_Industry_ updates

Ad Vendors / Platforms / Data

  • Bloomberg launched Audience Accelerator, its first-party ad platform built using data on its 450K subscribers and 5M registered users. (Media Gazer)

  • Brands including Audi, Pfizer, and GM have temporarily paused their Twitter ads because of content moderation concerns in the wake of the company's takeover by Elon Musk. (WSJ)

  • Apple is offering two new ad placements on the Today tab and product pages. (SEJ)

  • In partnership with DoubleVerify, TikTok will now provide post-campaign brand safety and suitability measurements. (The Drum)

  • Sharethrough is expanding its CTV Ad Enhancements Suite with the launch of countdowns and sports tickers. (PRNewsWire)

  • Australia's total September ad spend grew 7% YoY to $775M. (The Drum)

Awards / Festivals

  • Ryan Reynolds will receive the People’s Icon award at this year’s People’s Choice Awards. (THR)

  • Kelsea Ballerini will co-host the 2023 CMT Music Awards while Carrie Underwood is set to be the Austin show's first ever performer. (People)

  • Aftersun and Blue Jean are leading the nominations for the 2022 British Independent Film Awards. Though all categories are now gender-neutral, women are dominating the performance, writing and directing categories. (THR)

Cinemas / Theatrical

  • Black Adam held the top spot at the North American box office in its second weekend in theaters. It added $27.7M in ticket sales, bringing its domestic total to $111M. (AP)

  • Imax's global box office rose 25% YoY in Q3 to $177M. Around 30% of that came from Imax's local-language film slate. (THR)

  • Horror film Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey will be showing in theaters beginning in February of next year. (EW)

  • Cinemark Q3 revenue increased 50% YoY. Admission revenue was $325M and concession revenue was $254M from attendance of 48M patrons. (THR)

Gambling / Casinos

  • Caesars has halted plans to sell its Las Vegas Strip property amid improved Q3 revenue and debt reduction. (Yogonet)

  • MGM reported a 26% YoY jump in Q3 revenue primarily driven by the rise in casino, BetMGM and iGaming revenues. (Yahoo)

  • Q3 net revenues at Las Vegas Strip resorts increased by 66% YoY to $2.3B, and average hotel occupancy was 93%. (Casino.org)

  • Apollo announced it is open to acquiring additional casinos — in Las Vegas or in other regional markets. (Casino.org)

  • Australian online betting companies will have to swap the "gamble responsibly" tagline with one of seven new taglines including "chances are you're about to lose." (Badnt)

Live Events / Attractions

  • Virgin Hotels will launch its International Anime Music Festival next year, stopping in Las Vegas in February. (News3LV)

  • Livenation saw more than 44M fans attend 11K+ events in Q3. Its Q3 revenue was up 63% YoY to $6.2B. (THR)

  • Q3 ancillary per fan spending at events was up 20-30% compared to 2019 across Live Nation venues in the US and Europe. (THR)

Music / Audio / Podcasts

  • Podcast ad spots longer than 35s drive better results than shorter creative because longer ads are better designed to fit the podcast environment. (AdAge)

  • Podcast ads have the same impact whether they're read by the podcast host or come from the brand, though custom ads, in which hosts share their personal experience with the brand, are less effective. (AdAge)

  • Amazon Music will extend its full catalog of music and podcasts without ads to Prime members paying the $139 annual fee. (WSJ)

  • Sony generated $2.2B from recorded music and music publishing in Q3, up 16% YoY. (Music Business Worldwide)

Crypto / NFT / Metaverse

  • The UPS Store launched The Helping You Be Unstoppable Store in Decentraland. The Store has three floors, each featuring different business-related content. (Fast Company)

  • Meta is testing minting and selling NFTs on Instagram, with a small group of US creators getting access to the feature first. (The Verge)

  • Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO have partnered with Nifty’s to launch Game of Thrones NFTs, which will likely become available later this year. (Tech Crunch)

  • Nearly $2B has been spent on virtual land in the past 12 months as people and brands expand into the metaverse. (BBC)

OTT / Streaming

  • Hallmark Channel will get its own hub on Peacock in a deal including streaming simulcasts of Hallmark’s linear channels and a library of on-demand content. (THR)

  • 56% of Americans subscribed to Netflix in September 2022, but subscriptions to Prime Video (52%) and Hulu (42%) are close behind. (Morning Consult)

  • Disney+ conducted a limited test offering exclusive access to merchandise to US subscribers before it hits retail stores on November 8th. (NYT)

  • YouTube started selling third-party subscription streaming services through its new Primetime Channels Hub. Paramount+, Starz, AMC+, Showtime and ViX+ are among the streaming services that will offer subscriptions through YouTube. (THR)

  • Paramount+ added 4.6M subscribers globally in Q3, brining its total subs to 46M, while Pluto TV subs increased to 72M from 69M. (Fierce Video)

  • Over 60% of US adults without streaming subscriptions don't pay for one because they're too expensive. Price is far and away the biggest deterrent. (Morning Consult)

  • Sling TV will cost $5/mo more for new subscribers. With the price hike, Sling Orange and Sling Blue now each cost $40/mo. (Streamable)

  • Broadway on Demand has partnered with Stellar to let users fully manage their own streams, with tools for ticketing and marketing built in to the technology. (Playbill)

  • TelevisaUnivision's total revenue grew 5% in Q3 to $1.2B, with ad revenue growing 8% in the US and 9% in Mexico. (TTVNews)

Retail / Lifestyle / Travel

  • Among those with overnight trips planned, 78% of US holiday travelers will stay with friends and family this Thanksgiving and 75% will do so over the winter holidays. (Morning Consult)

  • 3 in 5 of US adults with Thanksgiving travel plans don’t plan to spend anything on accommodation, and another 26% plan to spend under $100. (Morning Consult)

  • Amazon is letting users virtually try on eyewear using Snapchat's augmented reality lenses. (AdAge)

  • More than 1 in 3 secondhand shoppers plan to buy more items via resale in the next year. A majority of resale activity will take place on eBay and Facebook. (Morning Consult)

  • Walmart cut the price of Walmart+ membership, which includes Paramount+, in half for its November holiday sale. (Retail Dive)

  • Online direct is the fastest-growing hotel distribution channel in Europe, with bookings forecasted to grow 10% from 2017-2023. (MSN)

Social Media

  • A bug on Instagram told users their account was suspended for 30 days. Meta has not yet explained what caused the issue. (BBC)

  • Elon Musk instructed Twitter engineers to work on a Vine reboot that could be ready by year end. (Axios)

  • Twitter will charge $8/mo for its Blue service, which includes its verified blue checkmark, as part of its plan to boost subscriptions and become less reliant on ads. (Reuters)

  • Elon Musk plans to eliminate about 3.7K jobs at Twitter, half of the company’s workforce, to drive down costs. (Bloomberg)

  • WhatsApp launched its new discussion group feature, Communities, which can support groups of up to 1K users. (Tech Crunch)

  • BeReal saw almost 15B downloads worldwide in September and is the No. 2 non-gaming app on the US App Store. (Insider)

  • Douyin (TikTok’s brand in China) is cutting off live streams for people using Cantonese rather than China’s official language, Mandarin. (Rest of World)

Video Games

  • Netflix announced the acquisition of Spry Fox, which will become its sixth in-house games studio. (Digital TV Europe)

  • Twitch partnered with Xbox to give away three months of PC Game Pass subscriptions with a purchase of two new Twitch subs. (The Verge)

  • Sony is releasing the PS VR2 in February. The new headset will cost $550 and comes with controllers as well as stereo headphones. (Tech Crunch)

Live Sports

  • ESPN+ streamed its first-ever exclusive NFL game when the Broncos played the Jaguars in London. (Axios)

  • Sports topped the list of most watched US programs the week of October 24th, with football games and World Series airings taking the top 5 spots. (AP)

  • The Fox Sports App is coming to Vizio smart TVs and will be featured on the home screen November 12th-13th. (Fierce Video)
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