media, has won the UK & EMEA account for global investment company abrdn after a competitive pitch.

Performics, Starcom’s specialist performance marketing team, will be responsible for abrdn’s rebranding and digital transformation.

The team will also take charge of abrdn’s customer segmentation insight, search engine optimisation, content, conversion rate optimisation, and social and programmatic display activity across 28 markets including the UK, France and Germany.

What’s Possible Group fills newly created managing director of data role

What’s Possible Group, the marketing group for “dynamic growth brands”, has appointed Patrick Mazzotta as managing director of data.

In the newly created role, Mazzotta (pictured – below) will be responsible for building a data, analytics and insight centre, managing a growing team, and developing and innovating data products and services.

He joins the company from WPP where he was vice president of analytics for EMEA at Essence.

Mazzotta also has experience in marketing science and data functions at other WPP agencies in North America including POSSIBLE in Seattle and Wunderman Thompson in Toronto.

He will report to Karl Weaver, chief commercial officer at What’s Possible Group.

Pro Music Rights announces licensing agreement with TikTok

Pro Music Rights, one of the world’s largest music licensing companies, announced it has granted TikTok a license that will allow its users to create videos using music from the company’s more than 2,500,000 works.

Pro Music Rights represents an estimated 7.4% US market share, including artists such as A$AP Rocky, Wiz Khalifa, Pharrell, Nipsey Hussle, and Fall Out Boy.

The company holds licenses with other big audio players like iHeart Media, Vevo, Napster, Triller, 7Digital, and more.

GroupM appoints senior buyers

GroupM, WPP’s media investment arm, has appointed Carl Nawgamuwa and Jonathan Masterson as managing directors of investment.

Nawgamuwa and Masterson (pictured- below left and right) will report to Simon Willis, chief investment officer at GroupM UK.

They will be responsible for implementing GroupM’s Responsible Investment Framework, centred on brand safety, data ethics, diversity, inclusion, responsible journalism and sustainability, as well as growing the investment team and its integration with GroupM’s agency teams and partners in the UK.

Nawgamuwa will join GroupM in July after five years at Google in Singapore and London where he led marketing platform sales and technology partner strategy teams. Previously he held roles at GroupM agency MEC UK (now Wavemaker) in TV and digital investment and Xaxis (also part of GroupM) in Singapore.

Masterson has been promoted from trading director at GroupM UK, a position he has occupied since 2019, after joining from GroupM agency MediaCom where he was partner and head of AV.

Streaming rose to record share of TV in April – Nielsen

Streaming usage climbed to new records in the month of April, according to latest Nielsen figures.

The share of viewers using streaming rose to 30.4%, in between cable (36.8%) and broadcast (24.7%), marking the first time streaming eclipsed 30% of total TV usage.

Of that 30.4% streaming share, Netflix remained top (6.6%) followed by YouTube TV (6.1%), Hulu (3.3%), Prime Video (2.5%), Disney+ (1.7%), and HBO Max (1.0%).

Nielsen also noted that while streaming volume was flat month-over-month, both broadcast and cable saw a seasonal decrease in viewing by 3% and 2.5%, respectively, caused by declines in drama, sports, and news viewing.

Havas Media promotes Butler to managing partner

Havas Media Group has promoted Jo Butler to managing partner of Havas Media, where she will be tasked with driving client growth.

Butler joined Havas Media from OMD as client partner two-and-a-half years ago and has led client teams for Dreams and Hyundai. She will report into Ailsa Buckley (pictured, right, with Butler in below image) who was promoted into her chief client officer role in March 2022.

She has become the second Femmes Forward participant to reach senior management at Havas Media Group UK following Julia Nicholls’ promotion in late 2018. Havas’ Femmes Forward programme was launched in 2018 to help advance the careers of women in Havas Group.