 Jeffrey Katzenberg |
NewTV, the mobile video startup from Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, has attracted $1B in seed financial from investors including Sony, MGM, Viacom and Madrone Capital, which is led by Walmart chairman Greg Penner. The venture, which is scheduled to launch by the end of 2019, will consist of short-form programming tailored to be viewed on smartphones. According to Katzenberg, there will be a two-tiered subscription structure: a plan that will carry no advertising plus what is being referred to as an “advertising-light” option. The focus on smartphone viewing, Katzenberg says, means that NewTV will not be a competitor with such services as Hulu, Netflix or the broadcast networks. “It’s a completely different use case,” he told Variety. The service is projected to feature both scripted and nonscripted shows in a number of genres, but it will not include live TV. The company will not produce its own shows, instead relying on licensed programming.
 Bob Iger |
The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger says that its new streaming service, slated for next year, will likely be positioned as a lower-cost option to Netflix. One reason for that is what Iger says is the smaller amount of content the service will have in relation to the streaming giant. “They’re in the high-volume game,” Iger said, “but we don’t really need to do that.” In addition to titles from Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel, the Disney service will include ESPN+, the sports network’s streaming service that was launched in April, and Hulu, which Disney now controls following its recent acquisition of a significant portion of Fox. It will also generate such original programming as a live-action Star Wars series and new Marvel content. Iger says that the company feels little need to rush to acquire more content, since “the only place people will be able to get Disney-Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel product will be here.”
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Snapchat lost two million daily users in the second quarter, the company says, the first quarterly drop it has reported. Analysts had expected a gain of nearly two million users. The drop is being interpreted as a possible sign of slowing growth for social media. A portion of the blame is being placed on a poorly received redesign in February, which had been intended to lead users toward watching more videos on the site. Snapchat has also been impacted by the growing prominence of Instagram Stories, which reports that it has 300 million daily active users. Despite the user shortfall, Snap’s revenues maintained their upward trend. With average revenue per user increasing to $1.40 from $1.05 a year ago, Snap brought in $262 million, topping the average estimate of $250.43 million. And the fact that Snapchat has more users than Instagram in the 12-to-24 demographic may be a sign of future growth.
Versant Media Group, the NBCUniversal cable TV spin-off, today reported its first financial results as 2025 revenues dipped 5.3 percent to $6.7B and standalone EBITDA dropped 9.1 percent to $2.2B.
Trump Media & Technology Group is discussing a spin-off of the Truth Social platform following the expected closing of its $6B merger deal with TAE Technologies... Condé Nast sells off Them, the digital LGBTQ-focused platform it launched in 2017, to Equalpride, publisher of Out, The Advocate, Out Traveler, Health PLUS Wellness and Pride.com... CBS News has parted ways with longevity influencer Peter Attia, one of the 19 contributors that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss brought on as part of her plan to present a wider variety of voices on the platform. 
Symbolic.ai forms a partnership with News Corp to begin using the company’s AI-native publisher platform in the newsrooms of News Corp publications to augment research, writing and publishing... Mediaite launches a newsletter that promises to give readers a summary of—media newsletters... The Fund for American Studies launches the Journalism Excellence Fellowship, a program that will provide promising young journalists the opportunity to work alongside top writers, reporters, and media professionals.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has roots going back to 1786, is going out of business, the paper’s owners, Block Communications, announced on Jan. 7... GQ editor Will Welch is stepping down to take on a new Paris-based role with the musician Pharrell, who is also men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton... Semafor says it has raised $30 million on a $330 million valuation, following its first profitable year. 
The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach an agreement that will make a set of more than 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars available for use by Sora, OpenAI’s short-form generative AI video platform... CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has moved Tony Dokoupil, a co-host at “CBS Mornings” since 2019, into the anchor’s chair for the “CBS Evening News,” following the departure of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois... USA Today editor-in-chief Caren Bohan has left the paper.
