Weekly Roundup – February 18th, 2025
Roundup Links
Why Netflix and Amazon will dominate live sports
"One way to prevent people from canceling a streaming subscription: go big on live events and sports.
And that's what Netflix and Amazon are doing in their ongoing battle with struggling traditional TV players such as Disney and Comcast.
"It's [easier] to cancel streaming than it is a cable service. You push a button on the platform and you're out," Horizon Sports and Experiences co-CEO David Levy told Yahoo Finance executive editor Brian Sozzi on the Opening Bid podcast."
Our Take: While sports rights are increasingly expensive, they are necessary for platforms that want to prevent 'churn' ('churn' refers to the rate at which subscribers cancel or do not renew their subscriptions over a specific period). Year-over-Year profitability is the elusive goal for major streamers.
America Needs a Working-Class Media
"...The identity crisis of the Democratic Party—and debate over the extent to which the party should identify with the working class—unfolds as I write this; see Bernie Sanders’s, Faiz Shakir’s, and other progressive politicians’ and media figures’ refrain that the party pursued donors and ignored the working class in the 2024 electoral campaign. And if that balance of power must change, the media should be similarly realigned."
Our Take: A media entity comprised mostly of employees from non-elite backgrounds was basically journalism before the movie "All the President's Men" was released. Journalism was long considered a blue-collar profession until credentialing took root in the industry leading to those with advanced degrees from increasingly prestigious universities peopling the journalism field. Journalism was perceived more as a trade than an intellectual pursuit with many reporters coming from non-elite, blue-collar backgrounds. And people trusted the news more.
YouTube at 20: how it transformed viewing in eight steps
"The world’s biggest video sharing platform, YouTube, has just turned 20.
It was started inauspiciously in February 2005 by former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim – with a 19-second video of Karim exploring San Diego Zoo.
That year, YouTube’s disruption of the media timeline was minimal enough for there to be no mention of it in The Guardian’s coverage of TV’s Digital Revolution at the Edinburgh TV Festival.
Twenty years on, it’s a different story."
Our Take: In a hundred years we will look at the advent of the internet, social media, video-sharing etc. as multiple Gutenbergs taking place in a relatively short period of time.
Is Social Media Trust Eroding? Bots and Deepfakes Are Creating A Digital Wildfire
"In 2023, according to Imperva research, bots comprised almost half of all internet traffic, and malicious bots comprised 32% of traffic. AI-powered bots are designed to mimic human behavior with likes, comments and real-time responses—and many fraudsters have deployed these tools to widen political divides, spread conspiracy theories and promote fake endorsements."
Our Take: While you should always take these sorts of articles featuring scary or evocative headlines with a grain of salt, a quick look at any social media feed indeed shows that something fishy is going on.
Spotify's HiFi streaming could finally arrive this year
It’s been nearly four years since Spotify announced a HiFi tier for its music streaming service that would support lossless audio. That wait could end this year, Bloomberg reports, as the company works to finalize details, including streaming rights.
Spotify could charge as much as $5 or $6 extra per month for the new tier — said to be named “Music Pro” — which is in line with estimates CEO Daniel Ek shared last year. Spotify’s Premium tier currently starts at $11.99 per month before family or student discounts, the result of two price hikes in as many years."
Our Take: Unless you are listening to Spotify on state-of-the-art speakers/headphones the vast majority of consumers (including me) could not differentiate between standard streaming audio quality and 'lossless' audio. A 'HiFi tier' just seems like a way to nickel and dime music streamers for a product they don't even need.
Recent Blogs from Crowd React Media
The Simple Guide to Radio's Role in Full-Funnel Marketing
In her latest post for Crowd React Media, Katie Miller has uploaded a video guide demonstrating how Radio is a powerful tool that can drive results at every stage of the marketing funnel, from building brand awareness to fostering customer loyalty. By leveraging its mass reach, emotional impact, and ability to drive action, radio provides advertisers with a versatile solution to meet their goals and deliver measurable results.
Sean Bos
Sean Bos is a founder of Crowd React Media and VP of Branding & Research at Harker Bos Group.