Weekly Roundup – July 16th, 2024

"Fox’s summer of soccer is still drawing record audiences to both the Fox broadcast network and FS1 as both the 2024 Copa América and UEFA Euro 2024 approach their conclusions.
This week’s Copa América semifinals on FS1 were the most-watched semifinals for Copa América in English-language history in the United States, averaging 2.067 million viewers. Colombia’s win over Uruguay on Wednesday averaged 2.145 million viewers, while Argentina’s win over Canada added another 1.985 million. The two matches were the most-watched Copa América semifinals not involving the USMNT, whose semifinal loss to Argentina in 2016 averaged 3.29 million viewers.
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England-Netherlands averaged 2.971 million viewers, the second-most-watched semifinal ever, while the round as a whole averaged a record 3.08 million viewers."

"Online sports betting companies enlist celebrities, offer free bets and dole out perks to promote a tantalizing possibility: winning.
But some gamblers who manage to beat sportsbooks say they are often shut down when they succeed too much.
Dave Holmes, a sports bettor in Chicago, said that as he started to win more using a math-based wagering strategy, companies including BetMGM, ESPN Bet and Caesars began rejecting his bets. He typically puts down about $100 per bet. Some companies have offered instead to accept as little as 50 cents.
“I would love to actually be given an answer to why it’s happening, and they refuse to do that,” Holmes said.
Some frequent gamblers search the odds on everything from National Football League and Major League Baseball games to table tennis and darts, seeking weaknesses in prices set by sportsbooks and making advantageous wagers, much the way hedge funds seek opportunities to pounce on undervalued stocks.
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The regulator is digging into wager limits at a time of increased scrutiny on the other side of the sportsbook business: the biggest losers. Companies place big bettors in so-called VIP programs, doling out thousands of dollars in free bets and other perks for their most profitable customers, The Wall Street Journal reported in February. In response, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) sent letters to online gambling companies questioning how they use player data and other marketing to target customers."

"Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav has banged the drum for streaming consolidation for quite some time. Over a year ago, Zaslav mused that aggregation was a foregone conclusion, and that any company with a streaming service that didn’t go along with the trend would be forced into it one way or another. Fast-forwarding to summer 2024, a new wave of bundling has indeed taken the industry by storm, and WBD’s content is at the center of multiple efforts to provide customers with aggregated products like the forthcoming Max bundle with Disney+ and Hulu, and the sports-focused joint venture Venu Sports. Zaslav gave his thoughts about consolidation once again at the 2024 Sun Valley conference in Idaho this week and shared some new details on Venu as well.
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In part, Zaslav’s words are a self-fulfilling prophecy. The public is waiting impatiently for the new Disney+, Hulu, and Max bundle which was announced in May, and Venu Sports is set to arrive this fall, so WBD is already deeply engrossed in multiple consolidation efforts.
But there are others in the streaming world who are seeking out bundle opportunities; Netflix recently joined with Peacock and Apple TV+ in the StreamSaver bundle for Comcast internet and TV customers, and Paramount is actively seeking joint venture opportunities for Paramount+, even as it undergoes an ownership change."

"Layoffs will once again hit CNN as the cable news channel reorganizes in a push to expand its digital businesses.
CNN CEO Mark Thompson outlined his digital vision in a lengthy memo to staff Wednesday morning, announcing plans to build a flurry of digital products, including a subscription offering before the end of the year, plans to launch other paid offerings built around lifestyle journalism and a “strategic push into AI.”
In his note, Thompson said that about 100 roles will be cut, representing just shy of 3 percent of CNN’s workforce. He will host a town hall with staff later in the day to further elaborate on the plan.
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While the specifics around CNN’s first subscription offering were not clear from the memo, Thompson did emphasize that rather than the text-based experience it currently leans on, CNN will focus more on video in digital going forward."

"As connected TV gradually eclipses linear, the measurement space continues to evolve. The market's in for another year of transitioning from a single dominant currency to multiple currencies.
Another year of currency chaos is in the books. With the legacy option still in play, the converged TV market continues to rely heavily on outdated measurement methodology. But there are signs of progress.
Key Question: How has linear and streaming TV ad measurement progressed in the past year, and which currency provider is favored to prevail this upfront season?
Key Stat: The share of advertisers who are very interested in non-legacy TV currencies hasn't budged since the 2023 upfronts. Any new interest is from advertisers who still need to learn more before committing."

"In the Courtroom, the New York Times has taken a hard line against OpenAI. The newspaper sued the artificial intelligence startup alongside investor and partner Microsoft, alleging that OpenAI scraped articles without permission or compensation. The Times wants to hold OpenAI and Microsoft responsible for billions of dollars in damages.
At the same time, however, the Times is also embracing OpenAI’s generative AI technology.
The Times’s use of the technology came to light thanks to leaked code showing that it developed a tool that would use OpenAI to generate headlines for articles and “help apply The New York Times styleguide” — performing functions that, if applied in the newsroom, are normally undertaken by editors at the newspaper."

"Spotify is launching the ability to leave comments on podcasts. The company already lets Spotify podcasters offer polls and Q&As, so this new feature could give creators new ways to interact with their audiences.
Comments will be private by default (similar to Q&A responses), so creators will have to approve each comment they want to appear. Creators can choose to have comments available for their whole show or just for specific episodes, and, if they don’t want to allow comments at all, they can opt out of the feature."